I know most tech support people are idiots but this is ridiculous

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

So, where I live we have two options for internet if we want something besides dialup. Hughesnet (HN) or WildBlue (WB). Initially we signed up with WB, as they seemed to have the better package. Unfortunately, at the time I wasn’t experienced with what to look for in a satellite provider and it turns out WB sucks donkey balls. I won’t get into specifics about why, but when our contract was up we switched over to HN. At first, everything was great. They had a lot of features regarding bandwidth that WB didn’t offer so we were initially very happy. Until about 6 months ago.

Our net kept running slower and slower. It would eventually get to the point where it would rarely load a page up, throwing some ‘Web Acceleration’ error at us. So we began calling tech support. Over and over again it was the same thing. Everything seemed fine on their end. That it had to be the weather or something. Even when it was a perfectly clear day. Finally, about two months ago I got someone who appeared halfway competent and said there was a very small error in some numbers that were easy to miss. He assured me that his fix would make everything better. Well it did, for a while. We start getting the same problem with speed again. Finally, Tuesday night after trying to load the same page four times and getting that damn ‘Web Acceleration’ error, I called tech support again.

The woman was a freakin idiot. Now, let me say I’ve done inbound tech support before. I know there’s a computer program where it gives you a list of steps to try and as you eliminate things it offers more suggestions. But I also know those programs are crap. In order to do a good job, you gotta think outside the box and not rely on the computer. Well not this lady. No, she insisted on following every single goddamned step. I told her what was going on, naming the error. And she said that the first step was to run a speed test. Of course I was annoyed, and repeated it wasn’t a SPEED issue, as in it wasn’t loading anything at all. Of course, she insisted. So whatever. I try to load the page. Big surprise, it won’t load. She makes me reload it, try on another browser AND another computer before finally moving on to the next step. Now this is where things go to crap.

I get put on hold while she ‘investigates’. By this, I now assume that means I was holding while she picked at her ass. She comes back and says that she’s figured out the problem. The software on my modem’s degraded and she needs to reset it back to factory settings. At this, I’m thinking ‘wtf, software doesn’t degrade’. I asked her if she was sure, and she assured me that was the problem. So, whatever. Maybe she knows something I don’t know. I ask her if this is something we’re going to have to do on a regular basis since the software keeps ‘degrading’. Of course, she said yes. That it should be done every couple of months. By now I’m thinking she’s a complete freakin moron but maybe by some stroke of luck it’ll fix the net. Besides, what harm could come from doing a fresh install?

Nope. Long story kinda short, she busted the entire modem. After I hung up to wait about 20 minutes for it to reboot, I realized it wasn’t rebooting. Accessing the modem’s advanced settings page I saw that it was stuck in freaking ‘satellite positioning’ mode. Basically, by resetting it to factory it was like we were getting the service for the first time. Which, coincidentally, requires a technician to set up. In hindsight that makes perfect sense. :smack: But anyway, I called back and got Idiot #2. She ALSO tried to get me to run a speed test and I was like are you freaking kidding me? No, I can’t run a speed test cause the modem can’t even register with your system. After a lot of complaining on my end, she finally said the only solution was a technician visit. Which would cost us $125 normally but we have some sort of program where it would ‘only’ be $30. Of course, this didn’t go over well with me. I let her know that it was THEIR tech support moron who did this and I wasn’t going to pay for someone to fix their mistake. She finally agreed to waive the fee but said no one could get here till today (Friday).

So needless to say, I’m pissed with their tech support. How could someone be so poorly trained? I mean, it’s ridiculous. They STILL don’t even know what’s causing our slow net, and I’m honestly afraid to call back when it inevitably starts up again. For the amount of money we pay for a paltry 7GB of bandwidth a month, they can afford to get less moronic staff. I can’t WAIT till I move someplace where we can get something besides satellite.

2

Wow, this is not encouraging, as I had to recently move out to the country.
My options are literally Hughesnet and dial up.

It’s working great now, but I’ve heard a lot of horror stories about it getting worse over time, so I’m very nervous.
Sorry you had to go through this.

I’m curious how you have 7 GB of bandwidth, though. The lowest plan should be 10 GB . . . ?

3

The idiots? Why call them?

Both a gradual slow down of page loads, and this “Web Acceleration” message would point to something on the user end. How probable is it that their bandwidth is being choked to you and/or everyone else? It’s far more likely an issue with your LAN or PC.

They make a change, or “fix” the “error in some numbers” and you see gradual degradation of throughput? That doesn’t follow.

I’m guessing that only most of your colleagues were idiots. You are not one, right?

They even have paper flow charts to guide people towards efficient troubleshooting without leaving out seemingly obvious, but critical steps. The program you refer to sounds designed to put very unskilled people behind a decision tree and just throw them to the wolves. If that’s the case, you’re dealing with someone who is basically just reading selected text and has little or no knowledge in regards to trouble shooting. Call them idiots if you want, I would say they are not really tech support, and the company that hired them values their lower wages more than they do the end user experience.

If she was referring to out of date firmware (which I doubt), it is advisable in most cases to use the most current firmware and drivers available.

She was the idiot right?

The net is fine, I’m sending packets over it as we speak. What harm could come? We shall see.

Not really. She asked you to do things, which you did, and the end result was a wiped modem. Was she following a scripted trouble shooting flow that was fatally flawed? Was she "thinking outside of the box, and made a poor error in judgement? Was your modem the issue to begin with?

You were in the advanced settings page? We used to call people that did that sort of thing “dangerously informed”.

Everything she had you do, you complied with, so it couldn’t have been that unreasonable. Wait, tech support people are idiots, why expect otherwise?

I certainly can’t say for sure what the issue is with your connection, but I can rule out a few causes with a reasonable amount of certainty.

It is likely not:

An account setting issue. Those settings are made upon new account setup, and do not change.

Signal strength issues with your ISP for all customers. The backlash would demand immediate remedy if it affected all customers.

A firmware issue. If they did get you upgraded, good. If not, it’s likely a non-issue. If there was a security patch that needed to be done for all software/hardware types within a group, they would know about it at the end user level and would have trained to inform customers.

An issue caused by one of the techs you spoke with. They likely don’t have the info it would take to disable hardware remotely, even a hard wipe should be recoverable.
It’s likely:

Something on your local machine, LAN or firewall. WTF is this “Web Acceleration” message? If the support you spoke with acknowledged it, ok… if they didn’t… big red flag.

If it’s on your machine, they clearly can’t just walk you through a fix. If it’s an issue with delivering BW to customers, they would know about any issues.

My money is on either the modem or LAN.

4

I don’t know, dnooman. For fun I did a search for “Web Acceleration error”, and found multiple complaints about this error for HughesNet service. More than one person in more than one location over a long period of time having the same issue seems to point to a problem with the provider, not with AngelSoft.

5

My mother once bought a new $800 computer on the advice of tech support. She couldn’t connect to the internet after doing a security update. She worked with Time Warner for 2 hours trying to fix the problem remotely. They even sent out one of their cable guys to try a few things, to no avail. Their computer was only 3 years old, and the only thing they ever did on it was read email and play Pogo internet poker games.

Thank goodness they called me to come over and install the new computer. Because it turns out they didn’t need a new computer at all. Their internet wasn’t working because the cord had slipped out of the back of their computer. The little plastic tab had broken off.

6

When Bell Canada first got in the business of high speed internet (DSL it was called over the phone lines) they had super tech support, some hacker guys in Toronto I think. It was in late 2000 that I started with them. Then they decided to save money and hired a bunch of clowns in India or Bangla Desh with their scripted responses. One night their name server was on the blink. (How do I know? I knew the actual numerical addresses of a couple of sites and was able to connect with them, but not with any site I addressed by name, including the ones I could access by numerical address. If you can find any explanation for this other than a defective name server, let me know.) So I called tech support. I asked if they had a problem with their name server. Long pause…, then, “What’s a name server?” I explained what a name server was. “No, sir, no problems have been reported.” “Well, I’m reporting one.” “No sir, your browser must have developed a problem.” “It is the same on my wife’s computer.” “Then both browsers must have developed a problem at the same time.” It went on like that for few more go-arounds and I hung up. The problem was fixed by the next morning. But what she meant by no problems having been reported is that the real technicians, the ones who know which end of the alimentary canal to shit from, hadn’t bothered to tell tech support that there was a problem with the name server.

Follow-up: two months later, a squirrel chewed through the cable to my and Bell left me with no phone for a week. Now I get phone, cable, internet through our local cable company and one of the things that impresses me is their tech support. Although I have never had to call them about my internet service only about the TV cable. But one of them told me that I was paying for much more internet bandwidth than I actually used and changed plans, saving me about $15 a month. Imagine that!

Bell Canada calls me every month or so offering me some deal to come back. I always ask them if they know why I left. Of course, they don’t. Not once did they ask for the reason either. They don’t know and they don’t care.

7

How much more would you be willing to pay for dedicated cadre of trained, well educated techs able to “think outside the box”?

The person you were speaking to is probably making $2.00 (if overseas) to $9.00 an hour.

Would you be willing to pay double your current monthly fees for this level of service?

Would it be OK if they were snotty and condescending to you in the process of helping you sort out your problem as long as your problem was fixed?

8

I had Butlercom once. Trust me its not worth it.

9

We got in before the whole Gen 4 thing came up. We get 250mb a day, which is like 7.5GB a month. Since we’re existing customers, we get none of the deals and promos for ‘new customers only’. So we can’t afford the price to buy the new equipment we’d need to do Gen4. It pisses me off that we’re paying $60 a month for less bandwidth and slower speed than a new customer can get for $40. But, we have no other choices.

dnooman, yeah I know it’s stupid for me to consider them idiots but to continue calling them. But wth am I supposed to do? With satellite net there’s no troubleshooting I can do on my own besides resetting the modem, which does crap.
And no, not everyone I worked with in tech support was an idiot. Because we received four weeks of full time training before even being set on the floor. We learned the systems (credit card terminals) inside and out. All of them. By the time we even got on the floor we could troubleshoot basic problems without the computer helping. Yes, it’s the company’s fault for not training better. But in this case the woman was an idiot. She was clearly guessing at what the problem was and didn’t know wth she was doing. In that case she should have referred to someone who did.

Like I said in my OP. For the amount HN charges for the small amount of service their customers get, they can afford better tech support. Their ‘best’ plan gives you only 15GB bandwidth (during peak hours) and 15GB more from 2am-8am. And that’s a hundred bucks a month. Not even including any fees or the cost of renting the equipment. It’s ridiculous.

10

You are getting high speed Internet from satellites that cost more than the GPD of some small countries circling the earth in orbit, it’s one step away from magic. Your complaint reminds me little of this. Start at 3:00 minutes.

11

Some of those Google hits for web acceleration errors indicate that web acceleration is something you can turn off at your end (once you un-brick your modem). Users report that, having turned it off, the problem goes away.

12

Eh. Networking, and particularly networking troubleshooting is a technical skill. It’s very valuable; if you’re halfway good at it, you can make at least $60K+ a year, even in the middle of nowhere, and maybe a lot more.

They don’t pay tech support people that kind of wage. Hence, almost by definition, you’re not going to get good people in tech support. Same reason why the slightly-over-minimum wage guy at Best Buy isn’t really giving you good information: if he were actually knowledgeable about the technology, he would be making a lot more than Best Buy pays, somewhere else.

13

Crazy thought. Most satellite based isps use some kind of bandwidth throttling. Different providers use different formulas but it is very easy to trigger especially with multiple users in a home. I have seen this about a dozen times where inconsistent speeds were related to exceeding daily bandwidth allotment for 5-10 days straight. They usually have a way you can look up your usage. It may be helpful to monitor that.

14

Yeah, we have a way to monitor it. We’ve only gone over it once. And with Hughesnet, you have options that help you get off the ‘slower than dialup’ throttling. And if you can’t use those options, you only have to wait 24 hours to get back up to normal speeds. That’s one thing that makes them better than WildBlue. WB counts bandwidth on a rolling 30 days basis. So if you go over your bandwidth, you’re SOL for 30 days.

15

Ah, on Gen 4, it’s monthly too.

Are ‘bonus bytes’ unlimited for you guys now? You can probably check here.
http://www.systemcontrolcenter.com/

That’s something that’s good to be aware of.

16

How funny. I kinda do the same now. Nurits, Hypercoms, Vefrifones and Dejavoos are what I deal with mostly. The only “training” I got was being handed a manual from ten years ago.

17

Wow. Well I worked for the number two (at the time) company in the country for credit card processing. I can’t remember the names of the systems, but I know that Verifone was the ‘easy’ ones that they taught us first. Hell, even when I did tech support for Photoshop, I got a week’s training. I can’t believe a company that deals with machines that have the potential to lose people BIG time money would be so lax in training.

And Mathematics, it wasn’t called ‘bonus bytes’ when we signed up. I can’t remember what they called it but we basically have unlimited downloading from 11pm-4am, my time. Now, this would be awesome if I got a download speed of more than 75kps. :\ That’s another thing I hate about these satellite companies. They promise ‘up to’ 1MB speeds. I’ve never downloaded anything faster than 100kps and that was a shock.

18

Have you checked the satellite dish to make sure it isn’t a little bit off?

I’ve got DTV, which I think is the same technology and uses a lot of the same stuff. One summer, I started losing channels - some came in just fine. Others were “searching for signal” or just didn’t come in. At it’s worst, I only got the horse racing channel. I didn’t get much help from tech. support - mainly because you never get to talk to anyone who has any technical background, just a phone person looking at a very limited menu of options on their end. When I finally called to cancel because I was fed up, they sent a technician to trouble shoot (For free, up till I threatened to cancel I was told there would be a hefty service charge for someone to come out). The person re-aligned the dish and it’s been working like a charm every since.

19

You should look into a Wi-fi hotspot.

We used to have HughesNet and I finally got tired of all of the bullshit. Bought a Verizon hotspot and we even have 4G coverage out here in the middle of nowhere now. I stream videos for the kids from Netflix and Amazon with no problems, they don’t throttle my access, it’s cheaper than HughesNet, and I don’t have an ugly-ass dish in my front yard.

20

I used to be a field tech the supported Hughes equipment. I was very glad when I left that job