Just one?
the thing that amazes me is that people so often get an attitude about being asked a ‘dumb’ question like that…only to find out, in fact, that the TV WASN’T plugged in, or something else like that. It’s one thing to be wrong…it’s another thing to be RUDE and wrong.
i honestly wonder how some of these people operate their TVs when they’re NOT talking to me. I really do.
Yeah, I got those calls about computers too. And power being out on outlets in the same room and them not connecting the dots.
Or like I played at in an earlier post in this thread: Screaming at me to fix their computer that won’t turn on without them lifting a finger. “Why yes, I am magic. I’m only slumming on this job. I’ll magic your computer on in a jiffy!”
My favorite power supply problem is when there’s a wall power outlet that’s controlled by a switch. Then when you ask them “is that power outlet controlled by a wall switch?” they say “oh, I don’t think so.” Then they flip the switch and suddenly, it magically turns on.
I really think that everybody who has to call a call center should have to WORK in a call center for a few weeks, to know what it’s like.
It would actually be very helpful training. I had no idea how prorated billing worked, or how credit report agencies worked, until i worked in call centers. Those are useful things to know.
There appears to be a complexity curve, which things go up before coming down. The maximum complexity arises when lots of features are added but the product isn’t smart enough to do reasonable things to set up these features by itself. For instance, setting up a PC is a lot simpler than it used to be.
My new satellite box tunes into the satellite much more automatically than my old one did. It is still more complex than a simple cable box, but less complex than it used to be. But that is on average. I’ll buy that when things go wrong, they do so in much more complicated ways.
Anything that needs to get rebooted all the time has a problem. I figured this out when I was at a hotel once, and found the TV didn’t work. They guy came and rebooted it. Which I thought was the stupidest thing ever, until I met someone who frequently had to reboot her digital picture frame. (She is a well respected computer designer, not a little old lady.)
As an example, DVRs may be inherently more complex than VCRs, but they are a lot easier to program.
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It would actually be very helpful training. I had no idea how prorated billing worked, or how credit report agencies worked, until i worked in call centers. Those are useful things to know.
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Those are useful things for AT&T’s call centers to know. 
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Cable companies are a little easier for old folks to deal with, because you can use your existing TV remote, and you always know which input to put the TV on to get the picture. However, if there is a cable box, then it’s every bit as complex as satellite TV.
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And Uverse probably quadruples the complexity. I really feel for the tech support agents that have to try and walk someone through confirming how the set-top box is connected to the TV, and then possibly rebooting the STB, the RG, the ONT if they have one, any Ethernet switches and confirming that everything is plugged into the correct spots after determining if the afflicted TV is on an Ethernet or HPNA connection and helping the customer find these devices. (My RG is nowhere near any STBs, but the IPTV switch that feeds the STBs is at least next to the RG.)
It’s stunningly complicated technology for home use, and anyone that can help a consumer make heads or tails of it over the phone is an ace.
Why the Price is Right? Because the show is an hour long, many parts are boring, and they need to get the TV fixed before lunch or half the day is wasted.
I will say that if I was advising an old/non-tech person what TV to buy I’d be at a loss. They are all complicated for the non-technical.
Another tech support guy that hates his customers? Call me when something new happens.
AGAIN, that’s why I told you from the outset all the steps I’ve already taken. If you ask me again, it’s a dumb question.
I can’t tell you the number of tech support “experts” I’ve spoken to that simply will not listen.
elbows? I am more than a little bit in love with you now. 
I work for a software company. The people who use our products pretty much necessarily are trained as software developers, electrical engineers, or similarly. Technically minded people smart enough to get through at least 4 years of STEM college education.
When someone presents us with hardware that’s totally non-responsive, we ask them to powercycle it by pulling the cable from the wall, and also from the back of the unit, then plugging them back in in a specific order. I forget what bullshit reason was made up for this sequence, but the real reason is that a significant amount of the time, if you ask someone if it’s plugged in, they’ll just say “yes” without actually checking.
I know someone who just finished his doctorate in EE. One time he, I, and my ex-wife happened to be looking something up on a laptop. He and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with its internet connection. She suggested plugging it in to the ethernet port.
Lo and behold, plugging things in works. ROFL
To clarify, this was BEFORE I did tech support. I would need a beating if I did that NOW.
I often tune people out during the first 15 seconds of the call, roughly, because I’m leaving notes for the previous call, or doing something else. I still sort of listen, though, in case they mention what they’ve already tried. I don’t want to get caught not listening. Strangely, though, most people don’t mind repeating themselves.
Yeah, I installed Uverse before I started this job, and you’re right, those installs can get REAAALLLY complex, with multiple ethernet runs, multiple phone lines going to alarms, different wall jacks, wireless access points, etc. etc..
It’s a bit much to expect the average person to be able to easily troubleshoot.
It makes me cringe when I think of someone having to troubleshoot some of the wiring setups I made. I did all kinds of crazy shit with ethernet runs and phone line runs. It always worked, but God forbid somebody cuts a wire and needs it repaired.
And I can’t tell you the number of “home experts” that outright lie about having done the simple steps before calling because they think it won’t help and they want to just get on to what they think the tech should be doing.
Also, depending on the issue and the technology involved, doing things like power-cycling can help give some information to the techs–certainly when I was having intermittent problems with my cable modem, I didn’t think that a power cycle would help, but it made very sure they were looking at the right device and didn’t have any documentation errors–they saw it go down when I pulled the plug.
Yep, power-cycling an IP-connected device is a totally different thing than just resetting some random piece of equipment.
Fantastic. So now you’re not listening, and dzeiger is possibly calling me a liar.
I bet even the bad ones are utterly convinced that they are “one of the good ones.”
I’m not calling you a liar, I’m stating that there are enough liars out there that techs are generally going to start from scratch.
Even without liars, there are lots of people out there who think they know, say, the difference between their router and their modem, but actually don’t. So they may well be like you and tell the tech that yeah, they power-cycled the modem already, but they didn’t, they hit the Linksys.
So why should the techs take your claims at face value and start at step 6 when experience tells them that, through arrogance or ignorance, steps 1-5 often actually aren’t done, and those steps only generally add a few minutes to the troubleshooting?
Cannot tell you how many times I had someone angrily telling me they’d already done steps and refused to do them again, then 45 minutes into the call I find that they had not done them.
Waste my time and their because they’re arrogant assholes.
So yeah, I’m going to ask you to do it again.
“Are you calling me a liar?” Only liars ask that question.
Yeah, you could. It’s been a couple of times. It hasn’t been an uncountable, innumerable number of times. It’s happened, but not often.
This is why people hate tech support.
Same here. If I know, KNOW, that an issue is due to their network cable being unplugged, and they’ve vowed to all the gods in the known universe that they’ve checked it, I run them through the “cable check”.
Totally bullshit move, but it forces the people to actually check the cable. And lo and behold, suddenly their internet works!
Users lie.