I knew your answer before I looked, but then, I’m a telecom-tech. The problem is that some of the people working the call centers don’t have a fucking clue outside of the canned list of questions they go through when taking your report.
I have to deal with know-nothing fellow employees on an almost daily basis. And yes, it is frustrating as hell trying to get information across to those types of individuals. In the process of trying to cut costs, by hiring phone service reps with little or no training, the phone companies are shooting themselves in the foot, IMHO. In our office when we run across a particularly bad example of “know-nothingness” in a reporting center rep, we chalk it up to “Would you like fries with that?” recruiting practices. Standing outside the local McBurger joint asking the employees if they want a different job.
I have first hand experience in trying to report a specific problem on a phone line, explaining that I’m a tech, have done some trouble isolation, this is what seems to be the problem. Only to have the tech that gets the work order ask me “What kind of a problem are you having?” and be told “Thats not what it says here.” :rolleyes:
On the other hand, there are a lot of conscientious, dedicated technicians who take great pride in providing quality service/support to both external and internal customers.
If you are not getting satisfaction from the first line of reps, you should politely ask to speak to the shift supervisor since you have contacted them x number of times without any resolution to your complaint. That way you are hopefully talking to someone with more experience in dealing with your problem. And don’t be shy in going over that person’s head if you need to, squeaky wheel and all that.
If I’m reading the OP correctly, jsgoddess states that TiVO starting acting wonky, which uses a different dialer than the phone. So if both the regular phone and the Tivo are having the same problem, then the logical conclusion is that the problem is pointing towards the phone line or digit receiver card in the switch. Without doing any physical trouble shooting, that’s the best SWAG I can come up with.
If your phone has the capabillity to send either touch tone or dial pulse signalling, you can always try to change it to pulse(assuming it is currently sending tones) and see if that works. If it does, then at least you can report the problem from the phone line that doesn’t work.
And explain clearly and slowly to the rep that answers your call that you can dial out using dial pulse, but not touch tone. And ask them to repeat it back to you so you know they got it right. Sometimes it’s like talking to children. Learning impaired children.(The phone reps, not the OP)
