# It Is Not -MY- Equipment That's The Problem **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 12, 2009, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-my-equipment-thats-the-problem/513567 "2009-10-12T19:08:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-my-equipment-thats-the-problem/513567/21 "2009-10-13T17:07:49Z")
I’m OK talking to Level 1 techs. I can appreciate the need for people to read from scripts in order to filter out the simple stuff. The problem is the script they’re reading, and the fact that they are not trained well enough to know _when_ to send you on to Level 2. So, every single time I have to go through the nonsense of “reset your modem - leave it unplugged for one minute - blahblahblah”. I’ve already done all that shit before I called! I’ve done all that shit the last five fucking times it rained and I called! Read my history of calls and you’ll see that! That’s why I love the forums at [DSLReports.com](http://DSLReports.com). You can get the attention of Level 2 techs by posting about your problem without having to go through the Level 1. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-my-equipment-thats-the-problem/513567/22 "2009-10-13T17:30:33Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > So, every single time I have to go through the nonsense of “reset your modem - leave it unplugged for one minute - blahblahblah”. I’ve already done all that shit before I called! I’ve done all that shit the last five fucking times it rained and I called! Read my history of calls and you’ll see that! Unfortunately, that puts you head and shoulders above probably some 99.9% of consumers, who couldn’t reset their modems if if were the only way out of a goddamn paper bag. Thus, the hideous scripts. ---
**Author:** ![Sundrop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@Sundrop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sundrop)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-my-equipment-thats-the-problem/513567/23 "2009-10-13T17:59:44Z")
> [@Zeriel](#): > > I didn’t interpret that as “I make more money so I’m better” so much as “My entire career path directly relates to diagnosing this problem, and you’re a front-line tier 1 phone tech with a script. Can we please cut the bullshit and escalate already?” When the problem involves answering phones correctly and competently, I’ll happily take instruction from the front-line tier 1 helpdesk guys (speaking from the same generalized education and experience as the OP)–and in fact, I have. Ding. This is my point exactly. ---
**Author:** ![Sundrop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@Sundrop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sundrop)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-my-equipment-thats-the-problem/513567/24 "2009-10-13T18:19:34Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > If you weren’t quite so full of yourself, or if you were half as smart as you think you are, you’d realize that the people you talk to are almost certainly following a script that they are required to follow in order to diagnose problems like this. Deviating from the script, even if they know the problem is probably on their end, will likely get them disciplined or terminated. I’m not full of myself. What I am is a professional with a fair amount of experience in the field. Who has had this problem occur repeatedly for months. I wind up with the same woman on the phone every time I call about this problem. And she always gets snotty. She has the history right there in front of her, and I started out polite, but when she keeps insisting that it /has/ to be my equipment, that it can’t possibly be on their end, and that she can’t dispatch a tech, even though I know that isn’t true, and is snotty about it with me first, then you bet your ass I’m going to blister her ear. Did I curse at her in reality? No. I didn’t say the above, it is just what I would have -liked- to say, if I didn’t make that clear enough. What I did was inform her in a professional manner that I have far more experience with these issues than she does, and that she needs to drop the attitude and escalate the problem and dispatch a tech. I’m working today with our account exec to see what can be done about replacing the line. Unfortunately, switching vendors wouldn’t help as the current one actually owns the lines. Fortunately, they are trying to convince us to consolidate all of our telco services with them, and this is going to be an issue to resolve if they want that contract. Both the line that needs replacing, and the poor service. ---
**Author:** ![Sundrop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@Sundrop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sundrop)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-my-equipment-thats-the-problem/513567/25 "2009-10-13T18:27:56Z")
> [@Typo\_Knig](#): > > Let me make a wild guess - this is a Telco, isn’t it? I’ll bet you saw test signals on the line and then it suddenly started working and they swore TO GOD that they didn’t test anything and didn’t fix anything and it’s all your fault you scum. Fscking telcos. > > What else could this have been about except telcos? :smack: I need to spend more time with the mrs. Yep. A telco. And it’s actually an issue with the physical line that they are aware of. The line is jacked up, and when it rains heavily it causes shorts. Which has resulted in patches in the line and necessitated replacing the smartjack three or four times. They have it working now, and I found out from the tech they dispatched they actually have the line in their warehouse, but have been slow to schedule replacement. Apparently a ‘cost saving measure’ has been to slow down some of those replacements. Fscking telcos, indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-my-equipment-thats-the-problem/513567/26 "2009-10-13T19:01:53Z")
> [@Sundrop](#): > > What I did was inform her in a professional manner that I have far more experience with these issues than she does, and that she needs to drop the attitude and escalate the problem and dispatch a tech. Then you need to learn the definition of “give her an earful.” Because it doesn’t mean what you think it means. ---
**Author:** ![Dan\_Norder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@Dan\_Norder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dan_Norder)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-my-equipment-thats-the-problem/513567/27 "2009-10-13T19:20:01Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Then you need to learn the definition of “give her an earful.” Because it doesn’t mean what you think it means. What part of what he describes isn’t giving someone an earful? Maybe you need to unlearn your definition if you think it’s so specific that it doesn’t apply in that situation. ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-my-equipment-thats-the-problem/513567/28 "2009-10-13T19:23:15Z")
And he wasn’t pointing out that he was better because he made more money, he was pointing out that he has the training and experiance to\* know \*that his equipment is not the problem. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-my-equipment-thats-the-problem/513567/29 "2009-10-13T19:33:56Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Then you need to learn the definition of “give her an earful.” Because it doesn’t mean what you think it means. Hun, my father could flay you alive verbally and be absolutely polite and mild and professional throughout, and I bloody well assure you, you would consider it an earful. 30 years of military service with _lots_ of practice, and the knowledge that you do not have to be vulgar is amazing. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-my-equipment-thats-the-problem/513567/30 "2009-10-13T19:43:51Z")
> [@Zeriel](#): > > I didn’t interpret that as “I make more money so I’m better” so much as “My entire career path directly relates to diagnosing this problem, and you’re a front-line tier 1 phone tech with a script. Can we please cut the bullshit and escalate already?” When the problem involves answering phones correctly and competently, I’ll happily take instruction from the front-line tier 1 helpdesk guys (speaking from the same generalized education and experience as the OP)–and in fact, I have. This is how I interpreted it too. > [@gaffa](#): > > I’m OK talking to Level 1 techs. I can appreciate the need for people to read from scripts in order to filter out the simple stuff. The problem is the script they’re reading, and the fact that they are not trained well enough to know _when_ to send you on to Level 2. > > So, every single time I have to go through the nonsense of “reset your modem - leave it unplugged for one minute - blahblahblah”. I’ve already done all that shit before I called! I’ve done all that shit the last five fucking times it rained and I called! Read my history of calls and you’ll see that! Before I call, I go through the routine of unplugging my modem and router. This seems to fix the vast majority of my connectivity problems, and it’s simple and easy to do, so I will try this first, before I even get on the phone. I will do this again, if the CSR needs me to do this for some reason. What I won’t do is disconnect the router, because I have mobility problems and this particular set up makes it impossible for me to do so. Oddly enough, after I inform the CSR of this, s/he is able to fix the problem in some other way, that takes less time than me disconnecting the router would, assuming that my system was set up in such a way that I COULD easily do so. So I’m not going to ask my husband to figure out some other way to set up the computer system, it’s pretty obvious to me that this “disconnect your router” instruction does no good at all. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-my-equipment-thats-the-problem/513567/31 "2009-10-13T20:27:41Z")
> [@Dan\_Norder](#): > > What part of what he describes isn’t giving someone an earful? Maybe you need to unlearn your definition if you think it’s so specific that it doesn’t apply in that situation. By the magic and indubitably highly accurate source of information called [the internet](http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/give+an+earful), I give you: > [@](#): > > give somebody an earful (informal) > to tell someone how angry you are with them Presumably the low-level tech is just following the procedure she needs to follow to not get her ass fired from the job that she surely needs or she’d be doing something that didn’t require her to get chewed out on a no-doubt daily basis by self-righteous assholes, so there’s no reason to be mad **at her**. Be mad at the company, be mad at their stupid policies–don’t be mad at the person who’s had to take a shitty job to get the bills paid. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-my-equipment-thats-the-problem/513567/32 "2009-10-13T21:09:52Z")
You still haven’t explained why **Sundrop** needs to “relearn the definition” of giving an earful, and why it doesn’t mean what he thinks it means. He was angry at her, he told her so, and his usage of the phrase was correct in all and every particular. You may not think he was _right_ to giver her an earful, but he did, and he described it correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-my-equipment-thats-the-problem/513567/33 "2009-10-13T21:23:30Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > You still haven’t explained why **Sundrop** needs to “relearn the definition” of giving an earful, and why it doesn’t mean what he thinks it means. He was angry at her, he told her so, and his usage of the phrase was correct in all and every particular. You may not think he was _right_ to giver her an earful, but he did, and he described it correctly. Whoops, my fault. That’s what happens when actual work comes up in the middle of a post and you don’t proof it to make sure you actually made a point. Either (a) \*\*Sundrop \*\*was being an asshole to this tech by getting angry with her for something that wasn’t her fault, in which case his defense of me calling him on it was full of shit, or (b) \*\*Sundrop \*\*didn’t take his anger out on the tech, but rather just politely convinced her to properly escalate the issue, in which case he didn’t “give her an earful.” ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-my-equipment-thats-the-problem/513567/34 "2009-10-14T00:19:46Z")
I used to enjoy line testing of T1’s and T3’s when I was with Verizon. Really, it’s not rocket surgery. The problem most time is that they let the 20-second robo-test script run that doesn’t stress the line nearly enough. Just from your description of the symptoms I can tell it’s probably a wet cable pair. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-my-equipment-thats-the-problem/513567/35 "2009-10-14T00:23:51Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Presumably the low-level tech is just following the procedure she needs to follow to not get her ass fired from the job that she surely needs or she’d be doing something that didn’t require her to get chewed out on a no-doubt daily basis by self-righteous assholes, so there’s no reason to be mad **at her**. Be mad at the company, be mad at their stupid policies–don’t be mad at the person who’s had to take a shitty job to get the bills paid. I had a slightly similar situation with BellSouth about five years ago, when I worked for the local humane society. We’d switched most of our service from them, leaving only our DSL lines with them. The DSL stopped working, and when I called, they said there was a local service outage. They used the same excuse over and over and over, even when it became clear it was a lie. (Later my brother, who’d worked briefly for their tech support, confirmed that it was a common lie used by service folks to get customers off the line, to improve their call-resolution times). When I tried to escalate, they were astonishingly rude: at one point when I asked for a supervisor, they put me on hold for twenty minutes, then on speakerphone with some stoned dude who kept saying in a monotone, “We’re looking into the problem and will contact you when it is resolved,” refusing to answer any questions except by repeating the exact phrase. Finally I found out they’d accidentally cancelled service on the line, and a few days later was able to get it reinstated. Then they called back and tried to get us to rejoin BellSouth. Oh, I let them have it. I explained how the humane society used our website to post pictures of our animals, and that we hadn’t be able to do so for about 5 weeks, and that when we couldn’t adopt animals out we had to euthanize animals, and that they were basically puppykillers at this point. By the end of the conversation, I had the poor lady in tears. I admit it was kind of cathartic. At any rate, it’s one thing to follow a script. It’s another thing to lie to a customer. I don’t care if your script requires you to lie, you have a moral obligation not to do so. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-my-equipment-thats-the-problem/513567/36 "2009-10-14T09:33:24Z")
All I know is I’m working “hippo-rimming lint-trap” into my repertoire of insults. Thank you very much! ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-my-equipment-thats-the-problem/513567/37 "2009-10-14T19:08:48Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > At any rate, it’s one thing to follow a script. It’s another thing to lie to a customer. I don’t care if your script requires you to lie, you have a moral obligation not to do so. So nice to hear that you’re going to be offering jobs with comparable pay, benefits, and scheduling flexibility to everyone who works there now. That’s awfully kind of you! ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-my-equipment-thats-the-problem/513567/38 "2009-10-15T02:26:23Z")
Yes, yes, it’s hard to find a job, we all know that. However, “the company makes me lie” holds just about as much water as “my commanding officer ordered me to (rape, torture, whatever) the enemy”, which is to say, none. And even if your personal morals are such that you are happy to lie in order to do your job, especially if lying makes it easier to do your job, you might consider this…a company which requires its employees to lie to its customers obviously has no ethics. What makes you think that they’ll be any more ethical in its duties to its workers? It seems that this particular CSR was lying in order to avoid sending out a technician. Perhaps she gets a bonus if she keeps her work tickets under a certain quota. Perhaps she has a certain amount of time to spend on each call. It doesn’t matter. The customer is paying for customer service, and is not getting it, because she’s not doing her job. And she’s not escalating the call when it’s apparent that she can’t handle it, either. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-my-equipment-thats-the-problem/513567/39 "2009-10-15T10:30:13Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > So nice to hear that you’re going to be offering jobs with comparable pay, benefits, and scheduling flexibility to everyone who works there now. That’s awfully kind of you! There’s usually fast food work available. It’s more honorable then being paid to be immoral. ---
**Author:** ![Roland\_Orzabal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-my-equipment-thats-the-problem/513567/40 "2009-10-15T14:08:05Z")
**LHoD** , I was with you right up to the point where it became the fault of the final person you spoke with that you’d been lied to by the prior reps. From what I know of you from your posts, that doesn’t seem like you; had you perchance spoken with that particular person before? While I don’t endorse the ripping of new ones into customer service representatives in any situation — it’s generally unwarranted and nearly always counterproductive — I do agree that being lied to is cause for great umbrage. An easy thing to forget in these situations, though, is that not only is the customer service employee not the company, but they’re not all the other customer service employees either. Re: phone techs — believe me, I’d fucking love it if there were some special non-moron support number I could call to avoid the half-hour script routine. Being all too familiar with the technical literacy of the average consumer, though, I’m forced to concede there’s no easy way around it, short of limiting the hiring of tier 1 techs to people with any idea what half the words on the script actually mean…and really, at the rates they pay, good luck with that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-my-equipment-thats-the-problem/513567.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-not-my-equipment-thats-the-problem/513567.md?page=3)