Train Wrecks, God Smacks, and Pebkac

The BBQ Pit
1

Information Age my ass. Never in my life have I dealt with so many ungrateful people who don’t have a clue as to what in the lavender Hell is happening right in front of their eyes.

A little background for this story: Your friendly neighborhood Chicken Boy works Tech Support for an ISP that works with another call center. We take 100% of our calls, plus 30% of theirs as they deal with 7 companies in all.

Day 1 - Confusing as hell, but not too busy.
Day 2 - Crazier than before, but we’re getting through it.
Day 3 - The other office knows nothing, which we at first denied to believe.
Day 4 - “Our call center is down, so you’ll have to handle everything for today…”

Apparently there was an accident that caused some severe power and telephone outages. Not that I don’t have sympathy for anyone who may have been injured or worse, but we are in no way setup to be a full time call center.

We have very few lines, and more techs than that. Our office is only open for a standard business day, and not on weekends. These guys are our back up. I understand that this was not anticipated or intended, but if the stupidity of their customer base was any worse…Well, any smarter and they’d be Pop Tarts! By no means could they be classified as “The quickest McNugget in the toolshed”.

So not only is our call quantity raised some 600%, we are not familliar with any of these customers, and are in the process of learning the new billing system when that oh-so lovely program (Named after a mammalian-shaped traffic light on the highway of evolution) decides to take an impromptu dirt nap!

Fortunately, it was only mostly dead. For six out of seven hours. After the calls had died down.

The day was horrible. I can deal with people screaming at me as much as the next guy, but this was just too much for us to handle. The only way the day could’ve gotten better was for the moon to turn to blood, and frogs filling the streets as they rained down from above.

Yeah, I know this rant is a little dull. Rate it as you see fit, as it is the Chicken Boy’s first post in the Pit. I just needed to vent.

Pebkac = Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair - credit: http://www.userfriendly.org

2

You also might refer to a case of having a “loose nut on the keyboard”.

3

I, for one, have nothing but support and sympathy for you. I toil in the Tech Support salt mine as well.

4

I’m sorry, but I must rate this rant with a negative zero point zero (-0.0).

Only because I’m waiting to hear back from a local ISP about a help-desk position and I refuse to believe that any job I might apply for could suck so badly – despite my track record.

If in fact the bastards don’t give me a job … well then, fuck yeah! They suck.

Or whatever.

5

Jack, you have nooOOooo idea what horror awaits you. Buff-up your sense of humor: It’s the only thing that will save you.

6

Luckily, my sense of humor is about the most valuable and prominent thing I have to my name these days.

But it’s got to be better than fucking data entry at a bank office.

Enough of this hijack … I still say that the phrase “what in the lavender Hell is happening” is damn funny!! Damn it!

7

Jack, it’s good you have a sense of humor. I’ve had people scream at me that they can’t find the Connection “Yukons” on their desktops, that we’ve closed their account for no reason even though they’re three months past due…oy, it’s not fun.

BTW: Thanks for the compliment on the lavender Hell, thing. :slight_smile: