[legionare]

Am I expecting too much for a simple "How may I help you?" or "What can I help you with today?" after the other end of the phone so kindly informs me of his/her full name??? Increasingly, what I get after the person greets me--a colleague or a paying customer--in often a very haughty manner with "This is Michael Smith." is, well, complete dead air!! Not even "State your business, or else." It's almost as if these tech support/helpdesk people are trying to be as cold and impersonal as possible. I didn't dialing this support line because I would like to waste time learning the name of some faceless drone who couldn't spell worth squat or compose a coherent sentence other than announcing his/her own name, or who insisted on substituting in "independent thoughts" thereby butchering the description of a technical issue after I had patiently and literally helped writing the ticket log word by word!

[anthonyvthc]

Yeah, it really pisses me off when they don't say their name. That actually bugs me more than not being able to understand the person on the other end. I used to work cust. service, so I know what it's like. My job was a million times easier if I was nice/polite on the phone.

[Angus_D]

What's wrong is that they're paid sh*t.

[mitchell_pgh]

Originally posted by Angus_D:
What's wrong is that they're paid sh*t.

And are generally treated poorly, required to work quickly, and accustom to dealing with irate customers.

[OptimusG4]

Originally posted by mitchell_pgh:
And are generally treated poorly, required to work quickly, and accustom to dealing with irate customers.

[chris v]

Yeah, you should try losing your temper and yelling at them. I hear that always gets your tech issue escalated. Also, try to be vague about your problem, ("When I click the doohicky, it doesn't work!!") and when posting in the lounge about it, please for the love of god, don't use coherent sentences or anything.

[scaught]

Originally posted by anthonyvthc:
Yeah, it really pisses me off when they don't say their name. That actually bugs me more than not being able to understand the person on the other end. I used to work cust. service, so I know what it's like. My job was a million times easier if I was nice/polite on the phone.

the dont say their name thing really makes me mad in business-ish phone calls. not to tech support, but in general. if youre at work, and answer your phone, please say your name so i can immediately confirm im talking to the right damn person and dont have to "oh, is this john doe?"

[TailsToo]

Try and call Netgear tech support..... I might as well have been talking to a wall.

[legionare]

Originally posted by chris v:
Yeah, you should try losing your temper and yelling at them. I hear that always gets your tech issue escalated. Also, try to be vague about your problem, ("When I click the doohicky, it doesn't work!!") and when posting in the lounge about it, please for the love of god, don't use coherent sentences or anything.

Yeah, your should be bringing the 'tude to your coworkers or customers as soon as you pick up, BEFORE they even have a chance to utter a single word. I hear it works wonders to getting that "low pay" tripled immediately. Also, try to dispatch the ticket to the wrong queue, as always. Thanks to you, I can now easily see why the drones might find saying "How can I help you?" debasing, to their own already damaged psyche. No offense to all the nice support/helpdesk guys/gals out there.

[Daracle]

I do support but it is for a specific company.
This can have its benefits, For example, you arent supporting a guy who just got his first computer and needs to know hwo to get his wireless working.

However there is stress as you do have high corporate people calling who need things done right away.
Something goes wrong with a machine and they are calling us to fix it right now because it is holding up production for an entire site.

But I do like where I am and for the most part, and my clients for the most part are very understanding.



BTW I answer the phone "Thanks for calling the help desk, Jonathan Speaking"

[JHromadka]

Click the Tech Support link

I've worked at a help desk, and I always did the "This is James, how can I help you?" bit. It's rude otherwise.

I must admit that now that I am not in the support center anymore, I answer "This is James." However, I only am talking to other employees of the same company. If you're getting those kind of remarks calling Dell's customer support, that IS odd.


And go easy on help desk people. They're not as technical as we used to be thanks to scripts and knowledge base articles.

[hayesk]

Originally posted by scaught:
the dont say their name thing really makes me mad in business-ish phone calls. not to tech support, but in general. if youre at work, and answer your phone, please say your name so i can immediately confirm im talking to the right damn person and dont have to "oh, is this john doe?"

Frig that. I say "Hello." when people call at work. If they want to speak to someone, they can say "May I speak to ..." and I will gladly oblige.

Besides, when I say "This is Kevin speaking..." I always get some jacka$$ who thinks it's funny to say "Well hello Mr. Speaking."

[legionare]

Originally posted by JHromadka:

I've worked at a help desk, and I always did the "This is James, how can I help you?" bit. It's rude otherwise.

Exactly!

Perhaps it's because I'm introverted: I readily reciprocate if someone shows inkling of being courteous to me first. In person, that could be a slight nod or a little smile. On the phone, I just find it really awdward if the support guy gives me the silent treatment after curtly telling me his name, and nothing more. It makes me feel I'm not being acknowledged. I hate to have to be rude in kind by starting spilling my problem as if to an emotionless robot, yet I'm not too willing to do the warm and fuzzy greeting to that person first either, since I already feel slighted as a coworker or a customer.

[legionare]

Originally posted by hayesk:
Frig that. I say "Hello." when people call at work. If they want to speak to someone, they can say "May I speak to ..." and I will gladly oblige.

Besides, when I say "This is Kevin speaking..." I always get some jacka$$ who thinks it's funny to say "Well hello Mr. Speaking."

This is absolutely fine when someone rings your personal line. However, from my caller's perspective, if I'm calling a general tech support line, I don't know who I specifically want to speak to and frankly I don't really care. I just to want to get my ticket logged and queued. I'll thank the person regardless of whether I know his/her name or not, as long as my issue gets taken care of correctly. Things kinda get started on a bad foot when I feel the other person is not at all eager to help me by omitting the "Can I help you?" part on a helpdesk line. I'm sorry, but if I want to talk to Michael Smith personally, I'll look up your extension and dial that directly, rather than 1-800-GO-4-HELP. Little things, I know, but I'm sensitive that way.

I should add I worked in Telecom dept. doing call routing and supporting setting up phone trees. I know at my workplace, the Lucent phone's LED shows different displays depending on whether the incoming call is dialed directly or routed via some CTI (computer telephony integration) system from some customer support line. It'll be the caller's phone number for a direct dial, or the name of the queue ("Press #4 for Lotus Notes trouble", for example) if it's a support call. Also, most internal helpdesk personnel have their own cubicles and phone extensions that they rarely get to use when doing their regular job in the support center.

[Superchicken]

Apple's Canadian Tech support when I dealt with em were very frustrating. One of them lied to me, another one started yelling at me, and eventually I just gave up trying to be nice and said, screw it, and just started being really pissed off, it was the only way I could get anyone to listen to me... very frustrating experience.

[macroy]

I've given up on 'general' tech support long ago (i.e. Dell, IBM, and places that sell OEM products rather than their own propriatary solutions). From what I've experienced, most of them use the same KB that you typically have access to. So I just usually save myself the aggrivation unless its for an exchange or something (i.e. a H/W malfunction or something).

However, the one's that you pay for through maintenance contracts, those tend to be a bit better... but I guess there's a reason for that ($$$).