Friday, January 06, 2006

Tech Support

Yesterday we got cable modem in stalled. Yes, prior to this, we were still using dial up. The cable modem installed beautifully. The installers arrived on time, and I hooked it up and installed the drivers and it worked. It just worked, how great is that?!?!

I then went to install a wireless router that I had purchased so that we can use the laptop without being connected (the whole point of a laptop). I started the installation around 10 AM and by 2:30 PM I had not yet gotten the router to work properly. I called tech support. I ended up talking to them after being on hold for 20 minutes. Just a side note, all you people who called Gateway between 1999 and 2000 (while I was working tech support there), from noon to midnight on any weekday, I AM TRUELY SORRY FOR YOUR WAIT.

Tech support should love someone like me, for the most part, I know what I am doing and try everything that I know to do several times before calling. Still, they want to start at the beginning. Tech support: "Lets unplug every cable and start over". Me: "Wait a minute. This is what I have done (and I explain all the steps I have taken) and I am at this point in the install and everytime I get here, the installation just freezes up and will not let me go any further". Tech support: "Ok". While he is silent, I can see him looking franticly through his tools to figure out where I am. Might I also interject that I am talking to someone in India, and it is not unlike speaking to Apu on the Simpsons. So we get to a point where this guy doesn't have a clue what to do and he says "Let me verify your phone number and I will have my superwisor call you back". I am on my way out the door for work. The "superwisor" never calls.

So I get home at midnight and call again. No hold time at that time of the day. We get another step further and everything seems to be working and I hang up with the tech. IMMEDIATELY after hanging up, the damn thing locks up again. So I get on the phone one more time. This time I get a female tech, who clearly has no IDEA what she is doing (not a dis on female techs, this woman did not have a clue, but it had nothing to do with her gender). I say to her "I am at this point in the installation, and I have been working on this ALL DAY. I am thinking that there is something wrong with this router." Then I ask her what she thinks. She says to me "If you want to return it, you have 15 days". I respond telling her that I have an entire year to return it because of where I bought it. But she didn't EVEN TRY. Why did I have to go through all these steps with the previous tech's to have her say. . . "sounds like the router is bad"????? Hell, we could have resolved the problem at 11AM this moring instead of screwing around all day!!

So, I am still only connected to broadband on this machine and the laptop is still connecting with dial-up. I have no router because I don't feel like going out this morning and exchanging this one. I will go out and exchange the router on the way to work and HOPEFULLY, I will be up and running by 1AM tomorrow morning. I'll keep you posted.

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