03 January, 2012

Throes of Nerd-Rage

…that was a phrase used in a text to me from a friend agonizing over the lack of help he got from tech-support when his computer crashed. I love that: “throes of nerd-rage” or even just “nerd-rage”. I think we should add that to the modern lexicon.

And tech-non-support. You've been there, right? There’s a program I have to use at work, and the folks who run that system re-organized last year, and suddenly their previously decent tech-support team was clueless. I think it was out-sourced. Anyway, here’s an example of a typical call: (the actual subjects have been altered so this doesn’t get all boring and technical.)

Me: I’m looking at these snowballs and the system won’t let me turn them into ice-cream.

TS: There’s a button at the top of the screen you can click that says “ice-cream”. Have you tried that?

Me: That button is greyed out. I need some other way to turn these snowballs into ice-cream.

Tech-Support: What’s the reference number?

Me: 2-12345

TS: Okay I’m looking at those snowballs. Yep you’re right. The button is greyed out.

Me: So what can we do to turn them into ice-cream?

TS: You’re going to have to call customer service. I can’t do anything with the button greyed out.

Me: But I’m not a customer. I’m an operator. That’s why I’m calling you.

TS: Customer service can help you with this.

Me: …

TS: Do you have their number?

Me: yes. [click]

Seriously, what is the point of tech-support who can’t do anything different from what I can already do? Nerd-rage indeed.

1 comment:

  1. I am a 911 Dispatcher and we just changed systems. The new system is not user friendly and sometimes just eats our reports. I have called customer service about a dozen times and have not gotten an answer to my question even once. They are useless.

    ReplyDelete

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