@Killgannon

[Koga]

Found these on our empoyee forums... oddly enough I work for Cox... but still hold true.

OK, since we have tech to tech. Let's have TSR to TSR.

If your "training" was like ours, you learned absolutely nothing except how to play pictionary.

So, where to begin...


1. You will quickly learn that the entire system is built against you. You will repeatedly utter the words "OK, Now I need you to unplug the (STB, or RG) for 30 seconds then plug it back in"

2. Management will constantly work against you, putting assine rules in place that will drive you absolutely insane, and drive your scorecard into the ground. Handle time? If it's not above 12 minutes average per call, then you've got issues.

3. Tier 2 is not your friend, nor are they your partner. There are some good tier 2 agents out there, but the ones that ruin it are the ones who don't want to do their job and instead submit "feedback" to management about Tier 1 agents who don't know what is going on. Which isn't exactly their fault that they don't receive the training necessary or have the experience that is equal to them.

4. Do what the support site tells you to do, don't second guess the system. 99% of the time the support site will get the system back up if you follow its flow. The other 1% of the time? In the great words of Rev. Johnson from Blazing Saddles.. "Son, you're on your own."

5. If the customer says they're going to disconnect their service because they are unable to watch Law and Order, 99.9% of the time they're bluffing, trying to make you nervous. Just ignore it.

6. 50% of the customers out there do not understand that the Guide/Menu keys perform other functions when they are not in AT&T mode on their remote.

7. Visit "uverseusers.com" often. Read thru the message boards. This will keep your fingers on the pulse, so to speak, of what the users are experiencing. This is a non AT&T site, but you will learn more abut the future of this product on this site than you will from AT&T.

8. 75% of your customers do not know the difference between the RG and the STB. Make sure you explain what you want them to look at.

9. Bouncing the port does not fix all problems. It fixes some of the connection issues, but not all.

10. If your customer is hearing buzzing on the line, static or if their TV freezes when the phone rings. You can make a pretty safe bet that the issue is somewhere within the NID.

11. If you have to factory reset an RG. PLEASE FIX THE AUTOSYNC ISSUE! It's in AFSS. It's easy to do through MDC.

12. Wireless setup is easy. Just have them enable windows zero configuration, and don't use the 2wire client. IT SUCKS.

13. If you do not have access to CMS/MDC, make sure to alert your Team Lead to this fact. It is a very handy tool to use. If you do have access and don't feel comfortable using it, speak up before attempting something to save us the headache of killing the customer's service or RG.

14. No, we cannot authorize credits on customers accounts if they demand a refund because little Johnny "accidentally" ordered "Schindler's Fist"

15. Yes, we can add genre tiers to the customer's account, upgrade their net speed, and change out their basic package. We can't push it, they have to ask for it, but, we can do it. Review AFSS, and make sure to ask them their authentication question before doing it.

16. Learn your coworkers strengths and weaknesses. Help each other out. We are a team, not a competition. If we can make the customer happy, let's do it. In the great words of Mr. Garrison from South Park "There are no stupid questions, just stupid people."

Sorry to sound pessimistic, but any enthusiasm you have for this product or your job will quickly fade. Decisions and procedures are being tossed around that are quite honestly, ridiculous. Your suggestions and input does not matter. You will be beaten down. Oh, and don't make any personal plans any time soon.

Welcome to AT&T, we're glad you joined us.

[Sigi]

8) That sounds awfully similar to Dell tech support when I worked there, except to start we had a good tool that fixed problems. Then they decided too many parts were being sent, so implemented a gigantic sack of shit instead.

Welcome to Customer Service/ Support. Leave your soul and dignity at the door.

[killerx]

yay now i have some one to bitch too about my 2wire modem and how much i hate it lol

[Killgannon]

sounds pretty much like what i go through daily

our scope of support is pretty small, like we only support certain modems... we kick all 2wire modems (besides the single user one which very few people have) to homenetworking which is still outsourced and they some time push back... tier2 pushes back... every other damn department pushes back and im just like "what the fuck do your damn job" cept i cant say that... but most of those are VERY VERY true statements, what you posted isnt really my department since i do just DSL, and that was more for Uverse, but the same ideals apply... its pretty pathetic really, hell we cant do half of pc end trouble shooting because the company that my department used to be outsourced too (accenture) doesnt want their retards to do it... so we're left without safe mode, without the ability to do some very simple command line commands to rebuild the TCP/IP stack, without remote control (that tier 2 has...), without good tools, without a bunch of shit so half the time we do feel helpless, especially me since im more technical and could get customers working...

and training was pure bull shit, the only thing i learned in training was CRM, the rest of it was pure shit that i already knew... while i dont hate AT&T or my job, i can't wait for 18 months to be over so i can gtfo of this DSL shit

my coworkers weaknesses is they're all fucking retarded... i can't help them all so wtf -.-;

oh and i dont know how much you experience this, but the sales people are FUCKING RETARDED DUMB FUCKS, holy shit we get calls all the time because customers dont have NICs so they cant connect their modem and they have to go buy one and have it installed... THEIR PC DIDNT MEET MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS WHY THE FUCK DID YOU SELL THEM HSI!?!?! i've had a few where people are trying to use their xbox/ps3/wii with our service right out of the box... which wont work because of the way we have to register which means you HAVE to have a pc to register, its not plug and play like cable, once again they didnt meet minimum requirements WHY DID YOU SELL TO THEM, a customer moves or changes a phone number, do they do a move/disconnect order so they'll be able to plug and play at their new location? HELL NO, they go disconnect, new order, so the customer has to go through registration again... i had a call today (well not me but a CA on the floor... im a team lead...) where the lady called in and didnt want to buy a modem cause she thought she had one in her laptop... which she didnt cause i have never heard of an internal DSL LAPTOP modem... unless its usb, and thats not internal... sales pisses me off more than the retarded CAs who dont know shit about troubleshooting and try to use the AFSS for everything and not everything is in AFSS and you need to know shit or you will fail, or beg me for help -.-;;

ive been bitched out by customers on a couple of occasions, it doesnt bother me cause i dont care... and they weren't really bitching at ME anyway but more at AT&T and the company in general... and at the end of most of those calls ive had the customer apologizing to me for being pissed off and taking it out on me so i win

oh and our AHT has to be around 20min not 12

yay now i have some one to bitch too about my 2wire modem and how much i hate it lol

read above, unless its 2wire 1070b, i dont give a fuck, go talk to apu kkthnxbai

[Sigi]

that brings back so many bad memories

Sales is your enemy. They are forced to push X amount of crap no matter what, or lose their job.

>.> I remember the customer that thought his laptop was powered by DSL. I had to literally have him dig through his box to find the AC adapter to his system. 20 minute calltime? damn. Dell's tech rep AHT was supposed to be 5 minutes or less.

[Koga]

Cox AHT is 5.3 to 6.2

[Killgannon]

im already pretty recognized as one of the most technical people (if not the most technical person) in our center... its not gonna get me anywhere yet (just to team lead which i already am lol) but im hoping ill have good reviews when my time and title is over so i can gtfo, id love to do tier2, but they're in texas and not here atm

[Kimiko]

Oh nice, another employee of Cox /wave, what market you in?

[Koga]

SDCCC - Copley Dr.
Work with SD/OC/PV/SAB/LV/LOU O.o;

[Kimiko]

Columbus/Farmers here, we're the tier1 support for Cox Security Suite, the most unwieldy piece of software in the history of modern computing. We also take overflow HSI from GAN/LAS/SAN/SAB/ORG/CLE/NWE/etc... etc...

[Koga]

Yeah, T1 Here. 3 Product. :<
I want to be a cyber so I can play ffxi when I am sending hits or pwr cycling boxes lol.

[Kimiko]

Ah you mean a work @ home agent? We were the first to get that program. Now that we've got the major bugs out of the program their starting to roll it out to more agents. But, playing FFXI and troubleshooting a 169 IP address... ugh. I'm not that good of a multitasker.

[Koga]

Yea work @ home agent would be nice but I know what you mean about the IP
Would have to be farming or something because that would suck if you were in a group when that happened lol...

[Killgannon]

no it wouldn't

1) make sure your cables are plugged in correctly "oh they are? ok..."
2) disable and reenable your NIC, you did and nothing happened? ok...
3) netsh commands to rebuild tcp/ip... nothing?
4) ok you broke your pc bye now

[Kimiko]

They don't even let us do stuff like that. Say for instance we get a 169 or a 179, we're at most allowed to try a /release /renew and power cycle. Anything else... boom, escalated.

[Koga]

escalated and "Thanks for calling Cox Communications."

[Killgannon]

we can do all but the netsh stuff, then escalate, but typically its pc problems and not our problem... and why would you escalate for a public ip? (179)

[Kimiko]

Ah, my bad, 172 I ment. ^^;

[Koga]

So AT&T TSR's can't do Credits?

Ninjar Edit: Wow what is up with the phones today... I'm getting calls left and right from Tulsa/Macon/N.Virginia

[Killgannon]

nope at least not (A)t (T)his (T)ime only billing can do credits... (did you see what i did there>.>)

@kimiko: 172.x.x.x is "take your router out please...) then go check if they have it staticly assigned as a 172.x.x.x

i'm still waiting for the day someone tells me their ip is 345.265.658.572 or something to that effect.... there will be a loud bang as my head hits the desk -.-;