We just had AT&T out here looking at our dsl lines, but of course the issue we’ve been having didn’t repeat itself while he was here. Apparently though, other people in the building are having trouble too. The tech was really cute, though possibly not the brightest light in the sky. Now, generally I would not twit someone on their geography, because mine sucks too, but I had a couple of actual “hey, I’m smart” moments, which seem to happen so rarely they needed to be shared.
The first thing- which anybody involved in technology knows- is that Tier1 tech support is crap. They’re there to weed out the people who call and say “my monitor isn’t working” and Tier1 asks if their monitor is turned on and that solves the problem. When I call because my dsl is totally fubar, I’ve already rebooted my modem, router and laptop twice before calling. I don’t need Tier 1 walking me through it again. I know what Tier1 can do for me, and I know I need Tier2. I hate that I have to wade through 20-30 minutes of Tier1 before getting sent up to Tier2, who immediately say “Uh, yeah. Whoever worked on your account last set you up for dial up access. I’ve fixed it and you should be good to go”. So anyway, last week when my boss called, he shook his head in disbelief after getting off the phone, I looked at him and said, “you were talking to Tier1. Tier1 is crap.” The tech who came out today said exactly the same thing, though I’m pretty sure he didn’t use the word “crap”.
Secondly, he gave us a number to reach tech support here in CA rather than the 800 number that routes to India or the Philippines. My boss asked something about outsource centers and the guy’s answer went like this:
Tech: We have a site in the Philippines and two in India. One in Bangladesh, uh, if that’s in India… and one in Bombay, or whatever it’s called now.
Me: Mumbai (Moom-bye)
Tech: Yeah, Boombai, that’s it.
So yeah. Bangladesh is a country. It’s close to India, but it’s a country, and therefore not in India. I’m pretty sure he meant Bangalore, but I didn’t say that to him.