Technical tidbits.. part one

::clears her throat, wondering just how to begin::

Most of my entries have been.. well, more than slightly morose. I wanted to document for myself how my life is going, so I could try to see some sort of progress. I’ve avoided doing the type of entry that posts jokes or surveys or what I did during every day, because many do and that is their type of diary. Yet I started this to be more a journal than diary.. so I resisted doing anything out of the ordinary.

From encouragement and some light nagging, I’ve decided to write about my job, or rather, what happens during technical support calls. There are a plethora of humorous technical support sites on the net, and I can post links later, if anyone wishes to see. Many think that these types of calls are just hearsay, but I can assure you they are very common.

Everyone knows that there are many who are computer illiterate, but it is never more obvious than when doing technical support by phone. We cannot see what the customer is looking at, and it is sometimes quite a challenge to try to explain in non-technical terminology what it is we want the customer to do or what to click on.

For 1.5 years I was a hardware technical support person for Dell. Now that I no longer work for them, I can say that I did work for them at one time, and in not divulging company secrets, not that I knew any, feel more comfortable now in saying that I did, indeed work for them, as an outsource technical support rep.

Before I started working for them, I knew almost nothing about hardware, all my time had been working with various Microsoft software Operating Systems and applications. I had not seen WinME, only working with Win95/98 to that point. A crash course which made my mind numb in 3 weeks of training and then I was on the floor, trying to walk customers through swapping out a motherboard over the phone or explaining what mess their operating system might be in because of one thing or another that they had done. Customers rarely will accept the blame for any problems that occur, preferring to blame the OEM instead.

Dell has a policy of technical support, that no hardware technician will go onsite to replace hardware until all troubleshooting has been exhausted over the phone with the tech rep and the rep determines that a part needs to be replaced. Onsite calls are expensive, it is a 3rd party company that the part needs to be shipped to airborne, and then driven to the customers home and replaced.

Many customers are under the impression that they can call in and place an order for a technician to come to their home at a whim, and not only for replacing hardware but to make their computer work the way they wish it to. Dell techs are not in malls, and the support sites are at various locations around the globe, not nearby for people to drive to their homes. We had resources at our disposal, that we would not have in someones’ home, and most problems can easily be resolved over the phone, if a customer is willing to cooperate.

Often we would have a customer who would be screaming before we even gave our greeting, and after some minor troubleshooting, would find that the fix was simple, and yet it was our fault it happened in the first place, the customers often getting very personal.

What amuses me most are the ones who think a woman couldn’t possibly be able to help troubleshoot, and the ones who are the worst at the sexist comments are oddly enough, other women.

Ah.. well, that’s another story for another time.. but, I’ll go ahead and share a few things that have happened in my almost 2 years of being a tech support rep in my next entry..