WebberLog

So. I’ve crapped on talked about helpdesks before, but it seems like I need to do so again. Could be the guys at my own ISP don’t read this. In that case, they should be.

At 13:45, my Internet connection died on me. Being the gracious guy I am, I waited for 15 mins before I lost my cool. In those 15 mins, I reset my cable modem, disconnected my router, connected my laptop directly to the modem and made myself some coffee. Still no connection at 14:00 so I decided to call my ISP.

The first helpdesk employee I talked to was a middle-aged woman that was very nice and very un-helpful. Of course she asked me all the wrong questions and even though she could not even “see” my cable modem from her end, she insisted the problem could be in my laptop. I told her my router was connected before my laptop and showed the same problems. I also told her my modem was offline and refused to go online. She couldn’t care less. Her shortlist said I had to turn off my virusscanner and try again. Actually, I think she wanted me to takedown my firewall, but since she didn’t do the IQ test on me, she didn’t want to use complicated terms. I told her I’d give it a shot and ended the call.

The second helpdesk guy was a guy who actually bothered to listen. After I told him my modem was offline, he asked me to try and do a hard reset by disconnecting it’s power cord for 30 secs. Of course I already tried that (and he knew that), but again, being the gracious guy I am, I did it again. And again, that did not solve the problem. While I was fiddling with the cables, he discovered that there were a lot of cable modems in my area that were offline, pointing towards a problem beyond my modem.

The moral of the story, if someone calls you with a problem, check for a broader scope. Don’t just follow your simple tasklist if the person on the phone seems to know what he’s talking about.

It’s all about listening.