Thursday, July 08, 2010

Oh - the whole best of the worst trick.

As if I wasn't already completely agitated by my disk problems. Do you know how long it takes to virus scan a terabyte drive? Multiple times?

My net connection started acing up again last night. Trying to put myself on zen, because I'm already not at full capacity I tried to ignore it.

So, I decided to call Comcast and just have them send a truck. Well... let me back up. First I called Verizon to see what FIOS had to offer.

I get to the call menu - which has the options of add account, or tech support.

What? Companies don't have sales service anymore? I just don't effing get it. Like the cell phone companies who think you don't have to see a cell phone before buying it. Sure, you can get most of your information from the Internet, but you want to see how it feels in your hand. See how the features actually work in real time.

I want to talk to one of their reps before they hose me into some effing 2 year contract that makes me want to jab straws into my eyes for ever considering their crappy service. But no. I jump off into tech support. Somehow.

No big deal. I immediately tell them I want sales support. He asks - can I have your DSL number. Me - I don't have one. I just want sales support. If you just give me your DSL number. Me - I don't have one. This happened about 5 times before I had to raise my voice and clearly say "I AM NOT A CUSTOMER - I JUST WANT TO TALK TO A SALES PERSON". Where he then asked me if I knew what state I was in. It was a pissed off state at that point.

Now listen people. I get the whole Indian support thing. They are cheaper. And they are just trying to make a living like the rest of us. But honestly - they just have cultural difference that make them process data different than Americans do. It's just a fact.

Like for example Mr S. came home a few weeks ago after being in some insufferable meeting. The speaker asked if they had any questions, and the new Indian gal shook her head from side to side. Not rotating at the neck like we do in the US, rather tilting the top of her head towards the floor. Since the person holding the meeting had just spent time in India, he immediately recognized this gesture.

I've worked with Indians from India forever, and even I'd never seen them do this. Apparently because all the tech companies send them all to acclimation camp. I think they call it "fitting in" camp. Whatever.

It is just the nature of cultures. It doesn't mean it is right or wrong. It just means everything takes 5 times longer on an Indian tech support line. And who's effing idea was it anyway that a phone company - like Verizon - can't have a fucking proper phone line to India? I get the call lag. When I worked at Silicon Graphics a billion years ago - I got used to phone lag. Savage phone lag. But what? They can't have an effing clear phone line. Every call has to be filled with static? Really?

He does eventually transfer me to a sales rep. And I admit I'm thread bare at this point. I wound up aborting the call.

I break down and call Comcast. I just want them to send a truck at this point. But, oh no. Today they don't want to do that. Whatever I want, they seem not to want to do. I take a deep breath and go with it. Which involved me having to reboot my machine. This gives him ample time to poke around. All of a sudden he says - Oh.. about 7 days ago your connection became completely sporadic. Which I believe is what I told him when I first called.

I have a program that is constantly sending data. So, I can see the data stream in, them choke off. Then flood in, then choke off.

He says... huh. You are getting about 25% packet loss.

I wish. It seems more like I'm loosing about 75% of the data I am suppose to be getting.

What does this mean for you guys? Posts will probably be sporadic, rage filled, and otherwise surly for the rest of the week. Good luck.

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