Tech Support/Customer Care Having a Laugh (again)

[handyman]

Originally Posted by whydoIneedatech

Its fine, lets forget about it you remember a different way of working plus you are EX-NTL with completely different set of online tools at your disposal and have a different approach to EX-Telewest.

True I have zero knowledge of EX-Telewest systems. However I was assuming that all legacy systems had been migrated to Harmony (or insert name of over price and delayed new system). I very much doubt the hfc infrastructure has changed in any substantial way since I left.

There are way more tools that are possible to be developed that would make techs jobs easier but that does not fit with the plan of moving call centres to places where Virgin can get funding thus requiring techs to be on the phone with way less training than they should get.

I'm not knocking Virgin either (well maybe the adsl part of Virgin that told me I could not get broadband because I had an optical fibre line). I've worked for isps with outsourced call centres based in the UK that have and even poorer service record (Hire a Russian lady with little English that has never used a computer before, give her 7 days training that she could not understand then put them on the phone delivering techical support for broadband).

Originally Posted by handyman

True I have zero knowledge of EX-Telewest systems. However I was assuming that all legacy systems had been migrated to Harmony (or insert name of over price and delayed new system). I very much doubt the hfc infrastructure has changed in any substantial way since I left.

There are way more tools that are possible to be developed that would make techs jobs easier but that does not fit with the plan of moving call centres to places where Virgin can get funding thus requiring techs to be on the phone with way less training than they should get.

I'm not knocking Virgin either (well maybe the adsl part of Virgin that told me I could not get broadband because I had an optical fibre line). I've worked for isps with outsourced call centres based in the UK that have and even poorer service record (Hire a Russian lady with little English that has never used a computer before, give her 7 days training that she could not understand then put them on the phone delivering techical support for broadband).

All we have is Redtools from NTL all their other tools are passworded and you will know what they are.

By the way I did not take any of the above posts personally because this is a support forum where people will have different views about the same subject.

[handyman]

That must be a joy, We had 30 plus legacy systems to use. I still prefered cable master Teesside though especially with dispatch access :-)

[broadbandbug]

Originally Posted by handyman

The topic is the frustration of the posters experience with poor technical support. Dpa was incorrectly brought into it which has been pointed out by more than one person as having nothing to do with the actual issue.

The actual issue is the csr that was not trained to perform a proper diagnostic analysis of the fault and was not aware of the current technical faults that were present on the network.

Had the op have called in back in the day he would have likely had his modem checked through blue tools for correct signal levels, then a quick ping test and a verification of any new software (av etc ) added to his pc. Once that it was clear that his modem was functioning and his pc was as well he would have been advised that there was a network issue that may be the cause of his fault. If the tech had higher access they could even have looked into the change log and see if any of those could be related to the fault. I doubt any of the call centres now see that level of information.

The job is as much education of the customer as it is fixing the faults. Remember that a fault is only the customer perception.

Why do you feel that the tools the Tech Support guys have access to now would be less than in your day?
As far as I understand the Swansea and Albert Dock guys have access to more information about the network now than ever before and the tools do more now than they did before (ie. Blue Tools has moved on a fair pace)
I really sense some bitterness in your posts about how you feel you were treated by NTL?

---------- Post added at 13:50 ---------- Previous post was at 13:48 ----------

Originally Posted by handyman

That must be a joy, We had 30 plus legacy systems to use. I still prefered cable master Teesside though especially with dispatch access :-)

Hasn't Harmony been dumped and all customers moved (or moving) to ICOMS?