Blueyonder "Support"

[DavyB]

I've been a BY customer for going on 4-5 yeards and so far I have to say that I've been relatively satisfied.

I've read all the posts here and elsewhere about the poor service sometimes experienced when dealing with telephone support and thought it was all a bit tongue in cheek.

However, last night I experienced this phonomenon for my myself and how!!!

The problem: Can't get connectivity

The symptom: Scientific Atlanta DPX110 modem, 10meg connection. Modem has power light, PC light, NO cable light and Status light blinking.

Internet working perfectly at 1100hrs yesterday, then at 1930hrs - no connection possible.

There are no 'outages' in my area I'm told and after 1hr 30 minutes on the phone to BY "support" being told to reboot my Pc, reboot my modem, ipconfig /release; ipconfig / renew. Then remove the ethernet and connect through the USB, no joy. Re-install the Usb drivers - still no joy. Finally 'Reg' is starting to clutch up the "Your computer probably has some fault which I can't advise you about" straw.

All through this process 'Reg' was putting me on hold, obviously going away to ask his mates what to try next!! The last time I was holding for approx 20 minutes with nothing but a dead phone line for company, not even garbage musak to keep me company.

It'll be no surprise that, slightly frustrated at lack of progress and thinking there is the possibility that I have been cut off, I hang up and call BY support back.

This time I get to speak to rather surly sounding individual called Danny.

I explain to him in concise and calm terms the crux of my problem and that I have been dealing with 'Reg' for 90 minutes with no progress. I politley ask him to refer an engineer to my home address to remedy the problem.

Danny then utters the fact that without going through his 'troubleshooting' screen we will not be able to proceed. Not, let me connect you with 'Reg' again, not sorry not anything.

Hows that for BY customer care?

The kicker is that this morning I wake up and find the internet connection restored to full working order.

[Ignition]

LOL

It does beg belief when they force you to go through all that gack even though the modem quite kindly informs you where the fault lies due to the 'cable' light being off.

They should of course also have remote diagnostics which will show your modem to be offline.

I hope mate that this is a one off and isn't the standard process. This kind of incompetence or bad process is a waste of customer and Telewest's time.

What would be really really revolutionary is if when a call is made to cable modem support the support tools do a quick query to see if the modem is actually connected and a bit of polling while the agent is verifying your details. Wouldn't that save SO much of the customer and therefore the support agent's time, meaning happier customers and more productive worker, rather than blindly following a troubleshooting sheet.

[lilpeewee]

LOL

It does beg belief when they force you to go through all that gack even though the modem quite kindly informs you where the fault lies due to the 'cable' light being off.

They should of course also have remote diagnostics which will show your modem to be offline.

I hope mate that this is a one off and isn't the standard process. This kind of incompetence or bad process is a waste of customer and Telewest's time.

What would be really really revolutionary is if when a call is made to cable modem support the support tools do a quick query to see if the modem is actually connected and a bit of polling while the agent is verifying your details. Wouldn't that save SO much of the customer and therefore the support agent's time, meaning happier customers and more productive worker, rather than blindly following a troubleshooting sheet.

As a BY 1st line tech I understand your point but you also need to be aware
there are various other ways to "fix" a flashing cable/status light.
For example on a Surfboard modem you have four green lights which mean the same as the single cable/status light on the scientific atlanta modems.
And as each light has a specific meaning on the way to connectivity.

it is also worth noting that although some customers may have some tech knowledge we have a basic diagnostics routine we follow to ensure there are no other issues causing the problem. This includes checking for network issues and sending updates to and rebooting the modem.

We also have software which allows us to talk directly with the modem but only if the cable modem is online. If the issue needs it we will raise this to our 2nd line for a callback or book a tech. this is not intended as a rant but merely to show that there is more going on when we ask you a question than just checking your address ;)

[DavyB]

Fair point. I understand you've got procedures to follow.

What I don't understand is that after following the procedures for 90 minutes and getting nowhere, why was I being asked to repeat the process??

[TW_BUS_DATA_TECH]

Fair point. I understand you've got procedures to follow.

What I don't understand is that after following the procedures for 90 minutes and getting nowhere, why was I being asked to repeat the process??

There is no reason why (in my oppinion) it should take more than one attempt and if there is no response from the modem from 1st line diag tools it should be escalated to the second line if a sequencial reboot of kit has failed to cure the issue.

[Ignition]

As a BY 1st line tech I understand your point but you also need to be aware
there are various other ways to "fix" a flashing cable/status light.
For example on a Surfboard modem you have four green lights which mean the same as the single cable/status light on the scientific atlanta modems.
And as each light has a specific meaning on the way to connectivity.

it is also worth noting that although some customers may have some tech knowledge we have a basic diagnostics routine we follow to ensure there are no other issues causing the problem. This includes checking for network issues and sending updates to and rebooting the modem.

We also have software which allows us to talk directly with the modem but only if the cable modem is online. If the issue needs it we will raise this to our 2nd line for a callback or book a tech. this is not intended as a rant but merely to show that there is more going on when we ask you a question than just checking your address ;)

So if the cable modem isn't online that kinda makes it not required to run through the various processes.

If the cable modem is online but the PC behind it isn't there's another troubleshooting line.

Point was this guy's modem was not online but he was still forced through the troubleshooting sequence. If a reboot of the modem failed to fix should have been an immediate service call.

[space]

Ugh, lately the phone techs have been incompetent beyond belief.

I had a bloke from second line due to call me about replacing my modem, I had to go out and of all things quickly post a birthday card and missed the call, so I called back through the main switchboard because I didn't have a direct line number.I get through to what I can only describe as the most officious little tw*t I've ever spoken to in my life.

I ask to be put through to second line and he refused, I explained about returning the call, still he refused, there was no note of it on his machine and people aren't even connected to second line (bearing in mind I've been talking to second line about my problem now for several months on a regular basis)

The only way he will sort anything is if I jump through all the hoops I've been through a THOUSAND times before which I and about 30 other tech blokes no is not the problem.

During this process he confers with second line because he doesn't know what he's doing but won't connect me to them, then at the end isn't satisfied I have a genuine problem and tells me he's going to "reset" the six months worth of calls and notes to zero and start the whole fault finding process over again.

Utter pr*ck.

I've been with TW for 6-7 years, the last 6 months have been complete hell and a shambles.

I did manage to get his name and a very angry complain letter has been fired off, not that I expect anything will be done about him either. they can't fix a simple speed issue, i doubt they can fix their staff.

Pull you finger out TW, you're making a lot of very long standing loyal customers very angry for no reason at all.

[hoofner]

DavyB I dont know if I spoke to the same person as you as I thought one of the idiots i spoke to was called 'Rarg' but might have misheard him due to his inability to speak clearly. I got through and after a few seconds waiting I said 'hello?'. slight pause, 'yeah yeah wait a sec', 30 secs wait, 'hello?', 'yeah yeah give me 10 secs yeah?'. It was over 5 minutes before I got to speak to him. Not only was he unprofessional, I would say he was also technically incompetent; it was only last week but I can't remember the difficulties he had understanding the problem and wanted to follow the whole diagnostic procedures. The last thing I remember was when he demanded that I move my pc into my lounge and plug directly into the modem so he could verify some things, I told him I wasn't prepared to, and subsequently asked for a supervisor, who quite quickly arranged for the upstream channel to be changed. If Rarg knew how to read he would have been able to see the comments the 2nd line guys have left acknowledging and instructing them that this is a recurring problem with network congestion, then the time wasting could have been avoided.

This 'Rarg' is not the only one lacking in a few areas. Explaining to some of these guys that we're suffering from 'network congestion' or maybe 'slow internet access' is quite a difficult matter. I feel quite patronising talking to some of them as you have to speak to them like they're 5 years old. I dont mean to brand all their first line as some of them are alright (though just a few of them), and these tend to read previous comments and either relay onto the 2nd line or put me through to them instead as they know the real cause of the problem.

It seems their second line is completely different; I have probably phoned up 15 or 20 times in the last 2.5 months so have spoken to a fair few at TW. They are pretty technical and I think their honesty in these matters is good - being told by the 1st line that the 'temporary' problem is due to vandalism and will be fixed soon is just rediculous. The 2nd line guys have admitted there is pretty much nothing they can do and know that it's because telewest have oversold their network in particular areas, they also appreciate the number of twits working their 1st line. Again sorry for the few who have a clue working there.

..rant over

[SuperHans]

Danny is quite clearly an idiot. Status light flashing on a DPX110 means 1 of 4 things. Either No Upstream, No Downstream, which is usally an outage for these 2 problems, a problem on the authentication server or just simply a faulty modem. So the first 2 is to roll out a service tech, the 3rd problem again could be an outage, account problem which can usually be solved on the call. The problem has got absolutely nothing to do with your PC.

Davy I feel bad that Danny the Doofus treated you so badly. When I used to work for that company I would of treated you with the utmost respect, as customer, that you deserve. Kept you on the call for 5 minutes and made sure you got some sort of resolution. I agree there are plenty of idiots who work for that company both on 1st and 2nd line. Employees are treated very badly by the management but that is no excuse to mistreat the customers. AFter all the company would not exist without the customers.

[justamin]

Well staus light on any modem could mean, network issues, local issues,


high upstream, low or no downstream, as in the cable is not connected..

or cut, damaged...the modem is faulty.. the isolator is faulty...connectors...

long long list of possible causes...

but if it came back on might be worth looking at the logs on the modem to see why.. just in case the up or down stream is out..

just type in 192.168.100.1..look at the signal page...
copy and paste the results here...

as for tec suport well, there are some who wil insist on going throu all the bumf because they are told to and answer with a real condesending tone making you wish they would be standing in front of you...

but rules are rules, made for them and us to follow, but I would still like to be face to face when you get one of them online..

now can anyone here tell me the differance between going into cmd, typeing release /renew, and doing the same from the network connections..

and just hitting repair on a right click...

yep I need to know, as tec support when I did it that way went no no no I need you to do it from command, ipconfig..

anyone????

[SuperHans]

now can anyone here tell me the differance between going into cmd, typeing release /renew, and doing the same from the network connections..

and just hitting repair on a right click...

yep I need to know, as tec support when I did it that way went no no no I need you to do it from command, ipconfig..

anyone????



You are quite correct Just. Repairing the LAN connection will attempt to renew an IP address from the DHCP server. However you cannot get any information from that. If it cant renew a valid IP address it will just say that it cant repair the connection. But if the connection shows a PC generated IP address of 169.... and I renew from the command line I could get an error saying "An operation was attempted on something that is not a socket". That immediately tells me it is a WINSOCK error which is a PC related issue. Windows XP, use system restore and that will solve the problem. 3 minutes troubleshooting and a happy customer :)

[lilpeewee]

You are quite correct Just. Repairing the LAN connection will attempt to renew an IP address from the DHCP server. However you cannot get any information from that. If it cant renew a valid IP address it will just say that it cant repair the connection. But if the connection shows a PC generated IP address of 169.... and I renew from the command line I could get an error saying "An operation was attempted on something that is not a socket". That immediately tells me it is a WINSOCK error which is a PC related issue. Windows XP, use system restore and that will solve the problem. 3 minutes troubleshooting and a happy customer :)




Bang on the money also not all customers are of the apparently high caliber that post here so for another example if the ip wont release from a 169 then that shows poss driver issues etc. Also the ip may just stay as 0.0.0.0 which highlights a poss issue with the DHCP client which I have experienced many a time.

Standard diags are there to help not only clear a problem to also give IMHO a degree of education to the person on the other end where and why the problem is.

also in response to ignition I have many a time sent a hit to the modem and rebooted to find the status/cable light is on and the connection restored so the point about booking a service call without even trying that is a bit moot considering the time a customer would take to reboot the cm
against waiting for a tech.

[Ignition]

also in response to ignition I have many a time sent a hit to the modem and rebooted to find the status/cable light is on and the connection restored so the point about booking a service call without even trying that is a bit moot considering the time a customer would take to reboot the cm
against waiting for a tech.

You misunderstand. By 'online' I was referring to just the modem being connected. If the modem isn't synched up you won't be able to send it anything.

You also didn't note where I mentioned about if a reboot of modem doesn't fix it it should be a service call. Going through PC diags when the modem itself is in strife is pointless. If the modem isn't reachable after a reboot then you're in trouble as it isn't getting a 'hit'.

I also have no ide what you are talking about wrt a 'hit' the modem downloads its' config file every time it reboots anyway. Unless you're referring to forcing it to re-download firmware that is.

[SuperHans]

Bang on the money also not all customers are of the apparently high caliber that post here so for another example if the ip wont release from a 169 then that shows poss driver issues etc. Also the ip may just stay as 0.0.0.0 which highlights a poss issue with the DHCP client which I have experienced many a time.

Standard diags are there to help not only clear a problem to also give IMHO a degree of education to the person on the other end where and why the problem is.

also in response to ignition I have many a time sent a hit to the modem and rebooted to find the status/cable light is on and the connection restored so the point about booking a service call without even trying that is a bit moot considering the time a customer would take to reboot the cm
against waiting for a tech.

High 5 dude! :D