Abuse me !!!!!

[OneBadUnit]

So, if any of you have never been in a tech support job or heard the stories (I've seen some websites with classic stories) you should check them out. I guess its not really different than anyone, in any form of customer service, might go through.

I work for a medium sized company, we provide networks to our clients; some are corporate buildings and one of our biggest clients are a national chain of malls. I love when I deal with the corporations, its usually someone from the IT department of a business renting a suite; but these calls from the malls are tier 1 support calls from your every day mall patrons trying to access the web.

Being that I am in a tech position, I am limited to what I can access as far as customer information (thats sales and billing); they don't want us computer jockeys to have access to personal information, including credit card information.

So I just get this call from a woman, who bought a new laptop, and doesn't remember her user name or password, since she kept it stored on her old computer. Also, she cant access her hotmail, since she can't get connected to our service, to retrieve her email containing the information. I politely inform her, that I don't have access to customer accounts and that I have no way of verifying who I am speaking to on the phone.

Now, I can see who is actively trying to access our equipment, and see the username and passwords they use. But being unable to know if its truely the person, I'm hamstringed on this call. So I sympathize with her (using my best, heartfelt voice) and inform her, she is going to have to call tomorrow, when sale / billing is open to get that information. This is when all hell breaks loose.

I hear about how shes a paying customer, and why am I working here if I can't help her with this simple thing, how she bought it 3 weeks ago and never used it, and the one time she tries she can't, and she wants to cancel IMMEDIATELY and wants a full refund, blah blah blah" People really lose their minds when they are disappointed (understandably so); I've been there when my home service goes out, but I know better than to kill the poor soul on the 0hter end of the phone about the company they work for.

When she did argue, about how she wouldnt be mad if I accidentally gave her info out to a random person, I said "OK, so how about you give me your hotmail account name and password and I'll get the information from there and tell you it over the phone" - she didnt like that. Went on about person things in the emails; so I said, "And thats exactly my point. We hold our customer's information private; even so much that we limit those in our company, who have access to the information.

True, maybe my company shold give us access to some kind of verification information for future calls, but right now, I don't have it.

Sorry for the long post, just needed to vent so I don;t abuse someone who calls in

[Sidior]

Bummer bro, it's too bad there isnt a "punch caller in the face" button on a phone.

[WBBIRL]

100% why I dont deal with people

[zen]

I do PC, network, website, software and various other forms of technical support (I'm the resident geek, or "guru" if they are kissing my ass due to a particularly bad problem arrising) for one company, so I am basically dealing with fellow employees and associates 98% of the time, and even they get highly defensive and act very irrationally when **** isn't working or happening fast enough for them.
I can't immagine what it must like to deal with strangers and the general public.

[reloaded]

IT is a thankless job man, I feel your pain indefinately. Nobody cares about you until something's broke, but accuse you of doing nothing when your systems are working correctly. What BS. If you're in IT, get use to customers and users complaining about everything under the sun, complain about your management, your troubleshooting methods, even your efforts in trying to solve a problem. They will complain about anything and everything in order to vent their frustration because they can't check their email or they'll literally yell "It wasn't like this yesterday!" All you can do is simply put the phone on mute and go listen to Slipknot until they're done.

[bodybuilderam]

That's why I couldn't work at job like that. I'm not a people person. I wouldn't last a week without getting fired.