horrible tech support

[zacam87]

once i called apple kause a powerbook kept booting to the darwin command prompt and wouldent go to the gui, so i asked "what is the command to start aqua?" (kause i couldent find it anywhere and i know 0% about macs) and they said "oh we dont support darwin you need to reformat and reinstall OS X" then i hung up and gave it to my mac friend and he fixe it in like 3 minuites.

another time i called verizon to try to get them to unblock port 80 so i could get incomming connections and they said "reset your modem and see if you get a connection then" and i was like "no im not having connection problems, this is my ip and htis is my account name can you unblock this port for me?" .. "ok well i dont think i can help that because if you are having connection problems make sure the cable is plugged into your computer" after that i hung up and just re-routed the ports

[oz]

I didn't read all the posts here so someone might have already mentioned this, but quite often support personnel are reading from scripts so if you ask them something that gets them off the script, they are lost.

That said, my best experiences have always been to do some research and then solve any problem myself. Counting on direct tech support for most anything has not been a productive event.

[onlinebacon]

Phone support is only for idiots who will believe Dell when they say "we recommend Microsoft Windows XP Professional". You get much better support off of forums like this where you get multiple opinions and faster help from people who actually know what they are doing all for free. I have never once solved a problem from phone support. Not once. They aren't even in the US. So you get a moron on the telephone after waiting on hold for 20 minutes.
I've lost faith in humanity now and don't think that people will ever get past this stage.

OK...

I think it is useful sometimes, haven used it much computer-wise ( well not at all)

but with phones it helps

[d38dm8nw81k1ng]

i only use tech support when i need vital settings for my internet i.e. IP address etc. the people at homecall are pretty decent, and are english too. i didn't know how to set up a DSL modem, but they got me on track and sorted it. just don't ask PC World ANYTHING about computers. i asked how i would connect my PC to DSL through the ethernet port to eliminate the need for the POS USB modem. they tell me to buy an RJ11 cable!! ARGH!

[fingal]

I've never called a technical support helpline, but indirectly I suppose the worst - and the most amusing - was when I was a newbie. I tried to install a copy of Midnight Commander from source, and tried to run ./configure as root.

I got an error message which said: "Don't f*ck&ng do that as root you moron! Read the f*ck&ng manual if you don't know what you're doing!" Or something similar. I was a little surprised.

[Tommaso]

I need to get rid of the linux ATI drivers that i installed on my system. I emailed them today telling them my kernel, my OS, and the version of the driver, and i asked them how to uninstall the driver. Here is the reply they gave me:

The Linux drivers available from ATI are provide are "as is".
You may be able to get further assistance from the Linux community
at the links below:

http://www.linux.org/help/index.html

http://www.linuxdoc.org/

http://www.xfree86.org/

What kind of support is this? They didn't even answer my question, and they refered me to the linux community. If you make a product, shouldn't you be responible for the support?

[psic]

The only support I've needed is from my ISP (cable internet). In fact, i've just spent almost 2 weeks with no internet (now I know what a fish out of water feels like, heh). I called the bas****s at least 6 times (waiting on hold an average of 10 minutes each time). Each time they promised to send someone 'the next day'. One of the problems was that I didn't have time to sit at home everyday waiting for them to come.

Oh, well, at least it's working now

[charlemax]

Early in my Windows days, I installed a program that would let me read a biographical encyclopedia from a cd. The package claimed to be "specially for Windows" (what else?). There really wasn't much to the application since most of the business part of the program was played off the cd; nevertheless, this ap screwed up my system so badly I could hardly use my computer. After several days of struggling with it (it would not allow me to remove it), I called support.

The woman who took my call listened politely to my description of the problem. When I was done, she said, "Well, it sounds to me like you have the wrong kind of computer." After a few seconds she added, "You know if you call here again, there's a $35 service charge." The company was Parson's Software, I don't remember the name of the program. I ended up having to take my computer to a 3rd party to straighten out the mess.

Shortly after that Parsons was purchased by Microsoft. Birds of a feather ... er..