“Tech” Support

Posted on November 29, 2005
Tags: New Zealand, Techie |

I’ve been having issues with my internet connection over the last 3-4 days. The connection would just die off and I’d have to restart the modem to get it back and running. It’s quite annoying obviously when browsing and really an issue when trading. Anyways I called up tech support today to see if there’s something they can do, and this was the conversation:

TechSupport: Hi, how can I help?
Me: Describing problem..
TS: But I see your connection is up now..?
Me: Yes it is but it dies off every couple of hours.
TS: OK, let’s check a few things.. Are you using Windows XP Pro?
Me: No
TS: So, are you using Windows XP Home..?
Me: No
TS: Windows 98??
Me: No
TS: Oh so you’re on a Mac..
Me: No
TS: *silence*
Me: Linux
TS: Oh Linux, sorry I can’t support that.
Me: Why not? Your own company servers are running Linux..
TS: Yes that’s true but I can’t support it.
Me: Right.. ok, walk me through the Windows script thing then..

In short the Windows “solution” has nothing to do with the problem which is not on my machine to begin with.

TS: So are you on Linux Enterprise?
Me: No
TS: Is it a RedHat? (err isn’t that what you meant with your first question?)
Me: No it’s a Debian based distro (as if it matters which one it is)
TS: Ok, let’s check the IP of your machine it should be 10.1….
Me: Nope, I have a router
TS: Oh sorry, we don’t support connections through routers.
Me: WTF??

At the end he said he’d restart the port on the exchange. I hardly think that’s going to work. I think they’ll need to send someone to have a look at the local server providing for this street (ADSL). At least he agreed they’ll do that if the problem isn’t solved. Let’s see if that happens. For the prices they charge here (US$42 a month for 2.5Mbps with 10Gb limit) I expect first rate service.

Comments

3 Responses to ““Tech” Support”

Michael on November 29th, 2005 2:53 pm

Sounds like broadband service is as jacked up there as it is in the States.
Doug on November 29th, 2005 5:24 pm

welcome to the wonderful world of outsourcing! :-) Good luck.
eyal on November 29th, 2005 5:50 pm

Thanks guys.

The quality of connection here was quite impressive actually till I started getting these problems a few days ago. Much better for example than what I had in Singapore where they throttle, monitor, route and limit everything (and not just internet connections :) ).