• bored (unregistered)

    Bleck... Two Dell stories before 9am, we all know Dell support is the worst on the face of the planet, no wait I take that back AT&Ts' is.

    No WTF's here today.

  • KC (unregistered)

    I feel bad for the tech support guy with the DVD player issue. Similar situations happen where I work all the time, though, so it's nice to know that people are jerks everywhere.

  • whatever (unregistered)

    A little sarcasm is a welcome change from those annoying form-letter respsones...

  • Kevin Bluett (unregistered)

    First (Hopefully)! Yet Again...

  • Chris (unregistered) in reply to Kevin Bluett
    Kevin Bluett:
    Fourth (Hopefully)! Yet Again...

    FTFY

  • !? (unregistered)

    The first Dell support guy is a storm of stupidity.

    Not knowing what to do is common; Not knowing about Windows Vista could be forgiven; Not knowing what is BIOS is definitely problematic; Not being able to pronounce Vista after being told several times is... WTF

    I hope this is an exaggeration. Regardless of that, this support guy need to be beaten with a cluehammer.

  • Anonymous (unregistered)

    Alex, just for future reference, it would have been easier to tell that Jonathan's wife's account is '[email protected]' if you hadn't blacked out the word 'redacted'. Just a heads up; keep up the great work!

  • Anonymous (unregistered)

    The Real WTF is that we don't yet have a section for tech support stories. WTF guys?

  • John Winters (unregistered)

    Well, it's always been my experience of Yooha tech support that they don't have the slightest idea of what they're doing, but I'm pleased to see that this is their own assessment of themselves as well. I suppose it's a start.

  • Patrick (unregistered)

    I had to call DELL to get my laptop's power supply replaced. "I see you are using Microsoft Ubuntu" I didn't really feel like arguing semantics. "Yeah, close enough, now about the power supply?"

  • (cs) in reply to KC

    RE: MUTE

    Git off your ass your insensitive clod ! You have 2 feet !

  • MC (unregistered)

    I'm having a server morning, too.

  • SR (unregistered)

    "Yooha" tech support wonk: you win sarcasm!

    (3rd attempt to post without the error page)

  • Anon (unregistered)

    The press the mute button ticket might be from somebody who's sick of being told off by IT for trying to fix stuff themselves and are now hitting back.

  • (cs)

    I'll get right on your comments, just as soon as I finish my donuts.

  • SR (unregistered) in reply to Code Dependent
    Code Dependent:
    I'll get right on your comments, just as soon as I finish my donuts.

    No rush, why don't you take a week off?

  • Koppernicus (unregistered)

    Better yet, why don't you get a government job? Every day is a holdiay! (I should know)

  • anon (unregistered)

    "so is there anything else I can help you with Mr. Mike?"

    Why yes, in fact. I'd like to talk to your supervisor. Like, right now.

  • horuskol (unregistered)

    I'm wondering why the guy calling for support in the first story didn't kick it up to the next tier instead of hanging up? The front-line support for a large company like Dell is really nothing more than a human-voice FAQ (and not always a well-trained one).

  • (cs)

    Support request "Thanks for setting up the TV and DVD recorder. But the DVD must play as MUTE. Please come upstairs before 4:00pm and press MUTE."

    Correct response:"Your support request is assessed as Category C, Not Essential For Business. There will be a charge of $1000.00 against your budget. Please have your manager email our manager with the budget account code to bill".

    This known as the Fuck-Off Pricing Method of handling unwanted requests. If you, dear customer, are stupid enough to pay this into my beer fund, I'll do the work.

  • (cs) in reply to anon
    anon:
    "so is there anything else I can help you with Mr. Mike?"

    Why yes, in fact. I'd like to talk to your supervisor. Like, right now.

    In my experience, this will get you politely asked to hold while they connect you with their supervisor, after which you will remain on hold until you decide to hang up.

  • (cs) in reply to horuskol
    horuskol:
    I'm wondering why the guy calling for support in the first story didn't kick it up to the next tier instead of hanging up? The front-line support for a large company like Dell is really nothing more than a human-voice FAQ (and not always a well-trained one).
    Came here to say this. In my experience, asking to speak to a call center drone's supervisor almost always results in a marked improvement in politeness and helpfulness. And, having provided tech support to a call center for several years, I know just how disposable their staff are, and so I'm quite happy to deploy the "S-bomb" at the slightest provocation. It *is* important to remember to get the person's name *before* you ask to speak to the supervisor, though...
  • BOFH-in-exile (unregistered) in reply to SR
    SR:
    "Yooha" tech support wonk: you win sarcasm!

    (3rd attempt to post without the error page)

    Sadly, a sarcasm win is poor compensation for knowing you're a worse admin then your customer. A real BOFH would make sure no one over found the body of the offending luser. Instead, a snarky e-mail is the best your could do. Fail, [email protected]. Fail.

  • Ex-Dell Field Technican (unregistered)

    The issue with the Dell server doesn't surprise me. I worked as a Dell Field Technician for a while (a WTF in it's own, who doesn't know where their own parts depo is?). I haven't returned parts in many months and I'm yet to hear a word about it. I've got a many free upgrades thanks to the job.

  • Anonymous (unregistered)

    The MUTE one smells like someone recently got smacked for doing some minor IT related work by himself (pluggin in a computer or some such). More context would be nice, and probably contain another WTF. :)

    Was the last one to reconcile with D*ll support? Because it reads like "there was some hiccup with faults on both sides, but the support people solved it nice and professionally"

  • JoPoser (unregistered)

    I'm sure he was having a server warning and not a morning (maybe it was mourning?)

  • (cs)

    I wonder if the Ya- Yooha reply was supposed to be funny rather than sarcastic. (If so, it failed.)

    The DVD player is understandable if he was asking for the person with the remote to come by.

    (post attempt 3)

  • Wizard Stan (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    Alex, just for future reference, it would have been easier to tell that Jonathan's wife's account is '[email protected]' if you hadn't blacked out the word 'redacted'. Just a heads up; keep up the great work!
    I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or are simply ignorant of what the word "redacted" means. I'm hoping it's the latter, because ignorance is easily cured, but a bad joke lasts forever.
  • Uhhh (unregistered)

    I've learned that Dell consumer support is crud. The business support lines are a little better if you already know what the problem is and just need to go through the basic Q&A session they put you through.

    The Dell billing and inventory system is ridiculous. I once had them realize that they hadn't been paid for something after 3 years. It was for about $600 worth of stuff. I've also been told that I had to go and pick up replacement parts from the depot before the ONSITE TECH would come to repair a server that had 4 hour response time. Note: I've never had a problem with the techs themselves.

  • TopCat (unregistered)

    Dear Yahoo customer support,

    If you think that "server xxx is not responding" is a detailed assessment of a complicated situation or that "take it out of rotation" is a complete solution to the problem, then your technical support skills suck even more than I thought they did. I'd be happy to send a team over to sort the problem out for you. Please confirm the airline and hotel reservations and forward an advance fee of $50,000. You may settle the balance of my fee on 30 day terms.

  • (cs)

    In that Mute story, there's a chance that the staff member who sent that email couldn't actually mute the DVD himself. Supposing that:

    a) there is no mute function on the DVD player, only on the TV (or whatever equipment makes up for the TV); b) the volume buttons on the TV set aren't accessible. Maybe the TV is installed at 3 meters high? c) the support guy left the DVD's remote control but took the TV's with him because he didn't think the presenter would need it. Who does run a dvd on mute after all?

    Highly unlikely, but possible nonetheless. I already saw set-ups like these.

  • ChrisE (unregistered)

    The yahoo one isn't a WTF, it was a funny & sarcastic response to an arrogant know-it-all emailing them, and assuming he knows exactly what the problem is and how to solve it.

  • Betsumei (unregistered) in reply to GCU Arbitrary
    GCU Arbitrary:
    It *is* important to remember to get the person's name *before* you ask to speak to the supervisor, though...
    I did once upon a time work at a (now closed) call center where during training they mentioned that you don't have to give your real name. Or employee number. The only people I noticed giving fake names (the real names were in the notes call notes, which had to be signed in the system) were the ones that lied to get people to hang up. "Please powercycle your modem. To do this, unplug it for 45 minutes... Yeah, you should just call back."
  • (cs) in reply to !?
    !?:
    The first Dell support guy is a storm of stupidity.

    Not knowing what to do is common; Not knowing about Windows Vista could be forgiven; Not knowing what is BIOS is definitely problematic; Not being able to pronounce Vista after being told several times is... WTF

    I hope this is an exaggeration. Regardless of that, this support guy need to be beaten with a cluehammer.

    I once called dell to try and figure out what an LED code meant...My laptop had 3 LEDs, and the one that indicated whether it was plugged in or not would sometimes go yellow and blink (instead of green). I wanted to know what that meant.

    I talked to one guy, who passed me to a girl, who passed me to her manager who told me "You don't need to know" which pissed me off so much that I demanded to talk to his manager, at which point he hung up on me. An hour of my life down the tubes and, to this day, I still don't know what it means when that fricking led turns yellow (ungrounded outlet? No idea).

  • JohannesH (unregistered)

    I bet the Dell Support center was testing their new Voice to Text and newly bought AI Expert System. Repeated questions is the hallmark of expert systems.

  • (cs) in reply to ChrisE
    ChrisE:
    The yahoo one isn't a WTF, it was a funny & sarcastic response to an arrogant know-it-all emailing them, and assuming he knows exactly what the problem is and how to solve it.

    Agreed. The guy really thinks that is an actual physical machine, which is pretty funny, but then he's diagnosed it based on the fact that it won't respond to ping? That doesn't necessarily mean anything.

    I'd have probably sent the same response.

  • (cs)

    Loved the Yahoo's rep answer!

    Vissa!!!

  • Anonymous (unregistered)

    I would have taken the e-mailed response from Yahoo support and forwarded it directly to Yahoo customer relations, to see if they found it as funny. Then I would have submitted it to TDWTF.

  • Craptain (unregistered) in reply to ChrisE
    ChrisE:
    The yahoo one isn't a WTF, it was a funny & sarcastic response to an arrogant know-it-all emailing them, and assuming he knows exactly what the problem is and how to solve it.
    More like an extremely thin-skinned and unprofessional response to someone who's trying to help out.
  • Bgglw (unregistered)

    You know how most words get a -d on the end of them when used in the past tense? Like 'failed', 'retarded'...

    "You were SUPPOSED to ship that one back"

    Hope it was just a typo :-)

  • Bgglw (unregistered)

    only works on the third submit!!

  • (cs) in reply to JohannesH
    JohannesH:
    I bet the Dell Support center was testing their new Voice to Text and newly bought AI Expert System. Repeated questions is the hallmark of expert systems.
    Why do you say that repeated questions is the hallmark of expert systems?
  • (cs) in reply to Satanicpuppy
    Satanicpuppy:
    ChrisE:
    The yahoo one isn't a WTF, it was a funny & sarcastic response to an arrogant know-it-all emailing them, and assuming he knows exactly what the problem is and how to solve it.

    Agreed. The guy really thinks that is an actual physical machine, which is pretty funny, but then he's diagnosed it based on the fact that it won't respond to ping? That doesn't necessarily mean anything.

    I'd have probably sent the same response.

    You'd both get fired instantly (and with good reason) if a manager ever saw you display this kind of attitude towards a customer.

    The customer's email was in no way "arrogant" or "know-it-all", he was simply pointing out that there was a problem, and helpfully trying to supply additional information that might help the customer support do their damn job.

    The response was inexcusably arrogant and snarky.

  • (cs)

    I wonder if Mike Cook was aware that the name of the operating system is actually Windows Vista. I'm unaware of any Microsoft operating systems known as Vista. He probably would have had better luck with the tech support staff if he referred to the operating system using the proper name.

  • NameNotFoundException (unregistered) in reply to KC

    In practice it should be easy to avoid such situations in the future. Just go there with two other guys and make a big show such as check all the connections, reboot everything and hold a lecture about security in IT. After five minutes, press MUTE and leave.

  • SR (unregistered) in reply to Bgglw
    Bgglw:
    only works on the third submit!!

    Sometimes the second. It does help the FRIST posters look daft, though

    [3rd attempt this time, though]

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to cparker
    cparker:
    I wonder if Mike Cook was aware that the name of the operating system is actually Windows Vista. I'm unaware of any Microsoft operating systems known as Vista. He probably would have had better luck with the tech support staff if he referred to the operating system using the proper name.
    Oh yeah, I'd never have understood what he meant by "Microsoft Vista". What is a "Microsoft" and what is this "landscape", sorry, "Vista" that you keep talking about? Oh, you mean Windows Vista, I never knew because you were calling it the wrong name! Yeah, right!

    [Post attempt #2]

  • Kludge (unregistered) in reply to brazzy

    Seconded, the Y! support guy was clearly just being an arse here.

  • INTERNETS (unregistered)

    Am I the only one who thinks that the Vissa one is racist? The guy natively speaks a language which doesn't have a 't' sound, so what?

  • Anon (unregistered) in reply to pitchingchris
    pitchingchris:
    RE: MUTE

    Git off your ass your insensitive clod ! You have 2 feet !

    Ah but maybe he doesn't have a finger

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