Monday, July 23, 2007

Tech support transcripts

Well, day 5 began pretty much as the last four had, with no ptank.com and thus we're still here in the trailer.
Since it was "normal business hours", I decided to try chat support this time instead of phone support. I tend to think that one gets better support on the phone in general, given the immediacy and tendancy to be "stuck in the conversation" (something that telemarketers rely on). But I actually got more info about the situation from this first chat session that in the previous phone support over the past four days. Though that's not saying much. You can judge the quality of the conversation for yourself:

henryg: Hello! How may I help you?
Visitor87718: Yes, I am continuing to have problems with my domain
ptank.com since last Thursday
henryg: have a nice day, talk to you later
henryg: opss sorry :)
henryg: May i have your registration number, please
Visitor87718:
henryg:
Visitor87718:
henryg: the problem is that the domain expired
Visitor87718: yes, it should have been renewed with the current plan
Visitor87718: and the previous two support people on Thursday and Saturday
said this was in process
henryg: but the domain is located in different account
henryg: let me find that account for you
Visitor87718: huh? It should be same account as the Solo XR hosting
henryg: i found it, our admins still working on the issue
Visitor87718: any estimates on how long this is going to take?
henryg: sorry for the delay i will put it on the highest possible priority
Visitor87718: ok, thanks
Visitor87718: is it going to be part of the same account when this done?
Visitor87718: if not, i should probably get the old account info as well...
henryg: part of this account
Visitor87718: ok
henryg: and as soon as we fix it we will notify you to your contact email
Visitor87718: when is good time to check back to see if things are working?
Visitor87718: ok
Visitor87718: thanks
henryg: i understand
henryg: you are doing good :)
Visitor87718: ok, then...i think that's it for now
Visitor87718: thanks
henryg: you are welcome


So, that did have a new piece of information, the whole "not part of the same account" thing, which seems strange but not impossible. OK, let's check back in a few hours and see how the admins did on this high-priority request:

henryg: Hello! How may I help you?
Visitor51520: hi, wanted to check on the issue w/ ptank.com from earlier
today
henryg: hi
Visitor51520:
henryg: ok let me check
henryg: we still waitin our admin to restore it
Visitor51520: hmmm, seems like a while...are there any updates on progress?
henryg: no sir, the ticket is still pointed to the admin
henryg: as soon as he fix it he will point the ticket back to the level1
Visitor51520: ok, so no change since it was sent to the admin this morning
(i.e., no follow up comments)
henryg: and we will inform you as soon as we get it
henryg: no :(
Visitor51520: ok



OK, so absolutely nothing had happened. That's pretty much the end of my patience. I did find an escalation contact, who I gave the whole story (including the fact that it was four days over the 24-hour waiting period to contact them), but also started looking into the VP of Customer Care and others I could send my cancellation to, for dramatic effect of nothing else...Let's see how things are by tomorrow morning...

2 comments:

Michael Serafin-St. John said...

I almost (but not quite) started a log of tech support I got from ATT Yahoo the other day regarding a dead modem. The issue was simple as smokesignals: "Hey Tonto! Modem dead, modem under warranty, ATT send new modem posthaste. Please?"

Finally, after speaking with India, Mexico, and somewhere the other side of Venus the actual maintenance help desk where the actual command could be given was reached, and the modem was sent overnight. The fellas who held my hand while waiting for the busy signals to clear were sympathetic but had no more power to resolve things than a peon in an olive grove has to elect the next Pope.

Michael Serafin-St. John said...

All that said, ATT Yahoo has been good to have, and they DID send that new hardware next day express as promised!