Paiynn@work
08-29-01, 12:27 PM
Recently I was setting up a satellite office for the local PD. They had 6 new Dell machines and wanted to use internet connection sharing through one PC. I told them it would be a cinch when I originally consulted with them. Heh, boy was I wrong.
Upon installing ICS it wasn't adding the proper protocols and whatnot for sharing, things like the home adapter and shared tcp/ip etc. After about 30 minutes I figured, ok I'll try a different machine. Same thing... then another, and another. Ok, whats the deal with these Dells? I called them up and spoke with 3 different people, NONE of which had a friggin clue what I was even talking about. They just kinda blew me off and blamed MS, even though I know it was something to do with their pre-load of windows.
Wow, time for my first ever call to Microsofts tech support. You would be amazed how quickly you get help from MS when you use the pay per incident support. They made me put up a CC for $35 before they would talk to me, so fine, I wasn't paying for it anyway.
Of course the first thing the guy wants me to do is call Dell and have them support it. Passing the buck is a beautiful thing! I ended his thought there when I told him the techs at Dell werent the sharpest knives in the drawer.
I was impressed with this particular guys knowledge. Whether he was reading things out of the knowledge base or not, I could tell he knew his stuff. Of course we went through the steps of re-loading ICS to see exactly what was happening. From there on it was kind of a blurr. He had me doing tweaks, regedits, a patch, file extractions and everything under the sun. That computer had to have felt SO violated by the time we were done molesting it.
Well, 2 hours later we were no further than where we had started. We were both quite perplxed by the whole ordeal. He said , "Sorry man, I don't know what to tell you, but its definitely something with Dells OEM" I agreed with him. "Hey, since you didnt solve my problem, do I get my $35 back?"
"Of course" :D
I would still rate it as my most pleasant tech call ever. Of course, I dont know how the rest of their support people are :)
Upon installing ICS it wasn't adding the proper protocols and whatnot for sharing, things like the home adapter and shared tcp/ip etc. After about 30 minutes I figured, ok I'll try a different machine. Same thing... then another, and another. Ok, whats the deal with these Dells? I called them up and spoke with 3 different people, NONE of which had a friggin clue what I was even talking about. They just kinda blew me off and blamed MS, even though I know it was something to do with their pre-load of windows.
Wow, time for my first ever call to Microsofts tech support. You would be amazed how quickly you get help from MS when you use the pay per incident support. They made me put up a CC for $35 before they would talk to me, so fine, I wasn't paying for it anyway.
Of course the first thing the guy wants me to do is call Dell and have them support it. Passing the buck is a beautiful thing! I ended his thought there when I told him the techs at Dell werent the sharpest knives in the drawer.
I was impressed with this particular guys knowledge. Whether he was reading things out of the knowledge base or not, I could tell he knew his stuff. Of course we went through the steps of re-loading ICS to see exactly what was happening. From there on it was kind of a blurr. He had me doing tweaks, regedits, a patch, file extractions and everything under the sun. That computer had to have felt SO violated by the time we were done molesting it.
Well, 2 hours later we were no further than where we had started. We were both quite perplxed by the whole ordeal. He said , "Sorry man, I don't know what to tell you, but its definitely something with Dells OEM" I agreed with him. "Hey, since you didnt solve my problem, do I get my $35 back?"
"Of course" :D
I would still rate it as my most pleasant tech call ever. Of course, I dont know how the rest of their support people are :)