Odd problem and crappy customer service

[Amedeo602]

I was happily fragging along in CS today around 2:45 EST when all of the sudden I got another connection problem. Lucky me . . . well I tried to do various things and surprise surprise the internet went down. Odd though, as I could still ping my ISP and the TV (I have cable) wasn't out. So I got on the phone with tech support. After about 20 minutes of being on hold some a$$hole got my call. Lucky me again. He said he could see my modem via a ping so I'm like "WTF?!" So I rebooted my router (for about the third time) and now it works. But how could have my router have been at fault when I did NOTHING to my settings? I think that by the time the damn tech support guy got to my call the service was back up and running.

The thing that really makes me mad is the fact that I had to hurdle through two different people just to get to someone who had a solution other than "unplug the modem for 30 seconds and plug it back in." Another thing that made me mad was the fact that Mr. Tech Support was a complete @$$ about helping me because I have a router "You have a router and I cannot do anything to help you. The problem is on your end and we don't provide support for anyone using any other equipment than ours."

:mad: :mad:

(Sorry, this sort of turned into a gripe, but back to my original question: How was it my fault if I didn't do ANYTHING to change the settings??)

[su root]

I would say that being on hold for 20 minutes is a sign that they were having problems, on a normal day they should only have a wait of 15 mins or less... any more than that, and you know your entire area code is calling them.

http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/images/dilbert2812350010924.gif

[Amedeo602]

Originally posted by su root
I would say that being on hold for 20 minutes is a sign that they were having problems, on a normal day they should only have a wait of 15 mins or less... any more than that, and you know your entire area code is calling them.

http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/images/dilbert2812350010924.gif

heh...great comic :)

[Maddman]

Sometimes routers go though problems similar to the modem on your connection. We had three power outages in two days here just out long enough to reset our computers. On the third one our router needed to be reset I could get to the net with the server but no one else on the router could see anything.

[Weazel]

I agree with your gripe about the "you have a router I can't help you crap", I've been round and round with my cable provider over high pings and slow connection speed and i constantly get the router thrown in my face along with that I'm only allowed 1 IP when I originally purchased 3 and tech support says oh, oh, ummm, ok...morons. I'll leave my provider nameless (beep,beep) in case any of you happen to to tech support for them. As for myself I have been doing tech support for a rather large dsl provider for a long time and I bend over backwards helping people everyday setup their connections with a multitude of routers. I think most techs are just flat lazy or have no concept how to configure crap except the bare minimum settings required for their service and are so afraid of the "scope of support" they'd rather hose you then help you. Maybe its me but I see it all the time and it makes me sick.
Ok, i'm done....sorry for carrying on but it touched a nerve.

[Hayduke]

I was reading the fine print on my cable company's signup page (I finally got cable internet to my neighborhood!) and noticed something most tech support types or salespeople don't seem to know. The basic service (called 10x or 1/4 T1) includes one customer premise equpment connection. BUT this CPE is specifically listed as, "personal computers, routers, bridges, firewalls, or any device with a 10baseT Ethernet connector capable of making a DHCP request." So, in my case at least, this tells me I can hook up a local network with any number of computers on the basic service as long as I use a router and one cable connection. For those whose cable providers tell you otherwise, you may want to read the fine print for yourself and see if this also applies to you (I'm with CableOne). After all, most of us are paying for a specific level of bandwidth-limited serrvice, so it shouldn't matter to them as long as you realize you're responsible for maintaining your network. And they shouldn't mind helping you with the single connection to your router. But, as someone previously stated, most tech support types know precious little beyond, "Turn it off and reboot".

[Amedeo602]

Originally posted by Hayduke
I was reading the fine print on my cable company's signup page (I finally got cable internet to my neighborhood!) and noticed something most tech support types or salespeople don't seem to know. The basic service (called 10x or 1/4 T1) includes one customer premise equpment connection. BUT this CPE is specifically listed as, "personal computers, routers, bridges, firewalls, or any device with a 10baseT Ethernet connector capable of making a DHCP request." So, in my case at least, this tells me I can hook up a local network with any number of computers on the basic service as long as I use a router and one cable connection. For those whose cable providers tell you otherwise, you may want to read the fine print for yourself and see if this also applies to you (I'm with CableOne). After all, most of us are paying for a specific level of bandwidth-limited serrvice, so it shouldn't matter to them as long as you realize you're responsible for maintaining your network. And they shouldn't mind helping you with the single connection to your router. But, as someone previously stated, most tech support types know precious little beyond, "Turn it off and reboot".

Yeah, I'm allowed one connection, and what they basically told me was "once it's installed do whatever you want"...and i realize i don't have support for the router thru them and i have no problem with that. but the guy acted like "you have a router so go to hell i'm not helping you"