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Thread ID: 54041 2005-02-02 20:57:00 Is this now a standard response for Helpdesks? You must have..... Chilling_Silence (9) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
320913 2005-02-03 00:51:00 Is it turned on?
Is it plugged in to the wall power socket?
Is the wall power switch on?


Somebody "... with years of experience who knows how to fault diagnose" would probably prefer to work in a job which (a) pays what they are worth, and (b) offers some intellectual challenge.

Being trapped in a cubicle trying to get ignorant users' computers going by remote control (with only the lusers as the remotely activated tools) is not my idea of technological heaven. Or even Valhalla. 		Graham L (2)
320914 2005-02-03 00:52:00 It's a bit painful to hear people knocking the "HelpDesk jockey's". If you've never been there you need to keep in mind a few things:

A) They're normally first level of support, not IT Uber stars.
B) They are often constrained by their own company's policies on how to respond to calls, which are usually monitored.
C) They have limitations in their knowledge, just like everyone else here.
D) They usually aspire to better things and a helpdesk job is as good as anything else as a stepping-stone to getting into higher level IT work.

If people are so damned clever that they can criticise helpdesk helpers, what the heck are they calling up the helpdesk for anyway?

Absolutely agree. Especially in regards to C, you'd be suprised how few places will actually train you above the basic requirement for the job. I'm trying to get A+ certified at the moment through work, and it's a huge uphill struggle, though I work for one of the better places.

Now you folks who call helpdesks on a regular basis, let me ask a favour of you. When you get good support, someone helps you out, and you are pleased with how you were treated - give them that feedback. You have no idea how appreciated it is, especially when 90% of your calls have people:

a) treating you like an idiot and not taking the advice you give, no matter how correct it is and
b) telling you that it's your fault, and you're personally responsible for whatever issue they are having

This thread seems to be going O(the original)T rather quickly :D 		pixeldust (6619)
320915 2005-02-03 00:59:00 If people are so damned clever that they can criticise helpdesk helpers, what the heck are they calling up the helpdesk for anyway?


I had to ring IHUGs help desk today . . . . . .

I made a few changes to my homepage files at 9PM last night and tomorning all my work is gone as if i never uploaded the changes . . . .

I knew before i rang that there was an issue with the homepage server and that it had been restored form backup at some time overnight, I was just ringing to find out why and *** had happened to my files and if i would have to upload them again, i dident want to upload again what with being on dial up . . . . . . . .



ME: "hi, has there been a problem with the homepage server overnight?, I uploaded some files lastnight and now there gone . "

Hdesk: "what OS are you using?"

ME "um . . . not that it would affect your homepage servers but i use windows XP service pack 2"

Hdesk "and how do you connect? are you on dial up?"

ME "I have a open BSD box that is dialed in and i route throught that . "

Hdesk "we dont support that so its not an issue I can help you with . "

ME "um, can you put me throught to your networks OPs people?"

Hdesk "sorry, but as i told you we dont support that BSD thing your are doing"

ME "I am sure that you dont support BSD but thats not the problem, can i talk to the netowrk OPs . "

Hdesk "please hold . . . . "

3 minutes on hold

Hdesk "I asked the network suppervisor and it looks like the problem is that we lost some of your files when we moved the home pages over to a new server, we will get then moved over from the old server with in the hour "

ME "er . . . . how do you lose files when coping every thing to the new server???"

Hdesk "we took a snap shot of the file system at 7pm and put in on to the new server and then at nidnight we switched to the new server, any file changes that happened between 7PM and midnight are lost . "

ME "thanks bye"





I just think it would be better if they passed over to a higher level helpdesk sooner .

often the fastest was to get what you want is to play dumb and just let them ask the questions . if you come to them with half the answer is just makes them lose the plot . 		robsonde (120)
320916 2005-02-03 01:01:00 I use XTRA and must admit that I have always been well satisfied with the help. I do try and treat the staff with lots of respect and appreciate the difficulty they are under. I wonder if some people are being a little aggresive and unhelpful - and lets face it if the helpers are reading off a check sheet so what ?
Besides which they cannot know everything - if they did surely they would be working for Bill Gates and not XTRA. Be patient chaps.
Tom 		Thomas01 (317)
320917 2005-02-03 01:20:00 I just think it would be better if they passed over to a higher level helpdesk sooner.Which would defeat the purpose of having the first tier their to filter the calls. ninja (1671)
320918 2005-02-03 02:45:00 I have to say that trying to diagnose computer faults over the phone just be just too painful. I've tried it and in the vast cases it is quicker for me to actually just walk to the machine and take a look for myself.

Also I've noticed that people get quite hostile when you ask them questions and they don't have any idea what you are talking about.

I also find it rather hard not be be honest and just admit that I don't know what is going on (although usually I do some quick research to find out). I don't think this is how the helpdesk "pros" would do it.

It just scares me to think waht the average home user would ring an ISP about (all those stories about helping people install an OS) :@@: 		gibler (49)
320919 2005-02-03 03:45:00 I fully agree, with a _lot_ of the comments here.

First level help arent paid a lot (Being in there myself) and I can also vouch that Im here because I anticipate a Server Admin role (Ideally *nix/BSD based). Either that or Security Analisys bakes my cake.

I can honestly say that if I dont know the answer, first thing I do is ask the Subject Matter Expert. SME cant/wont help then pass them on to 2nd level support.

The great thing is, like Robsondes convo showed, most of the 2nd level people dont care for courtesy's of "Hi, hows your day, how are you, please hold the line while I check", they're more straight to the point, just give you the info you need and get you off the phone, and thats the sorta person I quite often need to speak to.

Id gone through the fault diagnosis stages myself, I didnt need him to tell me to turn off a firewall (Didnt have one aside from the router, running Knoppix/Xandros and all).
Sadly the comments about first level being there to filter out those n00bs who dont know what a firewall is.

What really amuses me is when I first started at my work, one of my mates told me he'd done a degree in IT. "It was part of my travel & tourism".

Turns out he doesnt know what a ping is, how to copy/paste a word doc onto a thumbdrive, email attachements, never heard the word FTP, and still shuts down his PC by holding down the power button and watching it cut out.

Pixeldust:
I feel the same, if they've been helpful then its always nice to finish the call with:
"sorry i missed your name (I usually forget)"
"Im John doe"
"Okay John Doe, thanks for your help, much appreciated"

and you can hear in the tone of their voice its made their day worthwhile.

Gotta start somewhere in the chain though. 		Chilling_Silence (9)
320920 2005-02-03 04:18:00 Fair enough,Chill.
When Paradise first started up, the help desk chaps were enthusiasts and had time to discuss problems. But last year I had a need to call Paradise help. Suddenly all my Emails out were being labelled as Spam, and it seemed that Brightmail had me logged as a spammer !
Got onto help desk chap, who was Asian and spoke v rapidly with a strong accent. We had a problem in establishing what the problem was. Help said he would take a note of it.
4 days later nothing had developed, and again Help was Asian - different chap. I eventually asked for a Supervisor, and I could hear a discussion going on across the room. Response was that the Supervisor did not talk to callers .... I complained about lack of action re Brightmail, and was told they would get onto Brightmail.
4 days later no change, so phoned in again ( not believing the several Emails I had saying everything would be attended to in 3 working days...)
This time got a local, who was able to press some buttons and establish that Brightmail was dealing with it. And in 24 hours all was well.
I was pleased to be squeaky clean again ...

Cheers Tony 		TonyF (246)
320921 2005-02-03 04:37:00 Well I don't know how qualified the guys are at Quicksilver, but couldn't fault them at all on their service, honesty, solving or explaining the problems I've had. :thumbs:
Being on dial-up and rural as well doesn't always help my case either.
Until I read this thread I didn't realise how much crap they had to deal with. 		MMM (5660)
320922 2005-02-03 04:54:00 www.techtales.com drcspy (146)
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