ThinkingSkull.com

My day job is working in support, specifically e-commerce. If you think explaining how to make the Internet work over the phone to people who can’t set the clock on their DVD players is hard, try explaining collecting money and paying tax rates through an online store to small business owners with no financial or computer experience.

But nothing makes me madder than when Internet providers (AT&T, Comcast, Brighthouse) refuse to admit that an outage is even occurring. Both automated and human-staffed support want you to go through a check list (which you’ve already done) of the same crap before they’ll tap their Indian co-worker on the shoulder and ask, “Hey, is anyone else calling in about losing their connection in Jacksonville, Florida?” To put it in layman’s terms, it’s like having the utility company on the phone telling you how to take apart the sink because the water has stopped… THEN remember that a water main broke down the street.

The reason why is simple: I’m a problem solver, and it’s programmed in to work back to a solution. No Internet? Restart and reboot. Still nothing? Check cables, check for software issues. Still not it? Run diagnostics. If that isn’t helping, start looking for failing hardware. Router? Modem? Motherboard? I know they don’t want to tell us that the one thing we’re paying for is the one thing they don’t have (my gosh, what if they want a refund?!), but PLEASE just tell us the connections are down… we can worry about compensation when I get back from checking my email at Starbucks.

Oh, and for the record, I challenge anyone to prove to me that “Jethro” is a native Indian name.