worst technical support in history
polycounter lvl 18
I'm letting off some steam. do tell similar stories if you'd like, about Adobe or otherwise.
so i bought photoshop cs3. i've had it installed on one of my computers -- running XP for a while, and it's worked fine. i just bought a laptop, running Vista, and i installed it on there as well. unfortunately, when i load it up, it kinda hangs while loading. it looks like it's loading.. the window comes up, i have the top menu bar with file/edit/image, all that sorta stuff, but everything is greyed out, and nothing else happens. --there's nothing else in the window. when i leave it, it just keeps loading. for.. like.. ever. i've tried reloading the program about 4 times, and have restarted my computer twice.
now does that sound unclear or something? am i fucking retarded? does anyone here need more information to understand what is happening? are my interpersonal skills such shit that i am failing at describing whats going on and even now, reading what i've written, it's not clear?
anyway. i talked to a woman who was apparently rather flustered. after telling her this, there was a long pause. like long. like i thought we'd lost our connection. i said in a nice voice:
"hello?"
she responded with something similar to
"you're not giving me every much information, i'm still trying to find out what the problem is."
so i figgure.. 'ah hah! maybe i'm just hammering this poor girl with too much information... or maybe i'm really convoluded today, or not being clear. maybe i'll start simple" I tried to use simple words, in a very friendly, not patronising voice
"ah sorry. i'm running photoshop cs3 on a vista machine here and it won't load."
she sighs in frustration and asks me to describe what i'm looking at
so i give another attempt at describing what i described above. i use a simple, clear description and i take my time. i say that i the window is up, everything looks like it would just when photoshop starts loading, but nothing is happening -- it's not doing anything. i tell her again that i have the menu bar and i can move the window around, but that's it.
she's very flustered at this point, and speaking to me in a tone that sounds awfully like "fuck, another retarded computer illiterate customer" . in this tone she begins asking me if i see the main toolbar. with the paint brush tool..
"nope
"
or the eraser
"nope"
or the rubber stamp tool or anyting like that
"nope"
do you have the layer window or anything like that
"no, i have nothing on the screen"
WELL sir you dont have nothing, you've got the menu bar that's something. you've got to give me something to work with.
"yes, that's right, i'm sorry. pardon me. when i said i had nothing, i ment the main window"
"well sir you have to give me something to work with, just because this is Adobe doesn't mean I have a magic wand and can make everything better"
she also told me that she knows i'm upset but i have to work with her. which.. fuck.. i thought i WAS doing in the nicest, most self-less way i could.
anyway she asked me if i can close the program down. so i did. then i opened it back up again
this time the registration window poped up.
fuck.
so i was just very friendly and told her thank you, and said that i feel confident that i can work through everything now. she gave me the ending tech-support-close banter and here i am.
FUCK!
at least it works.
should i complain? i feel like i should complain. i'm very pissed off. if there's one thing i'm good at, it's masking my emotions and being very plesant, selfless, cooperative and supportive. jesus christ! I'm wondering if somehow i was sending angry vibes. i wasn't angry. maybe i'm unconsciously passive aggressive. nope. if that was the case i'd probably still be denying it. i'm pissed right off right now..
so i bought photoshop cs3. i've had it installed on one of my computers -- running XP for a while, and it's worked fine. i just bought a laptop, running Vista, and i installed it on there as well. unfortunately, when i load it up, it kinda hangs while loading. it looks like it's loading.. the window comes up, i have the top menu bar with file/edit/image, all that sorta stuff, but everything is greyed out, and nothing else happens. --there's nothing else in the window. when i leave it, it just keeps loading. for.. like.. ever. i've tried reloading the program about 4 times, and have restarted my computer twice.
now does that sound unclear or something? am i fucking retarded? does anyone here need more information to understand what is happening? are my interpersonal skills such shit that i am failing at describing whats going on and even now, reading what i've written, it's not clear?
anyway. i talked to a woman who was apparently rather flustered. after telling her this, there was a long pause. like long. like i thought we'd lost our connection. i said in a nice voice:
"hello?"
she responded with something similar to
"you're not giving me every much information, i'm still trying to find out what the problem is."
so i figgure.. 'ah hah! maybe i'm just hammering this poor girl with too much information... or maybe i'm really convoluded today, or not being clear. maybe i'll start simple" I tried to use simple words, in a very friendly, not patronising voice
"ah sorry. i'm running photoshop cs3 on a vista machine here and it won't load."
she sighs in frustration and asks me to describe what i'm looking at
so i give another attempt at describing what i described above. i use a simple, clear description and i take my time. i say that i the window is up, everything looks like it would just when photoshop starts loading, but nothing is happening -- it's not doing anything. i tell her again that i have the menu bar and i can move the window around, but that's it.
she's very flustered at this point, and speaking to me in a tone that sounds awfully like "fuck, another retarded computer illiterate customer" . in this tone she begins asking me if i see the main toolbar. with the paint brush tool..
"nope
"or the eraser
"nope
"or the rubber stamp tool or anyting like that
"nope
"do you have the layer window or anything like that
"no, i have nothing on the screen
"WELL sir you dont have nothing, you've got the menu bar that's something. you've got to give me something to work with.
"yes, that's right, i'm sorry. pardon me. when i said i had nothing, i ment the main window"
"well sir you have to give me something to work with, just because this is Adobe doesn't mean I have a magic wand and can make everything better"
she also told me that she knows i'm upset but i have to work with her. which.. fuck.. i thought i WAS doing in the nicest, most self-less way i could.
anyway she asked me if i can close the program down. so i did. then i opened it back up again
this time the registration window poped up.
fuck.
so i was just very friendly and told her thank you, and said that i feel confident that i can work through everything now. she gave me the ending tech-support-close banter and here i am.
FUCK!
at least it works.
should i complain? i feel like i should complain. i'm very pissed off. if there's one thing i'm good at, it's masking my emotions and being very plesant, selfless, cooperative and supportive. jesus christ! I'm wondering if somehow i was sending angry vibes. i wasn't angry. maybe i'm unconsciously passive aggressive. nope. if that was the case i'd probably still be denying it. i'm pissed right off right now..
Replies
and while CX Service staff are supposed to always sound happy and cheerful, i can well imagine that every now and again it would get the better of me. after all, due to the rules of "rapport", people tend to mirror the people they are speaking with. even though you may have sounded calm, she could probably feel your frustration.
meh.
bitch needs to be fired tbh.
If she needed more info, then she should have eluded to what info she was expecting. Not just sit quietly, hoping you'd go away. My guess is, they'll email you with a customer satisfaction survey.... if they asked for your personal info at all. I get this a lot lately, even on phone-in customer service. Complaining will probably result in nothing though (unfortunately).
In the long run, it sounds to me like either photoshop caught in some crappy loop where it wasn't properly presenting the registration form, or it was loading behind the main window and didn't appear in the task bar. Thus locking you out of the main window controls. I've written programs that do this, just because Windows f's up like that sometimes. I doubt you'll see this problem again.
i'm aware of mirroring and have pretty good conscious rapport skills (i'm trained in NLP) i was consciously trying to remain friendly and kind though out the conversation, rather than but heads. I guess that was the problem though. perhaps i should have gone into her state and then led her out. when i phoned, i actually was in a happy mood...
notman -- hah! that's brilliant. that sounds like it fits perfectly. interesting.
now i need to find a solution.
having worked in similar feilds I've seen this happen all to often, people are trained to be robots and it annoys the crap out of me.
too bad if you've got 90,000,000 people calling you with the same problem day in day out, this is your job deal with it, don't like find a new job.
dude i say complain get rid of this person, so that a better person can take their place, if you don't complain, said idiot is gonna be getting away with crap like this forever, being equally frustraighting to everyone who gets them, I always slam bad service.
fuck it dude, let's go bowling
Honestly, you didn't give her much information besides irrelevant things. The current problem is on your new machine. From what you said, you told her you had another machine (irrelevant), you bought a new one (irrelevant) you had XP (irrelevant....see where I am going with this?) and you are currently running Vista (relevant!) and having problems getting the program running properly (relevant again!). So, in all honesty, through the long story about your recent consumerism, you only told her 2 relevant facts that don't offer much information. Where are your system specs? How much ram do you have? Are your drivers up to date? Are you having problems with any other applications on your system? Have you updated your windows installations with all the latest patches (side note to this....saying no as long as you have a valid reason like a patch interfering with the normal operation of an application is fine; saying no with the reason of "because fuck Microsoft" is not.
Now, with all this being said, her attitude was fucking attrocious, for lack of better words. If she didn't get the information she wanted, she should have taken the few minutes to ask, bad day or not. Even on my worst days in my early days of help desk work, I learned to keep any frustration not directly related to the call seperate from the call. There is no reason for someone to beat you down because you just happened to call when they were having their Little Grumpy Sad Pants Party and you didn't lay it all out on the table in a tabbed, annotated manual. ;D
What ever happened to sticking up for your fellow PCers even when they're stupid, overweight, ugly and wrong? This place has really gone downhill since the new forums went up and you should be ashamed of yourself.
haha, not very professional but at least funny :poly121:
Kub - thanks, that's some damn good feedback. i guess i figured that information shows a few things -- A. i've installed photoshop before on another system so i know generally what i'm doing and B. i have a suspicion that the problem has to do with some different between the old system and the new system -- Vista being the most likely culprit.
i have calmed down a tad. i'm still having problems running photoshop, but i'm scared to phone back and get the same person.
There! Are you happy now, mister?
Does not matter if it's user error or not, she's supposed to help you. If you fail to provide adequate information she is supposed to ask questions and fill in the blanks to build up to the resolution. Her attitude was total bunk. If she can't handle situations like this then she should not be working there. She obviously is not doing her job and patience is not her forte.
I just started at a call center a couple of weeks ago. My trainer says "Fake it until you make it".. if you are having a shit day or whatever, you are there to be of help to the customer, so suck it up and help them. We get a lot of 'I would be happy to help you!' 'absolutely I can do that for you.'
If Adobe is worth their salt then they have some sort of database with answers/decision flows to solve problems... We have one at work and MY GOD is it full of everything you can think of, you barely have to think as long as you follow the database.