Category: Technology

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Why people like me hate Indian technical support centers

This morning, I finally got annoyed enough with my DSL modem that I braved using the Technical Support “Chat” line.

It was almost if not quite as annoying as actually speaking on the phone with technical support.

The problem is this; The modem I own, leases an IP address from Verizon every 2 hours. 

For my nontechnical friends that read this blog… This means that every two hours the modem asks for a number that is very much like a house number. That number is then used to access the internet sending and receiving packets of information. Think of it like thousands of little packages that may have bits of Mail, or music, or Video.

I ask for some information and the web site I’ve made the request of, packages up the answer and sends it to this address.

The difficulty is that the address may change. It doesn’t always, but it can unless you pay an extra fee to have what’s called a “Fixed IP” address. 

This means that every 2 hours due to Verizons slow response I lose internet connectivity for about 90 seconds.

You wouldn’t think that was a big deal except that during that 90 second window if you happen to be doing research on the Web, or streaming a video, or downloading something you’re suddenly disconnected from the internet.

So you end up having to restart a download, re-enter the web address that you were on and sometimes you have to close your browser and start all over again. If you’re streaming a movie from Netflix… well You’ll get an error that says Netflix is unavailable and to try your request again later.

FYI the interruption ALWAYS happens at the most suspenseful moment during a movie.

So This morning I decide that I’m going to fix this problem once and for all. I already know that there is no obvious method for changing the lease time from the consumer web application. I’m hoping that there’s a command I can enter to change the settings via another method.

I click on the little “Chat” icon and type the following;

“I want to change the lease interval time on my XYZ Modem, Serial number XXXXX Firmware version X.V.UU.Y from the current defalt of 2 hours to something more reasonable like, say 8 hours. Is this possible? If so, How do I do it?”

What I get back from R. is

“I am sorry for the inconvenience, Am I to understand that you wish to change the lease time from 2 hours to 8 hours?”

I’m reading this and thinking “Uh Oh, this is either going to be a really long conversation or a really short one seeing as I’m really short tempered with people apologizing for no reason.” 

It’s a hollow gesture, why do people feel they need to start a conversation with an apology? I’m asking a fairly straight forward question.

I answer

“Yes”

R says,

“I need to confirm the number of computers you have connected both on WiFi and network, The operating system you’re using and if you have the latest updates installed on your computer”

“Yep” I think its going to be one of those calls.”

I answer

“The number of computers at this location is irrelevant. However there are 16 devices of various types currently connected to the network that the modem is providing internet access to.

There are 4 computers, 2 DVDs 2 Satellite Boxes, 3 Phones, 1iPad, 1 Television, 2 Apple TVs, and one printer.

These devices are running the Android OS, the Apple IOS, Windows, XP, Windows 7, Mac OS 10 versions 8 and 7, Linux, UNIX, and VXWorks.

As you can see the devices, operating systems, and uses for these devices is not germane to the question. Since the question I asked, Can I change the IP address lease time in your modem has absolutely nothing at all to do with any of these devices being present on the network. 

In fact your modem sees only one device. That device is the WiFi router. So will you answer the question I asked or will you continue to work your way down that infernal script your reading from?”

R Says, “Please wait while I check my resources”

Yep, gonna be one of those calls… Several minutes tick by.

R returns

“There is no way for you to change the lease time. How do you know that the lease is 2 hours?” 

OH yeah definitely one of those days…

I tell R.

“Click on Modem Status, At the bottom of the screen click on Connection Status, then when the dialog box opens, you’ll see the time that the previous lease was obtained and the time that the lease is set to expire. The difference between the two numbers is 2 hours.

I’ve worked with other modems that allowed you to select the expiration time of the lease”

R Says, “Please wait while I check my resources” again…

R Comes back, “No sir this modem doesn’t’ provide that capability.”

I say, “OK please put it in your suggestion box. Depending on what you’re doing you can be interrupted as much as 5 times a day waiting for the internet to be available again. A more realistic value to use would be 6, 8, or 12 hours. Or simply have the client be able to set it. Obviously if Verizon were to need to re-assign IPs to the modem their servers could handle that as needed. As it is everyone using this model of DSL modem is needlessly hitting Verizon’s DHCP servers every couple of hours.

R. “Yes, I understand your concern. I will correlate this information…” 

I closed the Window.

Poor Little R. Had returned to his script. I had my answer and therefore had no further need of him.

So now on to the rest of my day. With the sure and certain knowledge that every 2 hours my internet connection will be disrupted.

I can’t blame the Call centers or the chat centers. It’s just when someone asks a question that doesn’t involve “How do I plug this in?”

I really wish that we could dispense with the scripted questions.

Verizon does exactly the same thing if you call them. They want to know what kind of computer you have and if you’ve upgraded to the latest version of the software. Which really doesn’t matter if the customer is calling because they were on the internet and suddenly they weren’t. Obviously the computer was working prior to their call.

But each time you have to answer the stupid questions. (And god help you if you get one of those Ever so helpful Automated Phone system things. I personally loathe the “Genuine People Personalities” they try to imbue those systems with.)

“Was your computer working properly?”

“Is your computer turned on?”

“Can you see anything on your computers display?”

Then finally you get down to the meat of the problem… The Modem is reporting that there is NO DSL connection, which is what you were trying to report in the first place. Of course by this time you’re ready to start ripping your hair out… OR Theirs.

Then it’s the “Oh my, I apologize for the inconvenience I will have to transfer you to the next tier support team please hold.”

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Then you get to start the whole explanation  process over again.

I wish they had a number for those of us “in the biz”. 

Well, actually they do… I have a few numbers I’ve collected over the years written down. 

I wish that you could say some incantation to the voice prompts that would connect you immediately to a 2nd 3rd or 4th tier support person.

99% of the time when a computer geek needs to ask a question… ONLY another computer geek can answer it.

Geek to Geek access time 30 seconds

Geek to mundane readers of scripts access time 48 minutes.

I’m proud to be a bit of a Geek.

Geek Pride!!!!

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Sacramento actually does something useful… Be still my palpitating heart!

 Well what do you know?

The Governor actually signed laws I can agree with.

One is AB 1844 and the other is SB 1349. Both have to do with the rights of an employee or prospective employee to refuse to provide their Facebook or other social media IDs or passwords.

See the article here.

All I can say is this; It’s sad as hell that we even had to write a law to provide this kind of protection.

We could have avoided the situation by simply having everyone say NO when they were asked for their ID and Password.

What I find particularly astounding is that people actually did it. You do realize that you can make purchases from within Facebook? SO if you give someone your ID and Password you might as well have given them your ATM card and PIN.

You wouldn’t have done that… so why would you give someone access to your Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or whatever account? 

The more astounding part is that HR people felt somehow entitled… 

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Then again if you look at so called “Professional Job Search Sites” like Cybercoders,  what you see is a very social media oriented site.

I mean really… do I need to see a photo gallery of my recruiter partying or getting married?

Nope! What I need is for them to stop playing on a Facebook-like site and get on the phone to find me a job.

This whole Social Media thing is completely out of control.

I was talking to an acquaintance over the weekend who commented that he didn’t know where people found the time to update their Facebook status so often.

He also has an evil sense of humor and has considered updating his Facebook status with information like “I’m going to the bathroom”, “I’m in the parking lot at work”, “I’m leaving my cubicle” and other inanities as a parody of all those people who take Facebook so seriously.

We also were discussing some of the darker sides of Facebook. What about those people that for whatever reason decided they wanted to stalk you? 

In his line of work that’s a possibility because he’s dealing with people that have problems.

It’s ashamed that these new laws do nothing to stop other web sites from publishing private information about you.

Seriously, do a Google search of your name sometime and see what pops up. You might be surprised to find your name, your address, where you work, even a picture of you and your house. It’s spooky how invasive things have gotten.

Recently, I searched my name and found that three addressees were listed for me. One of the addresses was a place that I’d worked. The website listed me as the owner of that building and that my net worth was in the 10’s of millions of dollars (I wish!)

This same web site listed me as the owner of an apartment complex and also listed my current address. Again all  of these entires had an estimated net worth associated with me. This is concerning because the over-inflated net worth could potentially make me a target of unscrupulous people that wanted to try the old “Slip & Fall” scam on my property hoping to get a big settlement.

Boy, would they be in for a big disappointment! 

I’m pleased to see that the state government at least is taking some action. Miraculous for Sacramento to do any kind of work, much less something really useful.

I wish that the law had been more far reaching, curtailing the private information collection and dissemination. I suppose that a law like that will be proposed when some politician gets stalked.

In the mean time… 

Good Job Sacramento!

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SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM… and More SPAM! (Updated)

I love the SPAMBOT Postings (I had to stop reading political stuff)

So lately rather than immediately deleting the SPAM that people try to post to this blog, I’ve been reading it.

You’ve got to be kidding!!!

Do any of these things work at all?

These comments have all kinds of flowery speech and it’s obvious that some of them have been written by translation software.

Here’s a few examples;

I really enjoy this theme youve got going on on your site. What is the name of the design by the way? I was thinking of using this style for the website I am going to construct for my class room project.

It is rare for me to discover something on the cyberspace that is as entertaining and fascinating as what youve got here. Your page is sweet, your graphics are outstanding, and whats more, you use reference that are relevant to what you are talking about. Youre definitely one in a million, great job!

Hello There. I found your blog using msn. This is a really well written article. I will be sure to bookmark it and return to read more of your useful information. Thanks for the post. I will certainly comeback.

Don’t get me wrong, I like compliments as much as the next person. But, I don’t like empty compliments that are supposed to make me approve a comment just so the commenter can “Build Links” or redirect someone to their sales site.

All of the above comments are linked to sales sites. Things like Gucci knock off bags, or shoes, or whatever Chinese knockoff someone thinks they can entice someone with.

The really scary part is that some of these links track to websites that are full of malware. Many of these sites are in foreign countries, The largest majority appear to be originating from Asia, at least that’s as far as I wanted to track them.

These messages come from SPAMBOTS, they apparently scan for new blog entries and then post a comment. If you’re not paying attention you’ll approve the comment and potentially give the spammer distribution of their website address and god forbid one of your readers will click on the link and it’s a malware website.

These comments end up in my deletion queue immediately. But sometimes they’re funny.

Then there are the tons of email SPAM I get.

RevoIution – home business (Followed by a web address that appears to be hosted in Amsterdam.)

Learn how to turn successful at home (Associated with a website hosted in France)

Up to $2,500 NOW. Bad or NO Credit OK. (This one actually came from an American Website)

The BIGGEST Auto Clearance of 2012 Is On NOW.  LAST CHANCE To Save THOUSANDS! (This one comes from the same site)

Then there’s my ALL TIME favorite! This one sets off the Virus detection every single time!

From: UPS Information

Subject: Delivery information # Error ID3122

Usually in the preview you’ll see something like;

I did disapprove of your following me here, for you know that

This one is a malware /virus laden email that originates on a juno site apparently in Russia.

I get about 10 of these a week on an ancient yahoo mail account. What’s interesting about this one is the rambling text that’s embedded in the message. It looks like random clippings from some kind of story / literary website. 

I can only assume that it’s a method to evade the spam detection software many servers and email programs use.

Then there are the SPAM Faxes;

Crap1

Crap2

Tell me does anyone actually call these people? 

I’ve set my fax machine to route anything it doesn’t recognize to a directory on my server. That way I’m not wasting ink printing stuff that shouldn’t be coming in to my fax machine unsolicited.

For a while, I dutifully reported junk faxes to the appropriate government authorities, but the faxes kept coming in. After a while I concluded that either the government authorities couldn’t care less or… they were simply overwhelmed.  I tried setting up an auto forwarding to the proper government authorities but they told me that would be spamming them.

Now I purge junk email, and faxes about every 3 months. That’s is exactly what I’m doing today and why you have the “JOY” of this random sampling of crap.

Just remember… YOU Came to this blog, I didn’t send it to you!

As always be careful opening emails, and make sure that your anti-virus software is up to date.

Have a great day.

 

Apparently, the SPAMBOTS loved this blog post. Since it was published, there have been a 127 spam comments attached to this one post. Who’d have thought…

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Still tweaking

When I have to rebuild my system from scratch… I’m always amazed at just how customized it really is.

It’s the little things. Where a particular application is… the aliases on the desktop.

These things you do to your computer over time and each one of them is a minor thing by itself. All of these little things add up to a computer that is very personalized and specific to you and the way you work. And they’re a pain in the ass to lose. 

The odd thing is that when you’re faced with a machine that doesn’t have these little tweaks, you’re off balance. Your machine isn’t yours, it’s an alien cyberscape that has certain recognizable features… and yet it’s not home.

Off & on this weekend I’ve spent hours re-tweaking my rebuilt OS back to being my comfortable machine. In many ways it is like putting your home back together after a disaster albeit not quite as traumatic. (Been there done that!)

I’ve also solved problems that I inadvertently caused.

Note: If you’re a Mac user with a TimeCapsule. Don’t forget to tell your anti-virus to exclude the backup drive from scanning. Yeah think about that one for a minute and you’ll go OHHHH!!

I’m planning to get some real work done today.

IMAG0138

Writing, practicing, and a nice dog walk that should help me work the kinks out of my joints and my new big camping pack.

Last week didn’t go at all the way it was supposed to. 

I’d planned to get a lot more of the book written, and I wanted to experiment with breaking the book into more manageable discrete chapters.

This will take some time and I’m not exactly sure if I can manipulate the file that way and still have it printable in a simple way when I publish.

I’d also planned to test flight a new pack with a short hike.

As the dogs and I have been working our way higher onto the mountain I’ve discovered some really cool places where the phone can’t ring.

I’ve thought “Gee, it would be nice to get up here with the computer, and sit on a rock just typing.” The dogs would like it and I could use the peace & quiet.

With no internet connection, no email, and no phone, I wondered how much progress I could make.

This has led to me heading higher on the mountain, because just over the next rise there always seems to be a more amazing place.

Which led me to realize if I was to get hurt, or If it rained or if one of the pups was to get hurt I really didn’t have the kind of supplies with me that I’d need, to hunker down for a storm or for the night if that became necessary.

IMAG0152cropped

Sure I carry the radio so I could call for help if I was really badly hurt. But that does nothing to deal with something simple like rain, The forestry service takes a very dim view of you asking to be flown out by helicopter just because you din’t want to get wet.

I own a slick little tent which would be big enough for me & the dogs if it rained. But I had no really convenient way to carry the thing. My normal day pack just isn’t the right size to carry it, a little food and plenty of water.

This left me looking at packs and doing research on the different brands. I caught a deal on a nice Osprey pack, it  arrived last week,

I’ve managed to do some test packing and think it’s exactly what I need. I’ve also been thinking about stuff like; a disaster, or having to bug out due to fire, as well as actually using it for overnight camping.

Hey I’m nothing if I’m not a planner.

Sometime this week the plan is to pack light, but load up the new pack & take to the heights. I figure, this computer can easily run for 6 hours on a charge. A day on a rock might be a good thing for me.

I think I’m going to do the experiment about splitting the book here at my desk on the big screen before I go all mobile.

The next thing is some nice solar panels… 

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Arrrrhhhhggggg!

Sad Mac 400x400

Two days Ago I had an event in my Computer.

I was running along nicely having a pretty normal day when out of the blue my machine started asking me for passwords to email accounts.

This made little sense because those passwords are all stored on the system and shouldn’t be required.

I entered the first password without thinking then the second one, the the third one and that’s when the event caught my attention.

I thought Whoa! Something bad is happening. So I saved my work, closed the programs I had open and told the computer to reboot.

That’s when all hell broke loose! What I got back after that reboot was a system that had been mostly reset to it’s factory defaults. 

I don’t have esoteric settings in my systems. For the most part I’m an average kind of user.

I work at being just an average user I’ve spent so much time being a “Test Jocky, Monkey, Software Quality Assurance guy” that when it comes to my home systems I just want to sit down turn the computer on and do what I’d planned to do without a lot of drama. God save me from endless updates and reboots.

That’s why I use a Mac.

99.998% of the time I fire up my Mac and don’t think anything of the fact that I’m using technology, because it’s not in my face.

Well, two days ago was the .002% of the time when I was reminded.

This machine is barely 3 months old and it’s possible it was experiencing a hardware issue. So I pulled up the console logs and saw some very weird stuff. As I was stepping through the log I realized I didn’t know enough about the way Apple does things, to really be able to tell if the errors I was seeing were do to the failure or due to normal errors (Yeah… there is such a thing as a “Normal” error).

So I called Apple. I figured that the data was toast and I was looking at minimum at a restore of my system from my backup. I had a couple of questions, the first of which was how do I send log files to Apple?

After dealing with a first line phone rep for all of about 2 minutes (Thank you BTW for realizing that I wasn’t calling with anything ordinary.) I got transferred to this really great guy whose initials are RR.

RR listened carefully to what I said and we started walking through some items. This makes sense because he couldn’t see my screen and he must get 1000 calls a day from people who’ve forgotten to plug their system in.

Within a few minutes of talking, I’ve got a log collection tool running and he’s looking at my screen. (He can’t actually click on anything or control it… that must be maddening.)

After poking around for a bit he admits he’s never seen anything like what happened to me ever.

The logs get sent to the Gurus in Apple engineering.

Then I’m pretty much ready to call it a day and restore my whole system from the backup. When RR says, “you know… that might not be a good idea.”

I think about it and don’t like at all where he’s going, because he’s absolutely right.

Since we’d pretty much ruled out a hardware problem. That means that software has to be to blame. (Hardware Engineers around the world are rejoicing… Industry inside joke.) 

If I simply restore my system from the backup, it’s likely that I’ll be resetting the conditions that created this problem in the first place.

Which leads inexorably to a complete format, & rebuild of the system. Including reinstallation of every single piece of software. Then we get to pick and choose the bits from the backup that we absolutely can’t do without. Like the data!

As much as I don’t want to… RR is right.

Best to bite the bullet, reformat the drive, reload a completely pristine copy of the OS, then reload copies of the applications and then make a backup of the computer in this new pristine state.

You’d think that given the age of the machine I’d have a pristine backup… Well you’d be wrong.

When I got this machine a few months ago, I moved all the programs from my older MacBook to this one. Then I upgraded the Operating System on the new machine, so god only knows what bits of incompatible flotsam and jetsam may have been floating around on the disk.

Approximately 20 hours of work later I have a system that is mostly like what I had before. I know that I will be stumbling over bits of unlicensed software for weeks to come.

When I stumble over one of these applications I’ll have a choice. Find the license key… or toss the software. Realistically if I haven’t used a bit of software for weeks… I probably could do without it.

I like a clean system that works. So I’ll probably be tossing these little bits of software.

I did notice while reinstalling software that there are an awful lot of applications that ask for access to my contacts list. I understand Word asking… It’s trying to make writing letters easier by linking contact data. But some of the other applications made no sense at all.  Needless to say they were denied access.

I’m kind of a fan of Apple, NO… I’m not a rabid fan boy. But I like Apples machines.

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Honestly, Apple does it right most of the time.

There are some things that they screw up on in big ways but in general they do a good job in design, implementation, and support.

If you’re thinking Apple for your next computer purchase. A word of advice…

Buy the full boat machine. Max Memory, Max hard disk, top of the line… You’ll never be sorry and the machine will probably have a usable lifespan of at least 5 years possibly more. Think about it, you and your Mac go to College and graduate with a Masters degree 6 years later. Can you say the same of Windows?

As I’ve been reading email & writing this blog, my machine has been backing up to a different TimCapsule drive. I want to keep the old backup for a few weeks in case I need to go pick something out of it that I can’t recreate or live without.

I’m back online, back to working and Hopefully this is a “One Off” event.

RR wherever you are… Thank you!

Talk about great service! RR called me several times to see how things were progressing and was always there when or if I hit a snag. He’s the consummate professional and genuinely knows his stuff. Even if I did make him a bit nervous by fiddling with the UNIX underbelly of the Mac OS.

I hope that if he reads this he’ll take what I say next, the right way. I hope I don’t have to talk with Apple again. But If I do I’m going to see if I can have a chat with RR.

Now on to the next thing…