Jack.is » Tech support » Mar10
A call transcript brought to you by yours truly.
Some have misunderstood exactly what's going on here. Below is a comment I added to where I posted this on another website in explanation. Bear in mind that the customer should have a much clearer idea of what he's doing than someone reading about it as a third party, so any confusion of the reader's doesn't necessarily mean the customer's. ;)
I probably should have explained better. We're a third-party paid support company who, among other relationships and a direct front, is partnered with this AV company to provide "premium" support services to its customers who want it. This software support service mentioned involves connecting remotely to the customer's computer and installing the AV product for them, resolving any issues preventing such. The AV company itself has no phone support, but they do provide free direct support for paid products over e-mail, and those with the inclination to wait a short while for a response will find themselves with no need to drop $50 for hand-holding.
Me
Male Customer
Comments, My dialogue
Comments, Male Customer's dialogue
Hi there, this is Jack, what can I do for you?
Yeah, I'm trying to download $AV and I'm not getting the registry key in e-mail. [Registry key = license key? I guess]
All right, this is $company you've reached, and we are partnered with $AV to provide paid technical services to $AV customers, but we're not able to handle billing or licensing issues for $AV products.
Okay, they transferred me over to you after they charged me 49.99, so do I call back that number and tell them to send me an email, because they won't send me an email?
That sounds like it would have been our sales department, sounds like you bought an installation service, and we can help you install $AV, but if you aren't receiving a license key in the e-mail at all we can't really help you with that.
Okay, so do I call the 866 number back and bother them about it, because they just aren't sending me the e-mail, and when I told them that, they put me on hold for, oh, about 15 minutes, and then transferred me to you.
Oh, okay. That would have been our sales department, I imagine. The only number you'll find on the $AV website is for $company, since they don't have a number of their own. If you do have issues with licensing or billing for $AV, you would have to contact them over e-mail through the website. There should be contact forms at $AV.com/support.
[customer had been talking over me?] . . .damn thing up, so contact them through their website and hope that somebody -- otherwise I'm calling my bank and calling them to cancel this nonsense, cause uh, uh, I'm not gonna put up with spending $50 on something I can't use.
Right, and that is our service, and if you like, we can get that voided for you and get a credit back on your account.
Yeah, go ahead and do that, because this is turning into such a pain in the butt that I'm just going to end up going with another service. I'm not going to dink around with somebody who charges me and then won't even bother to send me the key to start up their silly service, so please do cancel it. They've lost a sale here.
Okay, and did you supply an e-mail address to the sales agent before? [Easiest way to look cust. up because they always forget the numbers, don't they?]
Um, I think I did, but they said I had to be transferred over to you, which is obviously just blowing sunshine up my butt. [What?]
Okay. Can I just have that, then? I can look it up and see what we have here.
[E-mail address; spells e-mail address]
[Looks up, finds nothing.]
No, not finding anything. You said [spells address]?
Yes, that's right. Obviously nobody paid any attention to me, so they lost a sale!
Okay, and if you talked to the sales agent before, did they give you a ticket number or anything like that?
They gave me a ticket number, but that didn't seem to do any good. [At this point the situation is partially clear: Customer has purchased support service from us and despite previous explanations, still thinks we're $AV and that we're the ones who need to send him his license key. It's also clear that sales got his e-mail address wrong because I can't look it up.]
Okay. What number would that have been?
I went through this twice with them. It's [number]. When people don't do their jobs, they lose money. I don't have any tolerance for people who can't do their jobs. [Good for you]
Okay, looks like someone put the e-mail address in wrong here. But we do have an $AV software support service active for you, and that would just be the assistance with installing $AV, but it doesn't have anything to do with purchasing the product itself. Now, I can get the service cancelled for you, but, as I said, we can't do anything with the billing and licensing of the actual $AV product.
[Customer was talking over me again] . . .address in, or do I have to call sales again and hope that maybe somebody with a little bit of intelligence can actually type what I tell them in, or what do I have to do here?
I can correct the address here, but if we're going to cancel the service, unless you're going to call us again later, it doesn't really affect much.
Well, if you can correct -- I just get really frustrated when people -- 'cause this happens constantly, I just seem to draw the idiot card every time I make a phone call, and I don't understand why. I guess it's 'cause there are a lot of idiots out there. But if you can correct it, fine, it just seems I'm dealing with stupidity 24/7.
I'm sorry you're having trouble with that. We usually don't have that sort of problem here. Like I said, I can correct the e-mail address here, and in fact I just did, so it says [correct spelling] instead of [incorrect spelling], but since we don't--
[Cuts me off] [unint.] . . .told him [correct spelling], but obviously he just wasn't clever enough. So is this going to help any, am I going to get a registry key here so I can proceed with this, or do I have to call back and hope that somebody actually listens to me this time?
Although I have corrected it, since we don't handle licensing for $AV, that's not really going to get you a license key if you're not receiving one. It's possible that--
[Cutting me off *again*] Call their number and hope, hope, hope, hope, hope that somebody will actually, I mean, that the synapses will click in their little head and they'll send me the right stuff this time -- so I have to call them back again?
That's possible. Did you order the actual $AV product over the phone? [While $AV to my knowledge doesn't have direct phone sales/support made public, I have heard of some people who ordered $AV products over the phone from the company. Maybe I have a rarity on my hands.]
Yeah, I already paid for the damn thing, they charged me $50 and they were too stupid to put in the address I gave them! And I just get really frustrated with stupid people, 'cause I deal with them 24/7, like I said. [He must dream of them too. At this point it's obvious that he thinks our $50 software support service is the $AV product itself, despite much prior explaining that may have got through were he not fixated on ranting about how stupid everyone else is.] So do I have to call them back and hope, hope, hope [Only three this time?] that somebody will actually work with me this time?
Well, let me make sure I understand exactly what's going on. [Read: make a last-ditch attempt to get *you* to understand anything I'm saying.] What I have here is an $AV software support service for $49.99. Is that the only thing you've purchased so far?
But they obviously weren't intelligent enough to, you know, type in what they repeated back to me, so do I have to call them again to try to get somebody who actually listen to me this time, and maybe hit the right buttons on their computer so I can get a license key, or can I do that through you, or do I have to just start over again and hope, hope, hope [One's never enough] that somebody will do what they said they were going to do? [I can't find the Yes or No answer in that, can you?]
Well, we do have the service all sold here, it's all good on our end, and we can deliver the software support service any time you like, but if you aren't getting a license key for the $AV product, that's not something we handle at all. And if this is the only thing you've bought so far, then you haven't bought $AV itself, you've just bought a third-party service for assistance with $AV. [Note the difference between a product and a support service.]
Okay, well, I'm paying $50 for something. Either I have to be refunded, or I have to get the service. So, I have to call back and, like I said, hope that maybe somebody with an IQ of over 40 will answer my phone call and type in the right number on a computer? Because this nonsense goes on constantly, and I have to deal with banks and all kinds of crap because people aren't smart enough to repeat back what I say to them. So I have to call their 800 number again to get that key? I'm not paying for the thing twice.
Okay, I see. [That I'm dealing with a real special case today.] As I said before, the only number you'll find on the $AV website is our number. We're $company and we don't sell $AV itself, we just sell technical services as a partner of $AV
Yeah, okay, I'll just cancel the service then and start over at square one with somebody else, 'cause this is just, it frustrates me, having to pull the idiot card out of the deck 24/7. So if you can cancel the entire service, I will deal with somebody else because I just don't want to deal with idiots anymore. If they can't do what I tell them to, and I end up getting charged double for it, that's just wrong. [Hi, I think you missed the point, it's about five miles that way.]
Yep, I completely understand how you feel. I'll just get that taken care of for you. And is there anything else I can help you with?
No, but I'm going to call my bank tomorrow to make sure the service has been cancelled, so please do cancel the service, and I'll start over from square one and, no chance of this happening, but maybe I'll get someone with actually half a brain, so just cancel the service for now, I am going to call my bank to make sure it has been cancelled, because it probably won't be, so just do that for now, and I'll hopefully be able to do this again another time with somebody who isn't hopeless. It isn't your fault, I was dealing with a hopeless person on their end, and their stupidity just caused me a lot of grief, and they probably lost a sale because of it.
All right, sounds good.
So cancel that service, and like I said I will be calling my bank to make sure that service has been cancelled.
That's always advisable. Well once again, I do apologize for the trouble, and thank you for calling $company. You have a great night now.
[Customer huffs and ends call.]
Current Comments
4 comments so far (post your own)
wow - i bet that person has constant people interaction issues, always upset at someone and/or about something. he is poisoning himself from the inside out. i hope he realizes what he's doing and changes his attitude.
i used the default "he", when in actuality it could have been a "she". in fact, looking at the conversation, i would lay odds that it was a female, since males tend to get to the point, cuss a bit and then they're open to listening to some rationality. some females, on the other hand, like to go on and on and on ad nauseum. it doesn't matter what you say because their ears are turned off. and in this particular case it sounds like they were mad and the whole problem was that they didn't understand what they were purchasing, but the person thought it was someone else's fault. poor person.
Posted by on 16Mar10 @ 0706 EDT | #186
It was actually a male. :o
Fixed the legend to show this.
Posted by Jack Aviado on 16Mar10 @ 0714 EDT | #187
I can't help but hear this in the voice of Milton from Office Space.
Posted by Battlingdragon on 16Mar10 @ 0905 EDT | #188
Wow. Way to not answer a question. Or listen. Kudos for your patience, and extra kudos for spelling the word "lose" correctly on the internet.
Posted by thx1138 on 16Mar10 @ 1837 EDT | #189