technical-support

—>When I was in college, an older woman I worked with paid me $25 to come over and program her VCR, and that is not a euphemism. Clearly I missed a valid business opportunity when I didn't think to package that skill and resell it as an in-home service for idiots everywhere. You know, sort of like what InstallerNet offers with universal remotes for the low low actually-sort-of-high price of $250.  More »

—>AT&T loves your money and will not give up that money no matter what, even if it means making you waste nearly an hour of an AT&T employee's time, which surely must be worth more than three dollars. We guess it's the principal; as long as AT&T refuses to admit they've got problems, the problems don't exist.  More »

—>Our reader humphrmi recently managed to avoid shelling out unnecessary bucks for paid technical support from Dell. His secret? Listening very carefully to the support rep, who inadvertently gave away the info he was trying to get humphrmi to pay for. Which is good, since that information was only one sentence long.  More »

—>Ryan's new Nokia Intrigue 7205, which Verizon gave him, doesn't work with the Verizon network: "48 hours ago, the phone began cycling on and off continuously." He's not the only Intrigue owner experiencing this problem on Verizon, although Verizon is following that tired old "it couldn't possibly be our fault so let's make you jump through a dozen useless hoops" protocol. Sadly, a single Google search would give them the quick fix for Ryan and other Intrigue owners.  More »

—>If Seagate tells you to call Microsoft for technical support, don't talk back or you're going to get an earful. At least that's what reader K. learned when he called to ask why his external drive worked well under Vista, but not XP. Seagate's customer service representative immediately blamed the problem on Microsoft, and when K. tried explaining why the problem might lie with Seagate, the CSR responded: "Well since you know better then we do, Im sure you dont need our assistance."  More »

—>Earlier this week, we posted an email from a frustrated Qwest customer who said he couldn't download YouTube and other online videos at a speed equivalent to the Qwest service he was paying for. Qwest wrote to us, and spoke to the customer, and swore they were not interfering with any download rates. Instead, it looks like the problem is with OpenDNS, a free service that usually speeds up downloading, but that seems to have an issue when it comes to certain video streams.  More »

—>Cracked takes a stab at explaining why your calls to customer support inevitably lead to frustration. You'll probably recognize your own experiences as you read their article, and learn a little about why being a customer service agent sucks so much, too.  More »

UPDATE: It's getting worked on!

Comments still not functioning correctly for you? As Ben suggested, I've opened a complaint on GetSatisfaction.com to try to reach Gawker's tech team. If the comment reply/preview feature is still broken for you (it seems to be working for some, not others), why not head over there and add your two cents to my complaint? [GetSatisfaction.com]  More »

—>You can't cancel your annual membership agreement with Hasbro's "D&D Insider"—at least not easily, and not at all for some frustrated users. Company admins keep giving out ridiculous instructions on the user forums, but those posts are followed by customers saying all they get are error messages, no matter what browser/OS combo they try. To make matters worse, their customer service department was closed over the holidays, so nobody was answering the phone numbers they listed. This is the kind of runaround we expect from scammers like the Acai resellers, not a national toy company.  More »

—>Last Friday we posted that a customer in D.C. was on hold with RCN's tech support for over 7 hours. (And no, she didn't sit next to the phone that entire time—she periodically checked in to see whether she'd been disconnected, but always heard the same hold music and message.) We received several comments—one from the Senior Director of Operations at RCN—saying that her call had likely been dropped from the system. But Meredith says someone finally did answer her call. Here's her story and the RCN Director's version.  More »

—>Meredith has been on hold with RCN's tech support line for over seven hours now. She's put down the phone and keeps doing other things, but whenever she goes back to see if they've finally disconnected her, she hears their "please hold" message and music. Apparently RCN doesn't think you need tech support over the weekend.  More »

—> At least Verizon is being honest about the fact that they're not going to read your emails, right?   More »

—> A reader writes in to commend Canon for their efficient and—brace yourselves—helpful customer service: "I was on the phone less than two minutes beginning to end." Among the surprises: the customer service department was based in the U.S., he was called back when a rep was available instead of being abandoned in an endless hold loop, the people he spoke with seemed motivated to help him, and the Canon rep had enough autonomy and intelligence to come up with an alternative solution when the original problem couldn't be solved.  More »

—>This lovable fellow runs the Convergys call center in Hazelwood, Missouri.  More »