This post does not have much to do with chess aside from the fact that I don't get to play chess and blog about it as I used to. Why? Simple: my home Internet connection stopped working and all the customer service has to offer is the same canned answers repeated over and over again each time I call. It is unbelievable: we can build computers that are "smart" enough to beat every single human chess player and the Internet with its high speed data connections opens up new ways to play chess and communicate about our favorite game. But when a problem occurs, we still have to deal with humans. That should be a good thing, right? Only too bad that the humans working in the call centers are forced to behave like robots.

I am not blaming all the tech support people I talked to. After all, they are probably trained to only tell me what is written on their script and might even lose their jobs otherwise. But I find it very saddening that in a world that gets more technologically advanced every day human interactions seem to get more primitive.

Anyway, what happened? I used to be a Verizon DSL customer and called their tech support after my connection stopped working. Over two calls I spend something like 1-2 hours being walked through the usual reboot your computer, please wait, reset the modem, please wait while we test your connection, etc. routine but my connection was still dead and I was told that somebody would take care of it and call me back. Of course, nobody ever called me back. In contrary, every time I called customer support (I tried it 4 times), they claimed that would be the first time they hear of my problem (even though their phone robot claimed that my problem would have been solved and made it extra hard to get connected with a human) and started the whole procedure all over again, even though I made clear that I have been through that procedure without success several times before. I was stuck in an endless loop, hearing the same script read to me over and over again. There seemed to be no other way out than to switch my ISP. Interestingly, terminating the account was pretty easy!? Sadly, I somehow don't expect much better service from my new provider but at least I don't have to start paying them before the new service starts working. Until then, I will have to make the moves in my online chess games from my office and have plenty of time for offline writing...

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written by Andrew, February 25, 2008

I am also dealing with my ISP, although overall they are very helpful. The builder of the
new place I'm living in hasn't done their part in getting things set up, so it's not the ISP's
fault. Still, a number of times they have said they'd get back to me and never have. That's
the way it goes I guess. Large and impersonal call centers.

I worked in tech support for a few years, in a smaller call center. Liked it at times, but it's
not an easy job. Unless you're really good, or have a really good process supported by the
company, it's very difficult to keep up with many little requests and call backs.

I hope it works out for you. Having no internet for a month has been difficult and annoying,
but we've managed.

Sadly, I lost 3 chess games over the weekend on time. I don't have much time at the office
to put in moves, and 5 days goes by quickly. Too bad too, because I was at my highest
rating yet...

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written by Sciurus, February 27, 2008

Hi Andrew,
yes, I agree that giving tech support on the phone is tricky and stressful. That contributes to my bad feelings because I get not only angry with the ISP but also with myself about being less and less polite at every call I have to make. After all, the person on the other side of the line is not personally responsible for this mess.

I do think that the companies put their support agents in a bad position when they are forced to follow some prescribed ritual. It might work in many cases, but here it clearly didn't. I really wanted to solve the issue and move on, but the only way out seemed to be to terminate my contract.

Anyway, the competition installed the new connection faster than I thought, so I am online again. Man, what an Internet junkie I am!

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