Who here has Road Runner for an ISP? Oh boy..

[Phuz]

I just completed my first month as a tier 2 tech support agent. I work for Stream Int. (shhh, i just broke my disclosure), and RR outsourced this level of support to Stream.. (we do dell/rr/palm/fujitsu... to name a few)...


Anyway, I'd just like to say to all my retar-... err, intelligent callers I lov.... er, hate you.

I love calls like:

.. "My road runner dun work"
.. "Can I get credit for that hour of downtime today? Yes sir, I believe it works out to about 4 cents."
.. "I'm getting pop-ups in Road Runner"
.. "I just wanted to call to say your service is ****"

As well as many profain, intoxicated callers.. mind you, these are Americans only.. being a Canadian some are all too funny, some are evil, and lots are really dum-... not so bright

 

[glen]

Do you know how long it took me to convince them they had a router down between Atlanta and Greenville?

 

[bigrash]

Hey, I must have spoken to you earlier. thanks for fixing my road runner. oh and you guys should cut down on the popups everytime I go to pron sites

 

[PsychoAndy]

So YOU'RE the jackass in canada I get everytime I call.....

I dont even call 877 TWC fast anymore, I dial local and actually GET an operator who's technical knowledge supercedes the following:

Suggesting a modem power cycle
Blaming my (and the rest of the neighborhood's for that matter) lack of a cable light on Sircam/Code Red
Rebooting
Release/Renew WINIPCFG

-PAB

EDIT: Forgot smileys.

 

[Phuz]

Do you know how long it took me to convince them they had a router down between Atlanta and Greenville?

Hehe... You won't get anywhere talking to an agent, and our surpervisors are taught to play dumb... "And i'll remind you sir, my supervisor is non-technical"... so you don't get anywhere with this type of stuff. lol.

So YOU'RE the jackass in canada I get everytime I call.....

Hey, you're calling us.. wouldn't that make you the...

Hmm, yeah well recycling the modem fixes 50% of the no connection calls.
Otherwise we just verify all teh suitable TCP/IP configurations, try doing pings/tracerts to certain sights... and basically just try to get people off the tier2 level and up to a "specialist" (they like that word) to deal with DHCP server problems.

I always get my callers back online unless its a DHCP.

 

[Gulzakar]

Seeing as how you broke your disclosure agreement, you might be just as dumb

 

[ParagonX]

I've called them a few times.... this is how it has gone everytime

Me: Hey my service hasn't worked for the past day (i usually wait a day before i call in case it's justs a temporary outage)
Rep: Okay unplug the modem okay wait... wait... wait..... okay, plug it back in...
Me: Hmm... still nothing.
Rep: Hmm... okay, i'm gonna go ahead and send a tech over. How's such and such a time...?
Me: Damn, okay....

Usually it's not Road runners fault, mostly it's the shitty lines in my apartment which runs on some silly loop with and a Y connector going outta every outlet running on some silly loop system to all the outlets.

I don't ever give the phone rep a hard time since i know how it is to deal with idiots on the phone all day working for Sprint PCS doing phone activations. I get this alot...

Me: okay, read me the number under the battery that starts with xxx...
Idiot: I don't see any number like that...
Me: Okay, what does it say on the front of the phone..
Idiot: umm.. Verizon..
Me: ...

And don't even get me started on the Radio Shack reps i have to deal with

 

[FoBoT]

who calls tech support?

just the very act of calling tech support is a sign of weakness, a real geek never calls tech support

worst case scenario, you switch to DSL!

i love my RR!!!

 

[Dmitri47]

i only called ATTbi tech support twice, and it was just to give them my WAN address, and earlier cuz i delete some dumb file off the computer when it didnt have a router. Damn dot.dll file

 

[Kerouactivist]

Imus is griping about this on the radio

 

[burnedout]

I have RR for a home ISP. Going on three years now.

One call to RR tech support:

Me: "Hey, the cable light on the modem is blinking again. No connectivity."
Them: "Duh...... uh...... OK...... I'll send a tech out later today."

Call back 10 minutes later and get a different tech who actually knows whats going on:

Me: "Hey, the cable light on the modem is blinking again. No connectivity."
Them: "Oh, we are sorry sir. Our techs are working on your node. Should be up in a couple of hours."

Permanently lost the connection on a DSL line at work going into the mail server at work. Changed to another IP addy from a different provider. After Verisign updated their record within 6 hours; AOL, Netscape, Time Warner Telecom (same company, but different from Road Runner) and SW Bell updated their DNS servers within 48 hours. Do you want to hear the one about why the local RR DNS servers wouldn't/couldn't update their database files after one month? Why I was forced to convince my fellow employees with RR service to flood RR tech support with calls and e-mails so that they might correct the problem? Yeah, they finally fixed the problem on their end ............. after one month.

It works both ways.

 

[Kadarin]

I had to call Speakeasy DSL tech support one time, and the problem turned out to be a physical line voltage issue that Pacific Bell had to come out and fix. In my case, both Speakeasy and PacBell got high marks for customer service.

 

[MainFramed]

I got road runner, thats what they used to call it ....now its known as comcast. I have had it ever since it came out and its great

 

[AU Tiger]

I had Road Runner for over two years and recently switched to Earthlink to save $4 a month and get two months free ($90 value). Still using the Road Runner's DNS instead of Earthlinks so there is no noticeable difference in performance.

Road Runner tech support is weak.

Most common problem I have is cable light out. They walk through the script of things to check which have all been checked prior to me calling. After twenty minutes of wasting my time they schedule a tech to come out. Of course by the time they show up two days later, the problem has fixed itself.

 

[Doggiedog]

RR tech support I don't mind, although I did have some problems with them recently when I moved. They insisted my RR was on even though my modem lights wouldn't synch. After about 2 weeks of this, some brilliant CSR said wait a sec, how about this, flicked some magical switch and voila my modem worked. I never gave them grief about it though since I am thoroughly satisfied with the service.

Verizon on the other hand, I've called them every name in the book and deservedly so. They are retards over there. What can't they understand? We had a huge thunderstorm. After the storm our DSL service went out. Come over with a damn truck and fix it, it's not my PC!

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

My RR was so screwed up a few years back that they sent a tech out to my house in the middle of nowhere, Kansas at 8:30PM to fix the problem

 

[xospec1alk]

Called RR because my cable light was out, they offered to send a tech, i told them to shove it up their a**, kept calling and thats what they kept saying....finally we get someone who knows what they are doing and tells us that something was down in the area, and it would be fixed....why can't they just tell us that in the first place?

 

[MaxDSP]

Originally posted by: FoBoT
who calls tech support?

just the very act of calling tech support is a sign of weakness, a real geek never calls tech support

worst case scenario, you switch to DSL!

i love my RR!!!

I use SBC/Ameritech DSL and my line has gone down only twice for more than an hour in the last four months= but its always come back up in 6 hours or less. I love it

 

[ChefJoe]

ARGH, the d@mn cable light being out. Our cable modem with rr.com does that a few times a day (Grove City, OH) but occasionally does it much, much worse (seconds of cable per day). Finally called them about it and someone checked something and said we appear to have a "weak signal."

Someone will be out later today (between 5-7) to take a look (so we had to dismantle all our "extra" hubs and coax splitters - the problem still exists so at least its not equipment). Before you give me the 3rd degree on this, we pay for 3 ips but only use 1 for the linksys cable/dsl router. We only have three people in the house, but we keep the internet hooked up to 6 computers wether on or off (more when my brother's home).

 

[yakko]

Road Runner likes it when I call because I have already done everything on my end. I also wait until the middle of the night if I can because those guys are a lot smarter from what I have seen.

 

[Phuz]

Originally posted by: yakko
Road Runner likes it when I call because I have already done everything on my end. I also wait until the middle of the night if I can because those guys are a lot smarter from what I have seen.

Hah! Yeah, that'd be me. I work from 7pm - 3:30am, just for the shift premium though.. and because its more fun.

Everyone who said they offered to send a tech out.. I have NEVER sent an agent to someone's house, although it doesn't surprise me that you guys have all listed that.. because that is more than likely your LOCAL dept saying that... Also, RR makes most of their money this way, so be advised.. but.. whatever it takes, right?

The NHD (me... aka, national help desk) usually won't recommend a tech. We'll take you through a fairly large amount of steps pertaining to software mostly (after everything else is done) and if we still can't get you online than its something our specialists will have to take up.


OH, and those who say calling tech support is dumb... tell me this, how do you fix a DHCP issue? How do you fix intermitent connectivity? What do you do when you can't check your mail, but you can communicate with the pop/smtp servers fine?

Moral? Not all problems are on your end..

 

[PsychoAndy]

BTW Phuz, no offense or anything. I was just messing with ya and forgot to insert the smileys.

-PAB

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

I called last night about my RR, since it was down. I have no idea where they get their tier 1 tech support people, but they suck.

I was like - My RR is down... I need to know when it will be up as I have an important job to finish at work....
RR idiot - It will be fixed when it gets fixed.
Me - Nothing more specific?
RR Idiot - No... I will communicate your concerns to management. (This is Latin for "Blow me.")

Speakeasy DSL is looking better all the time.

 

[Phuz]

BTW Phuz, no offense or anything. I was just messing with ya and forgot to insert the smileys.

None taken... after all, its just script reading.. most tech support people are morons

 

[Pastore]

Roadrunner indeed does suck... Downtime up the asshole... But it's not supports fault...