30M : DHCP issue

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by horseman

>SNIP>

EDIT: Apparently my Bichon Frisé does actually understand what I saying as he's now wriggling around the floor in hysterics...

Say no more!

---------- Post added at 09:43 ---------- Previous post was at 09:36 ----------

Originally Posted by horseman

Very very unlikely - you have a MDD problem (which won't steer CM to DOCSIS3 bonded channels - hence you're stuck on DOCSIS1/2) and more likely caused by upstream impairments!
Your upstream is a tad chilly for 64QAM. Have you previously had 64QAM bonded upstream channels? If you have an inline attentuator make sure it's not FAT and only a FPA type?.

<SNIP>

That's gotta be right. The SH has got its primary channel lock and routinely makes a DHCP request. It does not receive a response that it can understand as evidenced by the MDD events immediately following.

But we haven't heard from the OP for several days ......

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by General Maximus

I don't want to sound like I am kissing ass too much but I honestly believe VM would be better off if they got rid of 100 tech support peeps and replaced them with one of you and if they paid the salary of all 100 dudes I am sure it would be worth your while. The reason why I believe people in tech support roles should be certified (as apposed to being taught to read scripts) is that I remember many years ago when I first started out doing my I.T. certifications that one of my earlier courses (I think it was the CompTIA A+) talked about tech support and the concept of "first time resolution". VM don't seem to have a clue what that means and it would be nice just to talk to somebody who understood what they were doing and were in a position to do something about it.

Originally Posted by Kushan

I think the problem with that argument, General, is that the vast, vast majority of calls in to Virgin's Tech Support are for really basic **** that just doesn't need much training. The problem stems as soon as it goes beyond that. I do think Virgin's training is the weak area though, especially where offshore is concerned. I don't know why they're so terrible, I know onshore, even the terrible onshore agents, were never as bad as some of the offshore ones and nobody was ever told to read from a script yet that's all offshore seems to do. Maybe it's just a language thing - I really don't know.

This, and this.

Simply put, it's not that simple. As someone who's long graduated from reading the "Please try turning it off and back on again" script, going beyond to training staff and writing said scripts, to second line, third line, and management, as much as I detest offshore call centres and script monkeys, I'll begrudgingly accept there is actually both a place and need for them. Similarly, some highly competent technical staff and engineers are useless at communicating with front-line, let alone customers, and ought to be left to do their technical roles and not have to deal with end-users.

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

This, and this.

Simply put, it's not that simple. As someone who's long graduated from reading the "Please try turning it off and back on again" script, going beyond to training staff and writing said scripts, to second line, third line, and management, as much as I detest offshore call centres and script monkeys, I'll begrudgingly accept there is actually both a place and need for them. Similarly, some highly competent technical staff and engineers are useless at communicating with front-line, let alone customers, and ought to be left to do their technical roles and not have to deal with end-users.

QFT.

Some highly skilled technical staff can't have a 'sensible' conversation with standard users, as they often assume basic knowledge that isn't there, and then get frustrated and either get annoyed or 'talk down' to the customer (which shows, and leads to a sub-optimal customer experience).

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by Kushan

I don't know why they're so terrible, I know onshore, even the terrible onshore agents, were never as bad as some of the offshore ones and nobody was ever told to read from a script yet that's all offshore seems to do. Maybe it's just a language thing - I really don't know.

Script + Training + Corporate culture. It isn't a language barrier, other companies with similar far-east call centres have won awards for excellent customer service, it's all about what you train the staff to do, as well as what you allow them to do. Offshore can work wonders if actually permitted to think for themselves, but if the corporate environment tolerates only script monkeys and punishes them for daring to think outside their script, then script monkeys is what you will get.

[Kushan]

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

Script + Training + Corporate culture. It isn't a language barrier, other companies with similar far-east call centres have won awards for excellent customer service, it's all about what you train the staff to do, as well as what you allow them to do. Offshore can work wonders if actually permitted to think for themselves, but if the corporate environment tolerates only script monkeys and punishes them for daring to think outside their script, then script monkeys is what you will get.

This is probably the most realistic reasoning I've heard so far on the subject. For example...

Originally Posted by General Maximus

The last time I rang about something I explained to them what the problem was and they asked me my account details etc and while it was "loading on the screen" they asked me "is there anything else I can help you with today sir" and I felt like saying "how about you ****ing fix what I have you to before you get yourself in a pickle trying to do something else". They are so incompetent that they should realise multitasking is a bad idea and trying to have kiss ass customer service doesn't get you anywhere if you cant resolve the customers problem.

This is something that's trained out. It's not a script thing and it has nothing to do with being a kiss-ass, it's entirely down to call flow. What Virgin DON'T want agents doing is going through a whole call, getting details of the problem, analysing, suggesting a solution, resolving it (ideally), etc. then getting to the end of the call and having the agent go "Is there anything else I can help you with today?" and have the whole call essentially start off again for a different problem. The agent is supposed to ask at the beginning of the call so that doesn't happen.

That's not something specific to Virgin, it's quite common in a lot of call centres, especially those that adhere to AHT. It's purely a business thing. Which leads me on to what qasdfdsaq was saying, the quality monitors pick up on little things like that and mark down the agent if they either don't ask it, or ask it at the end of the call. So really, the poor agent has no choice.

[qasdfdsaq]

Just to add, I've had terrible on-shore agents with bad attitudes too, including ones who spent 20 minutes refusing to believe me and were adamant I was lying, until I taught them how to use Google cache to view a saved copy of their own web page at the date I ordered my services to disprove them.

[Kushan]

This doesn't surprise me, either. I have definitely seen (And worked with) many terrible onshore agents.