Faults: Customers or Tech Support’s?

Many a times, we ick at the idea of having to call for tech support.

I do not go for tech support at all, except when hardware is involved (Fried RAMs, LCD display not working (For laptops) )

I would rather either D.I.Y or search for solutions online. I hate having to go for tech support, having to try to explain to the dude over at the other line in layman terms (yes, tech support people prefer you to use simple terms).
It is true that many network administrators are jerks. I admin my own network at home.

But, on the other hand, customers suck as well.

There,  I said it, I am a jerk as well.

There’s always ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ administrators, same goes for customers.

Being both an admin and a customer as well, I do understand the pains experienced by both.

A fine example would be during lessons today. We had to install Microsoft Visual Studio 2003 Pro. Fouise (Names have been changed to protect the identity of the person(s) used in this post at hand :) ) had experienced problems with the installation. The tech support dude came by to help. Tech support dude told Fouise to patch his windows. However, when they had problems accessing Windows Update due to having no proxy set on Fouise’s pc. Tech support dude said “You know how to play games but do not know how to set up a proxy?”. I was rather digusted by his apparent rude reply to Fouise.

Tech support guy had the cocky attitude.

Fouise should have gotten himself accustomed to his computer.

Bottomline is, read the two articles/links below, with opposing POVs (Point of Views)
Diary of a Network Administrator: Mean People Suck <Link>

Rules for Tech Support <Link>

Here’s some quotes from the second article.

Rules for Tech Support! 

1) You will not call me for remote assistance. I don’t do that. You will come to me, describe the problem, and set up an appointment for me to take a look at it.

13) You must be the one who owns the computer and is experiencing the problem.

14) You accept that reinstalling Windows may cause permanent loss of all your old data. You accept that if you don’t have a backup, that’s your problem.

16) DO NOT LIE. Odds are I’ll be able to tell, and inaccurate information will greatly harm my efforts to fix your computer.

Those really applies to what I experience when doing tech support.

Oh, and here’s my favourite from the second article

6. Thou shalt not expect encyclopaedias to answer the tech line.
The sheer scope of things we know in the many programs is quite large. We don’t necessarily have every answer at hand, but we can usually look it up or find it out pretty quick. Can you instantly remember everything you’ve ever done?