Lin-tech Support

"Anything I can do for you, sir?" PLDT's tech support person asks me over the phone.

"Yup, my DSL connection is down." I inform her.

"Since when, sir?"

"Since early this morning."

"May I know the status of your modem?"

I describe to her all those colored blinking lights that can be found in my modem. I've been through a number of these conversations before that I already know what to tell those so-called tech support when they ask this question.

I decide to take lead in trying to figure out what's wrong with my connection. "I just wanna know first if there is a scheduled service interruption in our area due to some repairs or maintenance."

She puts me on hold as she says she will try to verify.

After a few seconds, she comes back, "As far as I know, there is no scheduled maintenance, sir"

How far is it that she knows, anyway?

She tries asking me those series of questions again, "Have you checked you cable connections, sir? Tried re-booting your..."

I interrupt her, "Yeah, yeah, I've done all of those things before I called you. And I'm sure the problem isn't on my end."

"Okay, sir. I have logged in your concern. Another techincian will call you later. And we shall have our maintenance people check out your connection."

"Thank you." And I hung up.

I immediately had to run to the nearby mall to buy a few office supplies. And just as I pass by the guardhouse at our village gates, I see a PLDT service van parked as the servicemen are fixing something up there in the post.

Just as I figured, there's the reason why my DSL connection is down.

And just as I predicted, coming back home from the mall, I didn't see the PLDT service van anymore. And guess what? My DSL connection was already up and running when I tested it. Why wasn't I surprised?

Those tech support people should learn that their job is to help customers with their technical problems. And it is not just to babble away with a pre-set series of questions without any real concern for the root of the problem.

The name of the game is troubleshooting. And it requires critical thinking. An activity not so common nowadays.

Oh, and the technician the girl promised who would call me up to assess my problem? He did call me up... after five freakin' days. Lintek na klaseng support yan!