Online Technical Support

[John Heiter]

Gopal M.: Thank you for choosing Road Runner Technical Chat. My name is Gopal M.. May we have the first and last name, and the phone number with the area code of the master account holder?

You: John ****** *** *** ****

Gopal M.: Thank you, and with whom am I speaking currently?

You: John . Just wondering what's up. The last three or four days my roadrunner has been down more than it has been up.

Gopal M.: Would you mind holding one moment while I research this issue?

You: sure

Gopal M.: Thank you for holding.

Gopal M.: What operating system are you using?

You: Winxp

You: Pro

Gopal M.: Do you have a hub, router or firewall installed?

You: Yes.

You: Linksys

Gopal M.: Is this your own router or hub?

You: Yes.

Gopal M.: Do you have a hub, router or firewall installed?

Gopal M.: At this point, we require that you disable your network to rule it out as a possible cause of this issue. Please disengage the network and connect your computer directly to the cable modem. Then unplug the modem from the power, leave it for two full minutes, then plug it back in to the wall outlet. After that, please reboot your computer and log into chat again so we can troubleshoot this issue further.

You: Ok, when my modem loses connection and the online, send, and receive lights go out so that only the power light is on...would that indicates a problem with my network? My cable tv signal gets static in it and my modem loses connection. I just don't want to have to totally rewire my network for what I'm pretty sure is a signal strength issue.

Gopal M.: In order to troubleshoot your connection issue we need your modem reset and connected directly to your computer.

Gopal M.: Please log back into chat after resetting your cable modem and bypassing your router.

Gopal M.: Have we addressed all of your current technical issues and questions?

You: Never mind. I'll call in a ticket tomorrow and have someone come out and check the signal coming to the house. You haven't helped a bit but thanks for reading from your script for me. It's been entertaining.

Gopal M.: You are very welcome!

Gopal M.: Have a good night!

Gopal M.: If you have no further issues that we can assist you with, you may end the chat session by clicking on the Hang Up button and a chat transcript will be displayed for you. Once again thank you for choosing Road Runner!

[John Heiter]

I especially liked it when he hit the wrong macro key on his keyboard and asked me "Do you have a hub, router or firewall installed?" for the second time. Hope I didn't interrupt his Duke Nukem play too much with my pesky support request.

[texasag93]

Kinda sounds like a Gateway Tech Support conversation! TXAG

[XRe]

I get the same thing on the phone from Cox Communications... At least their tech unsupport org is located on this continent...

[raz-0]

gotta love tech support. It's my tools followed up by a trip to dslreports, then if I must I call tech support. At that point if they ask me stupid questions I just tell them what will avoid stupid problems.

Do you have a router? No, the machine having trouble is hooked right up to the modem. I just assume that they can't handle the concept that the computer having the problem is embedded in the router and has been doing nothing different.