4 edits | Ask an ex-Tech Support CSR anything Hi everyone,
I left my job with U-verse tier 1 tech support. If anyone has any questions about the job, common tech support myths, procedures or whatever, I'd be happy to discuss my thoughts and experience in that role, to the extent permitted by non-disclosure agreements.
I'll try to be an open book wherever possible. I know a lot of customers have preconceived notions about what's going on at the other end of the line, so it just seems reasonable to offer some insight for those who wish to know.
There are limitations on what information I can share, so please don't mind if I have to hold back information.
Also, sorry, but I'd prefer not to help with technical issues here, and I do not have any access to diagnostic resources or tests.
It would appear my signature is not attaching, so I'll reiterate what it says:
I do not have any valid connection to any internet service provider or subcontractor.
My posts are my own thoughts and opinions and should be taken as theories only, not any official practice or policy of any internet service provider. |
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isaf00
join:2008-09-07
Chapel Hill, NC | How would I go about haggling for a lower price especially when TWC offers faster internet for less. |
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 r81984Fair and BalancedPremium
join:2001-11-14
Katy, TX
 ·row44
 ·AT&T U-Verse
 ·AT&T DSL Service
| reply to uversetier1
1. Do techs have access to a searchable knowledge base where they can type in key terms to find articles that explain how to fix problems that other techs encountered???
2. If 1. is yes, can this knowledgebase be updated by techs with newest information on the fly when they find new solutions to share? or is it outdated?
3. I had a problem with the IP passthrough on the NVG510, do techs get notified of these common problems to not waste time troubleshooting or is software glitches/defects not passed on to them? (my tech encounter took sending me a new modem and 3 weeks before the tech said he found that the problem is a known software defect and it wont be fixed until the next upgrade)
4. Is there an after hours tech number that is unpublished or is the entire USA stuck without tech support after 7pm Central when all offices close.
5. Why can phone reps terminate a Uverse internet connection remotely in 10 seconds by accident, but then it takes 48 hours to fix their mistake and turn it back on?
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...brought to you by Carl's Jr. |
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4 edits | said by isaf00:How would I go about haggling for a lower price especially when TWC offers faster internet for less.
The only recurring promotions that tech support has access to are available on service changes (upgrades - the system prevents a promo being applied on a downgrade or no change)
This only applies to the call centers which are combined tier 1 and billing, unless this has changed recently.
Tech support cannot renew contracts, sign you up on a contract, or give credits higher than a pre-determined amount without manager approval. 95% of the time these are referred to Retention.
Retention agents like to push-back calls from tech support where there was no threat to cancel. Problem: real AT&T employees have to issue those changes, and the only transfer code tech support has to get someone to a 'real AT&T employee' is either tier 2 support or retention.
Sales is the best bet for advertised promos. You can't usually do better than that. Even retention/cancellations usually only has a 5 or 10 dollar off per month credit per service available as a 'save' effort.
said by r81984:1. Do techs have access to a searchable knowledge base where they can type in key terms to find articles that explain how to fix problems that other techs encountered???
2. If 1. is yes, can this knowledgebase be updated by techs with newest information on the fly when they find new solutions to share? or is it outdated?
3. I had a problem with the IP passthrough on the NVG510, do techs get notified of these common problems to not waste time troubleshooting or is software glitches/defects not passed on to them? (my tech encounter took sending me a new modem and 3 weeks before the tech said he found that the problem is a known software defect and it wont be fixed until the next upgrade)
4. Is there an after hours tech number that is unpublished or is the entire USA stuck without tech support after 7pm Central when all offices close.
5. Why can phone reps terminate a Uverse internet connection remotely in 10 seconds by accident, but then it takes 48 hours to fix their mistake and turn it back on?
1 - There is an internal-facing knowledgebase. It documents all standard practice as well as much technical info, including equipment photos and documentation. Many CSRs have never handled the CPE in person, but the equipment info pages go a long way. There is also the esupport section of the website, public-facing, as a last resort. Both of these resources are tedious to search and often not fully up-to-date.
A CSR can also review case history to see what specific issues have plagued this customer before. Technician visit notes are available for a couple months, usually, which is also helpful.
Most call centers have chatrooms using an internal AT&T-developed messenger. It allows for chatrooms and direct one-on-one chat with other employees. Any employee can find any other employee by name or preferably ID. These chatrooms are often used to ask for collective assistance on an unfamiliar issue.
2 - I think I kind of addressed this.
3 - I worked there during the release of the NVG510. Every technical issue I learned about it, I learned from this forum. There was zero communication whatsoever about widespread issues on those gateway units, and aside from VIP1225 DVRs, it was likely the most commonly replaced piece of CPE I dealt with, even though its defects were firmware based. You have to do something, or the guy on the phone is going to screw you over on the survey a couple days later (those do count for something, and they personally impact the person you spoke with).
4 - Technical support for U-verse is 24/7. There are call centers around the world. USA, Canada, Philipines, India, Egypt, Colombia and others. The phone system likes to jerk you around, however.
I have a list of transfer codes somewhere, I'll post the bypass to go direct to tier 1 if I find it. I will NOT post the code to go direct to tier 2 because their hold times are already long enough as it is.
5 - Service termination or change is a 'soft change' - equipment profiling is adjusted over the network.
I do not know why service restoral after nonpayment takes so long to come back on. |
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r81984Fair and BalancedPremium
join:2001-11-14
Katy, TX Reviews:
·row44
·AT&T U-Verse
·AT&T DSL Service
| For #5 it was not for a non payment.
My friend is moving and called up and ask the rep if they can set it up to cancel on the 30th in advance. The rep said yes.
10 seconds after getting off the phone he lost tv and internet.
He called the back up and they admitted they accidently turned it off too early, but said it would take 24 to 48 hours to turn back on. It did take towards the 48 hours.
I was just wondering why the system can shut off instantly, but not back on instantly.
Thanks for answering the questions.
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...brought to you by Carl's Jr. |
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r81984Fair and BalancedPremium
join:2001-11-14
Katy, TX | reply to uversetier1
Do a lot of Uverse tech/reps read these forums?
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...brought to you by Carl's Jr. |
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3 edits | reply to uversetier1
Ah, those accidental cut-offs...
I'm pretty sure that's a defect in the order management system. You can set the due date whenever you like, but chances are the order is still going to happen 'as soon as somebody in order management has a free moment'.
As for other CSRs, not many. Turnover is exceptionally high in the call center world, and the specific requirements AT&T places on its contractors make it a somewhat strict environment vs their equivalents at other companies. Very few take interest or are motivated to perform because of the environment that is created.
My giant reply has a note under it indicating it's being held for moderator review? I can still see it, not sure if you can. |
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| reply to r81984
4. U-verse technical support is available 24/7 at 1-800-288-2020. Customer Service (i.e. non-technical issues) is available Monday - Friday 8 am - 7 pm and Saturday 8 am - 5 pm local time. |
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| reply to uversetier1
1) Is AT&T aware of all the problems with their door to door sales people that are subcontracted? And if so does AT&T have any plans to do something about them? In another forum I frequent there are numerous posts about the deceptive sales practices and out right lies these door to door salesmen use. The typical response from AT&T is that they are contractors and are not employees of AT&T. Well I still think AT&T should be accountable for their actions. They signed the contract to use them. I would like to know if AT&T is aware of these problems and if they plan to make changes.?They reflect very poorly on AT&T even if they are not employed by AT&T.
2) What if any plans does AT&T have to improve the poor HD picture quality?
Thank you for your responses. |
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| reply to uversetier1
My Uverse Internet will hit 1-yr contract soon in Aug, so I am wondering if I can sign another 1-yr contract to get new discount? I am using 12M Uverse and paying 24.95 per month right now. After the contract expires, I have to pay $48 per month which is more expensive than using comcast 20M cable. |
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3 edits | said by ram1220:1) Is AT&T aware of all the problems with their door to door sales people that are subcontracted? And if so does AT&T have any plans to do something about them? In another forum I frequent there are numerous posts about the deceptive sales practices and out right lies these door to door salesmen use. The typical response from AT&T is that they are contractors and are not employees of AT&T. Well I still think AT&T should be accountable for their actions. They signed the contract to use them. I would like to know if AT&T is aware of these problems and if they plan to make changes.?They reflect very poorly on AT&T even if they are not employed by AT&T.
2) What if any plans does AT&T have to improve the poor HD picture quality?
Thank you for your responses.
I heard numerous complaints from customers about contracted sales staff who promised more than the customer got.
Standard procedure is to "pass along this information to your superiors" but the reality is there is no way someone in an outsourced call center can know who it was to report them. When you call in and speak with sales, everything is tracked and attached to an employee ID...it's all trackable. When you sign up in a retail store or with someone at the door, none of the (literal) papertrail is available to just about anyone you can get on the phone, and as a result there's no way to deal with it.
said by ronan_zj:My Uverse Internet will hit 1-yr contract soon in Aug, so I am wondering if I can sign another 1-yr contract to get new discount? I am using 12M Uverse and paying 24.95 per month right now. After the contract expires, I have to pay $48 per month which is more expensive than using comcast 20M cable.
If you want to renew a contract, you'd need to speak with sales. If sales can't sign you into a new term, speak to retention/cancellations. Explain that you want to renew your contract but sales won't help.
Caution to anyone in CA or NV: if you threaten to cancel to try to get your way as some sort of poker face, they will cancel your service without hesitation. Do not falsely threaten to cancel in CA or NV.
In most other states, this method does work, but it obviously depends on the person you get on the phone. |
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 NetFixerFrom my cold dead handsPremium
join:2004-06-24
The Boro
 ·Comcast Business..
 ·Vonage
·Cingular Wireless
·Comcast
| said by uversetier1:Caution to anyone in CA or NV: if you threaten to cancel to try to get your way as some sort of poker face, they will cancel your service without hesitation. Do not falsely threaten to cancel in CA or NV.
In most other states, this method does work, but it obviously depends on the person you get on the phone.
It works that way in TN too. When I called to terminate service, it was done immediately with no offer to transfer me to a retention agent. In my case, that was good because I really meant to terminate, and was not looking for a "better" deal, but anyone who expects AT&T in this area to try to talk them out of leaving might get a nasty surprise.
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History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower |
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gia
join:2008-01-30
Mcallen, TX | reply to uversetier1
1. Is it true that at&t have a database for problematic customers? |
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2 edits | said by gia:1. Is it true that at&t have a database for problematic customers?
Yes and no. Excuse the long wordy reply, but it's not that simple:
When you call 1-800-288-2020 and the annoying automated phone guy asks you all kinds of questions, it's identifying your account using the same database a CSR would access via their CRM software. It can read certain 'flags' and identify if the last few cases created were for the same issue. It uses this information to decide which phone queue to route you into.
Since the beginning of 2012, a pilot project was started exclusively at the Canadian call center called the VIP Support team or something like that. This was a group of people put in a special queue to answer primarily calls from people who call very often about the same issue over and over again. Unlike most CSRs, those people had wait time between calls (normally it's back-to-back). They were effectively reserved to answer quickly for the frequent callers.
It doesn't matter if you called frequently for email password resets or sync loss...if you called several times in a row for the same issue or a related issue, you got flagged to go to those people, whose job was to try to make you stop calling (ideally by fixing your issue or helping you understand the problem, tell you to stop **** unplugging your RG to save electricity, etc).
So - in a sense, the people in that queue would always know the person on the phone was potentially trouble, since the phone system tells them before they pick up your call. Additionally, the notes which the automated system looked at are also visible to the CSR. Whether it's a simple automated flag that says "Frequent Caller" or "Frequent Dispatch", there's a way of knowing you call a lot, and it doesn't take long to find out if it's frivolous or justified by a quick review of recent case history.
Furthermore: agents can type notes called 'flashes' which are visible immediately upon opening your account. Notable examples included a note that all tech dispatches required police escort as the particular Texan in question would shoot you upon entering his property and another that comes to mind was someone mentally handicapped with feces spread all over their property. If you are rude to the CSR who is helping you, yes, they can leave a note to future people warning them that you're easy to set off.
I do not believe that in any organized fashion, AT&T categorizes these people differently and subjects them to a lower level of service. It costs the company money to provide support, so the goal is always to fix the issue (even if the issue is the customer, and believe me, the issue is perhaps more often the customer than it is the company or product) and then get you to stop calling.
Some customers are impossible to please, whether they just have unrealistic ideas of what support is or they're somehow unstable, or simply so rude you wonder how they got as far as they have so far in their life...
This isn't an anti-customer rant, but I can assure you from taking literally thousands of calls, perhaps as many as 8-10k, customers are more often the source of the issue than the company. |
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| reply to uversetier1
I recently quit from AT&T wireless data support. Did they use clarify and telegence or a different system. Was just wondering. We were forced to use that Mycsp piece of crap with one of the worst search engines I had ever seen. It usually took 2-3 months to update when iphones were released or updated. Most the time new phones came out and we didn't have anything on them for weeks. They also had Q but stopped us from using it because they thought we would abuse it to chat with each other.
Did you get a lot of microcell calls? I feel sorry for those people and at&t's crappy support of that product. A lot of my calls ended with me referring them to the ISP that was uverse a lot of the time. |
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2 edits | said by corinthos:I recently quit from AT&T wireless data support. Did they use clarify and telegence or a different system. Was just wondering. We were forced to use that Mycsp piece of crap with one of the worst search engines I had ever seen. It usually took 2-3 months to update when iphones were released or updated. Most the time new phones came out and we didn't have anything on them for weeks. They also had Q but stopped us from using it because they thought we would abuse it to chat with each other.
Did you get a lot of microcell calls? I feel sorry for those people and at&t's crappy support of that product. A lot of my calls ended with me referring them to the ISP that was uverse a lot of the time.
Uverse support does use Clarify, yes. The software is fairly modular and different IDs have different permissions, so for example some people had access to billing since some call centers did both support and billing, but others didn't have the ability to open the billing system.
Microcell - ha! Standard practice is to refer to mobility if the RG is in sync and pinging (though most CSRs wouldn't bother to check either). |
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 KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little GuyPremium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK | reply to uversetier1
So, why did you leave? |
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| reply to uversetier1
Yeah I lurked on the line and they would usually just send them right back to us but our csp articles sent them to you. Of course we can't see each others notes so couldn't see what was done anyways. I never heard them do anything other than tell the customer the web was working ok.
Also I hate that if you call uverse and put in a att mobile number then it will send them directly to wireless. Annoying as crap when you'd get someone who would complain about getting transferred around to the wrong place too much because we would xfer them to uverse then they would put their number back in and come right back to us. Sad that we didn't have a direct line to uverse support and had to go through the same IVR as customers to get support.
I'm glad to be out of that place. They want to drill into our head that we are one ATT but there is little support spread across so many departments. |
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 ThalerPremium
join:2004-02-02
Los Angeles, CA
kudos:3 | reply to NetFixer
said by NetFixer:said by uversetier1:Caution to anyone in CA or NV: if you threaten to cancel to try to get your way as some sort of poker face, they will cancel your service without hesitation. Do not falsely threaten to cancel in CA or NV.
In most other states, this method does work, but it obviously depends on the person you get on the phone.
It works that way in TN too. When I called to terminate service, it was done immediately with no offer to transfer me to a retention agent. In my case, that was good because I really meant to terminate, and was not looking for a "better" deal, but anyone who expects AT&T in this area to try to talk them out of leaving might get a nasty surprise. Huh, is this as a result of local laws? Or is AT&T just itching to bail on CA/NV/TN customers? |
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NetFixerFrom my cold dead handsPremium
join:2004-06-24
The Boro Reviews:
·Comcast Business..
·Vonage
·Cingular Wireless
·Comcast
| said by Thaler:Huh, is this as a result of local laws? Or is AT&T just itching to bail on CA/NV/TN customers?
I don't have insider access to AT&T's official policies, but until their CEO very recently implied that AT&T was giving up on trying to find a sucker to buy their copper wire services, they generally did not care if a copper wire service customer left since they were only interested in being a wireless service provider.
Personally I still think that they are looking for a sucker to buy the copper wire delivered services, but they are now trying to convince the press and the general public otherwise (until it is a done deal).
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History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower |
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