Four Basic Tech Support Tips for the Cable Guy

I work for Technical Support for a cable company where I answer calls from our field technicians who are having problems with high speed internet or telephony services. Now, many people would assume that it is better to get calls from technicians than customers because they at least know what they are doing, right?

I wish it were right...

Often times I get calls that make me wonder what happened to common sense. I spend a lot of time waiting for a trained "professional" to do something that part of his normal job. I am sitting here, waiting for a tech to find an ethernet cable, thinking about what I would do if I was a tech. With the things I've come up with, I think I've managed to shave off about two hours of these guys day.

1) Have my MAC address ready before I call.
In a day, I probably waste a half an hour of silence waiting for the most common thing a tech needs right after a person's account number.

2) Carry my phone test set into a house with me if the customer has or is getting phone and USE IT.
I can not tell you how many times I've heard, "I swapped the modem, changed the drop, rewired the outlets and still nothing!" when all they really had to do was plug in a phone that they know works. How long does it take to run a drop and rewire? At least half an hour, I would assume.

3) Learn the names of the programs or not bother trying to sound like I know what I'm talking about.
No I can not PING the SUBNET MASK to see if DOCSIS is up. Why do you ask? Combined, I could save around 10-15 minutes if there were no useless explanations that just don't make sense anyway. This is my job, I do it 40+ hours a week, don't try to sound like you know exactly what I do.

4) RESTART THE FUCKING COMPUTER.
Troubleshooting 101 is always to turn something off and turn it back on. Isn't it something we all do at home? If the computer is running slow, or just not working, we shut it off. Why is that so hard out in the field? So many hours could be saved by a simply restart.

So cable guy, before you call your tech support hotline, consider these tips!