Yesterday I wrote this:
[Note: I took a bunch of photos for this post, but they’re just not uploading. It is what it is.]
Today I dealt with tech support. I know you’re expecting me to bitch about some call center in Bangalore but it was nothing like that. It was all chat. They were quick, efficient, and spot on. Then something went haywire and I called again. They were quick, efficient, and spot on… again.
Probably burned 45 minutes. Probably first time I’ve contacted them in at least a year.
Since I do absolutely no maintenance other than making posts and occasionally backing up that’s not bad. Every now and then I get a flag and click something like “yeah, whatever… upgrade whatever the hell you want… I don’t care about the details… ever”. I never pay more than the minimum attention, which has worked more or less OK on my current hosting service.
I also found out I’d filled my storage capacity to the complete limit. I “solved it” by increasing my storage space. It was more or less the same price I’ve been paying anyway. I think I spent like $4 to go from one level to another. Not $4 a month, which would piss me off, but $4 a year. (In addition to the usual cost which is like $250 a year or so.)
In a way the storage thing feels like “kicking the can down the road”. In another way I’m cool with it. I live in America in 2025 and the government is currently quasi-shutdown. If congress gets to can-kick my entire lifetime, I can drop $4 a year to occupy a virtual hard drive somewhere.
45 minutes maintenance over a year. Sweet! Pray for me it stays that way.
Added because it’s comedy gold:
Wow. AC, you’re a lucky man.
I detest call centers staffed by people supposedly speaking English.
About that IT support video:
First day on the job, I’m in the Downtown Chicago office ready to go into the field when I hear another tech on the phone with a Major Hospital Customer “What’s the problem? Whattyamean it won’t do anything? Umm. Is the little white square on the right side of the keyboard lit up? No? Push it. Oh, it’s working now? Good.” He hangs up. “Feckin’ idiot has been running that machine for two years.”
A year later they couldn’t admit patients because we repossessed the gear for non-payment.
You are aware of the Troll’s Internet Helpdesk? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7FYR72mr0E