Why engineers mustn't be so fucking precious with their time
Another day, another bad apple at a tech support help desk. Given, after presenting some rather strong arguments I get escalations, but to see how this went here is the whole transcript.
Getting technical support at a web host can be excruciating. These days marketing an PR have all these fancy tools like "web chat" and "toll free" and "ticket system" but at the end of the day it's still a fucking nightmare most of the time.
Below is an actual conversation with a technical support engineer. It's not the worse I have seen, but it's fairly typical and actually a lot better than most people will experience. I am very experienced and I know how their systems work so I can navigate it more efficiently, but most people will have a hell of a time.
What we have here below is are actual conversations with tech support engineers. The irony is this could have been explained in less than 5 minutes, because we had already logged a details ticket with all the information. But alas, I guess procedure dictates we have to spend another hour or hours (or days) explaining ourselves over and over again using electronic chats. What a mess.
1-grid
Hi,
We need an urgent DNS update, ticket logged yesterday:#1234567
Feb 6, 2020, 11:47 AM
Richard
Good day,thanks for contacting us.I sincerely apologise for the delay in response.In regards to your matter,I see that your ticket has been assigned to one of the domains support agents.You will get an update on the ticket once the agent has completed
ok cool thanks Richard, any vague idea of ETA?
Feb 6, 2020, 12:00 PM
Richard
If not within the next hour,I will ask the domains agent directly to try to speed up the process
Hi Richard,
Please escalate. It's been almost 24 hours since we logged the ticket.Feb 6, 2020, 2:49 PM
Richard
I was just about to respond to your ticket now
Domains has now been updated
You just need to allow the domains to propagate
ok cool ! Thanks so much. You've been great.
Feb 6, 2020, 2:51 PM
Richard
Only a pleasure to assist ma'am
Thank you for your patience though
no worries ! Thank you again for your great service. This chat thing really worked for us.
cheers for now
Feb 6, 2020, 2:57 PM
Richard
Enjoy your day further then
18 May 2020
Hi!!
I need some help please
Is this the right cahnnel?
hello!
May 18, 2020, 1:38 PM
our client has a legacy .co.za domain with WebAfrica / 1-Grid, but they can't find it on their panel
http://co.za/cgi-bin/whois.sh?Domain=xyz.co.za&Enter=Enter
In their client area, under domains, there is nothing at all.
Firstname Last Name
I've been hanging on to this chat for about 20 minutes and I'm afriaid I have to leave now.
Could you tell me or Firstname what to do? He wants to release that domain.May 18, 2020, 1:55 PM
Richard
Good day,thanks for contacting us.I sincerely apologise for the delay in response as it seems your chat disconnected. With regards to your matter,I have found that the domain legacy.co.za is not managed by 1-Grid.The below link will advise on the status of the registry
it's not legacy.co.za !
it's example.co.za
Please be aware that I have been hanging onto this chat for over an hour
May 18, 2020, 2:40 PM
Richard
As advised,your chat disconnected
And I apologise for that
example.co.za
can you find that domain
?
May 18, 2020, 2:41 PM
Richard
With regards to the domain example.co.za
It is hosted with us
Not registered with us though
It is registered with ZACR
ZACR is the root registry. Do you think it's registered with GoDaddy perhaps?
May 18, 2020, 2:42 PM
Richard
We cannot view that as the details are redacted
ok. Because ZACR is a root registry and doesn't take client's money. You have to work through a reseller.
ZACR doesn't deal with the public
May 18, 2020, 2:44 PM
Richard
Only ZACR will be able to advise you on who the registrar actually is
ok thanks
I'll try to contact them
May 18, 2020, 2:44 PM
Richard
Perfect
Today
Hi
I need some support please
Is someone there?
44 minutes ago
1-grid
Hi "Joe Bloggs" here
Welcome to the 1-grid LiveChat, before we are able to attend to your query we need to verify that we are talking to the real you.
You can make use of our Knowledge Base Articles to assist you with resolving your query: simply search your issue and select the article related to your query.
Please verify ALL details requested as we need them to assist you
Please DO NOT open more than 1 chat, as it causes delays for all customers in the queue
Kindly provide us with the following information to complete your verification:
1. Your customer code (You can get this when you log in to your customer zone)
2. Your listed email address on your 1-grid account (You can confirm this via your customer zone account details)
3. Your physical address on your 1-grid account (You can confirm this via your customer zone account details)ticket 1234567
Customer Code: 1234 default
xyz@example.com
Did you find the ticket?
189 Smith Ave
Joburg
40 minutes ago
1-grid
Ow yes I got the Ticket
Can you escalate the ticket please?
38 minutes ago
1-grid
You have an issue with IMAP syncing?
Did you read the ticket?
It had four points on it:
#1 IMAP syncing issue resolved after a month
#2 IMAP syncing issue. Ticket closed, no resolution provider. Still a problem.
#3 IMAP syncing issue. Started last night, yet another email address.
#4 is not IMAP syncing related. If you read the ticket then you'll see #4 is about backups.
Can you now please escalate the ticket?The senior engineer can give their interpretation of this message
[SERVERBUG] Internal error occurred. Refer to server log for more information
What is your name?
36 minutes ago
1-grid
Hi Please allow me a moment to investigate this for you , the email backup that you require do you remember who did you speak to about it?
I can paste the whole ticket here again if you didn't see the four points.
34 minutes ago
1-grid
No I can see and read the ticket , I am trying to understand few things before I can do anything, did you guys take the email backup add on on your product?
Let's solve your server issue. Then ask a senior engineer if they can provide an cpanel email backup. And quick answer is no, we phoned months ago and no ticket was raised.
But let's focus on getting the client running. IMAP isn't working and your server is giving an error.No we didn't take any backup.
This is a cPanel server and we did an email backup. When the email backup is done two things are wrong:
1. The size is wrong. As per the UI the sizes do not match. I will give you a screenshot.
2. The email doesn't migrate. Instead of a large 25 GB file, there is a "small" 4 GB file and no email.32 minutes ago
1-grid
Can I connect to the PC where IMAP is not running? alternatively you can read through this article related to the issue https://1-grid.com/knowledge/outlook-cannot-synchronize-subscribed-folders/
Sure you can connect to my PC. I will show you.
Do you want to connect to my PC now?
30 minutes ago
1-grid
Which email is in question here ?
yes Do you have TeamViewer or AnyDesk?
At first account1@example.com stopped working. It took you a month to resolve.
Then account2@example.com stopped working. This hasn't been resolved.
Last night account3@example.com stopped working.
I am so surprised that I am repeating exactly what I typed in a ticket one hour ago.
With whom am I speaking?I have Anydesk and Teamviewer.
For this session we can use naeem as the test
28 minutes ago
1-grid
Please provide me with your TeamViewer details
Are you going to provide me the courtesy of saying your name, or are not?
26 minutes ago
1-grid
Ow sorry my name is "Joe Bloggs" .
xxx xxx xxx
xxxxxxxx26 minutes ago
1-grid
Thank you I am connecting.
Yes I see
26 minutes ago
1-grid
Please open your outlook
This is Linux. My clients use Outlook and I use Linux.
So you will not be seeing Outlook but you will be seeing Thunderbird.There is Thunderbird. Do you want me to configure it for you so that you can see the error?
Hello?
I charge the client R 950 per hour. Please don't delay responses.
22 minutes ago
1-grid
Hey Yes please configure it for me
I can show you the problem.
1. I can show you the problem in Thunderbird.
2. I can show you the problem on the command line with IMAPSYNC22 minutes ago
1-grid
Please show it on thunderbird
3 steps, step 1 is now complete. I am going to press continue
Now on step 2, as you can see autoconfig / autodiscover is working. Good. Next I will press Done and then you will see the error flash up on the screen
20 minutes ago
1-grid
Okay
Okay we may continue
You have to carefully look at the top right
but I have captured it also
3-2-1
20 minutes ago
1-grid
I saw it and I have captured it
[SERVERBUG] Internal error occurred. Refer to server log for more information. [2022-11-17 13:47:28] (0.0001 + 0.0000 secs).
Next, I will show you the same. This time on the command line.
Do you want to see it?
18 minutes ago
1-grid
Can you please at the moment access the emails through Webmail because it is working on the server and then I will escalate the internal server issue on ATS
This problem has been ongoing for a month. We have three accounts not working.
The client is completely fed up. They run an academy and using Webmail is not acceptable to them.Thanks for your help.
I look forward to the escalation.
When do you think we will receive our next feedback?18 minutes ago
1-grid
If the clients are using outlook I can connect to them and assist remotely
It's the Thunderbird that is giving the internal error right?
Please carefully look at my screen, bottom left hand corner.
From here we can take it two ways:
1. I show you the same error on the command line.
2. You believe me that it's also not working with Outlook.
Let me assure you 100% your idea that it's Thunderbird or Linux or something like that is totally misguided.That screenshot bottom left is from Outlook. My client only uses Outlook.
Do you know what IMAPSYNC is?
Then look here:
I am about to run IMAPSYNC. Are you still there?
Hello?
14 minutes ago
1-grid
Yes I am still here
So do you see the Terminal window?
I am going to press enter now, and I want you to observe.
14 minutes ago
1-grid
Yes I can see it and I captured it
I just ran IMAPSYNC.
It's a generic IMAP clients.
Let me highlight the error for you:14 minutes ago
1-grid
Got it
Err 1/4: Host1 folder INBOX: Could not select: 13 NO [SERVERBUG] Internal error occurred. Refer to server log for more information. [2022-11-17 13:53:50] (0.001 + 0.000 secs).
Err 2/4: Host1 Folder INBOX: Could not select: 14 NO [SERVERBUG] Internal error occurred. Refer to server log for more information. [2022-11-17 13:53:50] (0.001 + 0.000 secs).
Err 3/4: Host1 folder INBOX: Could not select: 15 NO [SERVERBUG] Internal error occurred. Refer to server log for more information. [2022-11-17 13:53:50] (0.001 + 0.000 secs).
Err 4/4: Host1 Folder INBOX: Could not select: 16 NO [SERVERBUG] Internal error occurred. Refer to server log for more information. [2022-11-17 13:53:50] (0.001 + 0.000 secs).
SERVERBUG
Your server's disk is crashing or something is wrong with it's indexes. If you go and look at the log on your server you will find the real error.
This is a critical and urgent error and we need to have this escalated super quick please.I am going to invoice the client so long for this session. Please send me a transcript.
You can reply to our ticket or contact me further on my-email@example.co.za or 27 82 3096710.12 minutes ago
1-grid
I am escalating this now I will provide you with the ticket number once I am done
Ok I'll wait for the refefrence before I sign off.
*reference sorry typo
Are you there?
Are you still obtaining a reference number for the escalation?
8 minutes ago
1-grid
Hey I am still busy with the ticket
ok thanks.
8 minutes ago
1-grid
I will revert back to you when I am done
1234567 Hi this is your ticket number I have put it on high priority , I hope everything gets done in time.
Thanks man, really appreciate it.
2 minutes ago
New Messages
1-grid
You are welcome, I will be closing the chat please remember to always use that ticket number to check for any feedback . if I am getting any feedback from myside I will come to you as well. I apologize for the inconvenience caused by this , Have a blessed day.