But It's Wireless

Posted by macfox38@reddit | talesfromtechsupport | View on Reddit | 23 comments

Years ago I was working for an ISP, in the internet repair department. Daily life was wifi reset, it's slow, it's not working. But every now and then you get a real gem.

Got a call from this lady out in Texas, she had signed up for services at her new place and because the company couldn't bother spending money on a smooth start of services they told her to go to the local store and pick up her equipment. For the record this process fails nearly every time but what do you expect from cost cutting.

Well she calls us up, shockingly it's not working, so I go through my spiel for troubleshooting asking about the lights or connectors on the modem. This lady with all the confidence in her voice stated, "Oh it's still in the box."

After taking a pause to not laugh I start explaining that the modem needs a cable connection, blah blah blah. Then she cuts across me and states, "But they told me it was wireless." 🤦‍♂️

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K1yco@reddit

It's WireLESS, not WireNone

Also, say the wireless she thought was accurate. You would still have to remove it from the box to use it as why would it be so simple that you don't even have to open the box?

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DeliciousPumpkinPie@reddit

Given the number of customers I’ve talked to that refer to any piece of telecom equipment as “the box”… well…

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lord_teaspoon@reddit

Back in the day when I was working support for a company that had a of not-necessarily-technical users working from home, we spent a lot of time saying things like "it seems like there's a problem with the connection between the hockey puck and the breadbox; can you unplug both ends and plug it back in?"

For reference, the "hockey puck" was some Alcatel DSL modem that was approximately hockey-puck sized and the "breadbox" was the headless Linux SFF (by late noughties standards) PC we used as a firewall/router/VPN endpoint/file transfer staging area/kitchen sink.

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Technical-Tear5841@reddit

Many years ago my daughter had a job doing support for self installs of DSL internet. One older man could not find the patch cord to connect the DSL modem to the wall connection. She assured him one came in the box and he swore there wasn't one. She looked at his address and realized he lived in the area and she knew exactly where. She started fantasizing about driving to his house and strangling him with the cord that wasn't there. Instead she transferred the call, grabbed her stuff and quit. Not really a waste, she was already engaged to a man she had met there. They now have a nine year old daughter.

Generic_Placebo42@reddit

I mean...the internet's just, like, in the air right? Shouldn't have to "connect" anything, right? /s

Sheesh...

Geminii27@reddit

Aethernet

Wendals87@reddit

On a sort of related stupid remark, my brother is a solar installer and he told me that a customer got their solar setup and casually asked how it works at night

They told him it won't generate power and it will just power from the grid. He was pretty livid that the sales people never told him this and he managed to con the company into giving him a discounted battery system to go with it

tblazertn@reddit

I did tech support for a local ISP years ago... More than one time I would have a customer on the phone that I told to turn the computer off then back on. They would inevitably tell me that the screen didn't change. They had turned the monitor off and back on instead of the computer. Yup. FML.

really4got@reddit

Thank you for reminding me of a customer who called in, we tried everything to get his program running and had to go to it must be the router vs the software, tell him to start checking things on the router at which point he tells us he has to unwrap the router… from the tinfoil he’d wrapped it in to keep the government out

Rathmun@reddit

"Well sir, that will keep them out. Unfortunately it will also keep you out, so it's not very practical all things considered."

WildMartin429@reddit

I was once troubleshooting my own Wi-Fi and could not figure out why I couldn't get a signal outside the room the router was in when I hadn't previously had any issues. Went through all the troubleshooting steps that I could think of and nothing was working. I finally noticed that there was a wicker basket next to the router on the Shelf that I didn't remember being there and I pulled it down off the shelf and it was full of colored strips of some type of metallic foil. And I had to ask the household who put the basket of random metal foil right next to the router? Then I explain to them that they were the reason the Wi-Fi had not been working very well.

Crown_the_Cat@reddit

The common sense that flies out of people’s heads is amazing. I was helping an older lady on a new software and she said “what do I enter here?” I pointed to the field label, saying “First Name”, the help at the bottom of the screen that said “Enter the Client’s First Name here.”, and the Last Name field being right next to it. Ugh

Punished_Revenant@reddit

Sadly, a lot of people would rather be told what to do than have to read and comprehend anything.

Head_Razzmatazz7174@reddit

As someone who was in tech support in another life, I remember customers like that.

Wrong_Cat4825@reddit

to be fair at times in the past Intel and other vendors have published futuristic articles promising wireless power distribution

If that ever actually releases to the public, you know some idiot is going to get it installed, and then line their walls with tin foil to protect themselves from it... The charger will either detect something's wrong and not work, or it won't detect something's wrong, and set their house on fire.

Either way the customer will complain. A lot.

Rogerdodger1946@reddit

I'm about to go "wireless" for our house phones when AT&T takes my nice twisted pair back to the CO away. Not looking forward to it, but it is what it is. I'm an Electrical Engineer on the Internet since 1990s with built-in Ethernet jacks around the house and phone jacks there, too. I think/hope it won't be too much of a hassle.

Unique-Coffee5087@reddit

I once read that some people don't realize that their laptop battery needs to be charged. So they discard the charger after unboxing.

CableWarriorPrincess@reddit

"but it's wireless!"

"...ma'am, we are the CABLE company"

Firedcylinder@reddit

This reminds me of a time very early in my call center career. Lady calls in, no internet. Typical troubleshooting, so I ask her to unplug it and plug it back in. I get the response that it’s wireless so there’s nothing to unplug. I tell her that it needs power, so it’s definitely plugged in somewhere. She says just a minute and sets the phone down. In the background, I hear her absolutely screaming at someone “YOU TOLD ME THIS WAS WIRELESS NOW I LOOK LIKE A FOOL!” After a few minutes of silence, a man’s voice comes on the phone and we continue troubleshooting like nothing happened.

giga-what@reddit

When I worked in a tech shop in the mid 2000s I had a lady bring her laptop in for service, claiming it wouldn't boot. I started the intake process and asked if she had the power cord, and she said "Why would I have that? It's supposed to be wireless isn't it?"

I had to explain how laptops and batteries worked, this was during the WiFi G rollout so everything was being heavily marketed as wireless. Just so happened that I had another laptop already on the bench for service of the same style, plugged it in and booted right up. She was an older lady, a bit embarrassed but nice enough about the whole thing.

Trin959@reddit

I think "heavily marketed as wireless " is the key phrase. Too few marketers and sales people understand the slightest thing about what they're pushing so it's no wonder people who buy based on marketing or sales patter don't understand what they're buying.

sn02k@reddit

A few months ago I had a customer who simply put her fiber ONT on a sideboard without connecting it to anything but power, she also was thinking it was "all wireless". (RTFM!)