Friday, September 28, 2018

You know why there are so many unemployed people here?

Well, one reason is that we fired them from their phone-answering jobs and replaced them with really stupid software, and then hired dummies with foreign accents to answer the phones.

Bought a piece of software today, that is delivered via download. That wasn't easy itself. I created a login with the software vendor, that part is ok.

Tried to register the software. That wouldn't work. Not clear why, but after it failed, there's a dialog window that says "Please call XXX-XXX-XXXX so that an agent may assist you".

So when I call in on the phone to do this, I do get someone. An ESL person. First problem: their system software is stupid. I have called in on the primary phone that is registered with the vendor. But apparently this guy can't (doesn't?) know or see it, so that instead of having the number itself include my registration info, I have to tell him this over again. Then I explain what I'm trying to accomplish. Again.

I am trying to accomplish "Online Registration". The software itself has asked do I want to phone in, or do online. I want to do online--in theory, that should go A LOT faster.

He says "I need to have someone in this other department help you". OK, that's not necessarily a surprise, happens often enough.

The problem is, he's misunderstood the word "online". Partly because the vendor has misused this word in a way that encourages this misunderstanding.

Vendor has an "online version". I want to do "online registration". BUT NOT for the "online version", it's the desktop version.

So first guy shifts me over to the "online version" Helpdesk. As he is doing this, I realize his last words to me are taking me the wrong place.

So that's where I go, I explain immediately that we have done the wrong thing and that I need to do "online registration of desktop version of software". Which eventually does take place properly. But it took nearly 90 minutes to get there.

But really, vendor people, your phone software sucks, your support software sucks, your name choices lead to poor results with your Helpdesk people. Yeesh.


Most other places I have had to call in, they know me from the phone I call from, there's no asking over again why my name/info is, etc.

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So the software above is QuickBooks. It was/is at least as much a nightmare getting QB connected to my bank account. Something is not working correctly.

And now I'm back on the phone with QB. Their software is still terrible. Good god. And this particular problem is a paid solution--I have to pay them to have them to explain why their software doesn't work. (Pretty sure I can write better software than this)

It's now just under two hours on the phone. Today.

I'm going to have to go to the liquor store on the way home.

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