Anyone that can spend four hours on the line with technical support persons who do not, actually, speak one’s language without complaining deserves a medal.
A few years ago, my lovely webmistress, Ann Wilson of x-site-d.com warned me not to set my domain email as a dummy address through some Google App. I no longer recall why I didn’t listen to her as she is a Goddess of all things Internet. Whatever my reason, she mildly suggested that I would, time, regret my decision. Sure enough, the day of reckoning came today.
I discovered that our corleylawfirm.com email no longer popped into our g-mail inboxes as it has been set to do since a prior hosting site went dark. Had I listened to my web-guru, those e-mails would have been independently configured on the new website. Heavy sigh. This impacts more than just “e-mail”. It interrupts our client-communication and our receipt of e-filing notices from the courts in which I practice. This. Is. Big.
Before biting the bullet and establishing the new email addresses on my current site, I had to establish e-mail clients on each of our three computers and then set them to download G-mail so that we could “save” past incoming emails. Oh, joy. Mine had already been done; I moved to the receptionist spot and there I encountered trouble. My Office 365 subscription entitles me to “free” support. I called. I won’t embarrass myself by tring to tell you the first responder’s name or the country with which I associate his accent. I’ll just say this: i tried to be patient; I really did. As I explained the problem, he started interrupting me to tell me in a shrill voice that I should stop talking and wait while he consulted various sources, PLEASE MISS CORLEY.
I stopped. “Are you upset?” I said. No! NO! Why should I be upset!!! I just got married last week and my life is wonderful and I AM NOT UPSET BUT I MUST CONSULT VARIOUS SOURCES.
i took a deep breath, pulled from my stomach an inaudible sigh, and mildly suggested that perhaps I could speak with one of those sources.
The next person accidentally cut me off before he could give me an incident number. I then tried online chat; “Roy D. Regrettably is Helping Someone Else, Please Call 1800MICROSOFT.”
So I called back. Three people later, still comparatively calm but having shot a glaring look at my unwitting assistant that told him don’t interrupt if you know what’s good for you, I finally got to an almost insanely helpful person who not only actually FIXED the problem, but explained some of the benefits of my Office 365 subscription that I had no idea existed.
After only eight hours, interrupted by a doctor appointment mid-day, I was finally able to get Outlook and our gmail accounts up and running on all three computers and I did not complain to one person through the entire process. I did tell the last person, at the outset of our call, that I was very close to my last nerve, but at the end of the call, I also told him how wonderful he had been and how grateful I was for his help.
In case you have a technical support issue involving Office 365 and have to call Microsoft, ask for Akash. He’s da bomb.
You did really good, as they say!
Yikes, NOW I’m impressed. Really, you are becoming the soul of patience. Scary, who are you and what have you done with my cousin?
I feel your frustration with customer service persons who can barely speak English. I also try to be patient with them, but I sometimes fail. I admire your perseverance.
The funny thing is, the problem ultimately turned out to be something completely different and totally unrelated to the entire two-day effort with tech support from two different vendors. When I figured out the problem, a ten-minute call to a third vendor completely fixed it. I personally think the whole episode was the universe’s way of testing my resolve.