Why I hate faceless customer support lines of enquiry

[Steven P. Administrators]

In the last twenty years or more I have wasted more time on customer support lines than anything else I can think of. If it is not the endless telephone options "press 1 to..." going around in circles, or simply hanging up on me before I have even spoken to someone, but what I cannot fathom is when email support, in black and white, gets you nowhere either, because the person on the other end is maybe not English and can't understand the question and just replies with a generic one instead.

 

Bear with me on the latest email support, and do let me know where I went wrong, or what I did to deserve the latest generic no help response.

 

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Email #1 (me) On Oct 2, 2022 at 8:33 AM, Steve Parker

I use the split tunnel option of PIA app and because of all sorts of issues with Google account and other things, I have elected to bypass Chrome.exe (Chrome stable) browser from using the VPN.

Expected behavior is for Chrome to use the default DNS of my external Ethernet adapter, but also not be filtered with MACE or other options relating to the VPN connection.

Split Tunnel bypass VPN, really should bypass VPN entirely, including DNS and MACE.

 

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• SNAG-0006.jpg (131.06 KB)

 

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Email #2 (Carlo G) On Mon, 03 Oct 2022 08:23:02 +0200 Carlo G 

 

Hello Steve, 

 

Thank you for reaching out to us here at Private Internet Access Support!

 

I am sorry to hear that you are experiencing issues with the service. Let me assist you with your concerns.

 

Can you try removing chrome on the split tunnel list then add it again then set to bypass. If the issue will still persists, try reinstalling the split tunnel filter through the PIA settings > Help Tab then add the applications again.

Hope this information helps. 

 

If you have further questions or concerns, feel free to contact us again. 

 

Regards, 
Carlo G
Customer Support Agent

 

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Email #3 (Me) On Mon, 03 Oct 2022 10:43:57 +0200 Steven Parker

 

Hello Carlos,

 

That seemed to work by re-adding and reinstalling split tunnel filter, however when setting PIA DNS follow app rules (in Split Tunnel setting) I could no longer access drives on my LAN. I had to add Explorer.exe to bypass VPN.

 

It makes me wonder if split tunnel is leaking.

 

1664786587603002_330956947.jpg

Regards,
Steve

 

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Email #4 (Me) On Oct 3, 2022 at 6:41 AM, Steve Parker wrote:

It stopped working again after I rebooted Windows 10 21H1 with latest updates. I had to disable MACE to see ads on whitelisted sites in Chrome (which should bypass the VPN).

 

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Email #5 On Mon, 03 Oct 2022 20:08:03 +0200 Justin C (it is now someone else)

 

Hi Steve,

 

Greetings from us here at PIA Customer Support.

 

Thank you for your prompt reply. PIA Mace is our ad blocking feature, if you are accessing a website that require ads to run, it will be blocked as the PIA Mace contradicts with the website requirement, in this cases you may need to uncheck/turn off PIA Mace in PIA application to access such websites that require ads.

 

Please let us know if you need any help or contact us anytime if you have any questions or concerns, we are here for your 24 by 7!

 

Have a great day and take care!

Best Regards,
Justin C.
Customer Support Agent

 

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Email #6 (my response while creating this topic)

 

Hello Justin C,

 

As you may have missed in the original ticket, I raised it because I expected Chrome to "bypass VPN" when I added it that way to Split Tunnel, but MACE is still being applied to Chrome, which should be bypassing the VPN altogether?

 

I followed the instructions from Carlos G to remove and re-add the Chrome app from Split Tunnel, and I also reinstalled the Split Tunnel Filter in the Settings "Help" page. This worked for the rest of the day yesterday until I turned off my computer last night and powered it up again this morning. MACE is once again blocking ads in Chrome, which should be getting VPN bypass.

 

Regards,

Steven P

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I will see what they come back with, but this is typical.. Zoho is the same, although they did claim to have improved their spam filter when I sent the most obvious spam (company bills with attachments from gmail emails) that I keep receiving and wasn't getting flagged (but actual first party domain emails were being flagged) it's like their spam filter is based on Eeny, meeny, miny, moe..

[trieste]

I've worked in a level 1 helpdesk (the guys and gals who take the calls and emails), and while we are absolutely amazing at the customer service, we leave the technical, significant code changes to level 2 (to resolve bugs and restore service) and level 3 (to re-code the functions for permanent improvement / better ways of getting things done).

 

Escalating to level 2 and 3 is easy.

Demanding for the supervisor/manager of the level 1 team to take the call and solve the problem is nearly useless, no matter how wise or experienced he/she is. There is simply no authority for a level 1 to command a level 2 or 3.

It takes time for level 2 and 3 to get these technical things done.

It takes a lot of frustration and anger directed at the bosses of the level 2 and level 3 teams for them to re-position the teams' focus. You would need to make sure that your complaints are received by the bosses of these bosses, because the bosses of the bosses set the KPI of the bosses. At the same time, the bosses of the bosses may not be technically-oriented, and are busy with managing other departments.

 

 

How helpdesks have evolved into this... no idea. I'm still a level 1 if I were to return to the world of IT support.

[JustGeorge]

What irks me is when you email support and they respond with some trash KB article that isn't even related to the problem I'm having because they didn't bother to read my email. Also, we're paying support fees, so how bout you maybe offer to remote in and fix the issue?

 

Getting hung up on in a waiting queue after a 40min wait will also press the rage button.

[Good Bot, Bad Bot]

My main grip is just getting to a live person. The endless prompts, trying to get by the AI gatekeeper, and than the text/email to confirm your account is so annoying. The typical system's main job seems to be setup to try to filter out older people who probably call everyday for their balance and get them to use the automated service or website. Good luck! I am never going to be calling customer service for a damn balance myself. Get me to a damn person! You finally get to a live person and then have to deal with the heavy accents which make it really hard to communicate and worse the foreigners who speak perfect English yet can't seem to understand what I am saying at all. Good grief!

 

More times than not the really barrier to getting something resolved is the people answering the phone don't have the authority to actually do anything so the real trick is convincing them to connect you to the person who can.

 

I have had even less luck with email support as the response is just usually a KB link. Gee thanks... i don't bother with technical support at all as is it's just easier to find an answer on my own.

Edited October 4, 2022 by Good Bot, Bad Bot

[xMorpheousx416]

As having been on the other end of all this for years, being a tech support individual, having to deal with the vast amount of users that couldn't tell the difference between a mouse pad and a roll of toilet paper, it isn't the easiest "walk in the park" as it seems to be. Those that go into an auto shop and ask for muffler bearings and blinker fluid.

 

Granted.. the first level of support will most likely land you with people who were hired to do a job, and were trained from day one. They have as much tech experience as a room full of 1st graders, and have flow charts to help them along. Unfortunately, what the caller/emailer doesn't know, is that those flow charts might as all been written in Klingon. First thing I did when working for HP or Apple, was toss all that crap in the trash, checked only the boxes needed to fill out the ticket(s), and proceeded to help the customer as if it were me that was having the problem.

 

Everyone once in a while, you get a skilled person on either end that knows what they are doing, and you don't have to escalate anything. But it's truly lopsided. Out of hundreds, if not thousands of people I've helped over the years.. I can still count the times troubleshooting was a piece of cake.

 

Others drove me to drink on the job. Only way it kept me from wanting to reach thru the phone lines and choke the crap out of the caller.

 

What gets me is.. when you get a final email from their tech support saying: "Thank you for working with us on this issue. We've forwarded all this to the engineering (coding) department, and a fix may be released in a future update." = basically the kind way of saying... "dude, we get it, the app is broken, we can't fix it at this level, so please stop bothering us and bugger off"

 

Thorns all around.