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Comment by jschwartzi | Hacker News Reader

That’s not “hassling,” that’s “clarifying criticality.” The notion that we can’t even pass complaints along to support agents isn’t helpful. In my case when I lodge a complaint or turn down a solution it’s not meant as a personal attack. I legit want the company to know that they’re falling short and that I’m probably looking for alternatives.

Obviously don’t start getting angry, but if there’s a point of frustration please pass it along.

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I spent some time time as a tier one agent, and will gladly confirm that any complaints given to us were forgotten by the time the call disconnected. If you're rude enough we might leave a note in your file as a warning to the next agent, but that's about as far as complaint handling ever went. Same goes for wanting a manager. Floor managers have no special tricks that they can use to fix problems, just nicer bedside manners.

Tier one CS is there to confirm where a fault lies, teach you basic troubleshooting, and send out techs. If the issue isn't on your premise the best we can do is check that outage for an ETR, though most of the time the crews won't establish one because that creates a deadline for them to meet.

That’s really only been my experience with telecoms. Other companies I’ve called in to have absolutely put me in touch with higher level managers who can actually resolve the problem. It depends a lot on what company you’re calling in to, but I’m not going to stop doing it just because it doesn’t change anything at EG Comcast. And I’m totally fine with you mentally erasing the conversation after I’m done.

Where did you work? Different businesses have different policies.

A third party doing support for Frontier Communications, among others. I wouldn't put too much faith in their practices being an outlier though.

'why don't you go work from a public wifi spot' is not a constructive or polite complaint. Just say, 'if you would pass along a customer complaint, here is what I'd like it to say: I need more reliable service to work from home; I may have to look for alternatives. I find it very frustrating. Thanks for sending that on for me.'

The human being at the other end of the phone is not your therapist or the object of your frustrations. It's the same with waitstaff. They have their own problems; they aren't their to be kicked when you are frustrated.

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