Timer Warner - The Power of No Clue
At work we kept getting some calls from our field office employees in Erie stating that their cable was out. I was pretty sure there was an outage but I just wanted to check, so I did Time Warner’s chat feature. This goes to show you why everyone complains about their support.
LiveAssist Chat
Status: Analyst SteveP is here. Status: working user Ron has entered room
analyst SteveP has entered room
SteveP(Fri Jan 23 07:33:33 EST 2009)>Hello! Thank you for choosing Road Runner technical Chat. My name is Steve P.
How may I assist you with Road Runner?
Ron(Fri Jan 23 07:34:00 EST 2009)>Are you having an outage in the Erie, PA area?
Ron(Fri Jan 23 07:34:22 EST 2009)>I work in a helpdesk and we have several users with Time Warner Cable calling in stating they can’t connect, even after a powercycle. Just wanted to check status.
Take note of this
SteveP(Fri Jan 23 07:34:30 EST 2009)>We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused in this regard.
Please be assured I will definitely assist you in resolving your issue.
SteveP(Fri Jan 23 07:34:32 EST 2009)>I’m more than happy to assist you.
To get us started, I’m going to need to verify some security information and then we can move on to understanding your setup.
We will need to perform some troubleshooting steps together, and I’ll be running some tests on my end.
Feel free to ask questions along the way.
SteveP(Fri Jan 23 07:34:32 EST 2009)>Before we begin, I would like to bring up your account. May I have the following four pieces of information from you please?
1. The account holder’s 10 digit telephone number. (xxx-xxx-xxxx)
2. The account holder’s Full Name (First and Last)
3. Please tell us your name.
4. Please provide me the e-mail address which you use daily?
SteveP(Fri Jan 23 07:34:34 EST 2009)>Please provide me the above information.
Everything from there to here was pasted in real quick. Awesome.
Ron(Fri Jan 23 07:35:13 EST 2009)>I’m not sure you understand - I just need to confirm if there is, or is not, an outage in the Erie, Pennsylvania and surrounding area with Time Warner
SteveP(Fri Jan 23 07:35:22 EST 2009)>Let me check.
Ron(Fri Jan 23 07:35:35 EST 2009)>Thanks!
Now here’s where it gets good
SteveP(Fri Jan 23 07:35:57 EST 2009)>Ron, our records shows that there is no outage in Erie.
SteveP(Fri Jan 23 07:36:04 EST 2009)>There may be some temporary issue.
Ron(Fri Jan 23 07:36:27 EST 2009)>Like an outage?
SteveP(Fri Jan 23 07:36:25 EST 2009)>yes.
So there’s no outage, but there’s another issue that is….an outage?
SteveP(Fri Jan 23 07:36:39 EST 2009)>Do you need link to check outages?
Ron(Fri Jan 23 07:37:08 EST 2009)>Yeah, I checked help.rr.com and selected the area
SteveP(Fri Jan 23 07:37:01 EST 2009)>You can access this link to know the status : http://help.rr.com/HMSLogic/network_status.aspx
Ron(Fri Jan 23 07:37:20 EST 2009)>But it said there was no outages at this time. We’re still getting tons of calls though
Ron(Fri Jan 23 07:37:36 EST 2009)>And I’m assuming your helpdesk probably will be soon once people start getting up
SteveP(Fri Jan 23 07:37:45 EST 2009)>Ron, please be assured it will be resolved soon.
Ron(Fri Jan 23 07:38:05 EST 2009)>Ok, great! Thanks!
SteveP(Fri Jan 23 07:37:58 EST 2009)>Welcome!!
I expect this outage will probably last 4 days, until someone realizes that the cord they unplugged so they could charge their Nintendo DS was for a core router.
