[013a]

Have you seen Parks & Rec, and remember that scene in a Home Depot where an associate walks up to Ron, asks him if he needs help with a project, and Ron responds "I know more than you"?

I've pulled a variation of that on CSRs at least once, and surprisingly, it can work. Just be cordial, preempt the typical IT Support stuff they always ask, DO NOT say its intermittent (initially, to the front line CSR; if given a chance to expand the issue after escalation, then add that bit), and get technical ASAP (it doesn't hurt to throw in some parallel industry jargon). Basically, build a case where even the information you're giving them is beyond a first-line CSR playbook, and they have to escalate.

"Hi there; I've been observing some erroneous TCP packet bit flipping on HTTP requests which route through one of AT&T's data center in Oakland. I've tried restarting my computer, I'm seeing the same thing on my phone, and I actually swapped my router out for a spare one I have, but its still an issue."

(that last sentence exhausts literally every playbook a front-line CSR has. it sounds so easy, right? there are four variables in any front-line CSR diagnostic equation: their network, your router, wifi/ethernet, and the endpoint. you just crossed off three of the four variables in one sentence).

(Wait, a data center in Oakland? How do you know this? You can tracert a bad request and geolocate the first IP outside your network, but, lets be realistic: You don't. You're fronting; demonstrating knowledge that a front-line CSR can't disprove. You may think this is misleading to whoever this gets escalated to, but it isn't; their tools are FAR more advanced than yours, and they're used to 99% of customers being incorrect idiots, so they're going to be validating and reconfirming every word you say anyway.)

Ron's Parks & Rec example above is crass. But here's the magic bit: frontline CSRs generally look for an excuse to escalate, you just need to give them enough CYA to check their job as done, and the higher tier CSRs/network engineers will love you for actually knowing what you're talking about. Its a win-win; be cordial, be forceful, strut what you know.

[zanny]

I had something like this happen on an even simpler level this last week. I got a Chase credit card but when I initially did the signup called my brother to ask him if he wanted to be on the account and it timed the sign up session out past the account creation but before finalization.

I got the card eventually but now I cannot create an online account with it. I called Chase, got transferred 5 times, and then told I would need to go to a physical bank to verify my identity? to create an account. Absolutely not one of them had any clue what "a broken account exists associated with this card in your database, I can guarantee it, forward me to your technical support team" but thats all above a bank reps pay grade.

The nearest Chase bank is 1.5 hours away, by the way. Probably just going to cancel the card after cashing out the sign up bonus.

[stronglikedan]

> I've tried restarting my computer, I'm seeing the same thing on my phone, and I actually swapped my router out for a spare one I have, but its still an issue.

"Ok sir, please click the start button, then the power button, and finally click the restart button to restart your computer..." (and they refuse to budge until you've swapped out your router yet again, because you didn't do all that while you were on the phone with them)