Better than a car dealership?
Latest story - like I said, I still don't have proper Samba access to mount vobs. I put in a ticket stating "I cannot log into Unix machines and I do not have access to Unix shares that I need for my work". I have managed to get a Unix account created. But I need to be added to the proper netgroup.
So the tech closes my ticket. I reopen it stating "I still can't log in so this issue has not been resolved". He closes it stating that "Well you need the netgroup - go here to request that. There's nothing for us to do so I'll close this ticket again". I reopen it stating "Until and unless I can log into Unix machines and access Unix shares this ticket is not resolved". Again he closes it.
So I give him an analogy - I tell him if I go to the car dealership to have my brakes done and I get a call from the service manager saying my request is completed only to come to the dealership and be presented with a piece of paper telling me how I can request brake pads I'd be fucking pissed! It's not my job to pick the store where you'll purchase brake pads for my brake job! It's the responsibility of the auto mechanic or the dealership to resolved that!!! IOW it's part of the job and you should not involve nor expect the customer (i.e. me) to have to deal with this issue.
He states he understands but he's just following SOP. I tell him "Well then the process is broken and should be fixed".
You see I'm struggling to understand why the support process is so horrible at such corporations. We would not accept such "service" from our auto mechanic, plumber, etc. - why do we tolerate it from our helpdesk team?
Comments
Problem 1: We are not the Helpdesk, the Helpdesk is in India, we are in the US.
Problem 2: We are not account creators or access approvers.
Problem 3: Our job is to manage and maintain servers not to create account for users when there is an automated process.
Problem 4: I am sorry it took so long, but about 2 minutes after you submit the request your manager received it. If you have a problem with the delay you need to ask them what took them so long.
Problem 5: You do not seem to understand that we do agree that some things could be improved, but the way you handled this was not in the best manner.
Problem 6: In this case for example you wanted someone else to take on your responsibility. Let's say that a member of the team did and they granted you all of the access requested, but in the process of doing this both servers went down because the Admins were creating user account and hunting down the user's managers for approvals. Now instead of the already automated process that is in place to do this the process and time put into the manual process has caused all of the servers the user needed access for to be down and remain down because the Admins were working on the user's request. That does not make much sense does it. What would you tell all of the other users? Would you tell them that it is the person who could not execute processes they are responsible for and this took away the resource of the Admins to assist with correcting server issue and now no one can access these servers.
Problem 7: Let me give you an analogy - If you go to the car dealership to have your breaks done, and you get pulled over by the police. The officer comes and asks you for your license which is expired. Do you say to the officer that it is the states fault for not sending you a reminder that your license expired or that it is your jobs fault that you did not have time to go to the DMV. Do you blame the state because you didn't look at your license and notice the expiration date? Do you deserve the ticket or does the state? You can't go into court and tell the judge you aren't responsible because the state didn't send you a reminder.
Finally, maybe you should evaluate the way you treat those who are trying to assist you because pushing and trying to take short-cuts is not always the best method. I wish you luck in your endeavors, and sorry for any inconvenience the SOP has caused you.
Posted by: Andrew Defaria | February 5, 2010 08:55 PM