MMMiii!

A customer called in once and asked what was the grade of the wireless modem router (gateway) they have from us. I told her it was a Wireless-G. Then she asked about Wireless-N because her son mentioned it and that he was a serious gamer and he needs one like that. I told her that it has a wider coverage and a stronger signal. She then asked if her Internet will be faster. I said that it really depends on her speed plan. A better router doesn’t necessarily mean faster internet, which a lot of Americans seem to think.

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I was late today at work. My shift starts at 7:45pm. I arrived at work last night around 6:40pm. I set up my station and then went to the lounge and slept.

I like the lounge couches. They’re so soft. They shouldn’t keep office furniture like that at work. I mean, people use those couches to sleep in, and it’s dangerous. I wasn’t able to wake up in time. I was 8 minutes late at work. GOOD THING I WOKE UP! Like OMG! OMG! I OVERSLEPT! I was late but I was at work already. -_-;

You know what’s funny? Every time I sleep in the lounge I dream. I dream dreams about call center empires or calls or what not.

The first time I slept in the lounge I dreamed that the Philippines was a call center empire, people were marching about going to work. And then there was a computer station shortage. I saw some old high school classmates and friends, and they were all call center soldiers.

I don’t remember my second time, maybe because it was just like 15 minutes. The first one was a 30 minute nap. My nap last night was almost an hour. Maybe that’s why I didn’t wake up to the vibrations of my phone. I woke up 7:52 and was logged in by 7:53. Still groggy and half-asleep. Good thing my first call came in after 8 already. High avail for the win!

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I’m going to start a new category/segment on my blog. Moronic Mondays. Every Monday, I’m going to write about memorable experiences from my calls at work. Being a tech support is really an exciting kind of job. You get to experience techies, wannabe techies, idiots, irates, shy, scary, and what not. You get to talk to people with ages ranging from 10 to 85. For me, there are two things I like feeling accomplishment from–getting an irate caller what he wants and at the same time not going outside my scope of support or company policies and calming down in the end, and being genuinely appreciated. I’m an emotional person and there have been three times when I cried on the job–not because I was scared or anything, but because I was so frustrated that I can’t help them.

There are also some pretty funny experiences on the job, like one of the calls I’m going to feature for my first post. The format of this is going to be as follows: The issue (ISSUE), the resolution (RESOLUTION), and what happened that made it memorable (EXPERIENCE).

Without further ado, Mellow Mondays 001

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So… how many months have I been working? At work, I have to wear business casual most of the time (except for weekends), and sure I’ve got some slacks. I’ve got one really nice one, one so so, and another one… well… another one which will have to do most of the time.

I wear the three of them in constant rotation. Sometimes just one of them for the whole week when I need to (My shift is Saturday to Wednesday, so I only wear slacks thrice a week… for this month, that is. and last month).

And well… I guess it doesn’t really matter much since it’s just black, but sometimes I wish I had more than one good slacks. I brought this up with my mother and sure enough, she offered me some classy maternity jeans. I know I’m really big and all… *sigh*

BUT ANYWAY… I’m not really into clothes or fashion or what not. I hardly care about how I look. Heck, sometimes a whole week or two passes before I even comb my nice, long, straight black hair which doesn’t tangle much (I mean, comb with a comb. My fingers do the job most of the time, but that’s not really combing, is it?)

I think I’ll go out and get a new pair of slacks tomorrow. *sigh* I hope I Could find a cheap one. Really. It really depresses me sometimes when I go and buy clothes, and they just don’t fit. I know I should diet or something… so that buying clothes won’t depress me anymore. But…

There are good things in life that are just hard to give up. Like noodles.

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I can’t sleep! It’s really so hard to sleep during the day when you know the sun is up.

I made a deal with my parents a couple of days ago. I’ll clean up my room and allow them to move stuff around so that I could use the air conditioner. Because it’s so freakin’ hot and muggy during the day that I couldn’t sleep at all.

And I thought that would make a difference. My mother was even thoughtful enough to put curtains in my room so that it’s a little dark even during the day. But no. It’s still so hard to sleep.

The air conditioner is old and wasn’t in operation for about 2 or 3 years. It’s a wonder it’s still working right now. However, it’s not really that cold. Sure, it’s not muggy. It’s a lot better than not having it at all. But it just doesn’t cool down the whole room like how I want it to be. I think the styrofoam on the ceiling needs to be replaced. Maybe I need carpeting! I’d like to have something like home theater carpet so that it feels like I’m in a real cinema while I’m watching my J-Drama, but I don’t really think that’s necessary.

So… I’m with an air conditioner, but my fan is still on too. But I have it oscillating so it’s all good.

I can’t sleep. I can’t sleep.

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Thursdays and Fridays are my restdays this month and next month. This Thursday (Today) and Friday are Holidays, Holy days. I spent more than an hour on the road just because of heavy traffic caused by people going home to their provinces.

Holy week is probably the time when most hypocrites come out and pretend to be holy.

I got stuck in Cubao coming home today for about an hour… just in Cubao. And the air-conditioned bus I rode wasn’t exactly cold. I was perspiring. I’m never going to ride that busline again.

*sigh* So… after work today, we had the usual after shift coaching, and asked Mau if she wanted to eat somewhere afterwards. I wanted to eat at Tempura… And… the nice food places were all closed. =_=”;; sad. TL came with us too. We ended up eating at Jollibee, which wasn’t really bad. But still…

Day off, and malls are closed. I wanted to buy a new headset because mine is broken. I don’t have the motivation to sing. =/

I’m really tired, and last week was somewhat busy. I could hardly sleep in the day. So now, I just caught up with my Google Reader and it seems like I didn’t really miss a lot, aside from Anime.

I haven’t been downloading anime =/ I’m so behind on the series I’m following. But my new system in requesting music links to be updated is so much better than just having people request for it to be updated or just updating everything when no one will really bother to download. Update-On-Demand is what I call it. This really ARE better when you’ve got a system.

*yawwwwn*

Well… Updates on my life? Nothing much really. Just working. Barely online. Hardly on IRC. And having some private family problems. Yesterday I went to school to get the Centennial Planners from UP that Sarah and I ordered, but unfortunately, I didn’t know that it was half-day =_= so … blehhh… gonna have to wait next week. again. And I’m still not done with my clearance. That’s about it, I guess?

Oh wait. I’m now an aunt. Orc’s girl just gave birth to a not-so-healthy baby boy named Jared. Last time I heard, I know Orc’s girl didn’t want the name Jared because she said in Tagalog it was Herodes. Bleh. Of course Orc probably insisted on it.

Anyway.

laterz.

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Oh Tee, Tee Why.

OverTime, Thank You.

I’m not really doing overtime at work, but I leave work lately 3-4 hours later. Because of coaching and other discussions like about my stats at work.

Last Wednesday, after my 9:30pm to 6:30am shift coming from Tuesday with three hours of sleep, I left around 11 am already. I got home around 12:30. Couldn’t sleep immediately. Couldn’t sleep until 4pm…

Had to wake up at 7. Went to work. Left work at 2pm. Ate with some people until 3:30. Got home almost 5. Slept around 5:30pm, slept until 4:30am. Ate, watched some anime (I finished Romeo x Juliet FINALLY!), and then fell asleep again.

Now it’s 2:30pm again, I’m awake again. Finally found time to blog. I haven’t been having the time to do anything for myself lately. I know I don’t have to attend my Team Leader’s coaching after work sessions. I could leave if I wanted to. But I want to. I need to. I need to improve myself. I want to be better.

But sometimes, I start wondering… Is it worth it? No time to do anything. I was supposed to be helping out my brother Iks and his girlfriend with moving out. But I hardly have the time. I wasn’t able to go with them buying their fridge, oven, lcd mount for their TV… I wasn’t able to go shopping… Bleh

I was supposed to buy a new padlock because I broke the one Timmy bought for our locker. I wasn’t able to. Ughh….

I hope I don’t lose PU2B because of this.

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Lately, I’ve been having massive head and toothaches and I’ve been visiting the clinic a lot. Although I know we shouldn’t treat the clinic like a drug store and keep getting medicine from them because it’s free, I still kind of do. I go in, ask for mefenamic acid, then the person inside gives it to me. I’m not even sure if that person is the doctor or the nurse since they don’t have any medical id tags that would make me distinguish them. OTL …. pain.

Even with all these aches, I’m still happy. I got my first commendation today. My customer wanted to speak with my supervisor after I resolved her issue and she was just so happy that she wanted to talk with my boss. Bleh… it hurts my stats, but it feels good nonetheless.

I also kind of broke my customer’s computer… but not really. I just happened to be there and guide her into breaking it. Ah… well. It wasn’t really my fault, but I still feel bad. And that was my last call as well. =/

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I’m just going to write about what I’ve learned at work lately. This could also be helpful for some people, I hope. Anyway, I’m a tech support agent, tier 1, for a DSL ISP in the US. What I could write here may be true for that ISP, but not for others, but some could also be true. Who knows.

1. No Sync

This one means that there is no connection between the modem and the DSLAM, or “network.” This is what I usually tell my customers, “There seems to be no connection between your modem and our network.” Why do I replace DSLAM with network? Because there ARE some pretty computer illiterate customers and it’s just easier that way.

Signs: Flashing DSL light in most modems. Some may be called the Ready light.

This is a big problem for IFITL customers or those who are connected with fiber cables or just an Ethernet cable. They don’t need a modem, so whenever they’ve got a problem with connection, it almost always ends up in a truckroll or a technician coming over their place.

Fixes: Powercycling or hard resetting the modem, checking cabling and filters, and Electromagnetic Interferences like speakers, location, and sending a technician over. This does not require any advanced troubleshooting and the computer usually does not need to be touched, except for configuration of the modem.

Carpets can also affect this since it may cause static. Some customers put their modems on their floors, and sometimes they happen to be carpets. It’s frustrating for them sometimes. Sometimes we can’t do anything from our side but to send someone over to check both indoor and outdoor physical connections.

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Watch out more for stuff I’ve been learning.

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Today marks my 2nd month at my work. I started there on the 10th of December, and now it’s Feb 10th. How time flies.

And I know, some people have noticed that I hardly write on my blog anymore, and when I do, they’re just ads. I really do try to write non-sponsored posts, though. I really do. Sometimes, I can force a keyword in, and make it seamless. But sometimes, I just can’t. It’s so hard. I mean, how the heck can I casually insert the words “van rack” and make it seamless? XD

But enough of that. Right now, I’m somewhat enjoying my work. Sure, there are ups and downs, and it’s really challenging, dealing with different kinds of people, wanting needing to please them to reach that Customer Satisfaction goal. And ever since we’ve moved to production (really working now, not just training), I sometimes stay behind for the team huddle and discuss stuff like what wrongs we did and so on.

Last Friday, I FINALLY got my first survey and CSat, so I was happy going home. I went shopping, I’ve mentioned in an earlier post, but not the reason for treating myself. Well, it was because of my SAT (Customer was Satisfied).

I may or may not stay in this industry, but if I do decide to stay, I have better plans, a better position in mind. I won’t be staying as a lowly agent forever. XD

Anyway, back to the huddles. Because of these huddles, what happens is we stay an extra 2 or so hours after our shift. Sometimes I get home almost 6pm because of these unpaid huddles. I do want to become better, so I stay and discuss. But it gets a little taxing.

Marco is in town and I didn’t know. Dyan’s been texting people. I want to go for dinner with them but I have work at 4am, I need to leave here by 2am so I can be at work by 3am and have a good station. *sigh* I’ll be seeing them some other time.

Ah~ Anyway, whistle round the world.

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