Saturday, January 13, 2007
Just be honest!
Today, I've listened to quite a few people call in, tell me that they need to setup their connection on their computer, only to find that they'd already tried creating an account. Now, I can understand that sentiment: you know you didn't do it correctly, so you call us to have us help you get the connection setup correctly.
However, there isn't that much to setting up a dialup connection. If you know how to start the Windows wizard, then it's almost completely self-explanatory. And most of the people calling in who're in this situation today have things almost completely right. In fact, all but one of them have had only one thing wrong: their login information.
I realize that this type of thinking doesn't come naturally to everyone, but I wish people would realize that if you're getting to the point where your connection says "dialing... establishing connection... verifying username and password", then obviously you're getting through. When it says that your username or password is wrong, then it doesn't make sense to check your modem settings, or the dialup number, or your Internet Explorer settings, or anything other than your username and password.
The thing is, some people are determined to get us to run them through the setup, despite the fact that all it'll do is waste everyone's time. It's much faster to just say "I tried setting up my connection, but it's not connecting. Can we take a look at the settings?" Odds are that you've already done the important legwork, and a detail or two just needs to be adjusted.
Just be honest about it. You'll save yourself time in the end.
However, there isn't that much to setting up a dialup connection. If you know how to start the Windows wizard, then it's almost completely self-explanatory. And most of the people calling in who're in this situation today have things almost completely right. In fact, all but one of them have had only one thing wrong: their login information.
I realize that this type of thinking doesn't come naturally to everyone, but I wish people would realize that if you're getting to the point where your connection says "dialing... establishing connection... verifying username and password", then obviously you're getting through. When it says that your username or password is wrong, then it doesn't make sense to check your modem settings, or the dialup number, or your Internet Explorer settings, or anything other than your username and password.
The thing is, some people are determined to get us to run them through the setup, despite the fact that all it'll do is waste everyone's time. It's much faster to just say "I tried setting up my connection, but it's not connecting. Can we take a look at the settings?" Odds are that you've already done the important legwork, and a detail or two just needs to be adjusted.
Just be honest about it. You'll save yourself time in the end.
# posted by Terry @ 5:05 PM 
