Don't yell at the Tech Support Guy

Okay I know a lot of people think that tech support is a fix all department that will do anything you need, but that is not the case. It does not help to yell at the tech guy when all he wants to do is help you out. What most people do not understand is that there is this thing called a support boundary. What this means is that I may be ABLE to help you, I may WANT to help you, but I am NOT ALLOWED to help you. Verizon has a service contract (that no customer has ever read), this outlines what we are and are not allowed to help you with. Yelling at us does not change these terms. So here are a few hints to try and relieve some of your frustration. IE (internet explorer) sucks. If you can't get on to the internet it could be a problem with your browser, so what you want to do is get rid of it. Mozilla offers firefox for free and Google chrome is awesome and free as well. At work I cannot tell you this, all I can say is that your internet works from our end and I don't know why "this page cannot be displayed". If you want a heads up on whether the problem is system based or connection based here are a few things to check. Please do this before you slog through the lovely voice prompt system,(yes we know it sucks too) and then wait on hold for an hour. You have a black box (usually next to your computer) that is called a router. It has a light on it next to the label that says internet. If that light is on you most likely have an open internet connection. Wanna test it? Well then open up the command prompt (xp - start, run, type cmd; vista - click the start (flag) icon, in the search box type cmd). Now you have a lovely old fashioned dos prompt in front of you. Now just type, ping 192.168.1.1 (could be 192.168.0.1) and hit enter. This will give you a report, the only thing you need to know is sent =4, recieved =4. If the recieved is a big fat 0 you arent connected to the router (we will save this for another day). Now type, ping www.google.com, again sent =4, recieved =4. If you just recieved you are connected to the internet. SO NOW YOU MUST CALL SOMEONE ELSE - geeksquad, microsoft, dell, an eight year old neighbor kid, Ill even let you call me at home if you pay me enough. However, VERIZON will not help you. They provide an internet connection. That connection is working. They are done with you. So until next time, I am the Verizon FIOS Insider, and I hope you have a great day.

P.S. Stop banging your head on the monitor, it is not that bad. You will survive, I promise.