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Unfortunately the tech support people you are speaking to are probably as frustrated as you are at having to go through the basic stuff with you.

Large companies especially deal with the massive volume of tech support calls they receive by employing some staff on lower pay as a "buffer," dealing with simple or "known" issues so that they don't need to employ as many higher paid "second line" support staff. Very often the first people you get through to on tech support lines are reading from a script. They have to ask you the dumb questions, either because their employer demands they do, or sometimes because their computer system doesn't let them get to the next part of the script unless they play ball. Which is not to say that people employed on first line support are not knowledgeable; in my experience lots of over-qualified people have to take less advanced jobs in IT just to get into the industry. But they have to do what their job description tells them to do.

This does vary between companies. One will employ idiots who speak to you like idiots. Another will employ smart people who apologize to you profusely for having to go through all the pointless steps, but that's just what they have to do! Maybe you should shop around and find one that deals with you the way you want them to.

However I appreciate that price and functionality often dictates who we deal with. So my best advice if you need to stick with them is just to expect the treatment you have become used to and 'play along'. Actually, I find some things often run smoother when you act dumber than you are.

Lets face it, if you already know that your ISP is going to ask you questions from a script when you call them, why bother explaining that there is a problem with the DHCP on your router because you computer is assigning itself an IP address when you can just say "I can't get on Google" and they'll do exactly the same thing? Plus, if you use tech speak on someone at first line who doesn't understand it there is a possibility they will think they are supposed to know how to fix this, and then waste time trying to. Whereas if you just use dumb terms like "lights are blinking" then they'll quickly exhaust their script and pass you to the second line where you can happily talk tech-to-tech.

Unfortunately the tech support people you are speaking to are probably as frustrated as you are at having to go through the basic stuff with you.

Large companies especially deal with the massive volume of tech support calls they receive by employing some staff on lower pay as a "buffer," dealing with simple or "known" issues so that they don't need to employ as many higher paid "second line" support staff. Very often the first people you get through to on tech support lines are reading from a script. They have to ask you the dumb questions, either because their employer demands they do, or sometimes because their computer system doesn't let them get to the next part of the script unless they play ball. Which is not to say that people employed on first line support are not knowledgeable; in my experience lots of over-qualified people have to take less advanced jobs in IT just to get into the industry. But they have to do what their job description tells them to do.

This does vary between companies. One will employ idiots who speak to you like idiots. Another will employ smart people who apologise to you profusely for having to go through all the pointless steps, but that's just what they have to do! Maybe you should shop around and find one that deals with you the way you want them to.

However I appreciate that price and functionality often dictates who we deal with. So my best advice if you need to stick with them is just to expect the treatment you have become used to and 'play along'. Actually, I find some things often run smoother when you act dumber than you are.

Lets face it, if you already know that your ISP is going to ask you questions from a script when you call them, why bother explaining that there is a problem with the DHCP on your router because your computer is assigning itself an APIPA address when you can just say "I can't get on Google" and they'll do exactly the same thing? Plus, if you use tech speak on someone at first line who doesn't understand it there is a possibility they will think they are supposed to know how to fix this, and then waste time trying to. Whereas if you just use dumb terms like "lights are blinking" then they'll quickly exhaust their script and pass you to the second line where you can happily talk tech-to-tech.

Unfortunately the tech support people you are speaking to are probably as frustrated as you are at having to go through the basic stuff with you.

Large companies especially deal with the massive volume of tech support calls they receive by employing some staff on lower pay as a 'buffer', dealing with simple or 'known' issues so that they don't need to employ as many higher paid 'second line' support staff. Very often the first people you get through to on tech support lines are reading from a script. They have to ask you the dumb questions, either because their employer demands they do, or sometimes because their computer system doesn't let them get to the next part of the script unless they play ball. That is not to say that people employed on first line support are not knowledgeable - in my experience lots of over-qualified people have to take less advanced jobs in IT just to get into the industry. But they got to do what their job description tells them to do.

This does vary between companies. One will employs idiots and they speak to you like idiots. Another employs smart people who apologise to you profusely for having to go through all the pointless steps but that's just what they got to do! Maybe you should shop around and find one that deals with you the way you want them to.

However I appreciate that price and functionality often dictates who we deal with. So my best advice if you need to stick with them is just to expect the treatment you have become used to and 'play along'. Actually, I find some things often run smoother when you act dumber than you are. Lets face it, if you already know that your ISP is going to ask you questions from a script when you call them, why bother explaining that there is a problem with the DHCP on your router because you computer is assigning itself an APIPA address when you can just say "I can't get on Google" and they'll do exactly the same thing? Plus, if you use tech speak on someone at first line who doesn't understand it there is a possibility they will think they are supposed to know how to fix this, and then waste time trying to. Whereas if you just use dumb terms like 'lights are blinking' then they'll quickly exhaust their script and pass you to the second line where you can happily talk tech-to-tech.

Unfortunately the tech support people you are speaking to are probably as frustrated as you are at having to go through the basic stuff with you.

Large companies especially deal with the massive volume of tech support calls they receive by employing some staff on lower pay as a "buffer," dealing with simple or "known" issues so that they don't need to employ as many higher paid "second line" support staff. Very often the first people you get through to on tech support lines are reading from a script. They have to ask you the dumb questions, either because their employer demands they do, or sometimes because their computer system doesn't let them get to the next part of the script unless they play ball. Which is not to say that people employed on first line support are not knowledgeable; in my experience lots of over-qualified people have to take less advanced jobs in IT just to get into the industry. But they have to do what their job description tells them to do.

This does vary between companies. One will employ idiots who speak to you like idiots. Another will employ smart people who apologize to you profusely for having to go through all the pointless steps, but that's just what they have to do! Maybe you should shop around and find one that deals with you the way you want them to.

However I appreciate that price and functionality often dictates who we deal with. So my best advice if you need to stick with them is just to expect the treatment you have become used to and 'play along'. Actually, I find some things often run smoother when you act dumber than you are. 

Lets face it, if you already know that your ISP is going to ask you questions from a script when you call them, why bother explaining that there is a problem with the DHCP on your router because you computer is assigning itself an IP address when you can just say "I can't get on Google" and they'll do exactly the same thing? Plus, if you use tech speak on someone at first line who doesn't understand it there is a possibility they will think they are supposed to know how to fix this, and then waste time trying to. Whereas if you just use dumb terms like "lights are blinking" then they'll quickly exhaust their script and pass you to the second line where you can happily talk tech-to-tech.

Unfortunately the tech support people you are speaking to are probably as frustrated as you are at having to go through the basic stuff with you.

Large companies especially deal with the massive volume of tech support calls they receive by employing some staff on lower pay as a 'buffer', dealing with simple or 'known' issues so that they don't need to employ as many higher paid 'second line' support staff. Very often the first people you get through to on tech support lines are reading from a script. They have to ask you the dumb questions, either because their employer demands they do, or sometimes because their computer system doesn't let them get to the next part of the script unless they play ball. That is not to say that people employed on first line support are not knowledgeable - in my experience lots of over-qualified people have to take less advanced jobs in IT just to get into the industry. But they got to do what their job description tells them to do.

This does vary between companies. One will employs idiots and they speak to you like idiots. Another employs smart people who apologise to you profusely for having to go through all the pointless steps but that's just what they got to do! Maybe you should shop around and find one that deals with you the way you want them to.

However I appreciate that price and functionality often dictates who we deal with. So my best advice if you need to stick with them is just to expect the treatment you have become used to and 'play along'. Actually, I find some things often run smoother when you act dumber than you are. Lets face it, if you already know that your ISP is going to ask you questions from a script when you call them, why bother explaining that there is a problem with the DHCP on your router because you computer is assigning itself an APIPA address when you can just say "I can't get on Google' and they'll do exactly the same thing? Plus, if you use tech speak on someone at first line who doesn't understand it there is a possibility they will think they are supposed to know how to fix this, and then waste time trying to. Whereas if you just use dumb terms like 'lights are blinking' then they'll quickly exhaust their script and pass you to the second line where you can happily talk tech-to-tech.

Unfortunately the tech support people you are speaking to are probably as frustrated as you are at having to go through the basic stuff with you.

Large companies especially deal with the massive volume of tech support calls they receive by employing some staff on lower pay as a 'buffer', dealing with simple or 'known' issues so that they don't need to employ as many higher paid 'second line' support staff. Very often the first people you get through to on tech support lines are reading from a script. They have to ask you the dumb questions, either because their employer demands they do, or sometimes because their computer system doesn't let them get to the next part of the script unless they play ball. That is not to say that people employed on first line support are not knowledgeable - in my experience lots of over-qualified people have to take less advanced jobs in IT just to get into the industry. But they got to do what their job description tells them to do.

This does vary between companies. One will employs idiots and they speak to you like idiots. Another employs smart people who apologise to you profusely for having to go through all the pointless steps but that's just what they got to do! Maybe you should shop around and find one that deals with you the way you want them to.

However I appreciate that price and functionality often dictates who we deal with. So my best advice if you need to stick with them is just to expect the treatment you have become used to and 'play along'. Actually, I find some things often run smoother when you act dumber than you are. Lets face it, if you already know that your ISP is going to ask you questions from a script when you call them, why bother explaining that there is a problem with the DHCP on your router because you computer is assigning itself an APIPA address when you can just say "I can't get on Google" and they'll do exactly the same thing? Plus, if you use tech speak on someone at first line who doesn't understand it there is a possibility they will think they are supposed to know how to fix this, and then waste time trying to. Whereas if you just use dumb terms like 'lights are blinking' then they'll quickly exhaust their script and pass you to the second line where you can happily talk tech-to-tech.