I thought they were myth... things of fairy tales or something like that. They are very real and they want your blood.
For about 6 weeks I had a strange rash on my forearms. It itched like crazy. The only thing that would alleviate the itching was running very hot water over my arms. Yes, hot water burn baby but like I said it minimized the itching when anti-itching creams and lotion wouldn't. At first I thought it had to be something environmental since it was only appearing on my forearms which are usually exposed 24-7. I wanted to wash all of my bedsheets, blankets and pillows when I started getting the rash but the dryers in my apartment building don't work... it's been more than 2 months now since they've worked... I'm so glad I'm able to work from home sometimes. I eventually started to get the itchy bumps on my ankles and calves as well and even the back of my neck... and eventually I figured out that it wasn't a rash.
Do some web searches for bed bugs and you'll learn that they're becoming a major problem in many areas. Here in the Columbus area the Ohio Agricultural Department is trying to get an industrial pesticide approved for home use against the bed bugs. You'll read all kinds of horror stories about people dealing with not having a safe place to sleep and incompetent pest control officers that are only good at getting rid of your money - and money is a huge issue for me... I can't afford to do much of anything right now but research. I've tried a common pesticide that you can find in the garden section of most stores... to say it's 100% effective is wrong but that's okay because the company who makes it doesn't claim it kills bed bugs. The reason I tried it was because of a small group of people on a bed bug forum that claim the stuff is a godsend. Hitting the bugs with it directly will kill them but this stuff is the kind of thing that's not supposed to be used in that way... so I probably won't keep using it.
I learned about these Climb Up Interceptor traps and they sound like a great idea. $60 for 12 isn't completely outrageous but during my trip to the hardware store (I was getting painter's plastic to wrap up infested things and throw them out) I came up with something that's definitely cheaper but I'm still not sure how effective it will be.
Paint can drip catchers. They cost me about $1.50 each. Empty drip catchers are no good though and I figured if mineral oil works for killing fleas then it should work for bed bugs as well. I don't have any regular mineral oil but I do have some baby oil which is just mineral oil with fragrances added. You could have 12 traps with mineral oil for $20 or less.
The effectiveness of my traps can't be 100% proven yet. I'm not sleeping on my infested furniture right now. These little fuckers fed on me for over a month and bred like crazy! It's disgusting how many bugs I have in my furniture! Just looking at it makes me want to itch. I still put the traps in place. After 48 hours not a single bed bugs but it looks like I got some carpet beetle larvae in my DIY oil filled isolator traps under the couch legs. If I sit near my couch for about 20 min or so bed bugs will start coming after me. I have not seen one crawl down into the oil traps yet and I can't help but wonder if the fragrance in the baby oil is causing them to avoid it. I've seen them make their way down as if they're going to the floor to get to me but they always turn around and go back up the couch leg at about 3 or 4 inches above the traps. One clever bug tried something different though. This brave little bastard made his way to a piece of the fabric such that he was on a negative incline. He then let go of the fabric to fall to the floor. Unfortunately for the bug he fell right into the baby oil trap! He sank immediately and never moved again. Finally I feel like I have achieved a small victory in my battle against these bugs. I have nowhere I feel is safe to sleep in my tiny, crappy apartment. I slept in my bath tub twice... that was just unbearably uncomfortable though. For now I'm sleeping on a closet door raised up off the floor with milk crates. No, it's not very comfortable even with a sleeping bag and blankets between me and the hard wooden surface but I'm not getting eaten alive every night and that's what matters to me right now.
My plan is to eventually get plain mineral oil to try... and hope the baby oil fragrance is a turn off to bed bugs and that's the only reason I'm not getting any bugs in them yet without me trying to entice them into the traps. Once I get a new couch I may buy the real interceptors but will probably use my home made oil traps as well... right now the bugs left on my couch (I've bagged and trashed the cushions the frame is all that's left until I can get help moving it out of here) don't seem to be coming off the couch via the legs... and the scary thing is that they're smart enough to let themselves fall off of the couch to reach the floor. Do not underestimate the intelligence and determination of bed bugs. You will regret it.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
business model = fail
If you are a tech company that outsources your phone support, I can't imagine why the hell you think it's good for your business. I've been working as a telephone tech support agent for 9 months now. The calls are from customers of a national high speed internet service provider. There are different levels of support for various services and products offered by the ISP. There are different support phone numbers for these different services and products and that essentially translate into if you call 555-1111 it comes into the call center on port 1. 555-2222 comes in through port 2, etc. It's all organized and logical and I would assume this is how most call centers are set up.
The problem comes when you outsource this kind of operation. The company I work for (the 3rd party) gets paid by the ISP based on call volume. The more calls they get the better the profits. Shorter call times = better profits... and happier callers in some cases. So lets say you have 20 - 30 agents on a given shift and they are trained in every product and service offered by the ISP. Let's say that someone calls in because they are having issues of some kind with Outlook Express. The call comes in on port 1 for general tier1 internet support. The agent spends 3 minutes+ verifying the caller's account information and then spend 6 minutes trying to help the poor soul who can't get his email to download in OE. At about the 9 minute mark they discover that the caller has antivirus software on the computer and it's the same brand as the free AV the ISP gives out and promptly states "well it must be your AV blocking OE so let me transfer you to the AV department... or port 7 in our system. The person answering on port 7 will have to spend 3min+ verifying the account information again, spend 5 minutes turning on and off the firewall in the AV software which makes no difference OE still won't download any of his email. Then the agent discovers that the call is using a wireless router... and transfers the caller to the wireless support number... port 9. The agent on port 9 answers, spends 3 min+ verifying the caller's information, spends 9 minutes listening to an irate customer go on about how nobody at this place knows anything and that they've been transfered over and over with nobody being able to fix his problem. There's a chance that the agent answering the port 9 call will just transfer the caller back to the AV number or the tier 1 number because a bad wireless signal is definitely not the problem. Why would this 4th transfer happen? BECAUSE THAT'S THE COMPANY'S POLICY!!! If you get a call about a problem that SHOULD be able to be taken care of at tier 1 then you are supposed to send them back to tier 1 even though they've already been there and tier 1 failed.
Remember, the 3rd party gets paid by call volume mainly, quality of service is a factor but I bet it's second or third in priority. Each time that call goes to a different port it registers as a different call. The company makes more money if they have incompetent agents who can't fix anything but will AT LEAST follow the company policy to the letter when it comes to not troubleshooting a port 2 problem if it came through port 9 even though the same person answers the calls for all ports and knows how to offer support on all ports.
What you end up with in this scenario is a 3rd party support company who probably makes a nice profit all the while pissing off a good percentage of the ISP's customers' phone calls from being transferred to hell and back. It's a shitty business model that I really can't stand being a part of... but in this economy it's a steady paycheck.
BTW... if you happen to call and get me, I don't care what port your call came through if you were transferred to me by someone else. I know your OE problem isn't a wireless problem because you'd also have problems with web pages loading if that were the case. I'm pretty sure the problem isn't going to be caused by the AV software we offer because in 9 months I've not seen a single case of that happening. I will have your OE problem solved in under 20 minutes assuming you can follow my instructions and put your anger aside while I'm trying to help you. I've never used OE in a personal or business environment but I am a very competent troubleshooter. OE is a program that gives you error numbers. Even if you didn't know that the training you go through where I work for tier 1 support explains this to you and tells you where to look the numbers up. But I digress... I will fix your OE problem even though your call came through the AV or wi-fi port and hopefully make you a happy customer... and then I will get yelled at by my superiors for not following company policy.
While I'm on company policy... my company would rather I ask you how your day has been and potentially carry on a 5 to 10 minute conversation about something completely unrelated to why you are calling than actually fix your problem quickly. Did I mention that we have to keep our call times under a certain amount of time? We do... so even if I was better at making bullshit small talk the way the company wants me to do I would probably still be opposed to doing it because it would make my average call time longer. I'm sometimes surprised I haven't been fired... but if you knew the turnover rate of this company I think you'd understand that it's hard to get fired without trying really hard.
There are some good things I can say about the company. The training material they provide is top notch IMO but it goes wasted if not used properly by the person you pay to train the noobs. Honestly some people go through router support training never being shown how to configure a router. They're told where to find the information maybe and that's it. What good is 7 8 hour training days when the trainer says "Here's where to find the information, you want to go home early or take calls?"
I was trying to focus on positive things... it's hard to keep that focus. Another great quality about the company I work for is their break policy. It might not be perfect but it's as good or better than the policies at any other company I've ever worked for and complies with the labor laws that I'm aware of.
Those 2 things are about the only positives about working where I work though and the 1st one doesn't apply to me because I already knew 80% or more of the stuff I've been trained on. Outlook Express application specifics is the only thing I knew little to nothing about - I already understood pop and smtp servers, ports and security settings in general though.
I've been putting off this rant for months because I'm just not the type who blogs about stuff very often. I have people I can vent my complaints to directly rather than in this form that feels less cathartic. The longer I work for this company the less I want to work there. I knew during my new hire training that I wouldn't want to work there though because the person who trained me was working out their 2 week's notice and when she explained her reasons for leaving I knew I wouldn't want to work for this company either. My new hire training class started with 12 people. 3 of us were left at the end of the 2 week training (3 missed too many hours due to illness allegedly) and 3 months after I was hired I was the only person left from that training class. They can treat very competent and well meaning employees like shit and they certainly treat their customers like shit. If you have no conscience then you should consider a career in telephone tech support. You'll go far.
Oh yeah... and that OE problem... the fastest fix is usually to delete all of the accounts set up in OE (you're only using one of them anyway) and recreate the email account using the correct settings. A 5 minute process assuming the caller is computer retarded but can at least follow my instructions.
The problem comes when you outsource this kind of operation. The company I work for (the 3rd party) gets paid by the ISP based on call volume. The more calls they get the better the profits. Shorter call times = better profits... and happier callers in some cases. So lets say you have 20 - 30 agents on a given shift and they are trained in every product and service offered by the ISP. Let's say that someone calls in because they are having issues of some kind with Outlook Express. The call comes in on port 1 for general tier1 internet support. The agent spends 3 minutes+ verifying the caller's account information and then spend 6 minutes trying to help the poor soul who can't get his email to download in OE. At about the 9 minute mark they discover that the caller has antivirus software on the computer and it's the same brand as the free AV the ISP gives out and promptly states "well it must be your AV blocking OE so let me transfer you to the AV department... or port 7 in our system. The person answering on port 7 will have to spend 3min+ verifying the account information again, spend 5 minutes turning on and off the firewall in the AV software which makes no difference OE still won't download any of his email. Then the agent discovers that the call is using a wireless router... and transfers the caller to the wireless support number... port 9. The agent on port 9 answers, spends 3 min+ verifying the caller's information, spends 9 minutes listening to an irate customer go on about how nobody at this place knows anything and that they've been transfered over and over with nobody being able to fix his problem. There's a chance that the agent answering the port 9 call will just transfer the caller back to the AV number or the tier 1 number because a bad wireless signal is definitely not the problem. Why would this 4th transfer happen? BECAUSE THAT'S THE COMPANY'S POLICY!!! If you get a call about a problem that SHOULD be able to be taken care of at tier 1 then you are supposed to send them back to tier 1 even though they've already been there and tier 1 failed.
Remember, the 3rd party gets paid by call volume mainly, quality of service is a factor but I bet it's second or third in priority. Each time that call goes to a different port it registers as a different call. The company makes more money if they have incompetent agents who can't fix anything but will AT LEAST follow the company policy to the letter when it comes to not troubleshooting a port 2 problem if it came through port 9 even though the same person answers the calls for all ports and knows how to offer support on all ports.
What you end up with in this scenario is a 3rd party support company who probably makes a nice profit all the while pissing off a good percentage of the ISP's customers' phone calls from being transferred to hell and back. It's a shitty business model that I really can't stand being a part of... but in this economy it's a steady paycheck.
BTW... if you happen to call and get me, I don't care what port your call came through if you were transferred to me by someone else. I know your OE problem isn't a wireless problem because you'd also have problems with web pages loading if that were the case. I'm pretty sure the problem isn't going to be caused by the AV software we offer because in 9 months I've not seen a single case of that happening. I will have your OE problem solved in under 20 minutes assuming you can follow my instructions and put your anger aside while I'm trying to help you. I've never used OE in a personal or business environment but I am a very competent troubleshooter. OE is a program that gives you error numbers. Even if you didn't know that the training you go through where I work for tier 1 support explains this to you and tells you where to look the numbers up. But I digress... I will fix your OE problem even though your call came through the AV or wi-fi port and hopefully make you a happy customer... and then I will get yelled at by my superiors for not following company policy.
While I'm on company policy... my company would rather I ask you how your day has been and potentially carry on a 5 to 10 minute conversation about something completely unrelated to why you are calling than actually fix your problem quickly. Did I mention that we have to keep our call times under a certain amount of time? We do... so even if I was better at making bullshit small talk the way the company wants me to do I would probably still be opposed to doing it because it would make my average call time longer. I'm sometimes surprised I haven't been fired... but if you knew the turnover rate of this company I think you'd understand that it's hard to get fired without trying really hard.
There are some good things I can say about the company. The training material they provide is top notch IMO but it goes wasted if not used properly by the person you pay to train the noobs. Honestly some people go through router support training never being shown how to configure a router. They're told where to find the information maybe and that's it. What good is 7 8 hour training days when the trainer says "Here's where to find the information, you want to go home early or take calls?"
I was trying to focus on positive things... it's hard to keep that focus. Another great quality about the company I work for is their break policy. It might not be perfect but it's as good or better than the policies at any other company I've ever worked for and complies with the labor laws that I'm aware of.
Those 2 things are about the only positives about working where I work though and the 1st one doesn't apply to me because I already knew 80% or more of the stuff I've been trained on. Outlook Express application specifics is the only thing I knew little to nothing about - I already understood pop and smtp servers, ports and security settings in general though.
I've been putting off this rant for months because I'm just not the type who blogs about stuff very often. I have people I can vent my complaints to directly rather than in this form that feels less cathartic. The longer I work for this company the less I want to work there. I knew during my new hire training that I wouldn't want to work there though because the person who trained me was working out their 2 week's notice and when she explained her reasons for leaving I knew I wouldn't want to work for this company either. My new hire training class started with 12 people. 3 of us were left at the end of the 2 week training (3 missed too many hours due to illness allegedly) and 3 months after I was hired I was the only person left from that training class. They can treat very competent and well meaning employees like shit and they certainly treat their customers like shit. If you have no conscience then you should consider a career in telephone tech support. You'll go far.
Oh yeah... and that OE problem... the fastest fix is usually to delete all of the accounts set up in OE (you're only using one of them anyway) and recreate the email account using the correct settings. A 5 minute process assuming the caller is computer retarded but can at least follow my instructions.
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