The Acanac Online PC Experience - Really?!?!?!?

First, let’s take a look at the company!

From their Website:

“Acanac is the sister company of Canaca.com Inc one of Canada’s Largest
webhosting companies. Acanac takes the same principles brought to you by
Canaca, great service at a great value.  Acanac provides cost effective Residential
and Business phone service at an affordable price. We also offer High speed DSL
and dial up access as well.We are truly a global communications company
connecting the world for less.

Acanac’s core value is to make sure that you the customer is served with the
utmost respect and professionalism. This is the reason that we are one of
the few companies that offer a unconditional money back guarantee.

We recognize that down time is not an option for your internet access and
that you deserve crystal clear Phone Service at all times. That’s why we
have invested heavily in hardware, and facilities this ensures that you, the
client is up and running on 24 hours a day seven days a week.”
My Experience Loathing with for Acanac

The Search for a VPS Begins - July 14th, 2008

Looking for a cost-effective way of hosting multiple websites I came across a company called Acanac. They are offering a Online PC (Virtual Private Server) with the following specs:

Price - $23.95/month (12-month)
Speed - 10mbps up/10mbps down
Static IP - 1
Bandwidth - 500GB
HDD Space - 100GB
RAM - 750Mb
Root Access - Yes
OS - Centos 5

Software Included with CentOS
(Standard with any lin box)

Firefox
KTorrent
Open Office
http streaming
ftp access
File Encryption
Gftp client
Games
IM

Read more

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Hiring a Web Designer? Some tips to make them crazy!

I’ve been running a web design department for quite some time, and it’s quite easy to send me over the edge these days. It’s not because I hate the job, it’s not because the company or people are awful to work with. Nope, they’re actually super cool. The real problem is the fact that the customers have unrealistic expectations for what they pay for.
These tips will send your designer over the edge and possibly to the centre for addiction and mental health:

1. Tell your designer that you want a website that has the functions and design of MySpace, Facebook and YouTube — in one.
2. Ask for a discount (usually on their already rock-bottom prices). If you are an existing hosting customer, ask for free web hosting for a year! That’ll grind their noodle.
3. The designer or manager will ask you for your sites content before the project can begin. Make sure to tell them that you have everything prepared and ready-to-go even if you don’t. Once ready to send the content, send multiple emails each with a small piece of your content. There’s nothing more annoying then waiting for content in order to finish a website.
4. After you have agreed upon the initial contract/proposal ask for a quote minus a few of the options that you originally wanted.
5. Do not under any circumstances listen to the suggestions of your designer. They may know what’s best but what’s the fun in that.
6. If the designer or manager asks what you would like to be able to manage (edit/add) on the site yourself. Say that your site is going to have millions of visitors and that you’ll need to update all facets of the site.
7. A logo is one of the most important aspects of a website. When the designer asks for yours, send them a low-resolution image in *jpg format or send them a old business card.

At this point, if you were to try any other stunts the designer and manager would probably have to quit or end up like the guy in the above picture. Enjoy!

If you have any of your own, comment and we’ll place them as additional points.

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Technical Support Attitude!

(part of an ongoing saga. See the previous articles, as well - here and here)

Just because you buy a PC form a certain manufacturer, that doesn’t entitle you to owning the tech. Owning – as in - I called tech support and Owned the tech, or The customer called me and I owned him – both examples do NOT apply. The only thing you own is the pc, nothing more, and not even the software on it. You are only allowed to use the software, you don’t own squat. Remember that the next time you call for technical support. And all you technicians out there in help desk land, you need to listen as well. You don’t have the right to be rude, or talk down to the customer no matter how much you may think they deserve it. You don’t own anything either – You both need each other! No tech = no support, No customer = nothing to support = no job.

Nothing turns a tech support call south than attitude, whether it’s the customer - either out of frustration, or a false sense of superiority, or the technician from a long day at the office, or inability to deal with newbies. Communicating technical support problems and solutions is not easy by any means. It takes a special knack to fix a problem without seeing it, and describing a problem to a technician when you’re not a technician. Try it sometime, as a test, maybe try telling your spouse of children how to make a sandwich over the phone, and give them every detail of how you want it made. Harder than you think!

Customers – Do not challenge the technician, let them initiate the call, and go through their procedures. They do this every day and are trained to deliver a speedy solution. Let the technician speak, and keep your answers to a minimum yes or no. The technician will take you through the steps to get you off and running as quick as he can.

If you do not agree with his solution, or feel that he has not completed the task, politely explain your concerns and continue the call. If you are polite and explain your concerns calmly, you will be able to work with them until the problem is resolved.

If the solution provided is not acceptable, or inadequate, again say so. If you have reached the end of the road, then ask to be escalated to 2^nd level support. Note that you cannot just haphazardly ask to be escalated. It’s like a get out of jail free card, use it wisely. Make sure you are entitled to the support you are requesting. Make sure the product you are having problems with is indeed covered under your support warranty.

No, Microsoft Office does not come with Windows! So forget about yelling at the PC manufacturer because they won’t support you for free. Call Microsoft.

Don’t even think about getting angry or name calling! Technicians have enough stress fixing problems, let alone social working. Want to end a call and get nowhere? Try raising your voice or calling a tech a name. And don’t think they don’t share information. They can easily put a note in your history that says rude, or irate, or that you name call. See what kind of support you get the next time you call. And you know what, You deserve it. You ever call your mechanic a name, how about your doctor? I think you get the point. Respect and love your tech! It’s all good!

Technicians – Not every caller is stupid, and they are people too. Try putting a smile on your face before you answer the call. Believe it or not you mood is transparent to callers, and a bad mood can turn a routine call into a supervisor’s glare in an instant. Your tone of voice can be misinterpreted and sound like you are a computer god – dictating to your minions. Vocal inflections, or worse yet a monotone voice will convey the no-care , I’m better than you attitude. You’re there for 8 hours, might as well relax and stay awhile.

Bored, feeling burnt out? Been on the same product queue for months, ask to be cross trained and breed some new life and interest into your tech support abilities.  If you know you’re going to be in this product queue for a while, find ways to make it interesting. Try to streamline the common answers. Think about the questions you often solve. Think about the questions and answers you ask the customer and find a way to improve the process. If you ask questions and the customer asks you to repeat it, then reword it.

If your call is too cold and stiff, try making light, talk about the weather, offer some friendly advice to avoid problems such as the customer is experiencing. Offer some links, or websites for reference – check with your  employer’s policies first though, make sure you’re not breaking any rules, or sending them to the competition!

If you don’t know the answer – say so. Don’t bother confusing the matter. Tell the customer you don’t know the answer, and try to find the answer. If you cannot, offer them some tips to finding it themselves. Or call them back with the information – again, if your company allows that practice.

Scripts – By now, you must have the caller greeting script permanently forged in your brain. Try changing it slightly to suit your personality. That can work wonders in your attitude and customer perceptions. You’re not a robot and we know that!

Let the man speak – by god man! We know its frustrating listening to a non technical person explain their problem. They get emotional and tell you everything except what you need to hear to fix the problem. Regardless, part of your job – admit it or not – is to counsel and advise. You have to help the customer as well as the problem they are experiencing. This takes a good ear, some compassion, and some patience! You never know who is on the other end of the phone. Respect the customer, and all is good!

Without customers, there are no jobs. And of course, we’re all someone else’s customer at some point.

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Consumers vs. Technicians (Part 2)

We’ve all had to call technical support at one time or another. We’ve all had good and bad experiences with them. Looking in from the consumer’s perspective, we have complaints abounding. Most complaints can be summed up:

-          The technician had poor people skills and didn’t care about me or my problem

-          The technician had poor language skills or spoke too quickly to understand

-          The technician had poor technical skills, and didn’t know anything

Imagine that? A technician that doesn’t know it all! In my IBM days, it was a common saying that if you could walk and chew gum, and you were polite, they could train you to fix computers. Oh, how sadly untrue!

And for the record – it’s the other way around! If you can fix computers, we can teach you to walk and chew gum – virtual gum, and walking through a cyber-world. - Just kidding.

I’ll start out with some scenario from the Consumer’s Perspective, then I’ll give the Technician’s Perspective.

Consumer Scenarios

1) You’re an Idiot, and we know everything.

As the customer, we’ve become familiar with that drab and monotone voice on the other end of the phone. They condescend you in every word and even mock you! You can easily imagine the tech’s face and actions akin to “whatever” I’ll bet you’ve often felt like they put you on hold to get their colleagues to listen in, and have a comedy central riot at your expense. Or worse yet, they put you on speakerphone. All the while, claiming to be getting their 2^nd level support team involved. As for 2^nd level support, he’s most likely the guy in the next workstation pretending to be the go-to-guy. Oh the tricks and webs we weave…

2) Passing The Buck

You’re on the phone for an hour, and the problem still exists. The technician told you to download the drivers and call back – your problem that you could access the internet. How can you download the drivers without an Internet connection?

3) He said, She said

You have a computer, a modem, a router and a VOIP phone. The phone doesn’t work, so who do you call? The ISP says, it’s not their problem and al is working fine with the lines in your house. How does he know, did he come out and check them? Taking his advice, you call the VOIP provider. They say it’s your ISP’s problem. You call back the ISP and relay the information, although you have not been given any reason, or information to convey, you just say – it’s your problem. ISP says it’s your computer.

The point? Well, the technician is basically trying to get rid of the idiot on the line. Pass the buck, find a place to lay blame, somewhere that the consumer can’t refute. Somewhere in techno-babble land. The customer won’t know what hit him!

4) Stats baby Stats!

Call Centres run on statistics. Plain and simple. More calls in less time, be polite so that the company look and sounds professional and that they care about you. Etiquette over technical abilities. Heaven forbid – a likeable technician? Although rare, they do exist, and I’ve personally been told this thousands of times. It is the technician’s job to take inbound calls, complete them as quickly as possible. Politely and courteously. If a call goes beyond the average talk time of say 3 minutes, it starts to impact his personal stats. Lower talk times are better, and he who handles more calls looks better to management.

Although technical abilities are nice to have, a good talker can get you on the line, confuse you and get you off the line without fixing anything. It should work - is the term that technicians use to get rid of you. They have either reached their personal limits of technical abilities, they’ve been on the call too long, their supervisor is waving his arms, or pointing at his watch, or the tech just doesn’t care any more.

5) Where am I calling for support anyways?

You may have noticed the trend in the last decade where technical support is outsourced overseas. My opinion of course, nevertheless – the reason for this trend is as I stated above. If you can walk and talk politely, we can train you to take technical calls. There are countries overseas with exceptional educational systems and language diversities. The technical infrastructure can be brought to these countries, and the training can be scripted. North American IT companies have already laid the foundations for tech support protocols, procedures, flow charts and problem resolution tools. These can be converted into online training and resources. Call centres simply need the manpower to field the calls, and use the problem resolution tools to fix the problems. Technician’s technical troubleshooting abilities will come later. This is not the case now, however it was 10 years ago. Lets face it, it’s cheaper for manpower, foreign governments welcome big business, and will help with incentives, training, location, land, resources, and of course tax breaks. If you wonder why the technician is overseas – now you know.

North American workers want too much, benefits, holidays, regular raises, perks, benefits and so on and so no. I should know, I am one too.

Overseas workers, well it’s a completely different ball game. It’s Cricket actually.

Technician Scenarios

Ok, lets start by first getting the usual stories out of the way.
PEBKAC – problem exists between keyboard and chair
ID 10T Error – spell it out - id10t, coffee holders, why is there 2 power buttons, my computer isn’t working…let me get a flashlight to see why etc.

1)      If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

How many calls have you taken in a case like this. The customer says, well I was looking through my programs and uninstalled everything I didn’t need. You of course roll your eyes, and wonder where this is going. Of course under your breath, you have to ask why?

If your car is working fine, do you start removing parts? So, now the caller wants you to help them repair everything. Of course this can go several ways – is the computer even in warranty, is it your company’s product, what exactly is wrong with it and so on.

It takes a special gift to be able to repair something without seeing it. Think about that next time you need technical support.

2)      Your error messages are unique

Windows is known for some of the most ridiculous and useless error messages (sorry to all the programmers out there) but it’s true. Fatal error, Fatal exception, Illegal Operation and so on. SWAT or the ETF should be here any minute. Callers have no idea what they are or how to fix them, so they call for support. Of course they have to read every single word of the error message, or worse yet, the terms and conditions of a EULA. ( Tip: stop them before they start, politely say no need to read the entire message.) The consumer feels that they are helping you, and the company make a better product, and you NEED to know this information.

3)      Why do I have to give you my information?

Ever had a customer raise a fuss about giving their information, or even the machine information? Why is that, got something to hide? They don’t realize that everything needs to be tracked in the call centre’s tools and utilities. The information is used to call up history, case numbers, and previous calls. Technicians could care less about your personal information. They want to see the technical details to get the problem fixed.

4)      I want your name and extension

Yeah right, you bought a laptop computer and that earns you the right to call me whenever you need? I’ve purchased cars and homes with not even an extension number. I’m not referring to security and Information privacy, but rather customer expectations.

As far as privacy and security concerns go, each country is different of course. In Canada where I live, we are not required to give first and last names. As long as you can give the customer a way to refer to your case, or to you with an alias, or a employee number or a reference number, that is good enough. I’ve actually had customers look me up in the phonebook and call me at home. This was when I first started in technical support at IBM. You learn real quick after that happens!

5)      Salesman will say anything to close the deal!

The customer calls to say this computer was promised to have xray vision! More often than not, big box store salesman work on commission. They need the money just as much as you. Their employers don’t want to pay for product training and considering how quickly technology changes, it’s next to impossible to keep up. Sales staff often have to learn products on their own time. They may have made an honest mistake, or did what they had to - to get the deal done. Of course this leave the customer with false information and you are a representative of the company tat makes these products – whether you like it or not. Fix the problem, make it do what was promised or bear the wrath of the misinformed customer. Your only recourse is tell the truth and set the record straight, or escalate to Customer Care. Of course, you get dinged for the escalation, or for telling the customer their laptop can’t make ice cubes.

6)      You know everything about software

The customer complains that his computer won’t synch with his digital camera, or his home design software doesn’t work. Of course it’s your fault. You’re supposed to know about these things. The customer has no idea that there are support limitations. If it connects to your product, you have to support it. Customer Entitlement is not clearly defined. Sorry marketing and sales teams, this falls on you. As a technician, you’d love to say, does the computer turn on and operate properly? Thank you for calling our company, have a nice day – but you can’t. You have to at least try to offer some sort of assistance – without knowing a thing about the product. Like a Honda mechanic working on a photocopier.

Finally, Some funny (or stupid) questions
Can’t you just loom at my computer from there and fix it?
Can I see if my kids have been surfing adult sites?
Can you clean my computer of where I’ve been and my cookies?
Why do I have to pay for support, MSN comes with windows
Why don’t I have Microsoft word, it’s part of windows
My casino software stopped working
My stock market programs are not working
My kids did this and broke something
I get this error message, I don’t remember what it says, can you fix it?
My computer won’t power on
My monitor won’t show anything, it just blinks, or has no green light
Smoke is coming from my monitor, what should I do
I spilled coffee on my laptop and it started to smoke, is it ok?
Can I have your number so I can call you back?
I demand to speak with your supervisor, I want a new computer
If you don’t fix it now, I want a replacement
What do you mean not supported? It came with the computer

Just look at yahoo’s new answers for some of the typical questions. You’ll be sure to get a chuckle!

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Consumers vs. Technicians (part 1)

We’ve all had to call technical support at one time or another. We’ve all had good and bad experiences with them. Looking in from the consumer’s perspective, we have complaints abounding. Most complaints can be summed up:

-          The technician had poor people skills and didn’t care about me or my problem.
-          The technician had poor language skills or spoke too quickly to understand,
-          Often, a common complaint is plain and simply - just poor technical skills.

Imagine that? A technician that doesn’t know it all! In my IBM days, it was a common saying that if you could walk and chew gum – but were polite, they could train you to fix computers. Oh, how sadly untrue!

And for the record – it’s the other way around! If you can fix computers, we can teach you to walk and chew gum – virtual gum, and walking through a cyber-world. - Just kidding.

As the customer, we’ve become familiar with that drab and monotone voice on the other end of the phone. They condescend you in every word and even mock you! You can easily imagine the tech’s face and actions akin to “whatever” I’ll bet you suspect that they put you on hold to get their colleagues to listen in, or worse yet, put you on speakerphone – while claiming to be getting their 2^nd level support team involved. And as for 2^nd level support, he’s most likely the guy in the next workstation pretending to be the go-to-guy.

In the end, you’re on the phone for an hour, and the problem still exists. The technician told you to download the drivers and call back – your problem that you could access the internet. How can you download the drivers? How about the reassuring “it should work” reply.

To be continued!

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So, you want a website? (Part 2)

Once the domain name is purchased, you then tell the domain registrar to point the domain to the address of the server you purchased hosting from. The hosting company will have their own name servers. These are servers that direct the people trying to locate your website. Let us compare a name server to an apartment building directory. You are in the lobby, and know the name of the person you want to visit, but not the apartment number. Look in the directory, and you have it. So, the internet surfer has click on your link, they are taken to your hosting company’s web server, and then the name server tells them where your site is located on their servers. The internet visitor sees none of the behind the scenes work, they just get to your site.

Now, you have a name, and a hosting company. You then setup all the emails you need for each department, or person and configure your email software to access those accounts on (outlook, thunderbird, Eudora, etc.) they will retrieve the email from the server and deliver it to your home pc. You may also try simplify They are offering free webspace hosting for a limited time.

You then need to build a website and promote it. Companies offering these services are typically split into smaller specialty services – website designers create the graphics, webmasters build the site and place it on the servers. All in one sites such as onsiteguys can build the site with you, make it available on the internet and maintain it for you.

Each change modification to the website requires it to be placed on the host server. Website maintenance and updating is an ongoing, never ending task, and unless you learn to publish your website on your own, be prepared to pay for updates on a regular basis. Each time you need something changed, you have to call the webmaster, or graphics company to make those changes. Making them go live will cost you at minimum an hour of labor.

Shopping carts, e-commerce and credit card payments also require extensive integration with your website, and cost more money. These are considered add on services to your hosting package. Prices vary, and some may include some components free. If you intend on selling products, you may consider using paypal initially, as they are easier to setup. Accepting credit card payments requires a merchant account, and has monthly fees, as well as percentages off of the sales made.

Promoting and marketing your website is if not the most important fact in success. People have to know that it exists. Simply creating a website does nothing for promoting it. You may enlist the services of a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) professional, or purchase search engine submission software to assist.

In a nutshell, decide on a product or service, buy the name and hosting, build the site, promote it, and keep it current by updating it regularly.

If you are unsure about whether you need a site, think of what is already available for free:

 
-          photo storage, photo albums, and photo sharing
-          blogs
-          product reviews
-          online file sharing, storage
-          music – storage, sharing, playlists
-          web storage space (not for domain names, just empty space)
-          paypal, google pay (for buying items over the internet)
-          free shopping carts – they take a commission off your sales

You may find that what you need already exists – for free, or a lot less than you anticipated.

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So, you want a website? (Part 1)

Having your own website means freedom of speech, your own personal place to rant and rave, or somewhere just to setup shop. No matter what the intention, you can do just about anything you need to do online.

Before you start planning and spending the money to get the ball rolling, take a few moments to think about what its real purpose is. You may be surprised to know that many services and products related to websites are free and ultimately can save you lots of time and headaches. Before we talk about those, let’s first describe the website checklist;

Requirements:

–        a product or service

–        domain name

–        hosting and email

–        marketing and promotion

–        ongoing maintenance, webpage updates

–        more marketing and promotion!

–        More updates…

I’ll not get into the details of a business plan and research. We’ll assume you are 100% convinced and are ready to take the plunge. The first step is coming up with a domain name. You need to come up with many, and alternative spellings, etc. A good place to search for names is domains bot. .com domain names cost about $8 US each. Each domain name type has a different price, and there are no set prices. Shop around!

If you need to generate names, try dnwiz. Once you have a name, then you need to give it an address. Every webpage on the internet has an address. Think of it as a postal address. People need to be able to find it. It’s address is called an IP address. An IP address will be automatically assigned by the hosting domain registrar – which is where you “pays your money, and gets your name”

Once you have purchased the domain name, you have an address, but no house to put your website. The next step is to find a host. We hosting is typically a company with a room full of network servers split into many shared websites. One server could house thousands of separate websites, all completely independent of each other. This is called shared hosting, and typically runs about $3 – 20 per month for the average hosting package. Watch out for the setup fees;  where the hosting is charged monthly, as well as an annual setup fee. Most setup fees can be waived if you purchase hosting by the year.

Hosting packages are defined by many factors, including:

-          storage space you will need for your website (how many gigabytes)

-          bandwidth requirements (how many visitors will you have each month, and what are they doing at your site? Reading, or getting data, music, or other files from you? (again, measured in gigabytes)

-          Uploading – can people give you files and put them on your website?

-          Number of email accounts you need

-          Storefront (e-commerce, shopping cart, can you accept credit cards)

-          Database – will users register to login, will they store any personal information, or interact with your website in any way

-          Support for creating and publishing the website with Microsoft FrontPage, or Adobe Dreamweaver (you need special software on the server to allow you to publish the website from your own computer, directly to the internet)

To locate a hosting package you will need to shop around, and may look at hostsearch.

To be continued tomorrow…

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