Woman Arrested For Threatening To Hold Broadband Repair Guy Hostage
from the been-there,-almost-done-that dept
Given the ridiculous run around that many of us have received from our broadband providers, you can probably understand the frustration that playwright Carol Sinclair went through after needing to talk to approximately 20 different tech support folks at her broadband provider, before they finally sent a tech out to her place to see what the deal was. That frustration apparently resulted in a bit of rudeness, which she readily admits, though she explained her frustration to the tech as he entered. However, when the technician told her it wasn't the broadband service provider's fault and he couldn't fix her problem, she allegedly told him she was keeping him hostage until he fixed her internet (found via Slashdot). Having "been there" it's not difficult to understand that the phrase came out of pure frustration, and certainly wasn't meant to be taken literally. Except, the guy did take it literally and "escaped" (though, it doesn't sound like she made any real effort to stop him) by claiming he needed something from his van to fix her connection, and then driving off. He then contacted the police, who arrested Sinclair for her attempted hostage-taking.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: arrested, broadband, hostage, tech support
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
She should have told him . . .
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: She should have told him . . .
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
When was the last time you actually had face to face social interaction with another human being?
What exactly is welfare paying these days?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Geez
Now it would probably surrender if confronted by an angry dachshund.
Bark !!! Bark!!!
[White Flag]
Eric
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Geez
we sent soldiers to deal with germany, not cable/phone guys.
you know, real men that know what they are there to do and are willing to do what it takes to get the job done.
if WWII had fought by cable companies we'd be watching tv in german and watching david hasselhoff on demand.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Obviously
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
In my neighborhood
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Wow.. deja vu
I laugh because I have had that exact thing told to me under the exact same situation. The person (more than once was it told to me) expressed the frustration until he/she 'had it fixed' I would be held hostage or not allowed to leave until it is fixed.
Being me, I would flippiantly retort in a joking manner "so, whats for dinner / lunch" and smile, and get back to work (or say something to that nature).
I have gotten it fixed sometimes and others it was not on the providers side. Oh well. You do what you can, smooth things over, tell the customer would needs to be done, and go on. Nothing else you can do.
Although it has been told to me, I never have been kept hostage (but I have been happily asked and requested back in some cases). Usually the anger wore off after a bit of time and some explanation on what is going on - good or bad.
Would I go so far as TO call the cops and report a threat? Me? I doubt it. But, it would also depend on if I felt threatened, of if I felt in danger. I just haven't felt the need so far. I am an average 5'7 female and I could have put myself in a situation where my comeback and retorts could have gone wrong. I'm glad they haven't though. If that tech really DID feel threatened, it is not something I would want to feel!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Wow.. deja vu
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Wow.. deja vu
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Obviously this was a Comcast Employee
Comcast rarely if ever fixes your problem the first time, and short of pulling a pistol on their techs you not likely to get anything but an excuse.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Obviously this was a Comcast Employee
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
LOSER
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
See both sides
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: See both sides
That's not totally true. The ISP is providing a service, and as part of that task, they should be making sure the client can use the service. I personally worked for an ISP that bent over backwards to make sure their customers were able to get online, whether it was broadband or dial up, and would even resolve customers problems with other associated businesses.
If the ISP has such useless tech support that they can't explain exactly what the problem is and fix it or direct the customer to who can, they don't deserve any customers.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: See both sides
In the business side of things there is this concept called the point of demarcation which is the point at which a problem ceases to be your problem(as an ISP in this case) and instead becomes the problem of the wireless router manufacturer, or the maker of the firewall software, or whoever might actually be responsible for this and who just so happen to NOT be paying the ISP for providing support for their faulty products.
For example, every day for a week I got a call from a guy who would claim that his service would just disconnect; it was never disconnected when he'd call but he wanted to know why the service was so spotty. Once the situation was handed over to me, the guy happened to have one of these disconnections while he was on the phone with me and it was at that point that I informed him that his cable modem was working and that I was able to read and access it perfectly. The only way he would believe this was when I reset the modem for him to show him that the lights actually blink differently. Then he let it slip that he was using a wireless router. Care to guess what the problem was? Care to guess how much that man cost us, or how much Linksys paid us to get his head out of his ass?
Or the woman who REFUSED to be told that we simply don't support machines running Windows 95(that is not a typo). She tried to go over my head for telling her that she needed to upgrade but she didn't realize that I was the assistant engineer at the time and partner in the company.
Or the idiot who would move his cable modem around the house and need a tech to come out to tune it so that it would work again. This happened at least twice a week even though we told him they couldn't be moved at all.
Or the guy, he said he was a "Colonel", who called repeatedly to tell us that he couldn't get his email any longer and had completely ignored the email we sent him telling him that he'd have to start deleting email to keep under quota(we gave him 2 months to comply).
Do I really need to go on with these time and money wasting excuses for human beings?
I can really go on and on and on because MOST of the people who call are simply too clueless to even be allowed online. I've long stated that we need internet licenses just like we need driver licenses since owning or using a computer comes with the responsibility of learning how to care for it and use it. It should be the most basic of skills to recognize that a shitload of popup adverts likely means you've been infected and need to start searching for solutions, but in reality it's usually the need to start searching for more porn instead and let tech support do the work you need to be doing instead.
I don't know how much of this you're aware of but the ISP only collects about $5-10 per customer per month. Yeah, I know you PAY more than that but that mostly goes to the cable provider or the like. The ISP is the one responsible for the tech support and yet somehow people think they're making enough of a profit to tell them that ZoneAlarm is actually a shitty firewall, or Norton/Macaffee is the worst "virus protection" there is, or that naming their router "linksys" and leaving it unprotected is a bad idea.
Seriously, you haven't done enough time on the phone if you think that an ISP is responsible for this thing that would be taught in an "Internet 101" class, if such a thing were available.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: See both sides
;)
I would tend to have more sympathy for Tech Support orgs and their reps if the standard answer wasn't something along the lines of: "Ms. Customer, let's try power-cycling your router/modem."
It's an easy answer, and it usually works, but it isn't root cause analysis. It's just a way of ending the call as quickly as possible and checking the "first call resolved" checkbox so the tech's metrics look good.
Woadan
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: See both sides
It's a shame when you get a ticket, get dispatched, drive there, get in, find the dmarc, turn the linksys (or modem) off, wait 5 seconds, turn it back on and voila the internet works!
If I had stayed there an hour, or stayed there 5 minutes.. its the same charge. But why get charged at all? In cases like that (and there are multiple I can recount) the customer did not want to reboot anything or do any troubleshooting, just wanted a tech period out there.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: See both sides
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: See both sides
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: See both sides
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: See both sides
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Hostage
Was she hot and where does she live? Maybe I can talk her into holding me hostage.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
LOL
And that would mean - yes - No Chuck Norris~~
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Since we can watch plenty of David Hasselhoff On Demand now, ask yourself . . . who really won?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The ISP can't be, and won't be, responsible for the customer's equipment. If the router is doing its job and delivering the tubes, then it is up to the customer.
The problem is that most people don't go in and change the defaults on any app they've installed because they don't know how, and probably don't want to. No routine maintenance, like defragging their hard disk.
People want their computers, and the tubes, to be like a toaster. First time you make toast, it's a little too dark? You turn the knob to a lighter setting. Next time too light? You turn it up. After that, you always get toast the same way.
But computers and the tubes are not toasters, and no matter what Apple, Microsoft, or any PC maker can do, it won't ever be like a toaster.
With all of that said, though, it's hard to trust the ISP's tech support department when they don't really do any sort of root cause analysis. The typical answer to any problem, after some basic checks of the system and/or the router? Mr./Ms. Customer please power-cycle your router. (Turn it off, wait 30 seconds or so, turn it back on.)
Of course, the problem goes away... for now. But it'll come back because no real troubleshooting happened. But after calling in a couple of times and being told to power-cycle, customers just start power-cycling their routers. (After all, why wait for 5-30 minutes on hold just to have the tech tell you to do that.)
And so the circle keeps on turning...
Woadan
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Idiots are for blling, not locking up
The ISP really should be providing a service at a reasonable cost. If the customer expects more service than you can provide at the current cost one of the best ways to dump them is to start charging according to what they cost you. Either the customer goes away, or you get paid enough to make tolerating the pain worthwhile.
The phone companies actually do this (one of their few virtues), if your willing to pay the hourly rate they'll rewire, but your wallet is going to bleed.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Tech issues
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
OMG...what a wimp!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Whoa
http://www.canadiantheatre.com/images/theatre/sinclair.jpg
I'd run screaming too!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]