3 ms·

I puzzled why non-employees even involved in such discussions. There is absolutely zero help they can provide in such cases.

by betaby 3y ago

unleaded 3y ago
? Maybe not in cases like this but quite a few times I've googled an issue with a google/microsoft product, found a post on their forums with an answer from a Verified Service Technician or something like that saying "Update your drivers, run sfc /scannow, and turn it off and on again", then run the same search with "reddit" at the end and got an actual answer
- wildrhythms 3y ago
  On the contrary, I've found those 'Microsoft experts' on the official forums to have less knowledge and poorer troubleshooting skills than a tier 1 helpdesk technician.
  - mattkevan 3y ago
    The community ‘experts’ on the Adobe forums can be actively hostile and rude. I posted a question a while back questioning why After Effects drive-by installs Cinema 4D without warning, and they just could not understand why the lack of notification or consent was a problem, feeling strongly that I should shut up and be grateful even the tiniest of blessings our lords and masters at Adobe see fit to bestow upon our hard drives.
android42 3y ago
Same here, especially since most of the time it's an unhelpful answer that dodges the actual problem or generic advice that doesn't apply, then they mark it as solved. Which then furthers the question, why? I could understand the odd person just trying to be helpful because they had the same problem, found the post with no solution, figured it out, then answered with theirs, but for the ones who seem to spend countless hours ranking up, either by gaming it, or the few actually being helpful, does it lead to a chance of being hired or something? Creating a system like that almost feels like it should be illegal, almost like the companies that give extensive case studies for interviews and take the work with no intention of hiring the interviewees, or unpaid internships where they don't even bother teaching and just give grunt work.
cwillu 3y ago
The “employees” you can talk to can't provide any help either; have a current billing issue due to a ui error, and there's no escalation path, it's just increasing unlikely variants of “try pressing the button on a brand new stock android device using the foo app in safe mode”.
- jacquesm 3y ago
  I keep getting $0.49 and other random amounts charged to an ancient card by Google (one that I long ago used for the business). This is a massive nuisance but there is absolutely no way to trace these payments to anything in any of the Google products I'm using. So I have to keep this card alive and that's more than a bit problematic because that legal entity has merged with another and the bank really wants that card gone (which makes no sense, but that's what they want). So, here I am, stuck between two idiotic bureaucracies with no way to resolve the problem on either side. Google doesn't answer to anything, the bank is - at least on paper, I've managed to stretch this for three years now - unwilling to bend their rules because the amounts are so tiny. But you can see the ghost of what I'm worried about: you'll see that if that card eventually does get cancelled that that $0.49 or whatever is a reason to lock my account or some other idiotic move.
  - humpydumpy 3y ago
    this is a simple problem. Google is doing weird stuff, not replying to your questions - clearly not something you want to have a relationship with. So move away from google, cancel your card, problem solved.
    - jacquesm 3y ago
      For an unrealistic definition of 'simple'.
      - humpydumpy 3y ago
        'simple' in that the solution is obvious. If this obvious solution is unrealistic for you, then you have made yourself too dependent on google, or are just unwilling to solve the problem. In both cases just stop whining.
Faark 3y ago
Having done pretty much this a lifetime ago: A lot of the first level bug support work is basically deduplication (Incl "have you tried...") and asking for aditional/specific information. Excessively browsing a bug tracker is one of the best qualifications, and if you're doing so anyway, why not also help a few lost users here and there? At least that's where it starts... :D
- yencabulator 3y ago
  If only they had something useful. The mystery is why somebody replies like this person, who added absolutely nothing to the conversation and is a "Diamond Product Expert": https://support.google.com/drive/thread/245055606?hl=en&msgid=245082799 https://support.google.com/drive/thread/245055606?hl=en&msgi...
nikanj 3y ago
There is absolutely zero help google employees can provide too
- simfree 3y ago
  This is not true, Googlers (at least Kirkland office based ones) can file an internal ticket if they care. Hence the common recommendation to start spamming first.last@Google.com addresses until you annoy someone internal who is willing to file a ticket on your behalf if you don't have any capable Googlers in your social graph.
  - KMag 3y ago
    At least when I worked at Google over a decade ago, I'm pretty sure first.last@Google.com didn't route to my inbox. (And roughly 70 people worldwide share my surname, according to one of those sites that shows you where people with your surname live.)
HenryBemis 3y ago
I am sure that whoever created this ticket had checked a couple of things (trash/bin) and was adamant that the state of the 'drive' was back in May 2023. Considering through the amount of times that someone said "did you try turning it off and on again?" AND it has has solved the problem, make such forum users/helpers like that very useful.

I puzzled why non-employees even involved in such discussions. There is absolutely zero help they can provide in such cases.

by betaby 3y ago

I puzzled why non-employees even involved in such discussions. There is absolutely zero help they can provide in such cases.

unleaded 3y ago

? Maybe not in cases like this but quite a few times I've googled an issue with a google/microsoft product, found a post on their forums with an answer from a Verified Service Technician or something like that saying "Update your drivers, run sfc /scannow, and turn it off and on again", then run the same search with "reddit" at the end and got an actual answer

wildrhythms 3y ago
On the contrary, I've found those 'Microsoft experts' on the official forums to have less knowledge and poorer troubleshooting skills than a tier 1 helpdesk technician.
- mattkevan 3y ago
  The community ‘experts’ on the Adobe forums can be actively hostile and rude. I posted a question a while back questioning why After Effects drive-by installs Cinema 4D without warning, and they just could not understand why the lack of notification or consent was a problem, feeling strongly that I should shut up and be grateful even the tiniest of blessings our lords and masters at Adobe see fit to bestow upon our hard drives.

android42 3y ago

Same here, especially since most of the time it's an unhelpful answer that dodges the actual problem or generic advice that doesn't apply, then they mark it as solved. Which then furthers the question, why? I could understand the odd person just trying to be helpful because they had the same problem, found the post with no solution, figured it out, then answered with theirs, but for the ones who seem to spend countless hours ranking up, either by gaming it, or the few actually being helpful, does it lead to a chance of being hired or something? Creating a system like that almost feels like it should be illegal, almost like the companies that give extensive case studies for interviews and take the work with no intention of hiring the interviewees, or unpaid internships where they don't even bother teaching and just give grunt work.

cwillu 3y ago

The “employees” you can talk to can't provide any help either; have a current billing issue due to a ui error, and there's no escalation path, it's just increasing unlikely variants of “try pressing the button on a brand new stock android device using the foo app in safe mode”.

jacquesm 3y ago
I keep getting $0.49 and other random amounts charged to an ancient card by Google (one that I long ago used for the business). This is a massive nuisance but there is absolutely no way to trace these payments to anything in any of the Google products I'm using. So I have to keep this card alive and that's more than a bit problematic because that legal entity has merged with another and the bank really wants that card gone (which makes no sense, but that's what they want). So, here I am, stuck between two idiotic bureaucracies with no way to resolve the problem on either side. Google doesn't answer to anything, the bank is - at least on paper, I've managed to stretch this for three years now - unwilling to bend their rules because the amounts are so tiny. But you can see the ghost of what I'm worried about: you'll see that if that card eventually does get cancelled that that $0.49 or whatever is a reason to lock my account or some other idiotic move.
- humpydumpy 3y ago
  this is a simple problem. Google is doing weird stuff, not replying to your questions - clearly not something you want to have a relationship with. So move away from google, cancel your card, problem solved.
  - jacquesm 3y ago
    For an unrealistic definition of 'simple'.
    - humpydumpy 3y ago
      'simple' in that the solution is obvious. If this obvious solution is unrealistic for you, then you have made yourself too dependent on google, or are just unwilling to solve the problem. In both cases just stop whining.

Faark 3y ago

Having done pretty much this a lifetime ago: A lot of the first level bug support work is basically deduplication (Incl "have you tried...") and asking for aditional/specific information. Excessively browsing a bug tracker is one of the best qualifications, and if you're doing so anyway, why not also help a few lost users here and there? At least that's where it starts... :D

yencabulator 3y ago
If only they had something useful. The mystery is why somebody replies like this person, who added absolutely nothing to the conversation and is a "Diamond Product Expert": https://support.google.com/drive/thread/245055606?hl=en&msgid=245082799 https://support.google.com/drive/thread/245055606?hl=en&msgi...

nikanj 3y ago

There is absolutely zero help google employees can provide too

simfree 3y ago
This is not true, Googlers (at least Kirkland office based ones) can file an internal ticket if they care. Hence the common recommendation to start spamming first.last@Google.com addresses until you annoy someone internal who is willing to file a ticket on your behalf if you don't have any capable Googlers in your social graph.
- KMag 3y ago
  At least when I worked at Google over a decade ago, I'm pretty sure first.last@Google.com didn't route to my inbox. (And roughly 70 people worldwide share my surname, according to one of those sites that shows you where people with your surname live.)

HenryBemis 3y ago

I am sure that whoever created this ticket had checked a couple of things (trash/bin) and was adamant that the state of the 'drive' was back in May 2023. Considering through the amount of times that someone said "did you try turning it off and on again?" AND it has has solved the problem, make such forum users/helpers like that very useful.