Two thoughts come to mind  when I think of what makes a good tech support person. One, know how you customers communicate problems. That’s the key. Most people just want their computer to work and don’t want to be bogged down with gory details. I don’t ask my customers to try and explain things rationally. When they call, they are panicked or stressed about their system doing something unexpected. It isn’t their job to read computer technical sites or keep up with the latest trouble shooting information. That’s what they pay me to do.

One of favourite calls described a problem as “the dohicky on the back of the big box fell off when I was cleaning. Should I be worried?” I was rather startled when I understood what that meant.  A cable had been pulled out when she was cleaning behind the desk.  My all time favourite support call still tickles me.  Not much ruffled this particular customer’s feathers; he tended to remain calm under the most adverse circumstances. When I picked up this message: “It’s not working at all. I’m not sure what I’m looking at. Should I just back out of the room slowly and close the door?” I knew it was very serious and warranted an emergency call.  It turned out when he installed some patches, one failed, causing the computer to reboot and crash. He was looking at the dreaded “Blue Screen of Death”.  His calls were normally to the point and concise. The nature of his message was enough to tell me something had gone terribly wrong and an emergency call was needed.

The second thought is, know your customers’ computers as well. When someone calls me, I know what type of work they do, how they treat their system and just as important, if there are any quirks about that system. Often a problem can be quickly traced if you know the computer inside and out. When the customer with the noisy computer called, I already knew her DVD drive was a bit noisy, but she rarely used it so it was not worth spending money replacing it. I can count on one hand how often she used the drive.  The second customer was very comfortable solving problems and updating his system. He kept his computer up to date and in pristine order. When I spoke to him and heard blue screen, I figured the patch went wrong.   Knowing where to start looking when I walk in the door saves customers money.  I have another customer who was a heavy smoker and who also eats over her keyboard.  When I get calls from her, I know invariably it’s something related to the keyboard being gummed up, or she’s spilt something onto her laptop again. She chewed through laptops like most people do mints until I hooked up an external keyboard.  Her calls are pretty routine, messy but routine. Her calls tend to be short “I did it again” messages.  She mercifully stopped smoking so I no longer have to knock ashes out of her keyboard. Crumbs, jam, fingernail clippings, coffee, sugar and stuff I’ve never identified – yes, but no more ashes. I take a small roll up keyboard when I need to do maintenance because I can’t stand touching her keyboard. I once threatened to come in a Hazmat suit. Didn’t make a difference, her keyboard is still breeding unknown life forms.

The point is, if you want to save yourself a lot of needless visits, learn to decode your customer. You can cut away a lot of stress if you understand what they are trying to tell you. They know when their computer is doing something strange.  If you are familiar with their computer and how it works, you can narrow down the problems a lot quicker. But the key is to listen to what the customer has to say. My customers and I often laugh at their descriptions, after the problem has been solved. But I tell them over and over, it would have taken longer to solve (and cost more money) if I didn’t stop to listen to what they said. Yes, I understand “dohicky fell off”, “damn, the cursor is zippy”, “I hear a tick tick tick”, “what the fuck are those horrible beeps” and “should my monitor be hiccupping?” because I chat with my customers while I’m visiting. I listen to how they describe things on their computers and this makes it much easier when it comes to answering those emergency calls.

Oh and the hiccupping monitor? It was nothing more than a corrupt video driver. The screen was periodically blinking on and off. Removing the driver and reinstalling it solved the problem. I got a lovely loaf of banana bread as a bonus for not snickering into the phone when I spoke to the customer.

We store a tons of personal information on our computers – passwords, financial data, emails, passport details, SIN numbers, you name it. They are treasure troves of info for anyone who wants to steal an identity or rifle through bank accounts. Today, a timely reminder came from Canada’s Privacy Commissioner’s office of just how easy it is to loose your information. Staples has been taken to task for reselling storage drives that have personal data still on them. In their press release today, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner said:

Staples Business Depot stores failed to fully wipe customer data from returned devices such as laptops and USB hard drives destined for resale, a privacy audit has found. The long-standing problem put customers’ personal information at risk, says Privacy Commissioner of Canada Jennifer Stoddart. 

“Our findings are particularly disappointing given we had already investigated two complaints against Staples involving returned data storage devices and the company had committed to taking corrective action,” says Commissioner Stoddart.

“While Staples did improve procedures and control mechanisms after our investigations, the audit showed those procedures and controls were not consistently applied, nor were they always effective – leaving customers’ personal information at serious risk.”

In short, storage drives taken back to Staples were inadequately erased. Up to 1/3 of the devices in this report that were supposedly “wiped and restored” and put up for resale still had personal data on them:

The Staples audit included tests on data storage devices (ie:  computers, laptops, USB hard drives and memory cards) that had undergone a “wipe and restore” process and were destined for resale. Of the 149 data storage devices tested, over one-third (54 devices) still contained customer data – in some cases, highly sensitive personal information such as Social Insurance Numbers, and health card and passport numbers; academic transcripts; banking information and tax records.

In reading this, I’m 100% confident Staples is not an isolated case. Many other stores would end up with the similar findings, or in some cases worse. This reminded me of an incident years ago when I purchased a package of generic floppies (yes, that many years ago) for a customer. I can’t remember which office supply store it was now.  When we went to use them, all the disks were full. Every one in the package held some business’ archived records. I was astounded. When I returned to the store with said floppies in hand, the clerks were baffled as well. The manager did some phoning and found out the disks they had purchased in bulk came from a reseller. He simply acquired floppies from a variety of sources, repackaged them and sold them as new, without ensuring the data was erased. Since that time, I’ve been very wary.

Ask yourself, what do you do with the old CDs you no longer want? Throw them in the garbage? How about the old computer you just replaced? I’ve walked by computers dumped at the end of drive ways – waiting for someone to pick through the unwanted carcass – and poked through them myself. It’s surprising how many still have their HD in them. Simply erasing the data is not enough. Anyone can go online and get recovery software that will bring most of the files back up. I don’t like to see customers throw out their drives or even give them away an longer. I yank hard drives out of old machines, and either buy a case for it to turn it into an external backup drive for the customer (if the HD is in good working order) or I bring my handy dandy screw driver set with me and dismantle the entire drive. The casing for HD is not expensive and offers customers the extra security that their data is safe. If the drive is no good, the silver disks inside the HD make great coasters and the earth magnets are .. well they are just cool to play with. Let’s just say there are a few refrigerators in Toronto with magnets on them that will be there when the fridge is disposed of.

As for CD and USB drives (if they no longer work properly), I take a hammer to them and destroy them.  Make sure you put them into a bag before attacking them, CDs and USB drives splinter when smacked with heavy objects. The parts can become dangerous flying projectiles. Remember, it’s all fun and games until someone looses an eye.

But what if you have to return your drive because it is defective?  That’s a serious problem. We assume any company we are dealing with is either ethical enough or smart enough to take steps to protect your security.  If the drive is still in working condition, I’d recommend you get software (called shredders) to wipe it clean yourself. There are lots of decent ones on the Internet. Simply deleting the files does nothing – they are still there. A good shredder program overwrites the files numerous times until they are no longer accessible, unless someone has some very, very expensive software on hand.  One of the best is Active@ Kill Disk. It not only erases your drive, it destroys the partitions and does a low level format. Use it on floppies, USB drives, hard drives – any data storage you want to get rid of. It’s a FREE utility. Yes, free as in no strings attached. They also have professional level utilities for businesses, but for the home market or single computer/laptop the Active@ Kill Disk will do the job. If you find yourself deleting lots of USB drives etc, purchase Active@, it’s not expensive and may be the cheapest insurance you ever buy yourself.

Active@ Kill Disk meets government standards for “sanitizing” disks. That means, nothing will be recoverable from your old drive. If you don’t want the drive hanging around and want to pass it along the computer food chain, use Active@ first, make sure nothing is on the drive and then give it away. If the disk or computer is defective and under warranty, use Active@ before returning to the store for a replacement. The Active@ comes with clear instructions on how to use it as well as common sense information. If you can’t dismantle the drive, or need to return it, Active@ Kill Disk will let you rest easy your data will not be recovered.

If the drive doesn’t work at all, you are faced with a dilemma. Take it back for the refund/replacement and trust the company disposes of the drive properly or destroy it yourself and swallow the loss. It’s up to you.  If you take your drive back to the store, demand in writing, a guarantee the drive will be professionally wiped by the company (do this even if you’ve been able to wipe it by yourself). Make sure the store understands you take your privacy seriously.  Get it in writing. No company should hesitate to offer this in writing. If they do, that’s a signal they have sloppy habits. It’s your data, and it’s your right to protect yourself. If a company won’t put it in writing, tell them they have a cavalier attitude about their customers and say “there’s lots of competition out there. Do you want me to take my business elsewhere?” I think customers need to start forcing this issue by demanding it in writing. This puts the company on notice.  Money talks in this situation. You can also use the threat of going to the Privacy Commissioner. Here in Canada, it wields a very big stick – just ask Facebook about the problems they’ve had here. Don’t be meek. Don’t put your data at risk.

Somebody from India or wherever claiming to be from Microsoft took me through a trip on my old computer, claiming that my computer is 4 years and 1 day old and that I need to buy a new firewall from them. It was a long process whereby they claimed to prove things to me.

I think some idiots hacked into somewhere, got all my info and they were not from Microsoft. Kept claiming they were proving things to me.

This is what makes the calls so hard to resist. They sound so damn convincing. Not only do they have your phone number and address, in some cases they actually have detailed information regards the age of your computer and warranty status.

I knew that at the end either the computer problem would just be fixed or they would ask for money. They wanted $$$.

He [said] that my computer would white out in 24 hours if we did not buy the new firewall.

The computer in question had just been checked by me 2 weeks ago and I know the firewall is fine. The computer is on it’s last legs and already replaced by a newer machine, but the firewall works fine. Not only that, it has both a hardware and a software firewall working on it. The threats about the firewall are bunk. But very scarey bunk.

An important note here: if your firewall stops working your computer will not “white out”. This is not possible. “White out” is a nonsense term used by a scammer to terrify the unsuspecting. Even if the company you bought your computer from is in the business of selling firewalls, you are under no obligation to purchase your firewall from them. You can pick and choose the software you run.

Would Microsoft call and try to sell an update over the telephone? The man told me my computer number and that only Microsoft and I know the number blah blah blah…

Blah, blah, blah indeed. The answer is a categorical NO. Microsoft does not cold call people to sell them anything. Nor will any reputable anti-virus protection company. The calls are scams, nothing more. The more you argue with the person on the other end of the line, the more threatening they become. I gather from this customer, the call disintegrated into a shouting match.

Here’s advice on how to handle this type of call – hang up. Don’t engage the person, don’t listen to their sales pitch, don’t take their tales of imminent catastrophe seriously. They are interested in your credit card number, not your computer security. It isn’t rude to hang up on someone trying to steal your money.

The calls sound very official and scarey. If you receive a call, the caller will know your name (it is frighteningly easy to scoop phone numbers and last names in the digital age), which adds an air of authenticity to the phone call. You will be regaled with doom and gloom stories if you don’t do what they tell you to do – your computer will crash/be useless/be vulnerable to hackers etc. I can’t stress enough how intimidating the caller is. He will be aggressive and try to scare the pants off you to panic you so you accept their “help”. The caller will make it seem like they can see your computer and may even imply you are downloading illegal stuff. My customer said the caller became very irritated with her when she didn’t understand what he was talking about. He became rather aggressive. The scammer didn’t realise my poor customer was simply confused by his demands and had no clue as to what he was telling her to do. She finally hung up on him, which was wise.

Don’t fall for this. No tech support company worth dealing with will cold call you and tell you, site unseen, your computer needs fixing. Always remember Microsoft will not call you about any issues, nor will any anti-virus company. Any company that claims to be a tech support company and does this, is a fraud. You don’t have to be polite to the person – don’t be pushed into bogus support. You have the right to simply hang up on the person. If you feel uncomfortable doing this then tell them you need to consult with your Tech Support person who takes care your computer. If they stay pushy, ask them for a phone number so your techie can call them back. It doesn’t matter if you have a tech support person or not, just the threat of calling someone knowledgeable should be enough get them to hang up on you immediately. If in doubt, hang up.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/jul/19/police-crackdown-phone-scam-computer

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/18/phone-scam-india-call-centres
http://www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/msname.aspx

I have to admit, I was amazed anyone in the business would believe any piece of computer hardware is impervious to failure. If it’s build by humans, it will fail. And flash drives do fail. I’ve had one die on me as have others. Ah I hear people saying “what’s a flash drive?” Flash drives have a number of names – pen drives, thumb drives, flash drives, USB drives, key chain drives. They are thumb sized hard drives that come in a variety of storage sizes. They have taken the place of the old floppy disks and for many of us cds. I always hated burning cds – was such a nuisance. Flash drives are great, pop them into a free USB port and drag your files to them and bingo you are good to go. Flash drives are great because you can plug them into any other machine and access your files quickly.

Couple of problems though:

Flash drives are so small, they are easy to lose. I’ve lost 5 of the little buggers in the last 2 years. I never take important files out on the flash drive unless I’ve backed the data up at home and encrypted the drive. If I lose the drive, I suffer a mild annoyance but am confident I’ve not lost any private information that can be used by someone else. I also know a duplicate set of the files are safely sitting at home. It’s not worth the risk so either leave the drive at home or encrypt your data.

Flash drives do fail. Back your data up onto cds/external hard drive constantly and file them in a safe place. Do it… back up, back up, back up. Files become corrupted, flash drives die, files are lost. One of the most impressive flash drive deaths I’ve seen was the flash drive someone accidentally drove over. The customer didn’t know the flash drive had fallen off their key chain and they must have kicked it under the car wheels. CRUNCH… they found the drive when they returned home later that day. Nothing was recoverable, well, except for a few interesting pieces of plastic that could be arranged into some kind of miniature pop art.

Flash drives are inexpensive, your personal data is priceless.