I've been involved in tech support on both sides of the equation — being the support person on the phone trying to patiently extract the key information that will actually explain the problem beyond "It's broken," and being the customer person on the phone with the detailed list of error messages and reproducible circumstances that trigger the problem only to be told, "Let's start by restarting your machine that takes 10 minutes to reboot on a good day."
I've also engaged in furious discussions with my own IT management about the worthlessness of ticket closure rates and similar metrics.
Some good discussion of the problems of phone tech support and some ideas of how to resolve it.
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There's some great reader comments in our story about help desk nightmares and improving tech support
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What "The Chronicles of George" can teach us about technical support
There's bad communication and lots of resentment on BOTH sides of the phone line.
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