This is not an IT position but a call center hell! - Tech Support Technician II Lumen Employee Review

Training is none existent in terms of actually understanding how the technology works. It mostly consists of "...if you see this do xyz, still not working go to support room." PPPoE, IPoE, static IP, DNS etc are not explained in detail. I had my fiber trainer say "...you don't need to know what this means if you see this dispatch a tech if you see this go to next level of support." Your just a front line punching bag! Literally in the end you will get used to the typical unplug it and plug it back in if that doesn't work go to support room which you would think would give you the opportunity to learn but higher tier support never answer questions related to how the issue was resolved. There is an advise line you can call but they 100% always refer you to the internal wiki to find answers on your own. Which would be fine but the wiki is so convoluted searches have to be worded very specifically to find relevant information which given the fact that call handling time is a performance metric and customers are often upset after a 4-5 hour hold sifting through pages of information is not realistic. Trouble shooting process is long winded when it is clear pretty quickly that an issue cannot be resolved remotely but they want you to follow the process to "prevent a dispatch" which I feel is the primary role of the position; to do everything you can to not dispatch a tech to the field. Dispatch ratio is another performance metric that some are so hung up on that they straight up lie to customers. I've had calls where the customer was told to "observe the modem for 24-48", that there was a local outage etr next day, or that the modem was bad and needed to replace it when in actuality the infrastructure is terrible and they need a tech in the field for repair. Which leads to the next thing: Lumen refused to invest in long term solutions to repair its aging network infrastructure which leads to field techs just making band-aid repairs and customers that will eventually call back because they are out of service again. Creates a stressful work environment when your position and performance is rated on how many dispatches your create and how many customers call back within 7 days of speaking with you. It feels like you have zero control over bringing about an actual resolution. Its luck of the draw as calls come in, every call maybe sync no surf so you reboot the modem happy customer or back to back no sync issue cannot be fixed remotely so you have to dispatch but you are held accountable. Basically this is just a call center and not worth the mental stress its not like you will be in a high paying role; its $16.50/hr where I am. If you want to get into tech start looking for helpdesk tier I positions with a local MSP or in house IT department this job will kill you.