How to become a com­petent IT service desk agent?

David  you said "I avoid taking things for granted,  "  made me think when i was helping my brother remotely with an usb device that did not work - after a couple of hours - he told me it was not inserted fully ..... lol

thats why remoting in is so helpful in these cases

Thank you all.

Just something more I'd like to add. Many PC & IT companies have a text chat utility or a contact form for support. Theoretically, such support methods are a good thing, as you can always go back & reread what has been written already.

Sometimes I have required something from such support sites, but since I have quite a bit of support experience myself, when I use those things I first try to explain all the relevant details within the Question, & I would also expect the Help-Desk person at the other end to read that & then probably escalate it to a specialist directly (as usually those issues I can't solve myself require more than level 1 support, which the first person you get usually is). But my experience is that those people hardly ever read those descriptions. They would rather work themselves down the flowchart-like checklist of Questions to ask, although I have already answered those within the Question! So a good organization of the Help-Desk & training of the people behind it, & not just to rely on flowcharts, would make the Customer Experience better & could also reduce the time needed to solve an issue.

Rindi  - i believe nowadays no Cy makes time for such training (otherwise i'd found here or there a good one)
the best support up to now i found is for cooking pots DEMEYERE - which carries a lifetime warranty ! ! 
i went with an old pot - more than 40 YEARS old  - with an uneven bottom ( does not cook at all on electric fires) and they took it in for repair or replacement without problems + very friendly
i'm going to collect the pot next week ( they just called me today it had returned  to be collected)
one word :  wow

Sometimes I have required something from such support sites, but since I have quite a bit of support experience myself, when I use those things I first try to explain all the relevant details within the Question, & I would also expect the Help-Desk person at the other end to read that & then probably escalate it to a specialist directly 

The first tier support, especially the foreign ones in English from India and Philippines are tasked with following a script.  They likely have management watching them, because they just hire warm bodies, and not actual, fully technically literate people.  Sadly, there just aren't enough technically literate people anywhere in the world, even now.  They're likely graded on how well they follow that script.  No amount of explanation will let them deviate.  Just follow the script until they get you to tier 2.  It's the fastest way.

You only get quick elevation and script bypass when you have more expensive Tier 1 getting answered within your own country, when all other Tier 1 have already been outsourced.  They can actually hire more technically literate people, because it's now a reduced pool of jobs since the outsourcing.  When tier 1 wasn't outsourced to other countries, they had a similar issue as outsourced tier 1.   There just aren't enough skilled people.  They needed warm bodies and you inevitably hire some that were less technical than others and trained them.  Tier 1 just had to follow a script.  That's just the nature of Tier 1.  It provides consistency and gives everyone the same level of support.  It allows them to hire enough people to answer calls.

As for outsourcing to foreign countries, even though Indians and Filipinos speak English officially as one of their languages, they speak their own dialects.  You will get confused by certain terms, slang, and local idioms if they deviate too much.  It's also likely their 2nd language, as that's common there.  They generally have to code switch when answering in English.  Add to that their limited technical skills for being tier 1, they aren't going to be able to deviate too much without messing up unless they've done it a while.  I will say that Filipinos speak English closer to the American dialect, since they were actually a US territory for a few years.  Indians speak more of a British dialect since they were invaded by the Brits, so Americans have a harder time with them.

90% of tier 1 is password resets and quick restarts of equipment, which technically illiterate people inevitably won't do first.  Some automated services actually won't connect you to a human until you followed their automated script to restart first.  Even if you're techncially capable and you've restarted it 4 times yourself, they force it.  Even in this day and age, there are still so many technically illiterate people in the world.  There's still so many technical illiterates in the younger generation, that supposedly grew up with tech, that still can't do some of the very basic things.

I've also encountered those that don't first connect to a human. Those are a real headache & should be abolished asap. Once those had established that the automated script couldn't help, you were either told that some more qualified "person" would pick up the case, then after a very short time you got disconnected because all qualified persons were busy due to the big onslaught of help requests, or you were posted a link where you could ask for help again, only that this link wouldn't work!

Personally I think India has a huge number of highly qualified people who could really help, but either those outsourced help companies don't employ the correct people, or they have to help in too many different areas where they don't have enough expertise, or they aren't given enough leeway to move off from the given scripts. Many Indian people have a very good knowledge of the English Language, they just sound "special" when they talk, but I like that accent (but that would be irrelevant in text-based systems).

But I also think that help services should be located in the same country where you live, outsourcing abroad usually doesn't really work out that well for the customer.