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Entertaining Tech Support

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I had to call help desk yesterday. Seems I had neglected to install some updates so I was having trouble accessing the network from home. I was connected to a very nice man we will call "Bob", mostly because his name is Bob.

Did you know that help desk folks are advised to keep on talking while stuff loads on your computer? I guess they need to keep you engaged and reassured that they have it under control. I can understand this. There have been times when I have called help desk where I was a little worried about having lost a document or was working against a deadline. Poor Bob had me on the line for about an hour and a half (not to self: be more diligent when you get software update alerts). He could have told me what to do and then let me go but he wanted to make sure it all worked and walk me through it. Nice guy.

In the course of the conversation, due to the requirement that he chat throughout, I learned a lot:

-Bob's family calls him "Mr. Know-it-all" and tried to stump him with questions

-If a pet cat tries to bite your eyeball, it's because they think you are dead. Go see a doctor (or congratulations for so sleeping so soundly)

-Dolphins and whales beach themselves because of bird doody, which is the main carrier of viruses that affect humans and animals (and we are only hearing about the bird flu now?)

Now that is some serious help desk! Not only did I get my computer fixed but I learned a little something. Never was a help desk call so fun.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    April 18, 2006
    Darn, it looks like I lost the bet we had that you couldn't get the phrase "Bird Doody" in a blog post....
  • Anonymous
    April 18, 2006
    Hey, you capitalized it...you must be a big fan of it ; )

    I'll just take a few extra poker chips, Toland
  • Anonymous
    April 18, 2006
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    April 18, 2006
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    April 18, 2006
    Hmm, must be different with our tech support. They have to document everything and link it all back to some knowledge source.

    Now the dentist thing has always baffled me. Why do they ask you questions they expect to have answered when their hands are in your mouth?
  • Anonymous
    April 19, 2006
    If you haven't seen this video of NBC tech support, it is well worth the download:
    http://www.metacafe.com/watch/27391/tec_support/
  • Anonymous
    April 20, 2006
    How about non-tech support ? Do they also have the same mandate ?

    I ask because out here, most of the Credit Card / Bank Account Support staff keep people on hold while trying to access the account details.

    Not that everyone actually wants to converse informally when they are outraged about a spurious charde on their credit card .. :)
  • Anonymous
    April 20, 2006
    Abhinav-I'm not sure. Luckily, I have not had to spend time on the phone with credit card/bank customer service.