DANG I’m in a mood today.
Got up late (6:25 is late for me, friend), then came downstairs to do my discussion assignment for class. I won’t go into it in detail, but check out this screen shot of what my “Preview Message” window looked like. (It’s supposed to contain the formatted text from the window behind it. As you can see, it displays a blank space.)
Well, that made me mad. Had to back out of Firefox, fire up IE (which I hate), log in again, and repost. That made me mad all over again. So I ranted to tech support.
J’ever email tech support and they respond as if you’re a 9-year-old (or a 90-year-old) playing with this new “Internet” thing? Do you ever get the condescension treatment? Not that BU tech support is that way (although I’m withholding judgment until I see their response to this morning’s message), but I’ve been treated that way before by geekslingers — as if we’re all a bunch of fluffy heads going, “Hey, what’s this button do?”
Lawd.
Ok, on to this morning’s menu:
More Things I Hate (in addition to these)
- I hate that the price of gasoline is…ah, nevermind. You get the point.
- I hate it when people are in denial.
- I hate receiving pats on the head from tech support droids who were in elementary school when I was haunting Usenet via Deja News 3 years *before* the “dot com” era.
- I hate that people suffer from migraine headaches and there’s nothing anyone can do for them.
- I hate that I am spending $40,000 on a degree that may get me a job for which I will take a drastic pay cut. [Ok, I know that’s a choice, but I still hate it.]
- I hate it when people think you’re naïve and can’t see what’s *really* going on.
- I hate reading line after line after line of mangled, horrible, fragmented, retarded English — by a native speaker. (Hit MySpace sometime and read the “About Me” sections. It will blow your mind.)
- I hate hating things.
- I hate going on eBay and looking at a great item that sells for 99 cents — but they charge you $16.99 to ship it. It’s called Listing Fee Avoidance, and it goes on all the time, despite eBay’s big-and-bad law against it. eBay. They’re the next Microsoft.
- I hate it that summer is half over and I have yet to go anywhere. (Alas, refer to #1.)
Fink (the Hater) out.
You used Usenet?!?! *Bows down before a greater being*
In defense of tech support, as I am AU tech support, it is extremely difficult to judge the level of tech experience that has been acquired by those who email tech support. You would be surprised (maybe not) the the number of people whose problems are resolved by simply asking “Is it plugged in?” Although I cannot vouch for all tech support, the “9-year-old treatment” is not usually intended as an insult to the intelligence of those seeking help. It is simply a catch-all tactic, used in an attempt to resolve the problem as quickly, and easily, as possible. For the record, people like you make our job much easier, and I thank you.
As an addition to the list, however, I hate it when people act like they know much more than they actually do. For instance, I take particular delight in asking the employees who haunt the computer section at best buy (and hover over shoulder, begging for you to need their help) relatively simple questions, such as what is the difference between SATA and IDE, and watching them struggle to make up an answer. It’s quite entertaining, you should try it some time.
Thanks, Brandon, for that insight from the other side of the desk. Let it be known that I have beaucoup respect for help deskers, because they *do* have to deal with the “Is it plugged in?” element. Not sure I could handle that and stay sane.
Rather, it’s the “closed-end” responses I’ve received from geeks that honks me
off. Most offensive are the copied-and-pasted replies that tell me absolutely nothing, except the person has not even bothered to read my request.
I always try to include a screen shot whenever the situation warrants it, as nothing tells a story like a picture.
And I’m sorry I called you a droid. :P~~
Screen shots are ALWAYS appreciated. Ninety percent of our job is figuring out what the real problem is, as opposed to what the person on the other end of the line thinks the problem is.
My experience with tech support:
“In the lower left hand corner of your screen you will see a multi-colored button that says ‘start’. Do you see the start button?”
“Yes, I know where the start button is.”
“OK. I want you to click on the start button and you should see a menu that comes up. Near the bottom of that menu is a button that says ‘run’. Do you see the button that says ‘run’?”
*sigh*