2007-11-07 17:01:57

I'm sure a lot of us have had trouble with tech support guys who can't tell their elbow from a floppy disk, but just sometimes the situation is reversed. Thought we could use a little bit of a laugh on here, and so here is something I found that purports to be a real transcript from a tech support call to WordPerfect support.

"Word Perfect Technical Desk, may I help you?"

"Yes, well, I'm having trouble with Word Perfect."

"What sort of trouble?"

"Well, I was just typing along, and all of a sudden the words went away."

"Went away?"

"They disappeared."

"Hmm. So what does your screen look like now?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"It's blank; it won't accept anything when I type."

"Are you still in Word Perfect, or did you get out?"

"How do I tell?"

"Can you see the C: prompt on the screen?"

"What's a sea-prompt?"

"Never mind. Can you move the cursor around on the screen?"

"There isn't any cursor: I told you, it won't accept anything I type!"

"Does your monitor have a power indicator?"

"What's a monitor?"

"It's the thing with the screen on it that looks like a TV.

"Does it have a little light that tells you when it's on?"

"I don't know."

"Well, then look on the back of the monitor and find where the power cord goes into it. Can you see that?"

"Yes, I think so."

"Great. Follow the cord to the plug, and tell me if it's plugged into the wall."

".......Yes, it is."

"When you were behind the monitor, did you notice that there were two cables plugged into the back of it, not just one?"

"No."

"Well, there are. I need you to look back there again and find the other cable."

"Okay, here it is."

"Follow it for me, and tell me if it's plugged securely into the back of your computer."

"I can't reach."

"Uh huh. Well, can you see if it is?"

"No."

"Even if you maybe put your knee on something and lean way over?"

"Oh, it's not because I don't have the right angle-it's because it's dark."

"Dark?"

"Yes-the office light is off, and the only light I have is coming in from the window."

"Well, turn on the office light then."

"I can't."

"No? Why not?"

"Because there's a power outage."

"A power... A power outage? Aha, Okay, we've got it licked now. Do you still have the boxes and manuals and packing stuff your computer came in?"

"Well, yes, I keep them in the closet."

"Good. Go get them, and unplug your system and pack it up just like it was when you got it. Then take it back to the store you bought it from."

"Really? Is it that bad?"

"Yes, I'm afraid it is."

"Well, all right then, I suppose. What do I tell them?"

"Tell them you're too stupid to own a computer."

cx2
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To live by honour and to honour life, these are our greatest strengths and our best hopes.

2007-11-07 18:34:12

Lol! though I can imagine that happening.

a friend of mine worked in Tech support for the government M.O.t. service for a while for, and said he got asked some really amusing things along those lines, especially as most of the people he was dealing with were mechanics, ---- very good with car engines, but not with computers apparently. One of my favourite of his experiences went something like this:

Mechanic: So where do i write this password thing?

My friend: well press control O.

Mechanic: Control O? Control what.

My friend: Well find the control key and hold it down, then press O.

Mechanic: what? what's this control key.

My friend: well, if you get your keyboard and look at the bottom left ----

Mechanic (interupting): My keyboard? I need my keyboard?

my friend: (patiently), yes, now if you just get your keyboard.

the phone was then put down and many clanking noises occurred.

Mechanic (picking up phone): alright, I've got my keyboard, but I don't see how it will help.

My friend (suspiciously): Mmmm, what exactly do you mean by keyboard.

Mechanic (with exasperation): what do you think I mean! the wooden board that I hang my keys on!

Apparently, the problem was eventually fixed, though not before said mechanic was threatening to take the computer outside and run it over with his van.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2007-11-08 03:13:20

lol, thats funny.

From,
Ryan Smith
Head of RS Games
RS Games Website

2007-11-08 03:27:02

Yes that was quite funny. Did that really happen cx2? Rofl!

2007-11-08 03:45:40

lol sadly I can imagine that Dark. I recall one time at college a tutor had trouble with someone asking why he had trouble opening his office documents made at the college at home, and when he asked what he was using the guy just kept saying "windows". After much frustration turned out the guy was using Microsoft Works, which naturally enough isn't compatible with MS Office documents.

Andy, the site I found it on claimed it did and that the guy successfully sued his company after they fired him... though whether it *really* did or not is something we will each have to judge for ourselves. It is just insane enough that it might be true though.

cx2
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To live by honour and to honour life, these are our greatest strengths and our best hopes.

2007-11-08 11:46:17

Well cx2, in that case I'd put it down to lack of knolidge more than anything else. I do rather clearly remember a time when I thought opening files using anything but Ms word, or from anywhere besides my documents was a pretty risky opperation, and I didn't even know what windows explorer was.

While it is true some people are willfully or intrinsically thick, others just don't know. On several occasions I've had to explain fairly standard tech things to my parents, ---- and even my tutor, such as how to save documents in word onto a floppy disk, or a cd, and use windows explorer.

In the case of my parents, this is increasingly difficult, because their desktop unfortunately stil has hal 4.8 on it (well actually supernova, but it's that version of Hal), , which lacks some fairly important things (particularly as far as the Internet and E-mail programs go).
Luckily, when I go home I can just take my laptop, and sinse we have one of those Bt home hub wireless network things, it works incredibly well (though the download speed can be a litle slow compared to what I'm used to).

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2007-11-08 11:47:30 (edited by Ducktail 2007-11-08 11:51:23)

This actually reminds me of some tech support prank calls using Microsoft Sam that can be found on YouTube. I thought that might be a trigger for some of us on here...

Oh, Dark, looks like we're browsing these forums together this morning!

2007-11-16 18:12:48

oh interesting, lol! i would like to hear those smile :d

Regards,
Tristan
Trek Games, inc.

2007-11-16 19:41:16

indeed ducktale, perhaps you could post a link?

As to forum brousing, I generally just breeze in and out, rather than looking who is, or is not there I'm afraid, replying to any topics that vaguely interest me on my way. It's one reason i prefer forums to messaging, you can reply, and then go off and do something else.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2007-11-18 09:00:10

ehehehehe! lol that were some funny things there. anyone ever heard the computer support group file by dectalk, that Damien from x-sight has made? it was way cool.

2007-11-18 20:29:56

Yes I have heard that. It was wayyyyyyyyy wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy cool!

DecTalk can do a hell of a lot, not to mention producing tones and other things! Yay dec talk! lol!

2007-11-22 15:15:00

Lol. Very great humour. I also have a a great one to post here, but I don't know if it goes through, because it's very long:

Best regards SLJ.
Feel free to contact me privately if you have something in mind. If you do so, then please send me a mail instead of using the private message on the forum, since I don't check those very often.
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2007-11-22 19:16:44

Lol! Quake is a game not a hacking program! And just because someone wants to program in Perl doesn't mean they are a hacker. Wow, that's really funny.

Regards,
Mike
Co-Founder, RS Games
www.rsgames.org

2007-11-23 01:31:46

I don't find that amusing in the least, there is a risk someone non technical might actually believe it is genuine. It just doesn't seem to make me laugh, not sure why.

cx2
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To live by honour and to honour life, these are our greatest strengths and our best hopes.