Recovering Help Desk Tech

[hot_pastrami]

I worked as a supervisor at a PC tech support call center for several years. I got to talk to a lot of interesting people when customers would be unhappy with the tech's advice and ask to speak to a supervisor.

I remember we had to explain to a customer how to add a SIMM memory module to his motherboard. He finally got it when we explained that he needed to slide the memory into the slot at a 45 degree angle, and then "push it to point straight up, like closing your pickup truck's tailgate." Click! Went right in.

Another time we were troubleshooting what seemed like a bad CD-ROM. It wouldn't access discs, and we checked everything we could think of, even making sure the disc was label-side-up. So I told the tech to send them a new CD-ROM. The tech got back on the phone and told them, "We need to send you a new CD-ROM, so take the CD out of the drive..."

The customer interrupted the tech to ask "All of them?"

The tech dove back into troubleshooting and discovered that CD-ROM drives work better when there aren't 2-3 discs stacked on the tray.

But one of my favorites, and techs learned to use this to ditch customers, was the old "Ok, unplug all of the cables from the back of the computer" routine. 99% of customers were using the phone right next to their computer, which was connected through the modem. They unplug that cable from the modem, and they are immediately transferred to the dialtone department.