About IMAO



Giving money to Frank J. makes you happy!


Buy funniest book ever!





IMAO Podcasts
IMAO Merchandise and Newsletter

Cool shirts, mugs, stickers, and what-not!

About IMAO
Then conquer we must, for our cause is just, 
And this be our motto--'In God is our trust.' 
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave 
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.


If you want to send something by snail mail, e-mail with subject "P.O. Box" to get mail information for Frank J. and SarahK.

About Frank J.

Bloggers:
Frank J.
Harvey
RightWingDuck
Cadet Happy
spacemonkey
Laurence Simon
SarahK

Popular Categories
Fred Thompson Facts
John Edwards Fabulous Facts
lolterizt
IMAO Condensed
Know Thy Enemy
Editorials
Frank the Artist
In My World
Other Content
Ode to Violence
Brief Histories
IMAO Audio Bits


Read the Essay
Own the Shirt
Peace Gallery
Search IMAO
Google
Web www.imao.us
Testimonials
"All quotes attributed to me on IMAO are made up... including this one."
-Glenn Reynolds

"Unfunny treasonous ronin!"
-Lou Tulio*

"You, sir, are a natural born killer."
-E. Harrington

"You'll never get my job! Never!!!"
-Jonah Goldberg

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And He did despair, for in His omniscience, He did know that His creations had but three-fifths of the splendor of that which would be IMAO."
-No One of Consequence

"A blogger with a sense of humor."
-Some Woman on MSNBC
Blogroll
Ace of Spades HQ
The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
Blackfive
Captain's Quarters
Classical Values
Conservative Grapevine
The Corner
The Daily Gut (with Jim Treacher!)
Dave in Texas
Eject! Eject! Eject!
Electric Venom
Hot Air
Puppy Blender
La Shawn Barber's Corner
Michelle Malkin
Pereiraville
Protein Wisdom
Rachel Lucas
Right Wing News
Scrappleface
Serenity's Journal
Townhall Blog

IMAO Blogroll
Bad Example
Cadet Happy
The Flying Space Monkey Chronicles
mountaineer musings
Right Wing Duck
SarahK & Cadet Happy snark TV
This Blog Is Full of Crap

Fred Thompson Links
Fred File
Blogs for Fred
Fred Thompson Facts
Awards



 

December 25, 2005
Christmassacre
Posted by Laurence Simon at 09:22 AM | View blog reactions | Comments (6)

Today is one of the worst days for Technical Support people in the computer industry.

People around the globe, unwrapping their new computers, iPods, cell phones, and other technological marvels will be popping in the batteries or plugging in various connectors only to find out they have absolutely no idea what they're doing.

It gives me chills down my spine. There's no telethon for chills down the spine, is there? I'd be the poster child, standing up on stage with... um... Christopher Lloyd or...um... Rob Schneider. Yeah, any time a movie of his is out, I've got Spine Chill Syndrome. It's not even covered on my lousy insurance plan, either.

So these newbies want to get all their settings on the new computer while getting all their porn copied over and wiped out of the old one so they can give it to the kids (who will probably just fill it with porn all over again).

Or maybe the connector in their iPod is a dud. Not every device that passes the in-factory QC tests keeps their virgin status. So they want to pick up a replacement and... the store's closed.

Don't forget about batteries. It's not that they forgot to include them, but the fact that Mom and Dad or Aunt Rose or Uncle Harry got you the wrong batteries. Leave it to them to convince the museum to hand over the B-sized batteries because they think those are what will power your Robosaurus.

Who do you think they call to complain that the store's closed? You know, because the Technical Support person can have the entire store pages and openup the store for them.

There's always the RTFM issues. Gotta love it when the question is right there boldly featured in the documentation. When the person says they never read the manual, I usually reply I never answer questions that are in the first five pages of it, so turn to page 4 and tell me what you see there.

Did you purchase a sub-500 computer for your kid? It's got a big Celeron or Duron or "Moron Who Fell For The Salesman's Line Of Crap That Crippled Processors Are Good Enough And That Shared Memory Will Run The Latest Games" sticker on it? Why not just put a sticker on it that says "Overclock Me" on the monitor? Kid's going to raid the Tupperware drawer and try to rig up a cooling system using the fishtank pump and the gooey insides of that freezer-pack... and you know that stuff kills dogs and stains the carpet.

Bought it all online and now you're clicking through the interface looking for how to return all that junk? Heh. Heh heh heh. Yeah, call that 800 number for Customer Service. See if they're in. No? Well, I guess you can just bitch at the Technical Support folks long and loud enough, they can magically handle your non-technical issue. Use lots of swear-words too. It excites them.

Oh well. At least there's one bright and shiny thing about this being the worst Technical Support day of the year - now it's India's problem.

The worst day? Well, it's Valentime's Day. Because Technical Support people are lonely, frustrated losers.

Oh, and they're ugly, too.

Rating: 0.5/5 (1 vote cast)

Email This | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | StumbleUpon Toolbar Stumble It!
6 Responses To "Christmassacre"

You really hit a nerve there. I had a frustrating experience with BUY.COM just before Christmas. Bought a new laptop from them, was all excited when I opened the box,only to find they had sent me the wrong computer. Calling their customer service number got me to New Delhi.

Total bad scene. Will never, ever buy from them again. Horrible service.

#1 - Posted by: Elvis on December 25, 2005 10:51 AM

I work in Tech support and the worse part for me is the families who get new computers and send the old junker to Grandma and Grandpa. Now Grandma and Grandpa need to figure out how to send E-mail on a 5 year old computer with all the crap and settings from the last owners still no it.

#2 - Posted by: Ian on December 25, 2005 12:14 PM

So true!

I sat in horror this Christmas day as my grandfather gave my grandmother the newest of digital cameras and equipment, then later laughed inside as my older cousin and I tried to explain how to take a picture. Disastrous, not only for the tech guys, but also for the "young whipper snappers" in the family who know everything about this newfangled technology and can explain everything in just a couple of minutes. Rrrright.

#3 - Posted by: Grant on December 26, 2005 03:46 AM

Yep. At the family Christmas party, sitting on the couch, watching the game, minding my own business - boom! "How do I do this?", etc. I mean just because I ran a network and use several OSes they want me to tell them how to use their new mp3 players, cameras, computers, etc. My fee - tray of brownies, fudge, and/or cookies. Payment in advance. Oh and bring the manual with the payment. We'll learn together. They like that part - yeah, sure.

#4 - Posted by: raz0r on December 27, 2005 12:12 PM

I do tech support too, but blessedly, so do my uncle and brother. We share the burden of explaining lame and extremely simple things that take us 3 hours to get the other family members to understand. Do people who are cops in a family get people asking them to arrest random folk when they go to a family Christmas?

#5 - Posted by: DesertElephant on December 27, 2005 02:17 PM

DOES IT REALLY MATTER(LOOK IM SCREAMING)Your still going to kill the planet anyway. .

#6 - Posted by: AGID on December 29, 2005 12:43 PM
Post a comment




Remember me?

(You may use HTML tags for style)

 

Buy IMAO T-Shirts


IMAO T-Shirts

The IMAO T-Shirt Babe
(winning picture) YOU BUY NEW SHIRTS NOW!!!
Yay! Books!





Capitalism
Archives
By Category
24
American Idol
Aqua-Adventures
Barackalypse Now
Best of IMAO 2002
Best of IMAO 2006
Bite-Sized Wisdom
Editorials
Election 2008
Filthy Lies
Frank Answers
Frank Discussions
Frank on Guns
Frank Reads the Bible
Frank the Artist
Fred Thompson Facts
Friday Cat-Blogging
Fun Trivia
Hellbender
Hellbender Take Two
Hillary Clinton Terrible Truths
Humor
I Hate Frank
If I Were President
ignis fatuous
IMAO Condensed
IMAO Exclusives
IMAO for the Non-Deaf
IMAO Reviews
IMAO Think Tank
In My World
In My World - Fan Fiction
John Edwards Fabulous Facts
Know Thy Enemy
lolterizt
Michael Moore
Mitt Romney Ads
News Round-Up
Newsish Fakery
No, McCain't
Our Military
Permalink Contest
Precision Guided Humor Assignments
Ron Paul, Ron Paul, Ron Paul
Ronin Profiles
Ronin Thought of the Day
SarahK's TV stuff
Scary Evil Monkey
Simpsons Trivia
Songs & Poems
State of the Frank Report
Superego
Totally True Tidbits
WEsistance Is Facile
Why Me Laugh?
Yvonne's Ashes
By Month
December 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
December 2004
November 2004
October 2004
September 2004
August 2004
July 2004
June 2004
May 2004
April 2004
March 2004
February 2004
January 2004
December 2003
November 2003
October 2003
September 2003
August 2003
July 2003
June 2003
May 2003
April 2003
March 2003
February 2003
January 2003
December 2002
November 2002
October 2002
September 2002
August 2002
July 2002
March 1933