Brilliant!

[bamatone.livejournal.com]

Allow me to share with you one of the "overheard in the office" quotes from today...

Caller: I just arrived at my lake house for the summer, and the satellite TV isn't working! Why is it off?!
CSR: Sir, please stay calm. It's simple: we just need to reset your receiver since you've been away for a while.
Caller: How long will that take?
CSR: It's easy, sir. Do you have a potato handy?
Caller: Um, let me see... [Pause] Yes, we just picked some up at the store on our way in -- stocking up.
CSR: Great, sir. An apple would also work. Now, what I need you to do is to cut that potato in half. Then I need you place one half of the potato face-down on top of your receiver. Please make sure it's dry.
Caller: What?
CSR: Trust me, sir, I'm a professional. We'll have your service back on in no time.
Caller: Okay... [Long pause] Alright, done. Now what?
CSR: Great, sir. The potato will act upon your receiver's magnetic field and will bring the service back online momentarily. It's a built-in security feature so that no one can use your dish while you're away for most of the year.

CSR presses service reset button, remote satellite transmits 'wake up' signal to inactive receiver, TV comes on.

Caller: That's amazing! Who'd have thought... a potato! Will this work every time?
CSR: Just give us a call if you have any problems in the future, and thank you for using this service.

Bradford Drive
Huntsville, Alabama

http://www.overheardintheoffice.com/archives/003467.html

http://syndicated.livejournal.com/overheardoffice/873226.html

Comments

[omg-teh-funnay.livejournal.com]

I'm in love. That's awesome

My best was telling a customer "Yeah, I can walk you through fixing that, but you're gonna need a car battery, some duct tape and a butter knife"

She replied with "Gimme 10 minutes"

[bekscilla.livejournal.com]

ugh, I'd hate to be the person who gets the call next time.

[kallell.livejournal.com]

Hi, my receiver isnt working and the potato is on top of it and everything!

[bekscilla.livejournal.com]

Exactly, though I can just imagine it yelled, and "WHY ISN'T IT WORKING?!" included in there

[kallell.livejournal.com]

i would almost want to get that call.

[megpie71.livejournal.com]

My gods. Someone has *finally* found an equivalent to the "we need boiling water" excuse that women used to use in childbirth to give the menfolk something to do and keep out of their hair. By this I mean that it's some kind of meaningless, harmless activity which keeps the non-active part of the conversation from interfering with what's actually going on. It gives them a feeling of accomplishment (they've "helped" to fix the problem) and it stops them from actively doing something wrong.

If only there were more of these sorts of things to hand the callers.

From the DH

[(Anonymous)]

In my computer support job, we just have the caller remove all metal objects from their person and set it outside the office. The metal interferes with the magnetic read/write IO head on the hard drive, you see. Oh,that didn't help? Did you remember to remove all jewelry? Yes, I'm afraid your wallet has to go, too - it's the magnetic strips on your credit cards. What about your office chair?

Usually by the time they're moving the chair out of the office, I've already remotely accessed the computer and fixed the problem.

-- DH