techrecovery | Tech Support: Not Just For Work Anymore (Reply)

I work for an ISP in a smallish town. One of the upsides to living and working in a small town is that you can get to know your users, and do things that the bigger companies can't (like ask customers to bring their busted-up PCs to your office and repair them hands-on).

The downside is that you get to know your users.

Here's a ticket I just had to put in, on a Sunday afternoon, because I know this guy will end up calling my boss to complain...

Ticket 56834 for (768k broadband acct)

Customer approached me in the laundromat today, began talking at me (not to me) about the relative virtues of RAMBUS RAM, how he thinks it's amazing that they make computers with two processors now, drooling occasionally on my clothes while talking about his four degrees in Computer Science that weren't worth the (bleep) paper they're printed on. After about ten minutes of trying desperately to ignore him, while I went about folding and fluffing, giving customer nothing but monosyllabic responses and the occasional grunt, I told customer (paraphrased) "Sir, I don't mean to be rude, but this is a laundromat, and I'm not on the clock, do you mind?"

Customer started crying and called me a bad person.

None of this is directly work-related but I think it should be documented.

(I wish I were making this up.)

If you know me, or even just have seen me in the office, I'll usually say hello at least; that's just polite. If you catch me in the Electronics aisle at Wal-Mart and ask a goofy question, I'll probably answer as best I can. But talking like an idiot, while I'm trying to sort out socks and fold my damn boxers, you've gone too far. And if you really can't handle this fact without being brought to tears you probably need to go back to your cave or something.