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Do I look like a fucking taxi?
Nov. 14th, 2007 12:42 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
lordstorm.livejournal.comTo the mobile techies in this community, this may sound familiar.
One of the key roles working in our NOC is the ability to be mobile: while I have an office per se, I need to be able to visit our multiple co-lo sites scattered around in a reasonable amount of time, usually to meet other engineers who need access for line testing or server troubleshooting, or customers who need access to their own kit for their own reasons. Naturally, people move their servers into and out of our co-lo cabs all the time, but most are clued-in enough to arrange some sort of transport when removing them, since as we all know even the smallest 1U server isn't necessarily light, and most are insured and need to be moved in specific ways.
Not this customer. Brainless here managed to get his old 4U beige box (yeah, the variety that has a desktop motherboard with full-size PCI cards and probably running a Pentium-I inside, with a lockable access panel on a hinge in the front and huge handles on the side, something right out of the mid-'90s) out of one of our shared cabs, and only then apparently seemed to realise it was heavier than he thought and he couldn't just walk down the street with it under his arm. He then recognised me as an employee of $company who he previously used to pay to host his shitbox. Making a show of putting his server down on the ground as I unlocked the company van, he started whining at me for a lift.
Me: "Er, there's a taxi rank a few hundred metres down the street around the corner."
Brainless: "But I only need to go a mile or two! A cab'll cost me at least a tenner!"
Me: "..."
Brainless: "But you can give me a ride: I'm not that far away."
Me: [thinking: "Who the fuck do you think you are?"] "Legally I cannot, I'm afraid, we aren't insured for non-employees or non-certified kit."
Brainless: "So much for customer service! I'm not hosting with you guys again!"
Brainless then nearly gives himself a hernia pulling up his beige beloved from the ground in one yank, and comically attempts to storm off in the direction of the cab-rank I indicated only seconds ago.
Any wonder we're not in any hurry to have you back as a customer? What's next? Just because I work here means you can use my mobile phone to make a personal call? I'm not your gopher or PA: I'm a technician and work in the real world, not catering to the whims of egotistical and recently jilted customers.
One of the key roles working in our NOC is the ability to be mobile: while I have an office per se, I need to be able to visit our multiple co-lo sites scattered around in a reasonable amount of time, usually to meet other engineers who need access for line testing or server troubleshooting, or customers who need access to their own kit for their own reasons. Naturally, people move their servers into and out of our co-lo cabs all the time, but most are clued-in enough to arrange some sort of transport when removing them, since as we all know even the smallest 1U server isn't necessarily light, and most are insured and need to be moved in specific ways.
Not this customer. Brainless here managed to get his old 4U beige box (yeah, the variety that has a desktop motherboard with full-size PCI cards and probably running a Pentium-I inside, with a lockable access panel on a hinge in the front and huge handles on the side, something right out of the mid-'90s) out of one of our shared cabs, and only then apparently seemed to realise it was heavier than he thought and he couldn't just walk down the street with it under his arm. He then recognised me as an employee of $company who he previously used to pay to host his shitbox. Making a show of putting his server down on the ground as I unlocked the company van, he started whining at me for a lift.
Me: "Er, there's a taxi rank a few hundred metres down the street around the corner."
Brainless: "But I only need to go a mile or two! A cab'll cost me at least a tenner!"
Me: "..."
Brainless: "But you can give me a ride: I'm not that far away."
Me: [thinking: "Who the fuck do you think you are?"] "Legally I cannot, I'm afraid, we aren't insured for non-employees or non-certified kit."
Brainless: "So much for customer service! I'm not hosting with you guys again!"
Brainless then nearly gives himself a hernia pulling up his beige beloved from the ground in one yank, and comically attempts to storm off in the direction of the cab-rank I indicated only seconds ago.
Any wonder we're not in any hurry to have you back as a customer? What's next? Just because I work here means you can use my mobile phone to make a personal call? I'm not your gopher or PA: I'm a technician and work in the real world, not catering to the whims of egotistical and recently jilted customers.
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