techrecovery | Prank callers (Reply)

As if giving tech support working the graveyard shift wasn't mind-numbing enough, we get the odd call from either someone who sounds like been hitting the bottle, crack-pipe or bong pretty hard, and make little to no sense with any following requests. As both amusing and frustrating as this can be, it does free the mind somewhat from late-night chores.

However, lately we've been getting a spate of prank calls, mostly asking for our ISP's mascot (yup, like he'd be floating around and awake at 4 in the morning), or making other outrageous demands, and most of them sound rather young. One litle tyke demanded of me one night that we refund him some money from his mother's credit card.

Now, while customer etiquette usually dictates we treat them politely, I tend either to play along (if bored) or to lose patience (if busy). Responses usually tend to differ depending on the operator receiving these prank calls: I tend to be rather harsh (as is my reputation, apparently *blink*) and bluntly tell them "I think you've got the wrong number" with a edge in my voice, and they get the idea rather quickly. Others are too polite, but still like to play along with the game until we either ask for their parents, or wait until they've hung up, wait a few minutes, and call them back (gotta love caller ID); with some luck we get their parents and tersely inform them of their child's actions (responses range from "My children would never do that!" to "Oh I see......" *knife sharpens in background*), otherwise the question from the answering kid is almost always a panicked, "How did you get this number?!?"

The prank caller, depending on their humour, attitude and language, can either be a welcome distraction, an amusing segue, or a royal pain in the arse, depending on your current state of mind. It's a pity more of the day-timers don't get them.