"Buddy", you asked the wrong tech...

The BBQ Pit
1

I thought i’d heard it all, i’ve had all sorts of idiotic phone calls in tech support, but this one hit one of my hot buttons…

“hi, i was wondering if you’d tell me how to send out bulk e-mail from my Entourage application using names i culled from a FileMaker database?”

(plain English translation… “Hi, can you help me spam people?”)

unfortunately, no. i’m not familiar with Entourage, i use Apple Mail, i haven’t used Entourage in 2 years, you might want to ask <other tech> when he gets back from lunch, he’s familiar with that app

(plain English translation… “no, i will not help you spam people”)

i actually do NOT use entourage anyway so i wasn’t lying, i have no idea how to send bulk e-mail, but even if i did, i would NOT tell him how to spam people, spam must be stopped, and every little bit to stem the tide of spam helps

besides, we’re a reseller/service center, NOT a “learn how to annoy people with spam” shop

i will also be warning the other tech that this guy will be calling back, so we can shut down his attempts to spam

2

Why didn’t you respond to the would-be spammer with what you meant?

3

Pssst. Some customer service type jobs, shocking as this may be to discover, do not allow the CSR to tell the customer what he really thinks.

4

Also, MacTech, can I get that customer’s email address and phone number from you. No special reason, just curious.

5

Not that I’m a big fan of spammers, but how do you know the names in his DB are not legitimate customers that he wants to send an informational email to?

6

If the list isn’t going to be used for spamming, he should call Microsoft for support.
Hell, he should be calling M$ anyway.
Screw him, RTFM!

People call us asking questions about products we don’t sell all the time too. :rolleyes:

7

"Yeah… I’m gonna need to you to hold down the control key, and while you’re doing that, press the letter A. Yes, all of the entries have turned a different color- that’s normal. Okay, now hold down the control key again- yes, the one you just used… either the one on the left or on the right, doesn’t matter… and press the “X” key.

Everything disappeared? No problem- that just means it’s doing what it’s supposed to do. Now, here’s the important part. Hold down the “Alt” key- yes, either one- and press the “F” key. Press the Alt key again, and press “S”.

That should take care of it. Yessir, you have a good day, too."

8

Agreed, are e-mail lists now unethical too? It sounds like a fairly reasonable question to me.

If this was a true, “Viagr0, Perciset, etc.” e-mail, I doubt he’d have to be calling you for instructions.

9

Microsoft doesn’t make Filemaker. So your advice is ironic :).

Daniel

10

People do this to me too…usually because they didn’t buy a contract with the company that actually provides support for that product. :wally es I say!