You are quite right, but we thought long and hard about it. The company in question is entirely isolated from my wife’s normal contacts, and is not really in her normal field of customers. It’s a shame to lose them as a source of possible positive referrals, but in the end it was just getting out of hand, so she is cutting them dead.
/minor hijack/ Princhester, might your lovely wife establish an addendum to her contract with “Dickwad & Co.” specifying a hefty fee for additional services if the problems for which they blame & call her are found to be, in fact, completely unrelated to her database? That’d make them think twice, I suspect… /minor hijack/
Trust us: We KNOW.
Welcome to the Brother(Sister)hood of Tech Support, Winnowill. Your seat in Hell is already reserved, and we’ll be issuing you a book of handy explitives shortly. Duck and Cover!
Aw, geez, Tranquilis. Can I refuse it?
The tech support people at Sbarro really hated me. I was one of those repeat callers, but I knew what I was doing. Company policy made us call when anything went wrong, regardless of whether or not it was fixable. They didnt want to take chances. Here’s an average call:
Pam:Hi, I’m calling from store 386. my registers are reading network error. I’ve already shut down all active registers, and am sitting by my server.
Helpdesk: Okay, you’re gonna start by…
Pam: Alt U, and enter 5 times right?
Helpdesk: Just let me know when–
Pam: Alright, it’s on cancel. Should I reboot my registers now?
Helpdesk: Yes, and your connection should be restored. CanI do anything else for you?
Pam: Nope, all set! Have a great night!
I cant figure out if they think Im mocking them, or they like me cuz I know how to fix it on my own. I think it’s more of the mocking idea.
Sorry, Winnowill. The condition of Tech Support is thrust upon you, and you can’t refuse, once you’ve revealed your competence. It’s unavoidable and inevitable.
Oh, wait… Did you mean the book of explitives, then? Yeah, you can refuse it. I’d suggest you just shelve it for emergencies, though. You never know when you’re going to need it…
MY THREAD moved to the BBQ pit???
Oh the shame! The ignominity!
Cool.
Whatever you do, do not tell a user of a W98 system to, “just poke around, and if you get into any trouble, just try to find your way out of it.” That was my bright idea to teach users not to get into trouble in the first place.
One day my boss barked at me over the office phone, “I need a Windows installation disk!”
“Why?”
“Because the fucking computer is telling me I need to re-morph it.”
Actually, Tranquilis, I wanted to refuse the seat in Hell. The book of expletives might come in handy.
Sorry, Winnowill. It’s yours to keep…
[Madge]
You’re sitting in it right now…!
[/Madge]
Well, my coworker came back yesterday from a one-day class in Photoshop (yep - one day. THAT’ll teach you everything you need to know about the program, won’t it?) Came in and said that she ran into a problem with the computer she was on - it kept DESELECTING the channel composite and selecting an individual channel instead. On its own. Happens all the time, doesn’t it?
Oh, God. Kill me now. Maybe I WILL take my Seat in Hell. It could hardly be worse.
Like I said: You’re sitting in it already…
Can I have the lemonade concession?
“What’re you planning on putting in that lemonade?” I ask, cringing…
Just the usual lemon stuff.
You can’t take it woth you, but maybe I can make it while I’m there.
Winnowill, my utmost sympathies! And, I see that you say you are studying for the Photoshop ACE certification? I am trying for this too. Sort of. Gradually. I am now at what I’d call an “intermediate” stage with Photoshop. No longer a rank newbie, but painfully aware of all I still need to learn. Do you have any book recommendations or any other tips you could give me to help me prepare? (I’m not working in a graphics field, and am just doing this on my own.)
With that hijack out of the way, I sympathize with you, if you have to deal with someone who thinks that they have a grasp of Photoshop after a one day workshop! Photoshop is a fabulous program, but you can only scratch the surface in a day! Oh my gosh. You will be in Photoshop hell! Ack!
Thanks, yosemitebabe. I e-mailed you about some of the stuff I’ve gleaned in my research, rather than hijacking further!
This is the funniest part of the above bit with my coworker: The way she was talking, it sounded for all the world as though she believed that the reason the channel composite deselected spontaneously had something to do with gravity. Like, something fell out of the composite (since it’s on the top of its window) and landed in one of the other channels, causing that channel to select. So, in case none of you were aware, software operation is affected by gravity. Make sure that you have the heavier windows on the bottom of your screen, 'cause they might break the others if you aren’t careful!
:rolleyes: