Guy calls in today. He spoke with my buddy an hour earlier. Said he didn’t quite understand things, so I happily went through everything again from the beginning. The case notes were quite clear, buddy had already done this, and emailed step-by-step instructions. With diagrams. It became clear this guy was not having trouble following the instructions. He just didn’t bother listening or reading the email.
He confirmed he received it, but said “Oh, I haven’t opened it yet.” He was still running the wrong disc, the computer was hooked up wrong, he had not set a restore point or done any prep work. He had done nothing. Nada. Niente. Just called back in.
If only he had opened that email, I was thinking.
I know this guy could read OK, because he read from his screen to me without difficulty, and he was not deaf, judging by our conversation. This sometimes is the case so naturally we are sensitive to it. Not this guy. My buddy before me did everything possible to make this easy. And I repeat everything. Again. He still didn’t get it, and I quickly realise, he is not listening to me either. I know this, because when you ask someone to open a command prompt and they restart the computer instead, it’s a bit of a give away. When you ask why they did it and he replies “Didn’t you ask me to?” it kind of confirms it.
Buddy and I are good at what we do. Neither had any success. Now, colour me crazy but I figure if you spend a morning talking to tech support, you may as well listen. Or open the email. Or listen. Or open the email. Or listen.
I guess it was a personal pilgrimage for him. I checked the notes a couple hours later. He had called in again. Four times now. The notes showed another buddy jumped through the same hoops. He still had not opened the bloody email. It saddened me. I wonder how many times this caller stuck a fork in his eye before he learned how to eat without pain.
Or did his wife just say ‘Screw it’ and stick a cork on the end for him?