Working in the field of in-home and in-store computer technical support, I get a number of people looking for free tech support on any number of programs. While management frowns on giving out what can often be a rather involved service for free over the telephone, they’ve never really stopped us from answering simple questions to keep potential customers happy.<\/p>\n
However, there are times when you have to tell a customer “no”. One such example would be the following 100% true telephone conversation that occurred over the weekend:<\/p>\n
Me:<\/b> Hello, my name is Derek, how may I help you?<\/p>\n
Lady:<\/b> I bought a computer at Walmart.<\/p>\n
Me:<\/b> Oh? Is there something I can help you with?<\/p>\n
Lady:<\/b> I don’t know how to use Word.<\/p>\n
Me:<\/b> Was there something in particular you were trying to do? Normally, technical support for a particular product is provided by the company that produces it. In this case that would be Micro …<\/p>\n
Lady:<\/b> No, I need you to tell me how to use it. This is my first computer.<\/p>\n
Me:<\/b> Ma’am, I’m afraid we’re not allowed to provide technical training of that nature over the telephone. However, we can have someone come to your home.<\/p>\n
Lady:<\/b> For free?<\/p>\n
Me:<\/b> I’m afraid there is a charge involved with all in-home training, Ma’am. You might also consider calling Microsoft, as they’re the developer of …<\/p>\n
Lady:<\/b> What?! Aren’t you supposed to give me support for free? Isn’t that what you do?<\/p>\n
Me:<\/b> Ma’am, we’d be very happy to provide support and training, but there is a cost involved with …<\/p>\n
Lady:<\/b> I am never buying another computer from you again.<\/p>\n
*click*<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Needless to say, the thought of someone no longer buying Walmart computers from a company that has nothing to do with Walmart didn’t exactly trouble me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Working in the field of in-home and in-store computer technical support, I get a number of people looking for free tech support on any number of programs. While management frowns on giving out what can often be a rather involved service for free over the telephone, they’ve never really stopped us from answering simple questions … Continue reading “True Life Stories of Tech Support”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humor","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meisterplanet.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meisterplanet.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meisterplanet.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meisterplanet.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meisterplanet.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.meisterplanet.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meisterplanet.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meisterplanet.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meisterplanet.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}