Rather than donating money, however, you can opt to pay for items to be donated to the developing countries, such as mango trees, education, HIV awareness campaigns, etc.

Reading through todays postings reminded me of a call I had when I was working for a previous employer. This is a call worthy of a star just to tell properly.

$company I was working for at the time was a major computer manufacturer at the time, and as far as I can tell still is. This company was the first one Im aware of to start selling computers through Walmart, and this call took place the first week of the initial release.

I get this call where the guy is calling up stating that his brand new bundled system isn't working. Since the system isnt registered yet, I get his information to activate the warrenty so I can start troubleshooting. I ask him some questions, turns out he supposedly has everything connected, monitor, keyboard, mouse, printer, phone line, etc; yet it will not turn on. Im thinking, ok, possible DOA system...it could happen. So I figure, lets get back to basics. I have him disconnect everything from the system, yes, everything.

Me "Ok, now that everything is disconnected, can you connect Just the power cable please."

Him "Ok, thats this cable that ends in an orange connector right??"

Me o.O??????? "Um...no thats the video cable, we need the power cable."

Him "Oh ok, I got it. Ok its in."

Me "Ok now turn it on"

Him "nothings happening."

For some reason at this point, instead of thinking DOA, I start wondering what he has plugged into the system, and ask such....His responce "Oh thats this cable that ends in an orange connector that goes to the back of the monitor." O.O?? wtf?

continued...

Seeing where this call is going, I eventualy convince him to take the monitor, unplug it, and carry it to a completely different room When he gets back, I conferm with him that the monitor is in a different room and that he can not see it from his current location, figureing out of sight out of mind. Now I ask him to plug in the power cable. His responce. "Whats a power cable???"

I have never met anyone before this call that was so clueless as to not know WHAT A FREAKING POWER CABLE WAS. I ended up giving him a crash corse in powercableology, a 10 minute disertation on the who, what, when, where, and why of what a power cable is, does, looks like, why its needed just to get through his thick skull what was needed to be done. 10 freaking minutes later, Im finaly seeing the light through the tunnel that Im thinking is his dawning awareness that shows he might just be getting it. Now realise, he has been sitting on his A$$ for the last 10 minutes, his wife watching him doing nothing except nodding and occasionaly going um, uhhuh, ok, and the like.

Him "Ok, I think I get this...can you explain this to my wife?"

O.o? before I can say anything Her "Whats this about a power cable?"

continued ...

... continued

Should have realised the light at the end of the tunnel was an oncoming train. At this point, I end up having to give her the same speech I just finished giving him. Yes folks, she was just as braindead as he was. Guess thats why they make a perfect couple. It goes the same as with him, with one exception. When the light of awareness is dawning for the second time in this now 30 minute call, I hear her exclaim "OOOOHHHHH THATS What this extra cable is for!!" X.X

Once we finaly got the mental light bulb lit, getting the computer working was a snap after that. Got them to plug in the extra cable, and it turned on just fine. Had them reconnect the monitor, etc, and everything booted like it should. Once the system started asking for registration information I let them go at that point.

So at this point Im on my next call, I get a tap on my shoulder. I turn around, and in one hand Im given a slip of paper, and my other hand is being shaken. o.O?

I look confused at the person, tap my headset trying to indicate Im trying to consentrate on the call Im on. They quietly appologise and back away. Meenwhile I return back to the call Im on.

I finsh up the call, and go on break so I can see what was this I was handed. Turns out it was a Quality Management paper congratulating me on a high score....89%.

Now at this time in the company, it was very hard to get above the 70-75% range. I stand up, look over at the QM bay that happens to be right next to mine, look at the person that had handed me the paper while Im holding it up waving it.

Me "What was this one for???"

QM "Power Cable"

:D Me "THANKS"

I find out 6 months later that they were calling managers and supervisors to listen in on the call. I must have done something right, or the callers were just that stupid, cause they were ROTFLOL.

I'm in the lunchroom waiting for my cheeseburger and fries and one of the secretaries is waiting to order. She says "I came in early and I'm hungry!" I ask how early and she says "7:30am". I laugh and say that's not early. She askes what time I arrive and I say "5am". She gives me a "you're insane" look and asks what I do. I tell her Helpdesk. Her eyes widen...and she says

I don't know what I would do without you people there. Every time I call you're super helpful and very nice. You're a super value-add to the firm! Thank you so much!!!

Stunned, I call over a co-worker (who's having a bad day) and get the lady to repeat herself. This brightens her day and mine, we never seem to get a lot of "thank you" and "good job" here from the users.

Praise: doesn't happen often but when it does it makes up for the a$$holes that yell at us.

This is my first tech rant pertaining to my new job as a field PC technician. Please standby..

I was called out to a store location because apparently a starfish decided that updating their computer's BIOS was important and decided to download the first firmware update that they could find.
End result: Computer no longer works.
Solution: Buy new motherboad (mgr's idea, "since it's under warranty").
Could have just replaced the machine too...

Now my little monkeys, guess who is the only person authorized by HP to make this mobo install?

So I go in, and start this shindig going (since it's already been sitting around for 3 days since "somebody" decided NOT to process the order properly).
All during the time that I am there, I am being bombarded by customer question after question. I finally turn to one of the ladies behind me who is working a register and ask her where everybody is. Her answer: "There's only 4 of us tonite, and 1 is on break." Okay, so this means we have a manager in her office hiding, one person out for at least 30 minutes, one person handling register, and one person covering the ENTIRE store who just happens to be in the warehouse gathering stock for the shelves.

Where am I in all this?

In a specially designated area that is completely visible to ALL in the store where I am gutting and reassembling a Full Tower system which is loaded to the hilt (internally) wondering whiskey tango foxtrot. Needless to say, a 30 minute job became a 1hr, 30 min job that I never got to finish because the unit only had one DVI connection and our test monitor was VGA...

Okay! I'm over my hours for the week, I don't get overtime (but I do get a really great mileage rate that makes up for it by leaps and bounds), I cannot currently test the system, I'm going home and I'll be back on Monday.

Cue manglement: "Why Monday? How about tomorrow?" No ma'am, I don't have any hours left, sorry. M:"How about Sunday? we don't want to keep the customer waiting anymore." Nope, next time have the other manager properly file the work order accordingly, see you next week!