In a different life, I worked in Tech Support. My friends set up a site called Tech Hell where we all posted sad and depraved stories of calls we had to answer. Some of them have been published in a book called Techmares. One of my stories (maybe more than one) is featured in Chapter 3. How cool is that?
And on the “why haven’t you been posting” front, I pulled a bunch of muscles in my neck this weekend carrying Max around Target (he’s big now). He was leaning over the whole time forcing my head forward at an odd angle. It didn’t hurt at the time, but as soon as I got him down, I couldn’t move my head back to its normal resting location. I could only turn maybe 15 – 20 degrees either left or right, and was in a great deal of pain. So, I spent all weekend on the couch with heating pads around my body. I went to the chiropractor yesterday morning and found I’d only been making it worse with heat. So, after much pain and contortions over two days, I’m covered in ice packs. But, I can turn my head almost all the way; I can type; the pain is gone from my right side and all that’s left to fix is my left side.
So, that’s why I was gone. Good excuse, huh?
TECHMARES is a great book! It’s a pleasure using some of your material…
Wow, the author of the tome graces us with his presence, and a little (I’m sure completely impartial) review. I think what my friend Jim wrote as the opening to the TechHell section was brilliant. And for those of you keeping track at home, my story is called “Nabib…”, because that was the guy’s name. I think there may be one or two other ones because they sound like calls I’ve taken, but I can’t be sure.
I love the “Nabib” story! So you’re the man who lived the nightmare…I am humbled by your presence. I take escalations like these everyday – no one should have to deal with these!
That’s not even my worst call (not by a looo-oooong shot). I should start writing these down before I forget them all. My favorite call of all time was this nice old Asian guy with a hugely messed up install of our software. It took forty-five minutes of removing it by hand, re-installing, signing on, and then telling him how to use the software. When we were all done and about to hang up he said, “Oh, boy, you muss knowa ebellee-t’ing!” To which I promptly replied, “No sir, three more things, and then I’ll know everything.” Three guys sitting around me who heard me stood up with shocked looks on their faces. I said good-bye and had to stop taking calls for five minutes to try to stop laughing.
The funniest calls always seem to be from the people in India for some reason. I had one last week where the guy was reading off his service tag – B as in boy, J as in John, Q as in barbecue…
Needless to say, we had him repeat this on speakerphone.