Beat 3
In my other life, I teach training classes and, when I’m not working on training stuff, do tech support for high-end Windows-based security software.
I have been wearing my support hat the last few weeks.
Holey Moley did we get shelled today!
Three people waiting take a call.
Now there are four people waiting, take a call.
Three people waiting.
Oh good! It’s down to two, take a call.
Four people waiting, take a call.
(Why the heck did he do that! That was really dumb! And I’ve read that manual, it says no such thing That was a less than desirable action to take in a Windows environment!)
Take a call: “We had to wait a long time. Could you stay on the line with us?”
“I know you had to wait a long time, it’s been a really busy day. But there are two people behind you. Could you please try what I suggested and call back if it doesn’t work?”
“Okay.”
“Thank you for your understanding.”
Oh, no, It’s XXXX again! I’m going to write my Congressman and demand that computers should require a driver’s license!
“We got it working. Thanks. But when we take the device out to the other end of the 1100 foot cat 5 cable, it doesn’t talk!”
“Ethernet standard for cat 5 is 100 meters.” (Not 330 meters, sheesh! Put more politely, not our problem. Oh, yeah, I told them that three hours ago. Somehow, the ethernet standards haven’t changed in the last three hours.) “Try Dalco or Black Box; if anyone has a signal booster, they will.”
“We’re having XYZ!” (Yeah, you had XYZ when you were in my class last year. You hacked into the database and fixed it on your own. Where have you been?) “Download this utility from out FTP site and go here and do this.”
(Who the hell invented the 800-number anyway?)
It’s back up to four. Take a call.
“You’re the man! It’s working!”
“Nice job, guy! Here’s some information your salesman might like to bring them into the 21st century.” (Link, link, link, link.)
“We will definitely sell them your stuff! I’ll see to that!” (Win some, lose some–we do make good stuff.)
In the meantime, I’m trying to hack into the support database to find out how many calls we took today. The departing manager called this morning with the password, but it didn’t work. More hacking next week.
Take a call.
“No, it can’t do that.” It never could do that, and it never will do that.
Take a call. Take a call. Take a call.
5:10 I was off 10 minutes ago.
Take a call.
And life goes on.
January 20, 2006 at 10:49 pm
I hate to depress you, but with anyone who would run an Ethernet cable 1100 feet with no hubs, you might as well also ask them how they made up the plugs at each end too. On my first Ethernet network, I thought it didn’t matter as long as the colors were in the same order at each end. That’s fine for a 30 foot run, but not for 300.
January 21, 2006 at 5:45 am
They didn’t run the cable. It was already there and they wanted to use it. Beats me what app possibly could have used it before they came along.
But it’s not going to do what they want. (By the way, I can say you never heard of their outfit–and, based on our interaction with them, I don’t think you ever will.)
January 26, 2006 at 8:11 pm
Just wanted you to know that yes I do see what you spend your time on. You are a very smart and brilliant man and don’t ever forget that Please.. Take care….
Martha