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Imagine that you discover you need a part for your computer, but you're not quite sure what it's called or where to get one. So you drop by your local retail electronics store, wander to the computer department, and find an employee. You begin to describe to this person that you need a part and what you need said part to do for you. About two sentences into your description, the employee says, "Oh, you're looking for a hard drive enclosure. Sure, we have those!" Do you...
A - Follow the employee to the hard drive enclosures so you can select one to purchase?
B - Ask some questions about enclosures to make sure that's what you're really after?
C - Ask to see some hard drive enclosures to make sure that's what you're really after?
D - Continue describing the part that you need as if you had rehearsed it in front of a mirror at home?
E - Quack like a pig?
If you answered "D," then I am resisting the urge to scream and yell and cuss and throw things at you, because you must be my customer from last night. (Okay, not quite that bad, but I still certainly don't like you!)
This guy wanted a few things to help him build a new computer. Simple stuff, really. The whole conversation he had with me should have taken about six minutes. It took 30 minutes. I don't know if it was a mild mental disorder that caused him to behave this way, but he just didn't know when to stop talking!
We close at 9:00PM on most weekdays. It was 8:50PM when this guy approached me.
SC: Can you help me find something?
Me: I can sure try. What do you need?
SC: Well, I have some hard drives from my old computers, and I want to get the data off them onto a new computer I'm building.
Me: Sounds like you need a hard drive enclosure kit. I've got some of those over here.
I start to walk the hard drive aisle. SC doesn't move, so I turn back toward him, wondering why he's not moving, and realize that he's still talking to me.
SC: Yeah, my friend has this box for his hard drives. He just sticks the hard drive in the box, and it makes it like an external drive. Since I've got a bunch of old hard drives, I thought that would be a good idea for me to use.
Me: That's exactly what these enclosure kits are. Would you like me to show them to you?
SC: Do you have any of those? My friend is in Texas, so I can't borrow his, and I thought I should just get one for myself anyway.
I finally get him to follow me to the hard drive aisle and show him some enclosures. Then comes his next question.
SC: Now are these for IDE or SATA drives? I've got two or three of each, so I need to make sure I get the right thing.
Me: This one is for SATA drives, and these other two are for IDE.
SC: It looks like this one is for SATA. Gosh, they're kinda expensive, though. I don't want to have to buy two of them. It would be nice if I could just buy one and use it for both.
Me: It sure would. Unfortunately, we don't sell any enclosures that handle both SATA and IDE. I imagine they exist, but I haven't seen any around here.
SC: Do you think they make one that does both types? Because then I could just buy one enclosure and put all of my drives in it. Well, one at a time, because only one would fit, but I wouldn't have to spend so much money that way.
Me: Yeah, but we don't carry an enclosure that has both connections.
SC: Do you have one of these that works for SATA and IDE?
Me: ... No.
And so it went for half an hour! Asking me if we had just the little circuit with cables for reading hard drives instead of the whole enclosure kit, asking me about what type of RAM would work on the motherboard he just bought, asking me about the different versions of Windows Vista, asking me about RAM for his old laptop, asking me about power supplies and graphic cards. We'd been closed for 20 minutes by the time this guy was finally done (we're like a restaurant when we close--at 9:00PM, nobody else comes in, but if you're already in, you've still got some time to finish your shopping before we kick you out).
He just couldn't catch the cues. I understood his question and answered it, but he just kept explaining himself. Only when HE thought he was done asking his question would he be able to hear my answer.
Very frustrating customer. Nice, but remarkably aggravating. At least he didn't come in when we were busy.
A - Follow the employee to the hard drive enclosures so you can select one to purchase?
B - Ask some questions about enclosures to make sure that's what you're really after?
C - Ask to see some hard drive enclosures to make sure that's what you're really after?
D - Continue describing the part that you need as if you had rehearsed it in front of a mirror at home?
E - Quack like a pig?
If you answered "D," then I am resisting the urge to scream and yell and cuss and throw things at you, because you must be my customer from last night. (Okay, not quite that bad, but I still certainly don't like you!)
This guy wanted a few things to help him build a new computer. Simple stuff, really. The whole conversation he had with me should have taken about six minutes. It took 30 minutes. I don't know if it was a mild mental disorder that caused him to behave this way, but he just didn't know when to stop talking!
We close at 9:00PM on most weekdays. It was 8:50PM when this guy approached me.
SC: Can you help me find something?
Me: I can sure try. What do you need?
SC: Well, I have some hard drives from my old computers, and I want to get the data off them onto a new computer I'm building.
Me: Sounds like you need a hard drive enclosure kit. I've got some of those over here.
I start to walk the hard drive aisle. SC doesn't move, so I turn back toward him, wondering why he's not moving, and realize that he's still talking to me.
SC: Yeah, my friend has this box for his hard drives. He just sticks the hard drive in the box, and it makes it like an external drive. Since I've got a bunch of old hard drives, I thought that would be a good idea for me to use.
Me: That's exactly what these enclosure kits are. Would you like me to show them to you?
SC: Do you have any of those? My friend is in Texas, so I can't borrow his, and I thought I should just get one for myself anyway.
I finally get him to follow me to the hard drive aisle and show him some enclosures. Then comes his next question.
SC: Now are these for IDE or SATA drives? I've got two or three of each, so I need to make sure I get the right thing.
Me: This one is for SATA drives, and these other two are for IDE.
SC: It looks like this one is for SATA. Gosh, they're kinda expensive, though. I don't want to have to buy two of them. It would be nice if I could just buy one and use it for both.
Me: It sure would. Unfortunately, we don't sell any enclosures that handle both SATA and IDE. I imagine they exist, but I haven't seen any around here.
SC: Do you think they make one that does both types? Because then I could just buy one enclosure and put all of my drives in it. Well, one at a time, because only one would fit, but I wouldn't have to spend so much money that way.
Me: Yeah, but we don't carry an enclosure that has both connections.
SC: Do you have one of these that works for SATA and IDE?
Me: ... No.
And so it went for half an hour! Asking me if we had just the little circuit with cables for reading hard drives instead of the whole enclosure kit, asking me about what type of RAM would work on the motherboard he just bought, asking me about the different versions of Windows Vista, asking me about RAM for his old laptop, asking me about power supplies and graphic cards. We'd been closed for 20 minutes by the time this guy was finally done (we're like a restaurant when we close--at 9:00PM, nobody else comes in, but if you're already in, you've still got some time to finish your shopping before we kick you out).
He just couldn't catch the cues. I understood his question and answered it, but he just kept explaining himself. Only when HE thought he was done asking his question would he be able to hear my answer.
Very frustrating customer. Nice, but remarkably aggravating. At least he didn't come in when we were busy.
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