Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

MTV Unplugged

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • MTV Unplugged

    ...OK, it actually has nothing to do with MTV.

    I work in technical support for a quite big electronics producer. The main product we support at this office is - backup systems. Those things that you can install on your computer and will optimise your backing-up options. Useless for the day-to-day user, often quite precious for the companies who process tons of data on a regular basis. Those companies usually have at least an IT person who normally has an albeit vague idea of how computers and peripherals work. Now, most of the drives we support are internal, so you can install it on your computer in the slot - let's say - of a floppy drive and let it perform its magic. Some of them, however, are external for one of two reasons: because they are huge or because they are cheap(er).

    Now, yesterday this guy calls and immediately starts berating the company and how he got a brand-new [model number] drive and it was defective from day one. Now, that drive has been out of production for about one year at this point, but it is more than possible that he got a warehouse leftover. Anyway. I start asking all the obvious questions. Operating System (of course there are different configuration options according to which Operating System is being used), Software release, all that. All seems regular, so I start suspecting that it might indeed be an issue with the drive. I ask the caller if he sees any lights on the front of the drives, and he proceeds to describe what is the behaviour of a regularly functioning drive. I ask him to check if his computer is at least able to recognise it, and - after a string of complaints because his computer "never, ever recognised it" - we manage to verify that his drive is indeed not recognised. But the lights behave properly, it does accept and eject the tapes regularly... so I start suspecting that the issue might be in the cables. So I suggest him to please replace the cable and let me know if it works (mind, this is standard procedure before we proceed to a time- and money-consuming exchange). He comments sarcastically about the lack of relation between the power cable and the connection to the computer, to which I point out that I am talking about the OTHER cable, the one that connects the drive to the computer.
    A prolonged silence.
    When I am going to try to talk to him to find out if he is still there, he replies, very sheepishly:
    Him: "Which other cable?"
    Me: "The one with a plug that vaguely resembles the SCART plug on the back of your television, Sir."
    Him: "Oh [choice word], THIS cable? Well... I mean..."
    The line goes dead. He hasn't called again
    FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC

    You're not a unique snowflake unless you create your own mould (Raps)

    ***GK, Sarcastro, Lupo, LingualMonkey, BookBint, Jester, Irv, Hero & Marlowe fan***
Working...
X