Windows of Perception are Closed

[gbsi]

This may sound like an urban legend, but it really happened to me. I was working tech support troubleshooting a computer problem for two girls who had called in. At one point I asked the first girl to close all of her windows.
First girl to the second girl: Go around the house and close all the windows.
SG: I think he means all the windows on the computer.
Me: Yes. Yes, I do.
FG: Oh. OK.

[MistressOfTangents]

Excuse my mess.. my brain seems to have exploded.

I'm not even going to ask.

[foxytales]

Reminds me of when I was still doing "tech support" for AOHell...still in training and I get this call from someone who is having an issue.
I told her with her mouse to RIGHT CLICK on her desktop...she asked why would she write on her desk? I said no..that's the background area of her monitor..anyplace there is not an icon (a pretty little picture)..we did this 4 times before she finally got frustrated and yelled at me "There is NO gray menu popping up and now I can't SEE my desktop AT ALL now with all these damned CLICKS all over it!!

The woman...had taken a SHARPIE and WRITTEN the WORD "click" all over her monitor..my team lead was hauling ass down the aisle as he'd been listening to the call, doubled over in laughter as I slapped the Mute button and fell to the floor laughing my ass off....

He took over the call...and basically told her to pack up the computer and take it back to the store--she was too stupid to own a computer....not in those exact words..but that was the intent.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Yeah, sounds like something an AOL user would do.

[BrenDAnn]

I don't suppose even slowly walking her through it like "Look at your mouse--that's the oval shaped thing with the cord on it that you use to control your computer..." etc would've worked in either the OP or foxytales stories. My brain is screaming at me for even reading them! O.o

[Food Lady]

OK, I had a headache before I read this....

[Stockholm Syndrome]

Back in my tech support days I realized pretty quickly that a lot of those types of urban legends actually happen. Yikes.


I think one of the best ones I had, on a semi-regular basis too, was when a customer would call in to say "I was installing WhateverProgram and I'm sitting here now looking at a screen that says click next to continue. What should I do"????

[dalesys]

... looking at a screen that says click next to continue. What should I do"????

and I've tried "clicking" on the screen with a flat and a Phillips and nothing happened. Do I have to use a Torx? Or maybe a Robertson? Or is it one of those security drivers that none of the vanilla hardware stores stock?

[suburbandecay]

Back in my tech support days I realized pretty quickly that a lot of those types of urban legends actually happen. Yikes.

Today I found out that Ms. "I store all my documents in the trash can" works for us in our Chicago office. It goes a long way to explaining why everything out there is so screwed up. (and yes, she did accidentally empty her trash)

[Sparky]

This is only remotely related, but maybe you'll enjoy it.

Remember when the arm to insert the CD was a big open circle? And the legend about the guy who complained that his "coffee cup holder" had broken? He thought the CD holder was a cup holder.

Around the time this legend was going around, someone sent me an email that claimed to be from Coke. It had the Coke logo and looked reasonably real. It said "Coca-Cola wants to thank you for your years of loyal patronage by giving you a free drink holder. Click here." I clicked and my disk drive opened up.

I was . I thought it was hilarious and I sent it to a coworker, where it fell completely flat. Her CPU was on the floor so she didn't see the drive open, and she was hard of hearing so she didn't hear it. She clicked, as far as she could tell nothing happened, and later she wondered why her drive was open. Sorry, but I was again.

[Pixilated]

Anybody here ever read the Computer Stupidities collection at rinkworks.com? As dense as I can be about computers, that site makes me feel positively geeky.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Anybody here ever read the Computer Stupidities collection at rinkworks.com? As dense as I can be about computers, that site makes me feel positively geeky.

For those wishing to feel positively geeky, here is Rinkworks. Be prepared to spead a few hours reading it, and remember Rule #1.