Servicedesk 02
At the Internet servicedesk:
"My internet connection does not work anymore."
"Alright, I'll see what I can do. What is your login name?"
"Login name? I don't know, Do you really need that?"
"Well, it's the fastest way for us to look up your data, but we have other ways. For instance, where do you live?"
He named some obscure town in the Netherlands, which I'd never heard of.
"Errr, right, in what province is that?"
"It's near Utrecht."
Ah, I can work with that, so I entered the part of the database that contained the records for that area. I could not find that town however, so I asked him for the zip-code.
Even with the zip-code, I could not find it. Ok, so I went to search the rest of the database. Which returned zip, zilch, nada. That client just did not want to be found.
At that moment irritation set in at the other end of the line: he had to wait for too long. So then I started asking about the modem: what type it was.
The ISP I worked for at the time, had three separate models and they were installed differently on each computer. So he walked over to the modem and told me he had a white one.
"I see, and what operating system do you use?"
"Mac OS X..."
"And which modem do you have?"
"A white one, it says Motorola on the side. You should know that, you supplied it to us."
By that time I was baffled: our ISP had not got one of those Motorola modems to work on any Mac. Somehow this client had pulled it off.
I made the mistake to let him notice that I was surprised:
"Wow, you got it to work on a Mac?"
"It's been working for weeks without any problem, but now it won't log in. Say, is this going to take long? I got more things to do today."
I was growing suspicious
(Annoyed):"This is insane, can't you just help me? The modem just won't log in and I want to know why. You guys are obliged to fix it. I pay good money for this subscription."
"I know we are, sir, and we are surely going to help you."
"Do you have any letter from your ISP? Like a bill with the subscription costs?"
"Yes, I got one right here."
"And what does the stationery read?"
"It says Company A."
"That's what I thought."
"Look, are you going to help me, or what? There will be consequences if you do not help me quick. I do have a friend who's a lawyer and he'd love to get his hands on your company."
"I would if I could, and I could if you were a customer from us, but you know, this is not Company A."
Silence on the other end of the line.
"This is Company B, we do not supply internet in your town."
"Oh. Oh.... Hahahahahaha!!! My bad, sorry."
-Hang up-
