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For Stupid People, Browser Cache Should Never Be Enabled

by oztech on April 21, 2008 at 8:25 am · Comments
Categorized by General / Related Information

In my job in Tech Support, I regularly get people that call in and say they can’t connect to my company. The first thing I ask them is “Are you connected to the Internet?” The answer is always “Yes!”. How do they determine this? They bring up Internet Explorer and see their cached home page, thinking it’s live. When I ask them to try some other site, they get all pissy with me. Usually they eventually find that they can’t get anywhere else on the Internet.

Another thing people do is they check to see if they have the icon with the 2 computers in the taskbar. They think that if that icon is flashing, they must have Internet.

Both of these features should be disabled for stupid people so they will never be fooled again. You know it’s one thing to not know something. That’s fine, I get paid to help with computer issues. But why the hell would you bother to call a support line and not check the connection first? Also, why would you get pissy when I suggest the problem might just be on your end?

What do you think?

Mike - April 21, 2008 @ 9:16 am

Ah, the age-old question for IT folks. I just look at it as job security and as long as they stay stupid I am employed ;-)

peace!!

Jeff - April 21, 2008 @ 11:48 am

I understand your frustration. Having worked in a call center for a cell phone company and a DVR service for a year I can definitely see where you’re coming from.

Customers, I find, simply don’t want to invest the time and effort into figuring out what the hell is wrong with something because it, of course, is always going to be the company’s fault that controls the devices. I have to admit it always did give me some sense of pleasure to point out that any issues being experienced were on the customer’s end and not on the service end. Granted these same customers would STILL insist it was the service end’s fault but you can’t convert everyone.

People are just too lazy nowadays to figure things out and investigate before checking with customer service. Sad but true.

D - April 21, 2008 @ 8:16 pm

I believe Scott Adams said it best: “If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask? Do they get smart just in time to ask questions?” If you enjoy a more classical bent from C.S. Lewis: “The trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed.” Or even a viewer of Keith Olbermann: “I showed respect even though I disagreed with you and yet you have the audacity to call me intelligent.”

Don’t think I need to say anything else.

What are your thoughts?

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