Office Depot Antics

[evilhippy]

I have 3 different stories from when i used to work at office depot as a tech guy. 1 of the 3 actually happened to me, the other 2 to a friend that worked there but they are just too good to be left untold.

#1
A rather large and aggitated woman came in to the store one afternoon with a CRT monitor ( everyone remembers the crush your liver...monster of a monitor these things were)...and slams it down on a glass counter screaming at the top of her lungs..."THIS THING DOESNT WORK!!". My friend approaches the lady and tries to calm her down, suggesting to her that they test the item and see if they cant work together to figure out the problem. He then proceeded to hook the monitor up to a spare tower they had for such purposes when the woman stopped him and asked..."Wait, what is that?" My friend told her it was a computer...the customer-"and i need one of those?"

#2
*same friend as before*
My friend was helping an older lady over the phone with the whole *Getting started* that comes on when a new computer is first powered up. At some point during this process, my friend instructed the lady to right click on a particular option. The lady asked my friend how to do this. Knowing this was her first computer, he explained how a mouse worked to her with left and right buttons, and again asked her to right click ont he option...the lady-"so which one is right click?". After a pause my friend politely asked the lady to repack her computer and send it back to them...the lady, with a rather worried tone, asked if something was wrong with her pc? "No" my friend stated, "you simply dont deserve to own a pc."

#3
It was an extremely busy day at our store on this day( customers interupting customers and arguing/fighting with each other for service) and as my luck would have it the other tech guys were droppin all the tech calls onto my lap. So of course in the middle of helping 3 different customers at once, the phone rang and they said i had to get it. It turns out it was a lady who had recently purchased a new screensaver program from our store(the shark screensaver one) and said she was having problems getting it to work. After asking multiple technical questions ( seriously though, how technical can you get with a screensaver)...it dawned on me. I asked the lady if her computer was turned on. She flatly stated "You mean the computer has to be on for it to work? "

needless to say...i dont really miss being in customer service...

[smileyeagle1021]

a CRT monitor ( everyone remembers the crush your liver...monster of a monitor these things are)

edited for truth... quite a few of us our still stuck with our old CRTs
and some businesses are just too damned cheap to get real monitors

[powerboy]

About the CRT Monitors

I am glad that my computer is a flat screen. I hate those god awful CRT montitors

[Hotfoot]

#2
*same friend as before*
My friend was helping an older lady over the phone with the whole *Getting started* that comes on when a new computer is first powered up. At some point during this process, my friend instructed the lady to right click on a particular option. The lady asked my friend how to do this. Knowing this was her first computer, he explained how a mouse worked to her with left and right buttons, and again asked her to right click ont he option...the lady-"so which one is right click?". After a pause my friend politely asked the lady to repack her computer and send it back to them...the lady, with a rather worried tone, asked if something was wrong with her pc? "No" my friend stated, "you simply dont deserve to own a pc."

I'm sorry, but that one makes me angry. Yes, some people need repetition. In fact, everyone does from time to time. When you're presented with a new source of information, it's hard to process it all at once. An older individual just getting a computer for the first time is going to be overwhelmed by this. I spent MONTHS undoing the kind of damage people like your friend did to people who were honestly trying to learn something new.

While it may seem funny from that side, let me tell you something, when people are ridiculed to the point where they actively hate technology because some wisenheimer lazy-butt tech support berated them for not understanding something perfectly, it stays with them for a long time to come. They made an honest effort to try and learn, and your friend slapped them in the face for it.

Imagine what would happen if when you were in elementary school, your teacher made jokes at your expense when you didn't do well at your multiplication tables and told you to leave the classroom, because you didn't DESERVE to know math.

For SHAME.

[Canarr]

I'm sorry, but that one makes me angry.

Actually, that one makes me highly suspicious. I've heard this particular story so often from different sources, it can only be an Urban Legend. So, I call bullsh*t.

But, in case it actually were true, I agree with Hotfoot: the suck is firmly on the employee's side here.

[iradney]

I agree with Hotfoot and Canarr
Some people are simply technophobes, and so fearful of doing ANYTHING that could potentially cause harm, they err too much on the side of caution.
And yes, I also think that's an Urban Legend.

[Alpha Strike]

I'm sorry, but that one makes me angry.

*snip*
But, in case it actually were true, I agree with Hotfoot: the suck is firmly on the employee's side here.

While I concede that telling the customer that she didn't "deserve" to own the computer was a bit much, I can understand where the OP's friend is coming from.

It would have been one thing if the OP's friend was talking about something complex for a newbie: downloading program drivers, getting a secure wireless network set-up, or something else that a person new to computers would have difficulties relating to.

But we're talking about knowing the difference between left and right - that's it. This is something that we all learn as small children, so you don't have to be a Mensa member or technically savvy in order to get the "concept" here.

Honestly, how much do those of us in customer service - technical or not- have to dumb things down for our customers? At what point did customer become another way of saying "I won't think for myself?"

I consider myself a pretty good phone CSR: I can be very patient with folks and I have no problem devoting a good chunk of time to helping folks out with any number of issues. But it drives me crazy when customers - even polite ones - require spoon-feeding and hand-holding more appropriate for toddlers then adult shoppers.

[Applerod]

~<This is pretty far off topic>:
(re: CRTs) I recently replaced my CRT monitor with an LCD because my old one was damaged in the process of moving and started to display faint horizontal lines. I do some amateur photography and photomanipulation so I'm very attuned to image quality. I did my research and picked one of the top 2 or 3 best-reviewed monitors in my price point.
Overall I'm very happy with this bigger, wider, flatter, lighter, newer monitor but I must say that in terms of sheer image quality, it is slightly inferior to the CRT. The reason for this is that the picture changes (primarily in the area of brightness) depending upon where you are in relation to the monitor, whereas the image is identical in CRTs from any angle. This is fine for most people but when you're fine-tuning the characteristics of a picture such as brightness and contrast to within 2% it is a little annoying.
I already knew this and have had a few arguments in the past with people who refused to believe that an older technology could yield a superior image. Granted, I'm generalizing, there are exceptions, and the best Cathode Ray Tube screens stopped being the reference quality above the best examples of the newer alternative technologies maybe 4 years ago according to most professional reviewers.
Like I said, for most people this marginal sacrifice in image quality is made up for by the massive reduction in size and weight. I'm sure the quality of LCDs will continue to improve, and maybe plasmas with their wider viewing angle will become available in desktop size at some point. Until then I'll just have to keep my head locked in the same position when I'm doing image editing.

[Snowbird]

But, in case it actually were true, I agree with Hotfoot: the suck is firmly on the employee's side here.

I agree as well.

But we're talking about knowing the difference between left and right - that's it. This is something that we all learn as small children, so you don't have to be a Mensa member or technically savvy in order to get the "concept" here.

Honestly, how much do those of us in customer service - technical or not- have to dumb things down for our customers? At what point did customer become another way of saying "I won't think for myself?"

I believe this is a brain to hand translation that isn't normal for most people. It isn't looking at two doors in front of you and saying "which is right and which is left?". It's asking your right hand to select the right side of the mouse, when your index finger, the finger most people associate with their right hand, is over the left side of the object and that is still on the right hand side of your body. I would imagine it's like asking some folks to rotate their foot counter clockwise, and then rotate their hand clockwise at the same time. Try it some time, the signals get mixed up in the brain.

And yes, I had a hard time both figuring out and remembering which was the right click button when I first started using a computer. It wasn't until I started using it with much repetition that it became an easy thing. If a smart alek tech had spoken to me like that, I would have talked to his manager. If that makes me sucky, so be it.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

My friend told her it was a computer...the customer-"and i need one of those?"

Hp has released a series of computers where everything in contained in the screen housing except for the keyboard and mouse. In fact the newest has a touch screen.

Until I had someone see one and buy a LCD screen thinking it was a cheaper version...I'd have thought it was an urban legend

"No" my friend stated, "you simply dont deserve to own a pc."

Sounds like the urban legend story found here.

If this is really true however I agree that in this case, the suck is on the employee and if any of my staff had dome this I'd have fired their ass for that. There are people who have never used any technology more advanced than telephone suddenly getting connected to the internet and it can be intimidating.

You be polite to them, you help them until they are comfortable with the computer and you answer the calls from them for help as best as you can for the next three months.

Why? Because if you're nice to Granny, she'll tell her children to shop at your store since you're so nice and will often buy laptops for the grandkids at Christmas if they have disposable income.

She flatly stated "You mean the computer has to be on for it to work? "

Again this is either another variant of another very old story...or something that happened that isn't really that sucky. It is possible that people don't understand the concept of the screen saver and think that the computer can be off to run it.

As for all three stories in general? This thread shouldn't be here since I fail to see the suckage factor here (notable exception for #2 and that's not the customer's fault). I think it belongs in the Technical Support section.

M

[iradney]

Well, I have personally experienced the "the computer has to be on???" when working at a helpdesk... So it does happen....

[Alpha Strike]

........
I believe this is a brain to hand translation that isn't normal for most people. It isn't looking at two doors in front of you and saying "which is right and which is left?". It's asking your right hand to select the right side of the mouse, when your index finger, the finger most people associate with their right hand, is over the left side of the object and that is still on the right hand side of your body. I would imagine it's like asking some folks to rotate their foot counter clockwise, and then rotate their hand clockwise at the same time. Try it some time, the signals get mixed up in the brain.

And yes, I had a hard time both figuring out and remembering which was the right click button when I first started using a computer. It wasn't until I started using it with much repetition that it became an easy thing. If a smart alek tech had spoken to me like that, I would have talked to his manager. If that makes me sucky, so be it.

I think you're making the use of a mouse seem overly complicated. It's as simple as saying "Here's a tool called a mouse. It has two buttons, one of the left side and one on the right. When I say 'left-click' that means I want you to click on the button on the left side and when I say 'right-click' that means I want you to click on the button on the right side."

That being said, I (still) don't think it was proper for the OP's friend to say what he did, and neither you or the original customer were "sucky" if you genuinely needed help to learn computer basics.

My original post stems from the frustration I often feel when people ask for additional time and help not because they really need it but rather because they're too lazy to do some work on their own to figure things out. The woman mentioned in the original post had that "feel" to it but if I'm wrong then I'm wrong!

[Nayeli_Sabia]

But we're talking about knowing the difference between left and right - that's it. This is something that we all learn as small children, so you don't have to be a Mensa member or technically savvy in order to get the "concept" here.

How do we know this person isn't dyslexic? My dyslexia is mostly in right and left, I can't think left untill I think right. If someone told me to click the right mouse button, I would have to take a minute to remember which that is. And I've been useing computers for almost 20 years now. My father used to yell at me about this very thing, because he couldn't understand that it wasn't something I chose to do. I can't help it.

Suck is totally on the side of the CSR here.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

#2
*same friend as before*
My friend was helping an older lady over the phone with the whole *Getting started* that comes on when a new computer is first powered up. At some point during this process, my friend instructed the lady to right click on a particular option. The lady asked my friend how to do this. Knowing this was her first computer, he explained how a mouse worked to her with left and right buttons, and again asked her to right click ont he option...the lady-"so which one is right click?". After a pause my friend politely asked the lady to repack her computer and send it back to them...the lady, with a rather worried tone, asked if something was wrong with her pc? "No" my friend stated, "you simply dont deserve to own a pc."

This is one of those things that's okay to think, but not to say out loud.

As much as we'd all like to do it sometimes, we wouldn't have jobs if we made customers feel like fools like that.

The suck in this story is completely with the OP's friend.

[Alpha Strike]

How do we know this person isn't dyslexic?

... Or their vision isn't good, or they have wrist-problems, or they have nerve-damage in their fingers, or they don't hear directions well, or whatever other difficulty you want to insert that would explain why the customer was having problems.

My assumption - since the original poster didn't mention otherwise - is that the lady in question didn't have any other "difficulties" beyond her inability to understand and/or implement the OP's friends request to left-click/right-click.

From that initial assumption came my responding post, in which I explained that while I didn't approve of the comments to the customer, I could understand where they came from. A generation of SCs demanding hand-holding and spoon-feeding has left me quite jaded about things like this.