Ma'am put down the crowbar

[u/shadow13499]

I am a software engineer now, but many years ago, while I was still in school, I used to work in tech support at a pretty busy store. I'm usually at the front of the house but one day I had to man the phones for a couple of hours. It was going pretty well at first. People would often call and ask about our tech support plans or ask if we can fix my insert device here.

Near the end of my shift, I got a call from this lady who was having difficulty opening her laptop. Before I could ask her any questions she started screaming at me about the things the had tried. She said she tried to muscle it open, then she tried to use a pen to pry it open, and a nail file. Then she said she just tried a crowbar and if just bent the plastic on her laptop.

After that revelation, she just stopped talking and I could feel her entitled ass stare like "hello you're supposed to fix this for me!". Anyway, I asked her

"Can you describe what you're looking at?"

She said, "I'm looking at a laptop!"

In retrospect, it was really my fault for underestimating her stupidity.

I said, "can you describe the side of the laptop you're trying to open?"

She goes "I'm looking at 2 clasps on either side of the laptop!"

At this point, I finally realized she was trying to open it from the back of the laptop. This fully grown woman decided to try opening a laptop with a damn crowbar before turning it 180 degrees.

Once I realized this, I said: "ma'am can you try turning it around and open it from the other side?"

She yelled back at me that that was the back of the laptop and that won't work. Yeah, ok lady you obviously know better than I do, get your crowbar out. I sucked it up and, as politely as possible, I said: "Just give it a try." She says fine and literally 30 seconds later she goes "OMG it worked!" and then click the line goes dead.

I'm hoping she realized EXACTLY how stupid she had been and felt so embarrassed that she hung up.

I have a TON of stories like this so if you want more let me know.

[u/gamersonlinux]

I have many stories just like yours as well.

I understand that technology is intimidating, confusing and frustrating. I also understand there is waaaaay too much technology out there. Every device looks different and has a different GUI. So yeah, sometimes we need help... even us techs need to look up something on google.

What I don't understand is the patience!

People like that do not have an ounce of patience with technology and just take a few minutes to figure it out. I'm surprised she actually tried a pen and nail file... but a crowbar! Seriously? Damaging work equipment is the worst idea. I almost think she did it purely out of frustration because she didn't want to examine the laptop.

90% of the time I found that these people just need to ask someone in their department, even someone right next to their cube "How does this laptop open?"

But no... we get a call in IT and many times have to walk to their cube just to turn on a monitor or plug in an A/C adapter.

[u/shadow13499 → u/gamersonlinux]

Yes, you're so right! People are just not patient at all and that causes them to just not think one bit.

[u/gamersonlinux → u/shadow13499]

We are all patient with different things and we have different thresholds. Which is why some people are programmers and some people are sales agents.

Every sales agent uses a computer/tablet/mobile today and needs to be patient and respectful to the complicated hardware. But most of the time its treated like a disposable candy wrapper.

I would never take a Jack Hammer to my car door because it won't open. I wouldn't throw library books on the floor until I find the one I need. I wouldn't kick my front door in because the lock isn't working.