Those wacky customers...

People who work in customer support (or any service industry, really) have their own brand of gallows humor, usually evoking a combination of affection and disgust for the customer/client/guest/whatever we're calling them these days. This is especially true those of us in the computer industry. Doubly especially so for those of us who have the joy of supporting products that run on the W#nd*ws platform. Uh oh. I feel a whine coming on!

<whine>
Not only do we get to help users navigate our own products, but we get to attempt, on a daily basis, to explain and apologize for M*soft's stupid decisions. Don't even get me started on Vista! OK, I have a love/hate relationship with M*soft. I used to be a temp there. But I digress....
</whine>

Keeping with the long-standing tradition of the best gallows humor, the jokes can sound kind of harsh. But in truth, those of us with fairly stable brain chemistry don't hold any real animosity towards our customers; mostly we laugh simply to keep from bursting into tears or just plain hanging up mid-phone call after being utterly overcome by futility and despair.

Here's a little gem of Internet humor that recently hit my Inbox:

Old George

I was having trouble with my computer. So I called George the computer guy to come over. George clicked a couple of buttons and solved the problem.

He gave me a bill for a minimum service call. As he was walking away, I called after him, "So, what was wrong?"

He replied, "It was an ID Ten T error."

I didn't want to appear stupid, but nonetheless inquired, "An ID Ten T error? What's that? In case I need to fix it again."

George grinned. "Haven't you ever heard of an ID Ten T error before?"

"No," I replied.

"Write it down," he said, "and I think you'll figure it out."

So I wrote down: I D 1 0 T

I used to like George.

:)