OT Microsoft callled.

[micky]

OT I got a call from Microsoft yesterday. He said I had problems with my computer, and he was going to help me. I thanked him.

He had me go to eventviewer, eventvwr. Then to applications. Boy, was he right! I had loads of information lines and lots of warnings and errors. Then he had me go to www.?????.me. I forget what the questions marks were. I wasn't using this computer but the laptop, in bed, and it was really slow..... When I couldn't get there, he sent me to teamviewer.com.

Anyhow, I kept him on the phone for 53 minutes. He got annoyed once when he had to keep repeating the second letter in Team. I really couldn't understand him or guess what it was. He almost yelled at me.

Later, I mentioned food, and he hung up, I guess. Maybe he doesn't like food. I hope he calls back. I have to get rid of those errors.

[Thane]

Maybe you mentioned you were eating a burger made from the best cows. Did you also mention you liked to eat cows a lot and all of your friends eat cows a lot. Eating animals that are vegetarians makes you a vegetarian, just like the Indian Scammers that you were talking to.

:-)

I'll bet you didn't get to the point of telling him you were using a Mac either.

Thane

[Gordon Shumway]

The same guy probably called me too. English was definitely not his native language. It took him a while to explain to me what the "ctrl" key was. I kept asking if this had anything to do with gun control but he didn't understand that. At the end of our conversation he did understand what "f*ck you" meant.

He was unhappy when he hung up. He may have lost his job by now and is probably going to the nearest terrorist recruiting office.

[Unquestionably Confused]

You sir, are a great humanitarian. Tied that scumbag up for near an hour, you did.

Whenever possible I like to take the time to screw with them, especially the telemarketers. If I can keep them on the line for ten minutes or so by taking other calls and putting them on hold, it's a real joy when I blow them off. Even I have learned some new words!

Had a scammer try to work his magic when I had a riding mower for sale on Craigslist. Same old "I'll buy it and have my shipper pick it up when he comes through in three weeks." Actually convinced him to send me the money order/cashier's check TWICE but the only address he had was the Post Office and I told him to send it certified mail. Dumbbell kept sending it by Federal Express (He legitimately sent it as there was no mistaking the Fedex emails and calls.) I just told him there was no way to have FEDEX deliver it so he'd have to send it to the PO Box via USPS. Two times he used FEDEX so I figure I got into him for at least $35 before he gave up. Shoot! I really wanted one of those phony cashier's checks or money orders for my collection.

[Unquestionably Confused]

[snip]

stand him or guess what it was. He almost yelled at me.

LOL and I'll bet his name was "Kelly" too, wasn't it?

[Peter]

As senior citizens, with senior citizen voices, our favorite response to telemarketers is, "we're sorry but we're not permitted to answer these calls." We laugh when we picture the head scratching that sentence must cause (assuming that the caller understands English).

[Ed Pawlowski]

Congrats. The best I could do was 40 minutes. He stayed on while I prayed and chanted over the computer, but hung up when I was going to light the incense. Would have been a great ceremony.

[Frank]

Might add that I strung out one of these guys once and then told him I was just wasting his time. He told me that as an old guy I did not have a lot of time left to waste.

He was right.

Now I just curse and hang up.

[Stormin Mormon]

That sounds like great wisdom. I also try to keep callers on the line as best possible.

Some day I'm going to put a #1 beep on my answering machine message, and home to lots of people wondering if there is anyone there.

- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .

. .

[Dean Hoffman]

That reminds me of a story about baseball spring training. A pitcher was taking his sweet time between pitches. A little old lady hollered "Please, Mr. Pitcher, hurry up, some of us don't have that much time left".

[clare]

I just ask "if you are getting messages from my computer, what kind of computer do I have?, and what operating system is it running??- and what is my email address???"

or "computer????? What's a computer?"

[Frank]

I've got friends that say they are almost to the, "I don't buy green bananas" stage.

[makolber]

Yes, wasting the time of the grunt on the phone is no fun.... It is much more rewarding to screw with the people that hired them.

Mark

[notbob]

It's obvious you have not spent much time on the line with support from India, regardless of what service you are calling about. I gets extremely frustrating having to tell the support ppl how to do their job. Twenty plus support droids can be --and usually are-- wrong.

nb

[clare]

The best way to spend your time with the support droids from India is to convince them to pass you on to second level support. Rather than spending 3 hours working with first level, spend an hour getting through to second level, and solve the problem in 10 minutes.

[Roger Blake]

I have virtual machines set up for those morons to rummage around in. If in the mood for a really good time (and they're using Teamviewer) I let them have a go at a Linux virtual machine. Then I have an expired company credit card from a defunct former employer to "pay" the scammers with.

[notbob]

I once did that. Demanded American support ppl. I got some lady from Uraguay?/Paraguay? Damned if she didn't solve the problem! ;)

nb

[clare]

I've done it numerous times. I work with those darned "confusers" every day, and spend WAY too much time on support calls. As soon as I get the idea I have someone who knows less than me, I DEMAND to talk to second level.. The problem gets fixed.

[Doug Miller]

[e-mail] wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I once had a problem with Sprint -- forget what it was, but I remember that I spent a *lot* of time on multiple phone calls with their first-level support _in the US_ without getting the problem resolved.

Called back, pressed '2' for Spanish. Spanish-speaking rep answered. I said, "Habla Ingles?" He did. Turned out that (1) he was in Chile, (2) he spoke better English than some of the Americans I'd been talking to before, and (3) he got the problem taken care of in only a few minutes.

[Stormin Mormon]

Cyber vandalism is a new form of terrorism. And the joke about calling suidice prevention, they asked if he could drive a truck.

Thanks for keeping the guy busy. In 1999, I got deluged by callers offering my Y2K protection for my C drive. I had an old Xerox 860 which had A and B drives, but no C.

- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .

. .