Good grief...

[ffutures]

I always thought it was an urban myth... even when I was doing phone support for a second-hand computer shop it never happened... but I just solved a relative's laptop problem over the phone by asking if it was plugged in. The answer, of course, was that it wasn't, and the battery was flat.

Comments

[raygungothic.livejournal.com]

Not only is it not an urban myth, it's not even all that rare. I used to do tech support for a large ISP, and "not plugged in" was the root cause at least once a day.

Funnily enough, because it's also an urban myth, a fair percentage of callers became very angrywhen the possibility was suggested. In the end I arrived at the convenient stock phrase "Just one thing before we go any further... would you mind taking a look around the back to see if any of the plugs have worked loose?" Somehow, the idea that it was the plugs' fault deflected a lot of anger, though never quite enough embarrassment.

[cdybedahl.livejournal.com]

This is actually common enough that when I once was sent on a course on how to do frontline support, one of the things discussed was exactly how to say "Check that the machine is plugged in" without the customer getting angry.

[raygungothic.livejournal.com]

If only I'd had that kind of useful training...

[akicif.livejournal.com]

"Could you please unplug both ends of the cable and reconnect them?" usually works....

Unless, of course, you get a clever so and so who feels patronised by the attempt to save their face!