Please do not laugh but could you tell me what ...

[aeryn]

LOL. I have heard this story before. i don't know if it really happened to anyone or if it's just one of those stories that gets passed around, but I heard this anecdote a few times working AOL tech support. Let me tell you, and sorry to any AOL users on here, but AOL customers are about the dumbest people you could ever talk to (not counting the people on DIS that may use AOL...if you are intelligent enough to use a message board, you are way smarter than the average AOL user).

I used to keep a notebook log of all the stupid comments and questions I got, which other techs started passing around and writing in. One of the best was, this guy whose AOL software had been deleted off his computer, and he needed to re-install it. I asked him if he had his AOL installation disk. He said, "um, I don't know...is that the tall box with the blinking lights under my desk?" It took me a couple of seconds before I realized he was talking about his COMPUTER. I had to ask him to hold a moment while I LMAO (sorry, LMBO). And you would be amazed at how many people cannot find their start button. Even after I tell them "it's the button that says 'start' in the lower left corner of your computer". I have had many people who take 5 minutes to understand the concept of right clicking the mouse. Don't even ASK how hard it is to explain "control alt delete". One man got so frustrated trying to do this, that he said he is cancelling AOL and hung up. One man actually asked me how to make letters capital. I had to explain how to hold down the shift key while typing the letter ("wow, that is so neat! I never knew that!") My question is, who let these people own a computer?

I had to quit that job because it really made me depressed about the human race.

Ok WAY off topic here, but I just had to share that. I have many more AOL war stories, but I will stop now

~Mia~

Mia!!

Small world! I used to be a unix sysadmin for AOL in Dulles, Virginia. Oh, the stories I could tell! Fortunately, shortly after leaving AOL, I underwent extreme therapy to erase the scars of my time there

I think anyone who has spent any amount of time working IT has horror stories tho...

 

[lovethattink]

What does LMAO and LMBO mean?

Note to Nikkibell, keep hammers away from CaptinJackSparrow when he is near the computer.

Miakoda and qruthie you are so lucky you can talk about your work horror stories. Uncle Sam has taken care of that with me and passed the HIPPA law. And I have such good ones, like how do I get the pink stuff out of my child's ear (happened over a decade ago, before HPPA was passed).

 

[CaptinJackSparrow]

What does LMAO and LMBO mean?

Note to Nikkibell, keep hammers away from CaptinJackSparrow when he is near the computer.

Miakoda and qruthie you are so lucky you can talk about your work horror stories. Uncle Sam has taken care of that with me and passed the HIPPA law. And I have such good ones, like how do I get the pink stuff out of my child's ear (happened over a decade ago, before HPPA was passed).

she had to hide the hammers chainsaws sawsalls wrenches and shovels, cos i get creative when i am angry! you don't know how many monitors iv'e gone thru. "yes dell suport, my monitor isn't working!" <middle east accent> "may i have your service tag number?" <give knuckle head tag number> <MEA> "what seems to be the problem?" "I already told you the monitoer doesn't work!" <MEA> "well why not sir?" <blood starts to simmer> "i don't know thats why i am calling you?" <MEA> " did you check to see if it was turned on?" <blood is now boiling> "of cousre i checked to see if its turned on, i also checked to see if it was pluged in to the wall as well as the computer!" <MEA> "is it pluged into the wall?" "ARE YOU &^%$#&* KIDDING ME I JUST $@$!%#$ TOLD YOU IT WAS YOU ^%#$@ AREN'T YOU LISTENING?" <MEA> "No sir i'm not!" <crash> "Conect me with the sales department!"

 

[MiakodaWDW]

she had to hide the hammers chainsaws sawsalls wrenches and shovels, cos i get creative when i am angry! you don't know how many monitors iv'e gone thru. "yes dell suport, my monitor isn't working!" <middle east accent> "may i have your service tag number?" <give knuckle head tag number> <MEA> "what seems to be the problem?" "I already told you the monitoer doesn't work!" <MEA> "well why not sir?" <blood starts to simmer> "i don't know thats why i am calling you?" <MEA> " did you check to see if it was turned on?" <blood is now boiling> "of cousre i checked to see if its turned on, i also checked to see if it was pluged in to the wall as well as the computer!" <MEA> "is it pluged into the wall?" "ARE YOU &^%$#&* KIDDING ME I JUST $@$!%#$ TOLD YOU IT WAS YOU ^%#$@ AREN'T YOU LISTENING?" <MEA> "No sir i'm not!" <crash> "Conect me with the sales department!"

That is great. Unfortunately, AOL also outsources some of its tech support to India. From what I heard, they are trained with just enough English to (barely) do their job. If I earned an extra dollar at that job for every time the first thing I heard on a call was "thank God, someone who speaks English!", I would still be working there. It's not the Indians' faults they cannot speak our language, it's the companys' faults for sacrificing customer satisfaction for cheap labor. I think it is horrible. Another one of the many reasons why I left AOL. A quote I heard very often was "Why is it called America Online when most of your employees are not even American, and cannot even understand English?"

Good question.

~Mia~

 

[qruthie]

That is great. Unfortunately, AOL also outsources some of its tech support to India. From what I heard, they are trained with just enough English to (barely) do their job. If I earned an extra dollar at that job for every time the first thing I heard on a call was "thank God, someone who speaks English!", I would still be working there. It's not the Indians' faults they cannot speak our language, it's the companys' faults for sacrificing customer satisfaction for cheap labor. I think it is horrible. Another one of the many reasons why I left AOL. A quote I heard very often was "Why is it called America Online when most of your employees are not even American, and cannot even understand English?"

Good question.

~Mia~

You know what is scary? I've worked with so many Indians and one of my doctors is Indian so when I call tech support... I can understand what they are saying! I'm serious too - no sane person could have figured out one guy was saying, "utilities". It didn't sound anything like that but after I paused for a second to do the accented English to American translation, I knew what he said! It's to the point that I don't even notice if they swap their 'v' and 'w' sounds.

I helped train the Indian workers who were taking over the last project I worked on. Software support for the product (only bug fixes, not new development) was outsourced to India. The rest of the work ended up being outsourced to a company with a local office that at least employed the people who were already working on the project. Really, they sold the people along with the software! It almost sounds like slavery! I didn't stick around long enough to be part of that fun.

qruthie (the 'q' is silent) who doesn't work in the software world anymore

 

[MiakodaWDW]

You know what is scary? I've worked with so many Indians and one of my doctors is Indian so when I call tech support... I can understand what they are saying! I'm serious too - no sane person could have figured out one guy was saying, "utilities". It didn't sound anything like that but after I paused for a second to do the accented English to American translation, I knew what he said! It's to the point that I don't even notice if they swap their 'v' and 'w' sounds.

I helped train the Indian workers who were taking over the last project I worked on. Software support for the product (only bug fixes, not new development) was outsourced to India. The rest of the work ended up being outsourced to a company with a local office that at least employed the people who were already working on the project. Really, they sold the people along with the software! It almost sounds like slavery! I didn't stick around long enough to be part of that fun.

qruthie (the 'q' is silent) who doesn't work in the software world anymore

I have also worked with a lot of Indian people. I worked in a photo lab and camera store for several years, and a lot of camera shoppers are Indians. Also, with all my years in call centers, I have spoken to many Indians on the phone. So I have a pretty easy time understanding their accent as well, even if they have a heavy accent. Lucky for me, because about half of the time I call any customer service number, I speak with an Indian. My experience has made it pretty easy to understand them.

I can understand why some Americans get very frustrated when they are trying to get tech support and cannot understand the person on the other line. However, I heard so many racist comments working at AOL (mostly from Southerners), it was hard not to be extremely rude to those people! Like I said, don't blame it on the Indians, they are just trying to make a living. Blame it on the comanies that want cheap labor, and don't care that their customers are getting frustrated!

~Mia~

 

[*NikkiBell*]

I just found this thread and am right now!

And yes, Shamrock talking to tech support is a site that ALL must see!

 

[Captain Brain]

We

Owned

Other

Teams

 

[MiakodaWDW]

We

Owned

Other

Teams

Yes, that has been said...which is why I do not understand why people say "woot" to mean stuff like "yay" or "woo-hoo!" Ex: "say woot if you like my song". Why would they want ppl to say "we owned other team" if they like their song?
Right underneath my hatred for "PIN number" and "ATM machine" comes the use of the word "woot", as I said before.

And NikkiBell, I hope Shamrock showed you that Foamy Squirrel tech support cartoon I sent him I'm sure he did: wasn't it great????!!!!!!!!!

Mia

 

[qruthie]

Yes, that has been said...which is why I do not understand why people say "woot" to mean stuff like "yay" or "woo-hoo!" Ex: "say woot if you like my song". Why would they want ppl to say "we owned other team" if they like their song?
Right underneath my hatred for "PIN number" and "ATM machine" comes the use of the word "woot", as I said before.

And NikkiBell, I hope Shamrock showed you that Foamy Squirrel tech support cartoon I sent him I'm sure he did: wasn't it great????!!!!!!!!!

Mia

Hey Mia,

I found another one for you right on this message board. No offense to whomever wrote it but it was Virtual VMK. It was bound to happen eventually.

qruthie (the 'q' is silent)

 

[MiakodaWDW]

Hey Mia,

I found another one for you right on this message board. No offense to whomever wrote it but it was Virtual VMK. It was bound to happen eventually.

qruthie (the 'q' is silent)

Now THAT's a new one on me!

Mia