BS: Beware the 12 O'Clock Flasher!

Subject: BS: Beware the 12 O'Clock Flasher!
From: Cluin
Date: 12 Jan 07 - 05:41 PM

I found this vid funny as hell, but maybe because I did this job for a bit, though I didn't make it to Veteran status... only did it 4 months.

The Internet Help Desk skit.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5113508421961609867

Subject: RE: BS: Beware the 12 O'Clock Flasher!
From: Rapparee
Date: 12 Jan 07 - 06:09 PM

Yeah, I do too. I did System Administering for 10 years! I even once faith-healed a dumb terminal (hint: it helps it work if it's turned on).

Subject: RE: BS: Beware the 12 O'Clock Flasher!
From: Don Firth
Date: 12 Jan 07 - 06:56 PM

HILARIOUS!!

Whenever I call the help-desk (with extreme reluctance), it's because I've already exhausted such things as the manual (on those rare occasions anymore when there actually is one) or the help screens related to the program--and I can't find an eight-year-old handy. I invariably get a recording that runs me throught the usually menu, and after I poke the appropriate number (sometimes not too obvious which that one is), I wind up listening to a vaguely rock arrangement of Pachelbel's Canon for about twenty-five minutes, interrupted by a recording telling me how important my call is.

Finally, I get someone with an east Indian accent (if male, he tells me his name id "Kevin," if female she tells me her name is "Britney"). Usually the best they can come up with is what I have already read in the manual (if there is one) or what the help screens say. Rarely does much of anything solve the problem. Then I thank them for their help (after they've given me a case number), disconnect, say a few naughty words, and begin poking keys at random.

That often fixes the problem.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Beware the 12 O'Clock Flasher!
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 12 Jan 07 - 07:10 PM

Average.

Subject: RE: BS: Beware the 12 O'Clock Flasher!
From: guitar
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 06:06 AM

typical very funny

Subject: RE: BS: Beware the 12 O'Clock Flasher!
From: jacqui.c
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 09:11 AM

Very funny and very true. There was one guy in the audience with a straight face. Maybe he'd been on the other end of the conversation before?

Don - I know what you mean - I once, when really wound up by a help desk, suggested quite strongly that they put me on to someone who could speak and understand English.

Subject: RE: BS: Beware the 12 O'Clock Flasher!
From: gnomad
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 01:26 PM

I bet they couldn't do it jacqui.c, do I win?

I never knew the name for those people, but I sure recognise the description.

Subject: RE: BS: Beware the 12 O'Clock Flasher!
From: Cluin
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 04:28 PM

Ah. I just found out that this was a "Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie" skit. Been fans of theirs for years, ever since I heard "The Toronto Song".

Subject: RE: BS: Beware the 12 O'Clock Flasher!
From: jacqui.c
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 07:38 PM

You're right gnomad. Made me feel better to say it though!

Subject: RE: BS: Beware the 12 O'Clock Flasher!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 07:49 PM

We used to have an 'in house' IT team who, at the dialing of a 4 digit internal number, would come and fix any problem within an hour. Now, in an effort to make our IT support more "streamlined and efficient" we ring an 11 digit number where we are eventually put through to an operative somewhere in the middle of Northumbria (or it could be Kazakstan) where we're given a case number and told to await *The Call*. This call can take up to 4 hours to come and then we're asked all manner of security questions, whereupon our computers are 'remotely accessed' and allegedly fixed if it's a software problem. If the problem cannot be fixed immediately, we get shunted off to another machine and ours is labelled 'out of action, fix due'. If it becomes obvious that it's a hardware problem, the call is routed to a 'local operative' - who is seated in our building, awaiting the ring on that 4 digit, internal number previously mentioned.... Go figure.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Beware the 12 O'Clock Flasher!
From: Cluin
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 08:31 PM

When I was "on the phones" and a customer got irate because "I haven't got any work done today and my business depends on my computer working right", I respectfully suggested that they should have an IT guy/gal if that's the case.

Subject: RE: BS: Beware the 12 O'Clock Flasher!
From: Cluin
Date: 13 Jan 07 - 08:33 PM

Either that or maybe quit surfing the porn sites at work.

Funny how many of them blamed their kids for screwing up their computer. When in fact their kid could probably have fixed the problem, if they weren't so scared of having them find out how it got screwed in the first place.

Subject: RE: BS: Beware the 12 O'Clock Flasher!
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 04:43 AM

a very original routine - reminds me a bit of the old Bob Newhart things - the driving instructor.

who is the comic?

Subject: RE: BS: Beware the 12 O'Clock Flasher!
From: Cluin
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 02:47 PM

His name is Wes Borg and he is a member of the Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie comedy group.