I Hate Technical Support

I've been on with Dell's tech support people for the past half hour. I know the problem is with my power adaptor. There is a short in the cord or something. The only reason I called tech support is because I was pretty sure I was still under warranty. I know it is the adaptor, because when I unplug the part that goes from the outlet to the little box thingy and plug it back in it resets, but it doesn't when I do the same from the part that goes from the computer to the box thingy. This guy has had me do everything on earth with my computer. He even tried to take it over remotely so that he could look something up that I could do just as easily (my firewall didn't like that idea one little bit). All this for him to say that they would send me a new adaptor.

The problem with tech support people is that they assume that everyone who calls knows absolutely nothing about computers, even when the person doing the calling makes it clear that they know what they are talking about. I don't need to be handheld through everything. Tell me that you want me to go to the classic view of the control panel, and I can get there. I'm smart like that.

Now the guy, who is obviously new and working on his English, is asking me all kinds of questions about what I am doing in the new year, how this past year was, what the weather is like, etc. I understand that they want to humanize their representatives, but boy, that is annoying. The conversation is very stilted.

On the other hand, I can tell from his accent that he is from the same part of India as one of my co-workers. If I didn't know any better I'd think co-worker was moonlighting. Boy, that commute would be killer.

I will have to save my reflections post for tomorrow. I wasn't expecting to have to be on the phone with tech support for...45 minutes now.