consumer stupidity has "REACH"ed a "HOLE" new low

[Stirton.M]

anyone seen that new ad by Reach, featuring the "Total Care" tooth brush with the "hole" in the handle?

"

Fuckin excuse me????? All these years I have been out of control of my toothbrush because I didn't have a damn hole in the handle? Lord Thunderin Jeezuz Boyz, I bin don it wrong fer years aye!

Just how fucking stupid does the company think us consumers are?

And of course, while looking up a link to show this miraculous contraption with the hole that will revolutionize tooth brushes as we know em, I find this....

Mums Say Reach

And judging from the responses on that page by some consumers, the company doesn't think this, they KNOW THIS, and present us with a gimmick to gain those stupid enough to "buy" the hole claim as a better control of the brush kind of thing.

No wonder I want to disassociate myself from the masses out there.

[10871087]

Consumers are idiots.

[fixthecopier]

I bought a thumb drive once and when I opened it, it had instructions for use. They had several steps listed. Then if you did not get it, there was a tech support phone number. I used to carry the instructions with me to show people as a joke. Then I realized most people did not get it. That is when I decided I was a little above the curve. I often thought of the guy on the other end of that tech support hot line, has he killed himself yet? "I know the picture shows a PC tower, but you can use it on a laptop also!" "Ma'am you don't know what PC means ? " It is a storage device, there is not anything on it" "You can use any port on the computer, not just the ones in front like the picture" "LOOK LADY, it does not do anything, you store things on it! I don't know, what ever you want! LOOK it has to be info on your computer first, pictures, data, you know. Oh, you don't know. Pardon me while I blow my brains out now" .......And you think you have bad days!

[prntrfxr]

Anyone ever work Tech Support or Customer Service on an 800 number? I do the former now and I did the latter when I was working my way through college. Thank goodness the tech support I do is for techs! I can only imagine doing tech support for the clients I had when I worked in customer service I could write a book on the calls I got when I was working there.

me - Sorry that item is out of stock
customer - What do you mean?
me - There are no more in the warehouse, we sold them all.
customer - Well I see the picture right here in my catalog, so I know you have them.
me - Ma'am the catalogs are planned 6 months in advance and a lot of people buy them. We are waiting on our next shipment. Would you like to be notified when they come in?
customer - NO I want you to send it now! I just got this catalog yesterday, so you can't be out of stock.
me - The catalog has been out for 2 months.
customer - Why didn't I get it then?
me - Your name was probably later on the mailing list or maybe you requested it later.
customer - You just don't want to sell it to me. You are keeping it for yourself! I want to speak to your supervisor!
me - (sigh) Ok

As it is, I still get techs that call me for help for problems that I can't believe. I believe no question is a dumb one, because if you don't know the answer you can do more damage than good, but there are days when I question that belief. For example, I had a tech ask me:

"Ok when I take the side cover off and the printer goes through warm up I see 2 round metal things that spin on the side. Is that normal?"
-reply: yes, those are motors they are supposed to spin.

The scary thing is, these people are our neighbors, they are in all levels of society (not all but many are highly concentrated in groups that are supposed to be highly educated), and you pass them on the street without a thought because they look normal. Be cautious out there guys, it just may save your life.

[fixthecopier]

I had a "tech" who had been in the business for 11 years ask me , on an HP LJ4, where the black streak was coming from, to which I replied "Are you Fucking kidding me?". I then ask if he had checked the fuser and the cartridge. He said "so you think it may be one of those?" to which I replied "Are you fucking kidding me?" I could not do tech support, even for techs, as I would find myself quoting my signature { BELOW} to them.

[Ducttape n Glue]

My favorite " Lets see if the consumer is awake" marketing claims was from a California spring / vitamin water company that claimed their water was better for you because their water molecules were smaller than the competitions and could be absorbed by the body better!!!!!!!!!!!! I did not know there were different size H2O's!!! Who the F knew!!!!

[jonhiker]

maybe i'll get out my drill and toothbrushes when i get home........... NOT!


doing customer service and tech support takes patience.
i used to work at a brickyard. people would walk through the yard full of bricks, concrete blocks, etc, walk in the door up to the sales desk and ask, " do you sell bricks, here?" Finally, on a friday afternoon at about 3:30 , i said..."no, there just there for me to look at." surprisingly enough, i still had a job on monday.

[prntrfxr]

I actually like Tech Support. It's much better than dealing with the general public. What still surprises me is the higher the education, the dumber they are. I'm not saying all people with degrees are stupid, but a lot of them have no common sense and believe they are entitled.

Anyone work at a fast food restaurant or department store when they were a teenager? At closing time when the door is locked and the closing times are on the door, people would come up, try the door, see the hours posted on it, and would knock and holler, "Are you closed?" Some of the guys would bet on the number of people who would do it. One night we watched 16 people do it. One guy refused to leave. "You're in there, let me in. I just need to get one thing. Come on, please?" Unbelievable.

[DFM914]

Customer stupidity and then there is this one...

I once had a customer that called and said the copier was broke because it would not allow her to choose the "two-sided" mode when copying onto a transparency....

[Rob Sandberg]

When I started as a tech in 1981 for HP in Los Angles we had a Tech support speacialist (back then they knew what they were doing) that when a tech was being stupid he would ask if they checked the polarity of the fuses.
Most techs that were asked this said no and proceeded to check them.

And yes i was asked once. It woke me up enough to listen to him.

Rob S

[HenryT2]

I to am in Tech Support, as well as bench repair. Thank goodness I'm not out in the field any more. I do miss the ' stupids ' though.

I had a call yesterday on a FS-2020D " CMOS battery dead!" HUH ? It turned out to be one one of those cases where NO-ONE touched the printer, it did that automatic ' turn on/off DHCP ' thing. When I had him correct that setting it mysteriously started working. I love the comments at this point ! " OH NEVER MIND.....IT IS WORKING NOW ! "

One today " 6000 error code, unable to get drum to release " Oh I can't wait to call them.

We have dealt with some resturants, and it is funny to see that SHIPPING has labels " ADULT ONLY SIGNATURE ".

My oh my, it's a good thing we like dealing with some of these stupids.

Now back to work.

YA'LL HAVE A GREAT DAY and remember " Never drive faster than your Guardian Angle can fly !

[KEVIN900]

Hey ! I can hang my toothbrush on a nail on the wall now !

[HenryT2]

Re: One today " 6000 error code, unable to get drum to release " Oh, I can't wait to call them.




Ten minute phone call on this one. Five minutes on hold; five minutes trying to convince the guy to actually press the green button labeled " GO "
( Some how the mystery Kyo gremlin changed the 6000 to ......." CLEAN PRINTER PRESS GO " )

WOW ! The printer worked fine after that. If this guy has another problem, he will probably try pressing the pretty green button to fix his printer.

[fixthecopier]

So they said that the printer they got from me did not print anymore, they click and nothing happens. I take printer to shop, print through the network and through the USB. I take it back and tell them everything works, it is something on their end. They have their own IT crew. So three weeks later {yesterday}, I get a call from one of these guys saying it still does not work. I explain how their is nothing wrong with it. He calls back 30 minutes later, " I noticed the IP address is different now". I replied "That is how I put it on my network to test it, by changing the address. You mean to tell me the printer has not printed in weeks and nobody in the IT section thought to check the IP address? ""No sir" he said. And I know they get paid more than I do.

[blackcat4866]

Along the same lines:
One of my larger HP printer customers is a school district. Whenever there is an issue when they want to stop the prints at the queue, the IT tech just changes from static to DHCP on the printer's web interface. The IP address still shows the same IP (the printer has not been powered Off/On so it does not request a new IP), but jobs are no longer sent to the printer. It took a little fumbling to find it, but now I can put them back online with a click of "Static" on the web interface.