This one is for those that worked tech support back in the old Desktop Computer Days.
In 2002, when I worked as a technical support agent and going through training. Our awesome trainer told us that we get calls related to the optical drive tray being broken by people using it as a cup holder.
For those of you that don’t know what a optical drive is. It is a CD-ROM Drive that was in desktop and laptop computers when you bought all your media disks to install on your computer. This was before “Downloads”.
Now I thought to myself. “There is no way that happens”. But to describe the old desktop computers. They were a box, about 18 inches high, about 8 inches wide and about 18 inches deep. The Optical drive was the first slot at the top front of the box. You would hit a button and a tray would open to put your CD-ROM disk onto it and would close the tray and the computer would read it. Now the tray was square with a round edge to slip and align the disk correctly to be read by the computer will a small round hold for the drive to read through.
So this is how the call went.
ME – “Thank you for calling XXX tech support, my name is Mat. How can I help you tonight”
Customer – “This damn door wont close”
ME – “I am sorry to hear that sir. Can I verify your name and serial number on the computer so I can pull up the specs on that computer so I can help you better?”
Customer – “Yes, my name is XXXX, and the serial number is XXXX”
ME – “Great, thank you. I have your information here and I can see you have XXX System. Is that correct”
Customer – “Yes that’s right. The damn door wont close.”
ME – “Ok, lets try hitting the button directly under the door and see if that works”
Customer – “I TRIED THAT”
ME – “Ok, is the computer on. ?”
Customer – “YES”
ME – “Ok, lets try turning the computer off and on again, that sometimes works”
Customer – “I DID THAT. ITS BROKEN. JUST FIX IT”
ME – “Ok, lets see how it may have broken, What were you doing when it stopped working”
Customer – “So I came to sit down at my computer and turned it on. I then opened up my coffee tray and put my coffee on it like I do every day. And then when I was done working. I hit the button and it would not close.”
ME – “Um what ? You put your coffee cup on the Cup Holder”
Customer – “YES, AND NOW ITS NOW CLOSING”
ME – “I’m sorry sir. I see what the issue is. I am going to order a replacement part and send a tech your way. They will be there Wednesday this coming week between 8am and 5pm. “
I completed the call and leaned over to my cube mate. “You will not believe it. I got a cup holder call. “
Words From A Contact Center 