Absolute Answers

We're a bit too quick to come up with explanations for things we really don't have an explanation for.

Malcolm Gladwell
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The journey from here to the Oxford Valley Mall is a twisting, turning, bumpy thirty to forty minute bus ride. I made the trip uncertain of my destination but with hope and expectation. It was mid October, shortly after my Internet connection failed and I lost the Windows. I thought it would be fixed at the first phone call. What a shock I was in for!

I still had my Dell at that point and the technicians I spoke with were certain they had the answer. The conversation always began "Okay. I'll get you back on line." Somewhere between 2 and 5 hours later it ended by whoever it was giving up.

But on the way to the mall I thought things had changed. The last technician I spoke with assured me in the most positive terms that the problem was with the Ethernet cable. It was old and threadbare and needed to be replaced, that was all. So I got to the mall, found Radio Shack and purchased a top-of-the-line cable. On the ride home I was feeling joyous and couldn't wait to get it hooked up. When I got there, I plugged it in, powered up, turned on the computer and clicked on Internet Explorer.

Nothing.

For about the next 20 days I heard as many explanations from Dell, Verizon and other experts as to why I still could not get on the Internet. By the time I decided myself that it was no use I had logged in 37 hours on the telephone. Some of the techies I talked with were abusive, insulting types, many were slow and plodding, some were difficult to understand and some were just plain ignorant.

I was made to perform the same processes over and over again including getting down on the floor to read numbers, unplug and plug, check connections and so forth. Getting down on the floor was difficult, but nothing compared with getting on my feet again. I felt like the woman in that old commercial who said "I've fallen and I can't get up." I soon learned that if I crawled over to the sink I could hoist myself up, but some of the techies grew impatient with me. When I finally got back to the phone they would be in the middle of talking to me or they had hung up.

There were exceptions. One Indian gentleman at Dell was determined to stay with me until the problem was solved. He really wanted me to get back on line and tried everything. A day would go by and he would call me up with a new idea. We conversed back and forth for many days and hours. I think he finally realized the fault was in the computer but he didn't want to admit it. He eventually gave up.

The brand new Ethernet cable that was the certain answer is now coiled up with a rubber band around it and sitting in a box.

Calling Tech Support is like jumping off a high diving board with a blindfold on. You don't know if there is any intelligence in the pool.

DB