(rant warning, you might want to hit delete now)
Does everyone experience certain customers of the male gender who will call their wife, girlfriend or mom (who is usually driving or at work) and have them call the ISP about a problem but will never just call directly? Am I lacking in empathy, and these are socially awkward dudes whose only social interaction is playing on the Xbox, and thank goodness for the Internet? They may have a genuine medical or psychological condition, but I don't think it's an inability to talk, they are able to call the female person in their life about the Internet problem. I am wondering if I'm just being a dick, having a mental image of these guys sitting at home playing games while their wife or mom is out working, and they can't call the Internet place themselves. Maybe they are stay-at-home dads trying to get multiple kids fed and diapers changed while their wife is out having a fun time and the least she can do is call and get the Internet fixed. I suspect it's biology, or how we raise girls vs boys, or maybe the insidious effect of online gaming on social skills or lack thereof. Yesterday I was at a quite large house that a family had just closed on, trying to set up WiFi throughout the house. Mom (high powered professional who needs Internet for work), dad, daughter home on break from college, and son. The daughter handled all the tech questions and decisions, very good communication skills and decision making. The son hardly said a word, was just waiting for the moving truck to bring his Xbox, only concern was Ethernet connection in the bedroom that was to be his gaming room, had to be "hardwired", couldn't be WiFi. Now maybe he has autism or something, but it just felt like the stereotype of young men who can't talk to other people IRL, only online. OK, sorry, this turned into a rant. And my question is probably rhetorical. I'm pretty sure you all have customers like this. It's just frustrating to try and do tech support when the person who is actually at the site and experiencing the problem doesn't call himself, he calls someone else who is at work or driving or at the store or picking the kids up from school. I wonder how outsourced tech support handles this? Maybe the obvious way - call us when you get home.
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