Absolutely I've noticed this. I've had both wives call for their
husbands as well as dads call for their sons or moms call for their sons.
On 12/21/19 3:00 PM, Ken Hohhof wrote:
(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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