The Answer May Be Blowing In The Wind, But It’s Not A Pen

Last Updated on: 6th July 2016, 11:41 am

An exchange happened a while ago between myself and a tech support chicky for Samsung that I still snicker about when I think about it.

I mentioned my friend and his phone saga in another long and winding post. Anyway, as part of his phone saga, we were trying to make it so it made beep noises when you pushed buttons, and those regular touch tone noises you expect when you’re dialing. We called Wind tech support, but really they had no idea. They did end the call in a rather disturbing way. These were the tech support guy’s exact words. “With Wind, the conversation never ends.” Hi, dude? You’re tech support. I don’t want to have an unending call with tech support. I would like my problem fixed, thankyaverymuch.

Anyway, he realized my questions were beyond his scope, so gave me the number for Samsung tech support.

After talking to a girl for a while about the problems we were having, i.e. a blind person even operating this phone was next to impossible, she started telling me settings to change. Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t find someone to help me, and the computer I could have used just crashed and was slow to reboot. So, she said she would write all this down and all I’d have to do was say a confirmation number when I had somebody available who could see to push the necessary buttons. I asked her how long the confirmation number was, because I had nothing to write it down with, and she said it was something like 12 digits long. I was wondering if she’d mind if we waited a minute to load up the computer and she said “Just grab a pen!” I tried to explain to her that this wouldn’t work and she got frustrated with me. “Ma’am, just let me finish. If you let me finish, you will see that my plan will work,” she said. I shook my head and let her finish. “Ma’am, just get a pen, and write down what I tell you. I’ll tell you how to write the numbers and then you’ll have it.”

I took 3 deep breaths before I answered her.

I said, a. if I’ve never written anything but my name, how will I know if what I’m writing down is correct, and b. what good is it to me anyway? I can’t read it.” It took her a second and then she apologized profusely. “I thought you could see before,” she said.

Um, nope. And let’s follow this logic to its end. If I could see, why would you have to describe how to write each number? I would know how to write a 3, a 6, an 8, etc. Even if I could see, that doesn’t solve problem b. I know I’d need someone around who could see to change the settings, so I guess she thought I could hand them the sheet and then off we’d go. But still, I can’t see what I’m doing, so I have no idea whether I’m writing down the right things that this poor sighted person is supposed to read.

The point is if I tell you that grabbing a pen isn’t going to work, it probably isn’t. I kind of know what I can and can’t do over here. It’s kind of like saying to someone in a wheelchair, “Just climb those steps.” or “I’ll push you.” If they’re saying no, there’s probably a good reason.

I just had to write that down, because it cracked me up how hard she was trying to get me to write with a pen. I’m sure she went home with a story to tell. Hopefully she will have learned something.

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