10 Dumbest Tech Support Calls Of All Time
by JR Raphael on Thursday, September 25th, 2008
Anyone who’s ever worked in tech support can tell you about the ridiculous requests people come up with — but some of the real-life inquiries we’ve found will leave even the most hardened techies laughing hard.
A new study, conducted by California-based tech firm Robert Half Technology, had hundreds of information specialists from around the U.S. reveal their most unusual support questions. There are dozens of winners, but we’ve whittled down the 10 dumbest ones for your amusement. Read on, and remember: Each one of these is all too real.
- “How do I get my computer’s coffee-cup holder to come out again?”
- “Why isn’t my wireless mouse connected to the computer?”
- “Can you install cable TV on my PC?”
- “Can you fix my typewriter?”
- “My computer is telling me to press any key to continue. Where is the ‘any’ key?”
- “Can you reset the Internet for me?”
- “Can I open the bank safe using my computer?”
- “A server went down, and I found a lizard had crawled into it and died.”
- “The elevator is broken.”
- “How long does it take to bake a potato in a microwave?”
Got your own real-life experience that could give these some competition? Feel free to add to the list in the comments section below.
Terrible – that’s just the worst list ever.
@Chris, you mean in a good or bad way?
Jeez. Freakin morons!
I have worked tech support jobs for years, and I refuse to believe #1 is anything but an apocryphal anecdote.
Yes, I’ve “heard” that people have “heard” this one, but I’ve never spoken to anyone that actually had this question, and more importantly, never to anyone who claimed they heard it themselves. Always the typical urban legend ‘my friend had this call’ type stuff.
I dunno, call me crazy for believing even the depths of human ignorance haven’t sunk THAT low…
I agree with JD – its obviously bull, as the button to open the coffee-cup holder is right there on it! I mean, are they blind?
I am here in jail and have my lap top with me and if I press Escape can I get out?
I have never heard of anyone actually handling a coffee cup holder question. I do have experience with a similar issue. One of our techs was dispatched to someone’s home. The person’s claimed cds would never fit in their computer. The tech found the computer was a desktop slim PC. The PC was physically UPSIDE DOWN.
I am not sure if that’s any better than the coffee-cup holder, though.
I worked at IBM in internal Tech Support for a number of years. One day a man called and was having trouble copying and pasting data from an Excel cell heading to about 50 cells in the column beneath. I spent 20 minutes trying to assist this man, using the menu and shortcut keys. Nada, bupkus, zip. After groping around for awhile, he finally blurts out “I’m I supposed to copy the cell that contains the data, to make it paste?”
Arrrggh; I had just spent 20 minutes saying, “select cell, click on Edit, Copy, select cells to paste to and select Edit, Paste” I almost said, “oh no, you’ve reached the ESP help desk, you just think it and it will happen!”
Ya, i was disappointed with that list. try: http://www.rinkworks.com/stupid/cs_calls.shtml
You get a C for effort.
I get a call about every 2-4 days saying the fax machine here or there is down. Its 98% user error, I just ignore it and wait till someone else shows up… Its usually 2 days and then I’ll get a call, “thanks for fixing the fax” when i did nothing. Its how it goes.
Hello..
I worked for Netgear, and that’s the place where you receive the most dumb and annoying calls.
One such customer asked me ” It says wireless on your router, then why can’t I receive the signals of this router at home, in my office which is 12 kms. away !!!!!!!!! ”
Another one asked if he could rent his wireless adapter to his friend and and charge him $75 for a week.
That’s why I left that job after year of annoyance.
I work tech support, these aren’t even the dumbest things I’ve heard this week.
I’ve had people trying to hook up their dvd player to a broadband internet connection, people who don’t know what a phone number is, people who don’t understand why they can’t get online during a power outage…
Yes, people are THAT STUPID.
I’m working for tech support as well, most of the mistakes I get is people trying to make a Wireless Router communicate wirelessly w/ a MODEM! A MODEM!
“It’s “Wireless” right!?
Sarcastic IDIOTS!