Tales of WHOA!

[balon!]

Ah, we were one of the call centres where the staff got training in common issues and had extra support to call on if needed. We had an opening statement "Hello, my name... How can I help" and then it was entirely free-form from there.

Not a handbook in sight.

I have the easiest accent to understand ever. RP. I wish I could say the same about some of the customers! (I'm looking at you, Scotland)

Ahh...

when I called, I could actually hear the guy flipping pages, and quoting the passages. It was when he he paused, flipped, and then told me to reboot "and it will be fixed, Sir." that I realized (in this problem) he was useless.

[Cagliostro]

I deal with Dell quite a bit in my current job, and yes, they are useless. They definitely go by the book, but thankfully we have something in our contract that basically allows us to skip through the BS and tell them what we need. And occasionally the Dell tech does not read through and challenges us about it. The techs that get sent out to the stores are often even more useless, and I've had to yell at the occasional one who isn't listening to what I am saying and needing done.

After this job, I'm not fond of Dell.