> >At FORE systems we had a phone support person who would shout those
> >things, so loud that everybody in building one could hear it. He was
> >astoundingly imaginative and colorful, and many of his remarks are not
> >printable.
> >
> >Eventually, somebody spied on his work, and noticed that he was deftly
> >using the mute button on his phone. He could interject these
> >incredible outbursts, while speaking levelly and courteously at all
> >times to the customer. Amazing.
> >
> >Len.
>
> That would work great, until your finger slipped off the mute button on
> accident, or it failed to work one time :)
Back in the day when I did tech support, that sort of thing wasn't
uncommon at all. We were all pretty good at doing things like carrying on
conversations with other techs, playing hackysack, etc., while helping
customers, unbeknownst to them. Every once in a while, we'd get a "noisy"
mute button that would click, and if they asked what it was, we'd just tell
them in was phone noise.
As to forgetting the mute button was on, I once found out the hard way
that the phone's mute button *didn't work*, when I muttered "moron", and
the customer heard me... : )
I wish I could go on about the things that people said to me, the things
I said to people, and the things I heard other techs say - but it would be
a novel. Technical support is definitely a unique learning experience....
steve