I was an
early adopter of online shopping, twenty years ago, but the software kept
hanging up and saying “ring the help desk”.
Eventually
I did just that but the technician was rude and patronising. “You must be doing it wrong…”
I pointed
out to him that I was likely to complain.
He asked my
name.
I told him.
He asked my
title.
I told him.
“Doctor?”
He asked. “A Medical Doctor?” sensing
now that he could not so easily write me off as a silly little woman.
“No. My doctorate is in Computer Science.”
A few
minutes after the end of the phone call, I was just mentally composing my
complaint, when my phone rang. It was
the helpdesk guy again. I hadn’t given him my phone number. (It was before I
had a mobile.)
He had
obviously given it some thought and was now very worried. In his case, worry manifested as aggression.
“If you
think that just because you’ve got some poncy qualification in computer
science, you can complain about me….etc.”
Funnily
enough, I don’t think I ever got round to complaining – life was busy then:
that’s why I’d wanted to do an online shop!
But I also
didn’t do an online shop again for more than ten years.
Now
however, I use it regularly, chiefly to save my back.
Wonder what
the guy on the help desk is doing now.
The only profession I can think of that celebrates disdain like his is
waiter in a Parisian restaurant, and I’m not sure they take on nerdy Brits.