"Warp" <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote in message
news:4b68bdbe@news.povray.org...
>   How can you sue a company on the grounds that the tech
support didn't
> give a template answer and instead the guy gave an answer
based on his
> own expertise? If the template answer would have been
unhelpful, then
> there's no grounds for a lawsuit, but if the answer was
not a ready-made
> one, then there is?
>
>   Which law codifies this?

Ya got me, I just figure it took some serious pressure to
cause the help desk to have to work under such restrictions.
That usually indicates a legal battle. So I was just
guessing. I figure if some help desk person provides a
solution that results in the loss of data or devices, I can
see an end user trying legal action... Just for example, I
received instructions from a help desk person who told me
how to plug in the cables to my router. He had me hook them
up backwards and it blew the router. I would have sued them
in small claims if they hadn't replaced the router... And
they did.

Post a reply to this message

DungBeatle wrote:
> By the time I'm calling for support, I coubt some list
> of stock answers is going to help me. 

You, perhaps, yes. But I read a statistic somewhere that something like 60% 
of the help desk phone calls for major appliances (washers, driers, fridges, 
etc) could have been avoided had the caller read that checklist at the back 
with "is it plugged in? Is it turned on? Is the fuse outside blown?" kind of 
questions.

And that's 60% of the people who *did* call. No telling how many people used 
the checklist first.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Forget "focus follows mouse." When do
   I get "focus follows gaze"?

Post a reply to this message

Warp wrote:
> the guy gave an answer based on his
> own expertise? 

If he gave a *wrong* answer based on his own expertise in the name of the 
company, I can see that.

Someone calls up, says they deleted a file by mistakae, helpdesk says "run 
this undelete program" and it screws their entire filesystem, perhaps.

In the USA (for reasons I won't get into here) there's what's called "strict 
liability" for products. If something happens that your product caused, 
you're responsible for it. If the toaster burns down your house, it's the 
fault of the toaster maufacturer.  So I can see this being more of a problem 
here than in countries where common sense works.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Forget "focus follows mouse." When do
   I get "focus follows gaze"?

Post a reply to this message

Jim Henderson wrote:
> I'm sure there's a hole in his wall where he has been hitting his head 
> repeatedly the past couple of months.

My favorite was

"Your email server is down.  It's not my computer, because when I telnet to 
port 25, I get no connection. Is your server down?"

"I can't help you with that, but I can help you reinstall your email client."

"That has nothing to do with it if your server is down. Can *you* get to the 
server?"

"No, but that might be due to any number of r easons."

D'oh!

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Forget "focus follows mouse." When do
   I get "focus follows gaze"?

Post a reply to this message

"Darren New" <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote in message
news:4b68c2e7$1@news.povray.org...
> DungBeatle wrote:
> > By the time I'm calling for support, I doubt some list
> > of stock answers is going to help me.
>
> You, perhaps, yes. But I read a statistic somewhere that
something like 60%
> of the help desk phone calls for major appliances
(washers, driers, fridges,
> etc) could have been avoided had the caller read that
checklist at the back
> with "is it plugged in? Is it turned on? Is the fuse
outside blown?" kind of
> questions.
>
> And that's 60% of the people who *did* call. No telling
how many people used
> the checklist first.

You're probably right, and I'm also the one who reads ALL
the instructions! :) Yes, I would go through the checklist
before I'd call... Too bad they almost always figure you
haven't...

Post a reply to this message

"Darren New" <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote in message
news:4b68c440$1@news.povray.org...
> Jim Henderson wrote:
> > I'm sure there's a hole in his wall where he has been
hitting his head
> > repeatedly the past couple of months.
>
> My favorite was
>
> "Your email server is down.  It's not my computer, because
when I telnet to
> port 25, I get no connection. Is your server down?"
>
> "I can't help you with that, but I can help you reinstall
your email client."
>
> "That has nothing to do with it if your server is down.
Can *you* get to the
> server?"
>
> "No, but that might be due to any number of r easons."

I must have talked to the same guy a few years back. He
wanted me to reset all my usenet news groups and I kept
saying their server must be down... I won...

Post a reply to this message

Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> Jim Henderson wrote:
> > I'm sure there's a hole in his wall where he has been hitting his head
> > repeatedly the past couple of months.
>
> My favorite was
>
> "Your email server is down.  It's not my computer, because when I telnet to
> port 25, I get no connection. Is your server down?"
>
> "I can't help you with that, but I can help you reinstall your email client."
>
> "That has nothing to do with it if your server is down. Can *you* get to the
> server?"
>
> "No, but that might be due to any number of r easons."

yes, the main reason is that people don't like to read and thus they don't
educate themselves and thus get dumb like this.

Post a reply to this message

Invisible wrote:
> Now that the IT Director is gone, I'm going to make a serious attempt to
> get permission to take my disaster recovery plan home with me.
> (Obviously, being written as part of my job, my employer owns the IP for
> that, so I need written permission to disclose it outside the company.)
> I think it's a damn fine piece of writing - and I have the likes of
> Roche and Pfizer agreeing with me.

Well, I think you should change the text so it doesn't actually explain the 
specific case of your company. You get to publish your writing but not the 
details of your company's backup system. Randomize some numbers, for a start 
:P

As for the writing, what you need is for its copyright to be owned by you 
and not your employer. I have no idea how hard it'd be to convince them of 
that, though.

Post a reply to this message

Darren New wrote:
> Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>> fantastic features this software has but doesn't actually say... what...
>> it... does! >_<
> 
> I like the ones that say "use this feature just like the way it was three
> versions ago, only with a new name!"
> 
> Sort of like if POV 3.6 was documented in terms of differences from POV
> 3.1.

Try iPhone jailbreaking. Websites telling you about the new releases of 
yellowsn0w, blackra1n, pwnagetool, etc and not telling you what they DO!

Post a reply to this message

Jim Henderson wrote:
> I love working at home for this reason - far fewer distractions.

I don't have a job, but I can tell you that for me, "working"* from home 
doesn't mean less distractions. My mom has the radio on all day, my dad 
sometimes works from home (<5 meters away from me) and talks loudly on the 
phone.

(* open source stuff)

Post a reply to this message