Go ahead, be rude. You don't know it now, but it will cost you $350,000

On Call Welcome again to On-Call, The Register's Friday frolic done readers' memories of support jobs that had overseas endings.

This week, meet "Larry," who erstwhile worked for a institution that we won't name. Just understand that this patient is simply a large sanction successful nan business IT world. You don’t request to person nan powers of a seer to fig this 1 out.

Larry was moving a task to switch nan laptops successful an full section of 500 staff, and decided to divided nan woody betwixt 2 PC makers.

Users were mostly happy pinch their shiny caller laptops, but 1 personification brought theirs to Larry to study it wasn't working. This instrumentality – good and genuinely still nether warranty – was making nan benignant of noises that suggested a retention thrust had died.

Larry verified that problem, and called nan laptop vendor to petition a replacement.

Seeing arsenic Larry worked for a very, very, large package company, he was a very, very, large customer for nan laptop-maker. He truthful called nan thief statement for customers of that position and was connected to a support person.

"Immediately they gave maine cognition and accused maine of faking nan correction truthful I could get a caller drive!" Larry lamented.

Justifiably miffed, Larry asked to speak to nan manager.

The support chap hung up instead.

• Hot, sweaty builders hosed a server – virtually – leaving support pinch an all-night RAID repair job
• No, I will not salary nan bill. Why? Because we salary you to hole things, not break them
• To make this machine work, users had to property a button. Why didn't it work? Guess
• No, moving successful IT does not mean you tin hole thing pinch a soldering iron

Larry called back, demanded to speak to nan head – successfully this clip – and suggested his unit could beryllium a small much polite.

"Instead of listening to me, nan head defended his rude unit personnel and proceeded to outcry astatine me," Larry recalled.

The specifications of what happened adjacent are not wholly clear, because Larry's dander was up.

He slammed his door, and his telephone pinch nan laptop-maker's support head became a shouting match.

By nan clip nan telephone ended, Larry was fuming. He called nan company's income typical and cancelled nan remaining order.

"This wasn't a twelve machines, aliases possibly a mates of dozen. This was 350 laptops successful total, astatine $1,000 a portion – not counting peripherals, docking stations, bags, and different doodads nan institution ordered depending upon nan section and seniority."

The income rep begged Larry to travel back.

But he didn't. The section of nan very, very, ample package institution wherever Larry ran nan PCs worked pinch conscionable 1 laptop supplier. And hopefully a support head location sewage a very stern talking-to

Has bad support led you to alteration suppliers? If so, click present to nonstop On-Call an email. ®