For many years, I was a technical support representative, though not for a computer company, rather for a peripheral device manufacturer. A great deal of that time, I was using a Gateway computer.

I'd used other computers, and the number and types of computers people who called in had was varied. I never had a reason to complain about my computer, though. It always did what it was supposed to do, didn't have nearly the amount of proprietary hardware and software than many did, and basically never let me down.

Of course, nothing lasts forever. One day, as a senior technician at that point, I came in to work to find that I couldn't open my computer registry. This was vital to my work, so I immediately contacted our own people to confirm that they hadn't blocked my access. They hadn't. So, cringing, I contacted Gateway tech support. (Even support technicians aren't fond of calling tech support.)

I immediately got the well known automatic recording, "Press one for..., press two for..." and so on. But I was ready for that. We used the same system to make sure that calls got routed to the right place. It is irritating, but in the best interest of the user who is calling in.

After a few minutes, I got into the tech support queue, where I got the depressing recording that all the reps were busy, and wait times were about 15 minutes. Still, I realized that this was actually a short call wait, compared to some companies.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that a young lady answered my call less than five minutes later. She had a pleasant voice and demeanor, and I gave her my personal information, and then stated my computer problem. As is pretty usual, there were pauses as she looked up information about the problem. Some people expect a tech to know all the answers without looking it up, but that is unrealistic. There is too much to know.

She began to give me troubleshooting steps to try, and I interrupted her, asking if it would be helpful to tell her what I'd already tried. Now, with most support departments, this is almost a slap in the face. They want you to do the steps while they are on the phone. I knew this, but figured it wouldn't hurt to ask.

To my surprise, she was enthusiastic about the idea. In detail, I went through step by step what I'd done to get into the registry, and what had happened. I gave her the exact wording of every error. The whole time, I could hear her fingers busily clacking away at the keyboard, writing out everything I told her.

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