I was young and just starting out. I was attending college, and was highly into computers, and decided to get myself a job so that I could help my parents to pay for my food, and my rent. I found a job working at a local call center that helped people figure out their computer problems. The first day they had us fill out some paperwork, and take a small test to see if we had enough knowledge to help people with their computers. I did quite well on this test, and was admitted to come back the next day for orientation.

Orientation was easy and was meant to be a fun sort of day just to start us all off. They told us that they would be having us all listen to a recording of a call, and before hand they told us that this was the way to be fired instantly, and to never treat a customer in this manner or we would be shown the door quicker than we could mutter the word, "Sorry".

The call went like this...

"Hello this is Jason in tech support. I understand you have a problem with your computer. How may I help you today?"

"Okay. I was just typing on my computer, in the notepad. And suddenly the entire screen went black. Nothing's on the screen, and I can't get it back no matter what I do. I'm so confused."

"Okay. No problem. I'm here to help. First of all, are any lights on the computer on? Is anything blinking?"

"No. There aren't any lights blinking or anything."

We all sat there in silence, wondering what the man was doing wrong. He went through all of the steps I would have gone through with this woman, had I gotten the call, and he seemed to be extremely polite, friendly, and helpful. Than he asked her, "Okay, we've gone through a good number of issues, and none of them seems to be the problem. Can you please look behind the computer, and let me know if it is still plugged in? Do you have a child or a cat or dog who could have knocked out the plug, or perhaps you could have accidentally knocked it out yourself?"

"I can't see anything back there, so I can't tell if it is plugged in or not." she answered slowly.

"Well, um, can you move a few things, or look under the desk?"

"I can't see anything." she said again.

"Why can't you see anything? Is something blocking you way?"

"No. It's dark in here. The power went off about an hour ago."

We all held our breath, waiting for his response.

"Okay. Well maam, this is worse than I thought."

"Is it bad?" She asked him.

"Oh yes. Do you still have the packing material and the box that this computer came in?"

"Yes." she replied.

"Good. I want you to pack everything up and take it all back the the store." he told her.

"What do I tell them?"

"That your too stupid to own a computer." he replied.

The man doing the orientation stopped the tape. He told us if we were ever caught doing that, that we would be instantly fired, as the man on the tape had been.

Learn more about this author, Jared Hume.
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