Tech Support: “Do you have the icon on your desktop?”
Customer: “No. It’s a thingy with buttons on the shelf. Um, a modem.”
Tech Support: “Yes. I need you to look at the software you are using though. What do you click on?”
Customer: “Oh. Ok.”
Tech Support: “What’s the name of the icon you use to click on?”
Customer: “The mouse?”
Customer: “Hello, I have a problem. My name is Bob Murton.”
Tech Support: “I’m sorry, but I can’t help you with that problem.”
I did call him back and helped him fix his problem. He didn’t complain about my response, but he did get members of the department asking for a while afterwards if he’d fixed his “other” problem.
One of our servers crashed. I was watching our new system administrator trying to restore it. He inserted a CD and needed to type a path name to a directory named “i386.” He started to type it and paused, asking me, “Where’s the key for that line thing?” I asked what he was talking about, and he said, “You know, that one that looks like an upside-down exclamation mark.” I replied, “You mean the letter “i”?” and he said, “Yeah, that’s it!”