Thursday, September 04, 2008

On losing the internet - more...

This story about a writer holding a IT specialist hostage until he'd fitted her internet made me laugh. I could identify with her initial experiences ...

Carol Sinclair lost her connection with ISP Aliant and, by her own account, spent days trying to get the line fixed.

"I was polite the first 20 times I talked to them. But each one gave me the same routine: 'Is the modem connected? Are the lights blipping?'," she told The Globe and Mail.

"And then each one would say: 'It should be working. The problem must be with your computer.' I was a little stressed. I had six days to do a month's work."



Although this bit of the story made me wonder:

Finally Sinclair said she resorted to impersonating a man's voice and got a repairman sent out the next day, a "huge, strapping young man", 21 year-old David Scott.


Do you really have to be a man to get a repairman? Surely people don't still think women don't know how to use the internet do they?

1 comment:

Sarah Salway said...

I remember hearing someone say that kids were better at computers because they didn't know how much they cost and were therefore not so frightened at breaking them. I must admit the 'turning everything off and hoping it will be better in the morning' often works for me although I'm rather tempted at the idea of keeping an IT specialist to hand given the internet angst I've gone through recently.
You are not indeed a rifle-toting redneck, Alex. Heck you're quick since you came back from hols..