An arguement(maybe?) against syncing...

I love my phone. I have it with me all the time. I even have it in the bathroom
when I take a shower(old habits from 24 hour on call jobs die hard). In fact, I
have it on my person when I'm wearing an outfit with no pockets; hello opera
mailbox.

But sometimes I get a little upset, shall we say, about all the things we can do
on phones now. A statement made hypocritical by the fact that I am writing this
blog on my Blackberry. Yay for carpal tunnel in the phalanges! I digress. It's
mostly the syncing of email to devices.

I have two emails. One is my professional "Hey! Look at me! I'm a serious
actress/filmmaker/tech support grunt/what-have-you" and the other, a more
personal, is for "YouTube/fart jokes/chain letters". I have alerts set on my phone
when I get a new email. And here's where I show my true geekiness, all my alerts
from text to email to appointments are Doctor Who sounds/quotes. If I hear Billie
Piper saying she's a chav, personal email, or David Tennant asking if he's a
ginger, it would be professional. When I hear that one, I usually say "no love, that
would be me". Sometimes I forget other people are around and they give me
weird looks. Of course, it could be that I respond in a British accent(I think I found
a topic for next week).

This a great convenience. Though, not so much when visiting at a friend's house.
We'll be talking about pandiatonic dictation or why Taco Bell discontinued the
Triple-Layer nachos and suddenly "Exterminate!". I've had a friend freak out
before, but she doesn't know what a dalek is. Heathen.

Maybe it's not so much an inconvenience as a disappointment when nothing cool
comes through. Especially for email. It'll be 3:30 in the morning and I'll hear my alert
for professional email. Woo-hoo! Audition notice? Nope. "Save 30% on any
purchase when you buy the Nook!" Barnes & Noble, you suck. I awoke from my Snickers-induced diabetic coma for this?! For shame!

But, I do love waking up to a Facebook or Twitter notice. "Shamble-bobble-dibble-dooble."

"Right-click on it....no, RIGHT-CLICK!"

I've often wondered about the people who call me for tech support help. A lot of
times it's just wanting to know how they function in the real world. If this were 1,
000 years ago I'm sure they would've been weeded out by natural selection.

The other day I had a consumer call me asking how to put AA batteries into his
remote sensor. Now, he sounded older than me, but I'm pretty sure this guy had
used batteries at some point in his life. Hell, we put batteries in everything, from
remotes to can openers to "personal vibrators".

They're not as much fun as what I lovingly refer to as the "know-it-all"
consumers. I find this trait mostly to occur in men, but ladies have been guilty
too(yay for equality!). These consumers have "supposedly" already tried
everything and each word that comes out of your mouth is interrupted with a curt
"DID THAT!"

I do love the sexist ones though, especially if it comes from a woman. It's half-
expected that if you get one of the previous consumers and they're male, they'll
be talking down to you like you're the cabbage-smelling greeter at your local
Wal-Mart. I found this more so if the tech support is female. We've advanced far
as a society, but heaven-forbid women be good with computers. Why, they can
vote, wear pants, and buy their own condoms now. What makes us think they'd be
competent with all the techno-jiggery-poo?

Example: Working for an unnamed company, I had been doing tech support for
quite some time. In fact, was one of the top people at my site, but barely as I
said "thank you for calling" a woman on the other end asked me if there was a
man available. She said: "No offense, but every time a woman helps me it just
sounds like she's reading from a manual."

So I said, "Ma'am, I was trained just like any other tech support rep for (unnamed
company) and know as much, if not more, than any male in this whole building. I
can definitely transfer you back to the queue, then you can wait another 20
minutes and maybe, you'll get a man."

She sighed and said "Fine."

Well, I fixed her problem and all she would give me was a sheepish "thank you."
Ended the call with a "suck it" and my self-esteem balloon increased a bit. Ok, I
was just thinking "suck it", but the sentiment remains.

It surprised me that she would be that way, did the breakup of The Spice Girls
bring an end to girl power? They got back together damnit! But then they had to
cancel the rest of their North American tour and I had already bought the tickets...
I digress. Um, yeah, tech support!

Of course, there's always the racist SOBs. Now, racism in moderation can be fun.
Who amongst us has not laughed at a Canadian with their flapping heads and beady, little eyes? But when you start attacking
someone's race and you only have the sound of their voice to judge by, homeboy
need to get some manners.

English is not my first language, French is, but I've been using it so much I would
consider myself fluent. I talk on the phone all day to people, many understand
me perfectly, if they don't it's either my/their phone is messing up or they need
hearing aids. I don't have a discernible accent, I sound like any American in the
movies, but I had a guy tell me I had to be in India and that I was lying to him.

Well, I know there is a lot of tech support in India, but every company that has a
call center in a foreign country, nine times out of ten, has a site in the US.

A man called me up and started screaming, literally, about his computer not
working. Trying to calm him down, I said I was sorry that happened and we'd see
what we could do.

"I know it's the custom in your country to apologize, but in the US we just shut up
and get it fixed!"

"Sir, I'm in the United States."

"You don't sound like it, I can barely understand anything coming out of your
mouth it's all la la la la la la", the la's he did in a high-pitched voice which I can
only assume that he meant I was terrorist from Team America: World Police, "
what state are you in?"

"New Mexico."

"MEXICO?! That's even worse! Coming across our borders and taking our jobs!"

"I'm in NEW Mexico," trying to remain calm.

"Don't try to get smart with me! I betcha you're an ugly shit and the boys never
want to go out with you!"

The conversation went into crazier territory from there. It really baffles me that
people will be that rude and mean to a total stranger. I already weep for
humanity when I see ads for Jersey Shore, but somewhere it has to stop.

So, please, next time you're calling to yell at the tech support for whatever has
happened, take a moment beforehand and just think. The people on the other end are
people, trying to do their job for little pay and screaming at them will probably
make them do it half-assed or they'll put you on hold for 15 minutes to finish
some work on Farmville.