Would you ever do this?

Would you ever do this? Here’s the situation. The car is having mechanical problems. Odd pinging noises, pulling to left, what ever. So to get the problems diagnosed the owner takes a cab, or has a friend drive him/her to a mechanic and drop him/her off. The owner walks inside the garage and explains the problem to the mechanic who says, “Well, let’s take a look at the car.”
He/she explains that the car is at home, but that he/she wants the mechanic to explain the problem and provide a fix. The mechanic tries hard not to laugh (he probably does) as he tells the owner to go and get the car or have it towed in. When the owner leaves the mechanic shares the story with the other grease monkies. Hilarity insues. You would never do that, would you?

Well then, don't do this either. The above is the same kind of situation technical support reps face a few times a day. Someone calls and wants to us to troubleshoot a technical issue with their PC. The catch is that they are no where near the PC having the problems. The caller can’t even answer a few basic questions such as, what operating system is on the PC (Mac OS X, Windows XP or Vista), which web browser they use (popular ones are Firefox, Safari, Netscrape and Internet Exploder) and which type of Internet access they have (dialup, cable modem, DSL, or a LAN at work). PLUH-EEEEZE, if you ever call technical support, for ghod’s sake be at the computer you are having the problem with, know the basics and when asked which web browser you use don’t answer the tech rep with several seconds of dead air and then say, “Uhhh, I have the Internet.” We won’t laugh at you… until you hang up.