Thicks & Co

The general thickness of some people has to been to be believed.

The printer doesn't print. Why doesn't it print? Would it help if I plugged it in?

I want ink for my printer. I had it from here. It was blue.

The biggest example of thick people comes from those who do all their research online, become convinced of something, then phone up an outlet and proceed to have their theories blown out of the water. Either that or they'll just hang up.

Still, even the thickest people on the planet do learn from examples. Buying anything from the biggest computer retailer in the UK and then going back for technical support usually means they don't go back again. Result!

An Actual Conversation

User (U): "I have Windows 97 and Works. Do I need Works on a computer in order to transfer the files?"
Support (S): "No."
U: "How do I get Works back on the new computer?"
S: "Run the CD it came with."
U: "Doesn't it come with Windows?"
S: "No."
U: "But do I need it on a PC to transfer the files?"
S: "No..."
U: "does it matter I have Windows 97?"
S: "There's no such thing as Windows 97. There's Windows 95 and Windows 98."
U: "No, I'm looking at it now."
S: "Yeah but if you have the new sysem you can put your Works on, no problem."
U: "Do I need Works on the computer to transfer the files?"
S: "NO!"

Odds and Sods

pcAnywhere. Wonderful piece of software. Too advanced for some people.
Running software on your computer using data from a remote computer (through pcAnyWhere) that doesn't even have said data on it in the first place, probably isn't going to work.

Printers that we apparently sold gain the ability somehow to take separate ink cartridges when they went out using colour blocks originally. That's clever. Otherwise known as "I want ink but I dunno what I got even though I look at it daily."

"I cannot burn DVDs, why? My friend can do it, why can't I?" No, no clues. Except it involves a camcorder and a progress bar that gets stuck at 84%.

It is still amazing the number of people who buy or "obtain" software like Microsoft Office, yet when their computer goes tits up sixteen months later because somebody discovered BitTorrent, the disks apparently don't exist and calls of "can you put this on?" "Have you a licence?" "No." occur regularly. Yet when the system's been wiped and comes back in three weeks later because they've discovered Limewire, Office has suddenly appeared again, about half an hour after Limewire was installed...