Meet the most patient tech support guy ever

Google phone jockey miraculously stays happy in the face of massive confusion

Words: David Houghton on June 10, 2010

It turns out Google really isn't evil after all. The proof? This tech support guy in the company's employ, who we hear is currently in discussions with the Vatican regarding his upcoming sainthood.

It's not that the old lady calling him is an angry old hag. In fact, she's really rather sweet. And having had to deal with the public at work before - hell, having to do it every day when I leave the house - I know they can be a total nightmare if they want to be. But given her line of questioning (essentially 'How do I stop Pac-man breaking Google and stopping me from working?') and how clear it is that she possibly thinks shutting down a program means switching the monitor off, he does very well indeed.

Actually, what am I saying? Presumably someone from tech support uploaded this conversation to Youtube without the old lady's consent, for us all to laugh at. And we are!. EVIL!

But have you ever worked in tech support? Or had to deal with the public at all at work? And if so, what was the stupidest thing you ever heard? Let us know in the comments, or vent your spleen messily all over our Facebook and Twitter pages.

Games:

PacMan: Adventure in Time

Platforms:

Xbox 360, PS3, PC

Topics:

WTF

20 comments

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philipshaw - June 11, 2010 10:40 a.m.

HA! My dad had the same thing and I told him to just close google
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Mexicutioner - June 11, 2010 12:44 a.m.

Jesus I used to work at the U-Haul call center, it was just awful. Old people were the worst. They either could not understand the instructions that we gave to them or they couldn't hear us. What was even worse was the fact that the calls had to be within a certain time limit, so if the calls were taking longer that they needed to be, 2 supervisors and a manager would "coach" us on how to handle the call. So just try to imagine talking to an old fart on the phone while 3 or more people hound you to finish the call A.S.A.P. I hate U-Haul so damn much!
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HoodS - June 10, 2010 8:29 p.m.

the tab close button isn't a red x
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Elementskater - June 10, 2010 7:57 p.m.

when it says "private video" there should be a bunch of little boxes of little videos underneath "private video" just click a different one and it will work...
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HawtKakez - June 10, 2010 7:53 p.m.

It wasn't as funny as I'd hoped it would be. I'm a patient person but I just couldn't understand what she was saying.
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Evil_AppleJuice - June 10, 2010 6:53 p.m.

honestly, hes not that helpful of a tech support guy at first. Hes great, but pretty vague and almost like her son just telling her off. "mom, you can turn it off, or it will go away tomorrow."
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shaft121 - June 10, 2010 6:19 p.m.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYWuW7_WfJU - alternate link for anyone else getting the 'this video is private' message
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shaft121 - June 10, 2010 6:12 p.m.

Is it jujst me or is the video witheld because it is private? I can't watch the darnt hing at all? Is this UK prejudice?
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likejenga - June 10, 2010 4:43 p.m.

is it just me or does the lady sound exactly like Sarah Palin?
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Hurricrane - June 10, 2010 4:03 p.m.

@IssacFenix You're a horrible person. I'm usually the victim when that happens
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MonkeyIslandFanatic - June 10, 2010 3:16 p.m.

"This is a private video"? Well done, Mr Houghton.
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xXzamarXx - June 10, 2010 3:07 p.m.

I used to work for Apple Tech support, I was amazed at the number of people that thought apple was their internet service provider.
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petaboil - June 10, 2010 2:58 p.m.

i cant view it, says it a private video :(
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5DollarFootlong - June 10, 2010 2:20 p.m.

o god. this is bringing back bad memories. I used to work as a computer tech a while back and I'd say about 80% of the people that needed help were THESE kind of people. I remember one gentleman in particular asked me how to play solitare on Windows. I walked him through it and it still took half an hour. It's like "how do you have a computer?" Customer service is the worst for the fact that there are adults out there who don't know common sense and you have to baby them through the most mundane of tasks like closing a pop-up window. (rant over)
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Apollomon - June 10, 2010 2:14 p.m.

same here with helping relatives and friends...to stop yelling at them i say just give it here or show me...sooooo much quicker...this guy has mad patience skills lol
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PaulieWaulie - June 10, 2010 12:51 p.m.

Just painfull. I have to play tech support for my misses' Grandma and sometimes it's unbearable, everytime there's an error on the screen she feels the need to read the entire error to me no matter how long it is and I can't stop her, she just goes off on a mad one. :)
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NorthGuard - June 10, 2010 11:35 a.m.

During my few short years working the tech support phones, it was people like this as well as those who never acquired any social graces that had me questioning the supposed importance of humanity.
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AnonymouZ - June 10, 2010 11:10 a.m.

oh my lul... and that's why i hate customer service. if it's not people yelling at you, it's people that need to be yelled AT.
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IsaacFenix - June 10, 2010 11:06 a.m.

Old people + technology = big mess I could only hope to be as patient as this guy... I would have yelled at her to call her grandson to help her after about 20 sec.
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dagstar84 - June 10, 2010 10:55 a.m.

just sweet ^^
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