01/22/2009

Ignorant People Answer Phone Calls

Anyway, Aaron bought a new hard drive for his computer and it didn’t come with the data cable to connect it to the motherboard on his computer. So tech glitch number one is the stupidity of selling a computer product that doesn’t have what you need to actually use it. Sort of like buying a table lamp that doesn’t have a light bulb in it —— Oh Wait! —— That’s happened to us before too. Must be contagious.

Since we live a few miles from anywhere that might actually have this cable I agreed to help Aaron out and see if I can track it down. First I call Staples in Pekin and the guy who answers the phone says something like —— “Duhhh —— would that be in Computers?” To which I reply that I would suppose a computer cable would be in the computer section of the store but who knows for sure. Let’s try there for starters. So the phone rings some more and another guy answers to tell me he has to go check to “See if they are in.” He returns to the phone to say they don’t have any and Staples doesn’t have any to order. I refrain from asking what “if they are in” might mean if they have never had any and don’t have any to order.

I call Radio Shack in Pekin next. The lady who answers the phone obviously has no clue what it is I want but she is polite enough to look on her computer and tell me she has none in stock and it would take “a few days” to order one. That covers Pekin.

So I call Best Buy in Peoria and the phone rings forever until a sweet sounding little girl listens to my explanation about needing an SATA cable and asks if that would be under “Satellites like for TV’s?” Nope. So she says “Well I don’t know nothing about it then.” She says she will connect me with the Geek Squad. The phone rings for even longer when another little girl voice says she has two cables that are twenty feet long for $20 each. TWENTY FEET!! Obviously we don’t know where these cable really go but they won’t even fit inside the computer case so after a couple tries to explain that these things should be about the size of a phone wire and no more that 18 inches at the most —— she says the twenty footers are all she has. Good luck with that is all I can think to say.

Finally, I call Computer Deli in Peoria and the phone is answered on the second ring. The guy on the other end not only understands what I need but asks to make sure I’m not talking about an EIDE ribbon cable which is what was used last century. He tells me he as both straight and angled connectors from 8 to 18 inches long in various colors even. I share a laugh with him when I ask if he has any that are twenty feet long and explain why I ask.

I plan to pick Tracey up from work this afternoon and go to Peoria to get one of these cables and 4 bags of Jake’s dog food from Petco.

Once again the value of letting my fingers do the walking through the yellow pages (in this case I Googled) saved me countless miles and frustration. And perhaps even bloodshed or mayhem when dealing with obviously clueless people who should never have been hired for the job of answering the phone in the first place.

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