No Hangups In Telling Your Friends The Truth

(I work in technical support for a UK ISP. This conversation takes place outside of work between me and a friend who uses the same ISP for home phone and broadband.)

Friend: “[ISP] is rubbish; the speeds are so slow. Can you have a look at it?”

Me: “Yeah. I mean, I can’t do much about it when I’m not at work, but I’ll have a look. Have you rung tech support?”

Friend: “Yeah, they hung up on me.”

Me: “What?”

Friend: “They asked me to unplug my microfilter, and they hung up on me.”

Me: “Wait a minute. They hung up? Were you ringing from your house phone?”

Friend: “Yes.”

Me: “The house phone that uses the same microfilter you unplugged.”

Friend: “Yeah.”

Me: “And then they hung up on you?”

Friend: “Yes.”

Me: “You can’t see where I’m going with this, can you?”

Friend: *pauses* “No.”

Me: “You’re an idiot. Ring them back on your mobile this time, and don’t hang up on yourself this time.”

(The really worrying thing is that he is now an IT Technician in a school.)