They Have The Drive To Learn, But No Actual Drive
This story is from the late 1990s. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) were just becoming popular. In addition to your national ISP, there were regional and local ISPs. They all sent out a disk to load the software onto your computer so you could dial in using a modem.
I had just started to work for a regional ISP as tier one — the first point of contact — tech support. When anyone called in, they got me — or one of the other 100 people employed at my level.
One day, I got a call.
Caller: “I have your disc and a modem. How do I get online?”
Me: “Put the disk into the CD drive and follow the instructions on the screen.”
Caller: “What’s a CD drive?”
After several minutes of this and explaining how to find the CD drive, I slowly came to the realization that the customer didn’t actually have a computer. This is not what surprised me. What did surprise me is that he had a modem and knew he needed it to get online.
Me: “How did you get the modem?”
Caller: “I went into the local computer store, I told them I’d gotten this disk in the mail and I wanted to get online, and I asked what I needed. And the sales associate there said I needed a modem, so he sold me a modem.”
Me: “Did they ask what type of computer you have?”
Caller: “No.”
Me: “Do you have a computer?”
Caller: “No.”
Me: “Well, to use our CD, you have to have a computer with a CD drive so it can read the CD, and the computer will then use the modem and our software from the CD to dial into our server to get you onto the Internet. Do you still have all the packaging for the modem?”
Caller: “Yes.”
Me: “Pack it back up go to the store to return it, leave, and then go to one of their competitors and tell them you need a computer that can get you online.”
I further explained that he’d need a computer, desktop or tower, and a monitor and that a good computer would have an internal modem, so he wouldn’t need to buy an external modem and it’d come with a keyboard and mouse. The customer was annoyed that he couldn’t get online at that moment but was appreciative that I took the time to explain what he needed.
It’s been long enough that I don’t remember for sure if he ended up calling back to get set up, but I do know that a few days later when I went in and checked, he did have an account set up, associated with the number he had called in on.