There’s No “IT” In “PhD”!
A customer who uses our software and has neverending network issues called us threatening legal action if we didn’t reimburse them for damages resulting from a fire. This was a small restaurant, and one workstation was always freezing or needing to be rebooted, its connected printers never worked, etc. We always recommended that they hire an IT professional to come out and check the computer and network connection, and one day, they finally did.
The only problem was that this IT professional was the restaurant owner’s brother, and he was neither knowledgeable in IT nor a professional. In the course of his troubleshooting, a fire started inside the wall near the network jack, and they had to smash the wall to get to it and put it out
At least, that’s the story they gave me. In his professional opinion, our software had sent several high-voltage pulses through the network and caused the fire.
I tried explaining to the restaurant owner that what she was telling me was impossible. She got irate and started yelling at me in (I assume) Hindi.
Me: “Ma’am, I can’t understand you.”
Owner: *In English* “I’ll have my brother call you!” *Hangs up*
A few minutes later, her brother called. He started yelling at me and demanding an apology for calling him a liar.
Owner’s Brother: “I have a PhD, and I know exactly what happened!”
He gave me the same story: that our software had sent out this high-voltage pulse and started a fire. I wasn’t even sure where to begin with a rebuttal, so I just used my standard question when speaking to an incompetent IT guy.
Me: “Have you consulted with an IT professional?”
This set him off in the most glorious way, and after yelling and cussing at me for a bit, he hung up.
About a week later, the restaurant owner called and said she had a new computer and wanted our assistance installing the software on it. She made no mention of the previous incident at all; it’s like it never even happened, I guess. I wonder if she got a second opinion and realized her brother was a failure.
Question of the Week
Have you ever served a bad customer who got what they deserved?
