Matt Wilkinson's Blog

You’ve heard the story I’m sure. Man phones up the IT hotline complaining that his printer doesn’t work. He’s pressing Ctrl + P and clicking OK but his newly installed printer refuses to churn out his latest profit and loss account figures. Lady IT consultant talks him through a number of steps and the call comes to an embarrassed conclusion when the man realises he hasn’t turned the printer on.

Maybe the same sort of thing has happened to you in the past. I’d be lying if I tried to deny I hadn’t fallen victim to the same error myself.

So when my broadband connection at home failed this morning I was keen to cover off all bases. I had the number for a helpline but rather than get someone to talk me through the obvious steps… is your router switched on? …have you checked the cable at the back? …is your laptop wireless enabled? etc, I did that all myself. I sat for ages clicking ‘Connect’ or ‘Try again’, restarting, re-plugging in, anything and everything I could think of to fix the problem. I was determined not to call the help line and have some smart-arse teenager give me the obvious solution to my little challenge.

Two hours of trying later I swallowed my pride and called the Sky help line. The good news is that the solution was slightly more complicated than flicking a switch. I had to be talked through a number of steps; right clicking on icons I didn’t know existed, changing settings and typing in random tech-speak number and letter combinations - I felt like Jack Bauer from ‘24’ solving a secret code. The bad news, for me, was that the whole thing was fixed in about 10 minutes. I could have saved myself hours of anguish and angst just by phoning a friendly lady probably located in Aberdeen who was only to happy to help.  

I guess the moral of the story is stick to what you’re good at and let the professionals help you out. Even if the problem is as simple as turning the item on, better five seconds of embarrassment than two hours punching a wall shouting ‘I hate technology’.

You’ll be pleased to know I’ve calmed myself down now and am ready for another show of cracking tunes, and don’t forget Absolutely 80s at 8pm. Never heard of it? Tune in to find out all about it tonight.

M x

Posted by Matt Wilkinson on July 02, 2008 at 16:57PM

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