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Comedy customers

8 December 2006 - 3:51pm -- Joseph

There's a particular kind of customer that comes in to HINT to use the internet that simultaneously amuse me and drive me crazy. They're normally blokes (but not always), they have good jobs and with it an inflated sense of self worth, but very little idea about computers and the Web.

Thus we have someone who is used to demanding respect and being in control, thrust into a situation where they feel helpless.

This then leads to bad behaviour. They are often very rude to Beatrice, who runs the Cafe day to day. While some of the ignorant rubbish they come out with is sometimes amusing, it makes me angry to see people bullying others just because they can. It's very tempting to intervene and mock them for their ignorance.

"Yes sir/madam, how may I help? Obviously helping to remember what your password is, or teaching you the elementary principles of Yahoo Mail is much more important than what all us plebs are trying to get done."

"Yes sir, we are deliberately making that web page load slowly, I'll go and remove the choker from the server immediately"

Mostly I resist.

They deserve it though...

Comments

I think you've made a good point about what leads to bad behavior. Someone who is accustomed to being in control-- in other words, "on top of things"-- often acts horribly in a situation that seems unmanageable. Even if that situation is relatively minor, I should add.

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