Client Services Moments

Katie: "Ok, how about you try rebooting your computer?"
Client (three seconds later): "Ok, it's off, shall I turn it back on?"
Katie: "Please."
Client (two seconds later): "It came back to the same error screen."
Katie: "Wow, it's back on already? It didn't ask you to log in again?"
Client: "No."
Katie: "When you turned it off, did you press the button on your monitor or some other button?"
Client: "The button on my monitor"

****
Client: "When I click on stuff in your software, it doesn't do anything."
Katie: "That's strange. Does it work if you click somewhere else on your computer that's not in our software?"
Client: "No. It doesn't work."
Katie: "Sounds like a problem with your mouse..."
Client: "My mouse! Oh....do you think maybe it got unplugged?"
Katie: "Hmmm. I'm not sure. Does it have a cord coming out of the mouse?"
Client (after a pause): "Nooo. It doesn't. Oooh. Guess what? The battery in my mouse is dead...."

***

Katie: "Ok, try closing the program."
Client: "I can't. It's not closing."
Katie: "Are you clicking on the red 'x'?"
Client: "Oh, I have to click on the red 'x'?"
Client (after a pauce): "It's still not working. Whenever I click on the red 'x', the program is still there. It just gives me a message that says, 'Are you sure you want to terminate this program?'"

***
Katie: "Ok, let's go back to that other program."
Client: "It's not there. It disappeared."
Katie: "That's really strange.... Hmmm, if you look at the blue bar at the bottom of your screen does it say the name of the program that disappeared?"
Client: "Yes."

***

I should call these lessons in patience. But they make me laugh myself silly (off the phone, of course). I don't usually think of the "patience lessons" as very much fun.