To help myself get through college financially, I worked as a Hardware Support technician for the University’s Computer Services. One day, on my phone rotation, I received a phone call from a man who was rather annoyed that he couldn’t access his e-mail from home. Our school had a dial-up system (it was the mid-90’s) where students could log in to check their e-mail.

“…All I hear is static,” the man proclaimed. Trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, I assumed that his modem speaker was simply left on after he connected. I proceeded to give him instructions as to how to turn off the modem’s speaker when he cut me off. “I don’t have a modem.”

Trying to be as polite as possible, I explained that he needed to have a modem to access the system and I gave him recommendations for certain brands. The phone conversation ended well, and he was on his way to the store.

A little over an hour later, I received another irritated call from this man. “The guy at the store says I need a computer for one of these things,” he said.

“That’s correct, sir. I’m sorry — I was under the impression you had one. May I ask, sir, how is it you were hoping to read your e-mail?”

“I thought there would be some nice undergraduate student that would read it to me.”

Needless to say, the poor guy was very embarrassed.

Contributed by David North