User: "Hi, when I logged in this morning, I got some weird message....Windows something something. Something about Windows....can you help?"
Me: ".........."
Seriously? I mean, WTF is this happy horseshit? Do other professions go through this?
Do doctors get patients that say "Yeah, I got some pain...somewhere. Sometimes. Do I have cancer?"
Do mechanics have people say "My car does this thing where it makes a noise. How much is it going to cost me?"
Do lawyers (I'm looking at you Truean, because gods know if they exist, you've probably gotten them) have clients that say "I have a court thingy about something and they need some kind of papers. Something about law. Can you help?"
EDIT: Although, I am reminded of a friend's story, when he was working a summer job at a book consignment. Basically, this company would buy up excess books when bookstores went out of business or publishers were looking to dump excess stock or whatever, then they'd rent out a large abandoned store or a warehouse, hire some temp workers and sell the books cheap. Because it was such a random variety of books, they were only very broadly organized.
So one day, a lady comes in and says "I need help finding a book. It was about this big (using her hands to indicate), and it was blue."
He waits for more info and doesn't get any. "....Can you be a little more specific?"
"I think it was about medicine."
"....I think it's over there." (pointing waaaaaay over on the other side of the store, far enough away that she'd be someone else's problem)
^^^
Yes, Very yes.
[blatant rant]
Clients do not know what they think they know....
1.) "I just had a question about _______." Their issue has nothing to do with _______, but they think it does and want an immediate one sentence answer. Or it does have to do with _____ but they don't have the paperwork they think they have and want an answer over the phone, also for free.... _____ is also complex but they don't know it and won't hear it....
2.) "How much would you charge to write a letter to answer this foreclosure?" An answer is a motion and the beginning to the defense of a lawsuit (more complex but no one cares), and in foreclosure what they really want is time to find a short sale or a modification, but the client is convinced that they just need an "answer" and nothing else, because some moron realtor who I will
yell at speak with later gave them bad advice.
3.) "Nope nothing," in response to my asking if there's anything else I need to know. In reality, they spit on the arresting officer.... I feel I was denied critical, need to know information and should've have had to learn about this while reading the police report....
4.) Generally they have no idea, but hopefully they might actually listen a tad. Realistically, they won't, but rather will often try to tell me how stuff should happen based upon their own views. This doesn't work as well as you would expect it to, it usually goes far worse. I swear they just intrinsically subscribe to the "losing is fun" motto....
Let me tell you how it goes some of the rest of the time. Somebody comes in and they have a problem. It all started when their mother met their father and goes past now; I hear all of it.... Somewhere in there I have to find something a judge would give a damn about that I can somehow tie into a legal remedy. This is not always possible. [blatant rant/]