[Info-vax] Writer advice requested

[MetaEd]

On Nov 10, 9:57 pm, AEF <spamsink2... at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Several months ago I had a wrap problem with a chat session with
> Comcast. The tech's lines didn't wrap! I couldn't read anything
> past the right border of the chat window without horizontal
> scrolling! I asked him to press the Return key once in a while but
> he didn't, even after repeated requests and explanations. Where
> was QA, and what were they on?

Stop explaining. Instead, play dumb.

When patrons and employees of a restaurant franchise in my area want
the corporate office, they ask at a restaurant for the number.
Sometimes the restaurant manager mistakenly gives them my company's
number. (It's an easy mistake; theirs ends 0888 and ours ends 0088.)

The trouble comes when my kind receptionist gives the caller---who
has a real and urgent problem such as a missing paycheck or a case
of food poisoning---the right number. This positively reinforces the
mistake. Any restaurant manager that makes the mistake gets to know
the wrong number from memory, and continues to supply it. Over time,
we get more and more phone calls for the franchise. This represents
frustration and a waste of time on the part of the callers and my
receptionist.

The kindest thing to do is never, ever, cooperate with the caller by
giving the right number. Instead, we play dumb. Callers push the
problem back on the restaurant manager. The restaurant manager soon
gets to know and give out the right number. The result is less
frustration and less waste of time, both ours and future callers.

Having learned this lesson, I would not have scrolled to read the
tech responses. Instead, I would have played dumb. I would have
replied to the tech whenever a response was cut off, could he please
repeat whatever came after the word "My", or "apologize for", or
whatever. The tech would very quickly tire of repetition, and learn
on his own to keep his responses short.

Cheers, Edward