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johanson / Moderator

Aug 19, 2008, 7:32 PM

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an interesting encounter

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As you may know when not posting on several forums, I write technical articles for several publications, to include here in Mexico a series called Tech Talk for the Guadalajara Reporter. In an effort to try to keep up with technology, and with some of you smart guys lakeside, something rather hard to do unless you are a teenager, I volunteer giving tech support at a local Internet Service Provider (ISP) www.laguna.com.mx located in Ajijic providing fixed Wi-Fi coverage between Western Chapala and Joco.
In the next Tech Talk article, which probably will be out next week I write about some of the weirder characters, myself included whose internet speed had either greatly dropped or quit, whom immediately blamed the ISP rather than their/my equipment, only to find out that it was our equipment not the equipment at the ISP that was failing. Well today I had a character that I just have to write about on the forums.
Today, at about 11 AM a couple came to the ISP and asked for help. I asked if they were Lagunanet customers and the gentleman said no. Then how can I help you? He said that he had a 22 inch Samsung LCD and a computer, I think a laptop, and he wanted to hook up the computer to the LCD. I said sir, would you like to buy cable to connect the two units? He said no that he already had one, but we understand that the owner, Rod, could tell him how to make the connection work. One of my jobs as a volunteer is to protect Rod from folks like this so that he can he can keep the ISP well tuned and also minimize spam email
As a volunteer I tell folks how to do these rather simple tasks if they are customers but recommend they go to a technician should they not be customer. When I recommended a good technician by the name of Juan Barbosa, who would of course charge for these services, this guy went humph or something like that and walked out. I was also leaving to go to the gym and figured what the heck I would tell him how to do this simple task, because he seemed terribly irritated. But before I had a chance to tell him what he needed to do, he turned to me and in an irritated voice and said “what good are you as a volunteer if you won’t let me talk to Rod?”
So rather than explaining this rather simple task to him, I said “sorry sir”. Then I thought, maybe this guy is under pressure, and I remembered that I have a young techie friend who speaks three languages without an accent, (his dad and I speak those same languages but with accents in two of the three) who sometimes will give greatly discounted help for such simple tasks if that person speaks reasonable Spanish as a second or third language. So my final comment to this irritated gentleman was, “Sir, do you speak Spanish?”
He didn’t answer, and walked away. I chuckled and went to the gym. Some folks are meant for Mexico, others aren’t