Caller: “Hi, I am Johnny Peabrain of the New York office and I am on vacation here in Singapore.”

Tech Support: “Sorry? You are… ?”

Caller: “Yes. I am Johnny Peabrain. Can you help me find out who is on the same team as Mervin Leahy? I need to send them things pretty urgently.”

Tech Support: “I am sorry. I need to do a verification to know who you are.”

Caller: “But I just told you. Can you just tell me who are the people on the same team? Because I have done part of the work and I need to send it to them urgently if not they will have to work backwards to find it.”

Tech Support (thinking to himself): “Wait a minute, you are on vacation, and you need to send them something urgently?”

Tech Support: “You do know I cannot reveal information to you on the phone?

Caller: “Sure. You can email to me… J.Peabrain@..”

Tech Support: “No. I cannot email this to an external email address.”

Caller: “But you see I don’t have my laptop with me and I need the information now.”

Tech Support (thinking to himself): “So how are you gonna to send this to them even if I let you know who they are? You think I am stupid or what?”

Tech Support: “In that case I’ll need to do a verification to confirm you are really who you are. Can I have you employee number please? (Attempting to be diplomatic, having no idea if this guy is genuine. No reason to offend anybody.)

Caller: “But I just told you I don’t have anything from the company with me. How am I supposed to know that?

Tech Support: “No problem. Can you tell me who your line manager is?”

Caller: * hang up *

For goodness sake, you are on vacation, Johnny. And if it was so important that you need to get on this ‘work matter’ in the middle of the vacation, all the way here in Singapore, then come to the Singapore office!

And if you do not even have information of your line manager right off your fingertips, then who the hell can believe you are really who you are?

Furthermore, you already know who one of the guys is in that team. Can’t you just tell that one guy whatever he needs and have him pass the information?

Some people never thinks. And while the Tech Support line is the best line to get some information, don’t take us for idiots, will you?

*** Names are changed so as not to reveal any company relevant data here.