tonto_goldberg:

A lot of tech support types make fun of users after saying basically, "go read your @#$@# manual". Anyone who tells you to RTFM when the information is not there needs to go back to flipping burgers.

I wasted about an hour and a half with a certain hardward manufacturer's on-line chat the other night, after spending about 30 minutes trying to follow printed directions. I work with engineers daily, so I'm no slouch on the technical side. The manual said, set it up using the choice of configurations listed on page 8. However, when I tried to find out how, it said help was available in the software which came with it. However, the hardware was one which can be used with or without a computer. My application was without. I looked through every sheet of paper from the box, and that's the best I came up with.

So I loaded the software on my laptop, and it couldn't run without the hardware being connected. Since I wasn't planning to hook it to the computer, I didn't even buy the correct cable to do so. I went to the website, and after about 20 minutes found the on-line chat, which required (like it's a surprise?) another software package to be download.

So I load the package, and manage to get someone. At one point, she called me "Bruce." She never answered my question about how many people she was helping simultaneously. Finally, I told her to get a supervisor. Like the first person, she said, "So you want help connecting this to your computer?"

Long story short (I have the text transcript of our conversation at home), after I disconnected, I still knew as little about the product as when I took it out of the box. The last hour of the conversation was pure stubbornness on my part, to see if the knew WTF they were doing. They didn't.

Within 5 minutes of disconnecting, I had hunted and pecked my way into setting the thing up. The next morning, I spent another 2 minutes setting up some options. Jerks. That's what Indian outsourcing does for you. I wonder if the Slate V infant will come without the proper software downloaded.