From time to time we help our customers with ordering lost restore disks which in most cases, are able to do with no problems, until we called Compaq customer support.

First of all, we had a hard time getting through to anyone. Their automated phone menu kept getting stuck in a loop saying “we’re sorry, we don’t understand your answer” and “you may speak at anytime” until we held down the 0 on the keypad. Finally after 20 minutes going through menu options we were connected to a foreign speaking customer service rep who politely told us that we reached the wrong number (even though the number I dialed is listed on their website) and transferred us to another department. The rep we received this time was perplexed on why they would transfer us to his department. So back we go, transferred to the original department that we started.

This time the foreign speaking person told us that he indeed can help us. I told him that we needed to order a restore CD for one of our customer’s computers however; he insisted that we did not need them. I explained that I was aware that the computer came with a restore partition on the computer but a virus had destroyed the partition. If the restore software on the partition is gone, we have no other choice but to order the CDs. The customer service rep still insisted that we did not need the disks and began to laugh as if he was fooling around with someone. Pressed for time and not willing to get into an argument about it, I asked to speak to a supervisor or manager so I can expedite the order. He said “no I am not going to do that” and proceeded to laugh again. At this time, I simply hung up.

I suspect others have had similar experiences, but for us, it was undoubtedly the most bizarre.