"Don't bother sending a tech, I'll be dead by then"

[bayonetbrant]

http://www.reddit.com/r/talesfromtechsupport/comments/28qemm/dont_bother_sending_a_tech_ill_be_dead_by_then/

So my story starts on what was a normal day taking calls on the front line for a large cable company. The job pays well and for the most part the people I deal with are fairly nice to talk to.
Quite often we'll get calls from seniors (especially in the morning) who have premise equipment issues such as "snow on screen" or "no signal" on their TV sets connected to our digital equipment.
Now my heart does go out to some of these folk because up until recently (past few years) we would supply straight analog cable to many homes (coax direct from wall to TV with scrolling guide). However most cities we service nowadays require our digital equipment to receive channels, and this has caused a lot of frustration with older people who don't know how to operate said equipment (ie. always having your TV set on "video" or "hdmi" to get picture). So often times we get customers who are repeat offenders with long ticket histories of these types of issues.
So anyway, I get a call from an older gentleman who's quite bitter and mean right off the bat (doesn't like that I asked for his address / telephone number to verify the account, hates that he has to speak with a machine before reaching an agent, etc.). I have some experience handling these types of customers, however this call was going to be a little different.
I spent over 45 minutes with this guy (we'll call him Mr. Smith) trying to get his TV set connected to the digital box properly so he could receive a picture. No luck. He was getting clearly frustrated by the whole ordeal and started blaming me for not being able to do my job properly, how I was useless, etc.
Whatever.
Like I said, I've dealt with this before so I tried my best not to take it personally, but eventually I had to ask him if we could book a service tech to the home (a courtesy call) to get his TV working correctly. Unfortunately, our booking calendar was showing an appointment 3 days out. That's when he dropped this on me:
"Don't bother sending a goddamn technician, because I'll be dead by then. I'm 94 and TV is the only thing I have left, are you really going to make me wait for a tech?"

go read the rest...

[mirth]

Wow. That's a great story.

[Martok]

Cool.  Thanks for sharing the warm fuzzies, chief. 

[Greybriar]

What a touching story! Thanks for sharing it with us, BB.