Trenches comic: Thursday Sept. 22, 2011

Bogey

A Few Customer Care Stories!

09/22/2011 - Anonymous

I thought you might enjoy these.

Scenario 1:
Caller: Hi, I’m having some problems with my hard drive.
Me: Could you be more specific?
Caller: Well the screen is blue with a bunch of gibberish on it so I think the hard drive is broken.
Me: Let’s just start with a quick reboot of your computer. Could you please power it off and then on again?
Caller: [about 4 seconds later] - The blue screen is still there.
Me: That was pretty quick for a reboot, can you describe what you are doing?
Caller: I’m pushing the power button.
Me: Can you make sure to hold it down for about 5 seconds?
Caller: [about 6 seconds later] The blue screen is STILL there!
Me: Are you just turning the monitor on and off?
Caller: Yes. Did you want me to try pushing the power button on the hard drive?
Me: ...

Scenario 2:
A remote call center agent (they work from home, and we would service their equipment as well) shows up with a box of equipment. She hands it to me and says:
Agent: This is broken. There’s a noise in the headset that I can’t hear that’s making me crazy!
Me: (stiffling laughter) I’m sorry, could you repeat that?
Agent: (getting angry) It’s not funny! There is a NOISE in my HEADSET that I CAN’T HEAR that’s driving me CRAZY!
Me: Um. OK. I’ll see what I can do I guess.
I took the box of equipment to the back room, re-arranged it, and gave it back to her. I guess that fixed everything because we never heard from her again.

JustinSane07

Not wanting to fire someone then going along with the dart plan sounds a bit hypocritical to me.

Spectre-x

I'm pretty sure that if someone told you he decides things by throwing darts, you won't think he'll do it by throwing darts at whatever he's deciding something about.

skeldare

So apparently they've went from crazy game industry stories to basic call center/tech support stories.

Funny comic though, every job should decide who to fire that way.

LTM

And you guys claim they don't read the forums.

Obviously, they decided to bait the discussion about the protagonists true intentions and feelings, and whether or not he is a self-serving dickhead.

Well played, well...played.

Maigaard

There's something iffy about the last panel. It looks... rushed, or something

wonderpug

PaperLuigi44

Spectre-x wrote:

I'm pretty sure that if someone told you he decides things by throwing darts, you won't think he'll do it by throwing darts at whatever he's deciding something about.

This is exactly why I laughed at this comic, I didn't see that coming.

Jam Warrior

JustinSane07 wrote:

Not wanting to fire someone then going along with the dart plan sounds a bit hypocritical to me.

This is kind of the point at the moment. Isaac is trying to balance his want to do the right thing with his absolute need for a job. He knows he shouldn't get someone fired to get what he wants but he really needs that job so he's going along with Lima Bean Boss' crazy whirlwind and trying seek the path of least personal guilt that also leads to employment.

That's my reading anyway.

Gaslight

skeldare wrote:

So apparently they've went from crazy game industry stories to basic call center/tech support stories.

Yeah, I guess their supposed stockpile of game testing stories wasn't so big after all.

Xaquin

Gaslight wrote:

skeldare wrote:

So apparently they've went from crazy game industry stories to basic call center/tech support stories.

Yeah, I guess their supposed stockpile of game testing stories wasn't so big after all.

and the Gord was disappointed in the foolish customers.

Henroid

JustinSane07 wrote:

Not wanting to fire someone then going along with the dart plan sounds a bit hypocritical to me.

It's a comic. Like with jokes.

Henroid

Gaslight wrote:

skeldare wrote:

So apparently they've went from crazy game industry stories to basic call center/tech support stories.

Yeah, I guess their supposed stockpile of game testing stories wasn't so big after all.

Or maybe they decided to go with something different?

Romanian My Escutcheon

Maigaard wrote:

There's something iffy about the last panel. It looks... rushed, or something

Just curious, do you serve some purpose around here beyond whining about every Trenches strip that comes out?

Because if so, I would just be ecstatic to hear all about it.

Human Shield

LTM wrote:

And you guys claim they don't read the forums.

Obviously, they decided to bait the discussion about the protagonists true intentions and feelings, and whether or not he is a self-serving dickhead.

Well played, well...played.

I was thinking the same thing, LTM. I don't know that outright saying he doesn't want anybody fired reveals their plans one way or the other considering in the very same panel he readily agrees to not only continue the campaign of getting rid of experienced personnel for his own wants and desires, but decides to stop trying to figure out if they deserve the job as much as him and just go with random chance.

Since we'll probably never know anything about John, I've decided that John works hard every day to make money to care for his sick, elderly mother. She's going to pass away without the care and medicine his job provides him with the means to get for her. And one guy with a fancy car and an LBB with a bad dart toss sends poor John's mom to the grave.

R.I.P. Mother John.

I actually liked today's comic (a good portion of that is the feeling that I'm being heard, as you pointed out), and hope this post gets put up considering I've been jailed for "going off topic" on Tuesday.

BahamutZERO

I'm going to pretend the guy he hit is John Romero

Maigaard

Romanian My Escutcheon wrote:

Maigaard wrote:

There's something iffy about the last panel. It looks... rushed, or something

Just curious, do you serve some purpose around here beyond whining about every Trenches strip that comes out?

Because if so, I would just be ecstatic to hear all about it.

Just curious, what purpose is there to serve, if any, on an online forum? What purpose do you serve? Is it to point out other peoples purposes on here? Is it one that I could possibly serve too? Let's be honest, none of us are doing anyone any good on here. Did I like todays comic? Yes, I believe it's beginning to pick up, but something about that last panel is rubbing me the wrong way. Sure, I could've just kept that to myself, no one needs to hear my opinion, or yours, but I felt like typing it in here, for all to see, in case someone felt the same way. Which I'm sure someone does. Am I a terrible person for that? Absolutely. Apparently.
But, hey, just disregard any future thing I write. It is actually not that hard.

Human Shield

Isaac is making a huge mistake. If he had any sense, he would realize that the little bean boss is not the type he's going to enjoy working under. He's indecisive, easily corruptible and dangerous. Also, the company in general is going to be rife with lawsuits: assault and wrongful termination just to name what we've seen so far. Not the sort of office anyone wants to try to force their way into. No matter how manipulative and devious Isaac is underneath, he can't possibly control the scenario completely. And if one is to assume he's honest and naive and not the scheming "silly person" I think he is, then he's got to realize that all it'll take is someone equally desperate for him to end up with the dart in his arm and pinkslip in his pocket. The moment little bean boss said "Now I have to figure out who to fire", Isaac should have said, "you know what? Nevermind." and walked out. Not just because of sheer human decency, but because things cannot possibly go well for him there.

Just think of how John's now ex-coworkers are going to react to the new guy who basically forced their boss to fire one of them just so he could work there... yeah, that's the kind of guy nobody's going

Spectre-x

Oh my god, you're right. It's almost as if

a fictional character is acting in an exaggerated and unrealistic, yet internally consistent manner for comic and dramatic effect?

MichaelLC

Spectre-x wrote:

Oh my god, you're right. It's almost as if

a fictional character is acting in an exaggerated and unrealistic, yet internally consistent manner for comic and dramatic effect?

I think I saw that in a play once.

Peter Ebel

I, for one, will be glad when that particular fad stops.

Also, that last panel hand. That fucking hand.

Dark Raven X

S'wrong with that hand? It's a good looking hand.

So what's the division of labor on Trenches? Do Mike and Scott both draw it, trading off panels or something?

Gene Parmesan

Good strip. First one I really laughed at.

Speed Racer

Dark Raven X wrote:

S'wrong with that hand? It's a good looking hand.

So what's the division of labor on Trenches? Do Mike and Scott both draw it, trading off panels or something?

scott draws it but mike helps design the characters

Tofystedeth

BahamutZERO wrote:

I'm going to pretend the guy he hit is John Romero

Yesssss

Maigaard wrote:

Romanian My Escutcheon wrote:

Maigaard wrote:

There's something iffy about the last panel. It looks... rushed, or something

Just curious, do you serve some purpose around here beyond whining about every Trenches strip that comes out?

Because if so, I would just be ecstatic to hear all about it.

Just curious, what purpose is there to serve, if any, on an online forum? What purpose do you serve? Is it to point out other peoples purposes on here? Is it one that I could possibly serve too? Let's be honest, none of us are doing anyone any good on here. Did I like todays comic? Yes, I believe it's beginning to pick up, but something about that last panel is rubbing me the wrong way. Sure, I could've just kept that to myself, no one needs to hear my opinion, or yours, but I felt like typing it in here, for all to see, in case someone felt the same way. Which I'm sure someone does. Am I a terrible person for that? Absolutely. Apparently.
But, hey, just disregard any future thing I write. It is actually not that hard.

Well, I think the issue is there is a history of people who join for the sole purpose of criticizing the comic/community, which is basically textbook trolling and, thus against the rules. People express negative reactions to the comics and such all the time, but they contribute to forum community in positive ways as well, so that's cool. Not everybody can like everything.