Take a wrench to the computer!

I have to get something off my chest today. It has been my pet peeve for years and my bubble has recently popped. I want to scream. I hope I don’t offend anyone with anything I say today, but if I do then you probably deserve it.

It all started with a simple email I had received at work today. See, I receive the customer comments regarding our website and am expected to fix what is wrong or broken. This particular email happened to be like the other ninety percent, written out of pure stupidity. The customer wanted to purchase an item that was on a page similar to this one. But, he claimed he could not continue because there was no Continue button. On the first hand, the button does not always read Continue when shopping online. As you can see from this particular instance the button reads Add To Cart, which will take you to your shopping cart and on to checkout. On the second hand, there is no possible way this image would not show up. GIF images have been around since Internet Explorer version 1.01 (I made that up, but it sounds right) so an incompatible browser can be ruled out. Also, if the image had failed to load due to a blurp in connection, which we all experience at one point or another, a simple refresh would have fixed the problem.

I wouldn’t be so upset and would have probably disregarded his email like I do with all of the others had he not worded the email as he had. He stated the problem as being our fault as I quote: I cannot find the continue button on this page! How do you expect anyone to buy from your store if you don’t let them?

Yes, a remark like that will clearly piss me off. I don’t expect everyone to know everything about computers and the internet, but this has gone too far. When you own a vehicle you are expected to know how to check the air in the tires, make sure it’s filled with fuel, and know when to take it in for an oil change to keep it operating properly. I’m not a mechanic. I don’t know how to do anything more than change the oil in my car. But, when I take my car to the mechanic to get it fixed I won’t yell at him for not putting enough air in the tires. Why? Because I should have done that myself in the first place.

So, if you are going to use the internet for shopping, downloading files, watching porn or playing games, please, make sure you know how to use it properly first. If not, I may have to revoke your license!