My account on a social networking group froze me out, so I wrote their support an email explaining that I can’t log in, with details of how this came about. I got a wonderful reply indeed:

Please follow the following steps:

1. Log in to your account

…

Wonderful! I replied “You’re joking, right?” and reiterated the situation. This time I got a reply from a real human (she signed it with a name, not “The help team”) who politely apologized for the automated response and proceeded to help.

So, instead of blogging about a silly support person, I’m blogging about a silly automated surrogate of a support person. Of course it’s hardly news that machines shouldn’t be trusted with solving our problems – remember:

Dave Bowman: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.

HAL: I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.

Oh well… all’s well that ends well (though not for Frank Poole).