“Many of the issues I get blamed for arise because of coincidence or potential user error”

The saying “there’s nowt so queer as folk” has been rattling around my head these past weeks. In my job, this often means customers not fully understanding how their devices work, and it makes for some fascinating conversations.

A great example of this comes from Steve. A regular customer, he rang to say he couldn’t get the internet on his iPad. Whenever possible, I always try to offer help over the phone before I book a visit, and my first piece of advice to Steve was to turn his router off and on. That in itself can be an interesting experience, as people rarely know what a router is. “It’s the box near your phone with some lights on it” usually does the trick, but Steve remained confused. He couldn’t find an illuminated box, but finally came across a black thing with TalkTalk written on it. I explained that’s his router and there should be something shining from it. He assured me it was dark, so I suggested checking he hadn’t accidentally