Techie labelled 'disgusting filth merchant' by disgusting hypocrite
- Reference: 1694762887
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/09/15/on_call/
- Source link:
This week, meet a reader we'll Regomize as "Ogden," who shared a story from a couple of decades back when he worked for a young firm that sold mobile phone ringtones, wallpapers, and the like.
Some of the shop's digital tat was not safe for work (NSFW), as it featured images of pretty people in provocative poses. Those running the shopfront were mindful not to advertise those images widely, reserving promotion for publications that are completely unsafe for work – and probably best not left in public places.
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Ogden was the startup's first tech hire and after a few years on the job found himself leading a team comprising eight developers, a pair of sysadmins, an IT manager, and the customer support team.
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That responsibility meant he was also called upon to handle the most challenging support calls.
Which was how Ogden ended up on the phone with a customer who "started by calling us disgusting filth merchants" and then escalated to "choicer terms."
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Ogden was able to glean that the caller's teenage son had bought and downloaded quite a few of the NSFW images. The caller had paid the bill, but wasn't happy.
"How dare you sell this material to an underage boy. I've done research on your company, and I found one of your directors' home addresses," the customer ranted. "I've a good mind to go round and break his legs."
The director in question was Ogden's boss. And, as luck would have it, he was in the room at the time.
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Ogden put the call on speaker and let his boss introduce himself.
[6]PEBCAK problem transformed young techie into grizzled cynical sysadmin
[7]I'll see your data loss and raise you a security policy violation
[8]Windows screensaver left broadcast techie all at sea
[9]Resilience is overrated when it's not advertised
"I'm so sorry sir," his boss said. "We've blocked your son's mobile from being able to order anything else from us and will refund all the money."
The director went on to outline the policy of only advertising NSFW material in certain magazines.
"Somehow your son has seen our ads in publications not intended for children," the director explained.
"Oh yes I know," the customer responded. "I have some of them on my coffee table."
Have you handled customer complaints grounded in hypocrisy? Or had a complaint conclude as deliciously as the one Ogden handled? If so, [10]click here to send an email to On Call and we may feature your story here on a future Friday. ®
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[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/08/on_call/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/01/on_call/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/25/on_call/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/18/on_call/
[10] mailto:oncall@theregister.com
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Layboy - the magazine for the connoisseur of the external anatomy of the opposite sex.
Deflection
It is all your fault!
So let me recap...
You let your child read pr0n magazines, and from there he orders things from the pr0n mag that you let him read, and yet your permissive access to pr0n is our fault. How old is your child and should we be worried enough about your parenting choices to call someone?
Re: So let me recap...
Probably upset about the money spent on pR0n when the supply was freely available from the local hedges........ (is hedge pR0n still a thing?)
Re: So let me recap...
Yes, but it comes on USB sticks.
"Ogden was the startup's first tech hire and after a few years on the job found himself leading a team comprising eight developers, a pair of sysadmins, an IT manager, and the customer support team"
I feel like this doesn't add up. Mainly because I remember those businesses selling ringtones, wallpapers etc. to people to tech-unsavvy to simply generate them themselves - and that business model seemed only to be a viable thing for about two years at the absolute outside.
Am I just remembering wrong? Were people really PAYING for low-resolution background images for their phones for "a few years"?
"Were people really PAYING for low-resolution background images for their phones for "a few years"?"
Not sure about low-resolution background images, but many people were certainly paying for custom ringtones for quite a while
Whatever you do, don't at this point remember Crazy Frog and have it as an earworm for the rest of the day.
Muhahahaha. You're welcome.
:-P
Oh Sir! You absolute rotter, Sir!
>>Whatever you do, don't at this point remember Crazy Frog and have it as an earworm for the rest of the day.
The only response here is to mention that you have reminded me about The Game... which I have therefore lost. And so have you.... and the rest of the people reading this post.
I hope you can sleep easliy with that atrocity on your mind.... no.... wait.....
Shame there isn't a troll beer icon... is it beer o'clock yet?
*Were people really PAYING for low-resolution background images for their phones for "a few years"?*
Yep, lasted for about 6/7 years between the first ones that could be bought and installed through WAP and the last ones that were sold and put on the phones through early 3G.
For the tech savvy : it lasted as long as GPRS and EDGE where the only option in town, once 3G came ( and the smartphone craze ) all those companies when the way of the Dodo or moved to Internet.
Were people really PAYING for low-resolution background images for their phones for "a few years"?
Yes, and I worked for a (now defunct) company specialising in early personalised 3D avatars where the VCs panicked, brought in someone to pivot the company to sell said low-res images of the custom, personalised, hi res 3D image as that's where the quick money was.
I'm slightly bemused that you felt it necessary to spell out 'not suitable for work' in full, then add the abbreviation.
Pretty sure no one who reads this column needs any introduction to that particular abbreviation.
Maybe you should take to spelling it out in full in all those headlines as well.
Clearly new company policy following a complaint
Someone followed the "Now Show Friends and Workmates" suggestion and his lawyers blame vultures for the consequences.
This is the correct method for using abbreviations. The first time it is written in full with the abbreviation in brackets afterwards, from then on you can just use the abbreviation.
This is correct grammar, something normally missing from news sites.
Less of a grammar and more of a style, I might suggest? Nonetheless, it's good to see it done properly!
It's not so much "a" style, but "the" style. Or, rather, all my style guides agree this is the way it should be handled.
"The caller had paid the bill, but wasn't happy."
I suspect the caller's unhappiness had more to do with the cost of his son's interest in les femmes déshabillées than the actual provision of the images of the same.
How NSFW could these images be without attracting the attention of the old bill? I suppose in the day Altavista wasn't as willing as Google &c is now to ante up such material (and I imagine much less hrmm... tasteful.)
Probably has a lot to do with the notorious prudery of the English - I can not imagine even at that time an eyebrow would have been raised in AU. Our second public broadcaster SBS used to televised on Friday nights a lot of Continental (EU) and Art films some of which could be an "education" in themselves.
This SBS was later responsible for my seeing "Madame Kovarian" sitting on a bed, starkers singing "Teddy Bears Picnic" to her companion in "Zed and Two Noughts" which was akin to "a paradigm shifting without a clutch. * " ;)
* [1]Cancelled
[1] https://dilbert-viewer.herokuapp.com/1995-08-25
> "Oh yes I know," the customer responded. "I have some of them on my coffee table."
Oh PLayboy, that seems a bit un-Mayfair...