Did you know that I work on a help desk? That's right, for a couple of hours each day, I answer the phone, addressing issues people have with our software. Many times, I have to address other issues these people have as well, such as insecurity, misdirected hostility, laziness, etc.

A couple of tips to keep in mind before calling the help desk in question:

* do NOT try so hard to fix the problem yourself that by the time you call you are frustrated, angry and ready to take someone's head off.
--- Remember, although you've been looking at this for hours, they are looking at it for the first time.
--- And although you think you might have gone through all the steps needed to troubleshoot the problem, they do this sort of thing ALL THE TIME, so just answer the questions they ask.
--- Also, while you've been getting yourself all worked up, it's possible that they've had the answer all along.

* with that in mind, it does warm a help desk person's heart if you show that you made SOME effort to resolve the issue yourself. Even if you haven't Read The Fucking Manual, tell them you tried and couldn't find the relevant info. They'll bend over backwards to help you out.

* Read The Fucking Manual. Very often, the help desk personnel work very hard to make even more information available in the form of FAQs and tutorials. Just look over them, you might find all sorts of information you didn't know you didn't know.

* the old saying that you can catch more flies with honey than with ... something bitter, or whatever, is certainly true here. If you're nice to the help desk person (see tip #1), even if you're an idiot or keep asking dumb questions, they will be nice to you. If you start out being a jerk, don't expect extra help. They'll do as much as is required and no more.

I'm sure there's more, but this is all I've had to deal with since I started answering phones about an hour ago. Tears, frustration, questions easily answered in the documentation ... all before they even picked up the phone. Folks, it's just not worth it. Really.