One of the hats I wear is director of a regional IT support center. Site managers at our direct care facilities call us when they have a problem. If we cannot correct the problem locally (a rare occurrence to be sure, but it does happen occasionally :), it gets escalated to our HQ technical support staff.
Unfortunately, this department has been subject to several years of outsourcing. To give you an idea of what kind of "support" we get, here's a condensation of an e-mail dialogue that went on between one of my regional folks and an HQ support tech last week:
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HQ: Okay, I need to log in to the system to look ath the problem.
Regional: I have an account set up for you - access code is xxxxx, verify code is yyyyy. Just type 'zzzz' at the first login prompt to access the production system.
HQ: The first login prompt - the <systemid> prompt?
Regional: yes.
HQ: I tried 'yes' - doesn't work.
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Took me 15 minutes to get my regional tech settled down - she had the giggles so bad she was almost nonfunctional. Then I called the HQ tech support center director and related the dialogue to him. Took me 10 minutes to get him settled down.
I want a vacation. Now. | 
