i don't know what it is about computers that causes otherwise-rational people to become utterly helpless. even people who [claim to] have technical backgrounds seem to lose all logical reasoning when they sit down at a computer.

have a few examples, all just from my past two weeks at work.

example 1:

customer: "so i got a response back from my trouble ticket saying i need to reprovision (transl: request a full reformat/reinstall) my server. why is that?"
me: <after looking up data> "it appears there was some corruption on the server, and our support team cannot proceed with the software install you requested. as there is nothing currently installed on the server, you will need to reprovision it before we can proceed."
customer: "i don't understand why i need to reprovision."
me: "because something has become corrupted on the server and we cannot proceed with the software install you requested."
customer: "why is it corrupted? i'm losing money."
me: "...but you just told me that it isn't set up yet."
customer: "i'm losing money and wasting time running this server that doesn't even work right."
me: "and you won't stop losing money until you click the reprovision button."

example 2:

customer: "i'm resetting my password now... <pause> it says 'validation error'."
coworker: "does it say anything else?"
customer: "um... yeah. <5 seconds of dead silence> 'passwords entered do not match'."
coworker: <10 seconds of dead silence>
customer: "should i try putting those in again?"
coworker: "that would be a good place to start."

example 3:

customer: "why is my website down?"
me: "let me take a look. <pause while i investigate> it appears that our billing system attempted to renew your services, but for some reason it was unable to process the payment on this. the service has been canceled. i can take a payment on this and restore service for you, if you like."
customer: "i paid for two years of service. you can't just cancel in the middle!"
me: "sir, you paid for two years of service on your other hosting account, not on this one. that one is still active for another 22 months."
customer: "why didn't you tell me you were going to cancel this?"
me: <referencing system notes about failed billing events> "we emailed you renewal reminders on <list of dates>, as well as <x> notices that the billing failed. these would have gone to <email address on account>."
customer: "i don't check that account anymore! why do you have that email on file? why didn't you update that to my new one?"
me: "...because you did not ask us to, sir."

in a way, i hate these people even more than the assholes who try to blame their lack of knowledge on us, or who try to force us to support their custom code, or who make wild (incorrect) assumptions about what they can or cannot do with our services. though i think the people i hate the most are the ones who feel that they need to read me an entire paragraph of error code -- and will not stop until they've completed. in the same category are the ones who read off the numeric/hex code, and not the code text.

example 4:

customer: "i'm getting error 08562802 in outlook when trying to connect to your server. <expectant pause>"
me: "...there are thousands of numbers, sir, this particular one means nothing to me. i need the error text."
customer: "i didn't write that down."
me: *sigh*

why, yes. i am the msdn error code library, and i can instantly grok meaning for this number.

example 5:

customer: "it says, 'unable to open ftp connection: unable to contact server...'"
me: "alright, what that mea--"
customer: "possible causes: 1. the server may be typed incorre--"
me: "i don't need that, what we need to do is--"
customer: "--ctly, or unavailable. 2. <...>"
me: *sigh*

in case some of you are wondering why I'm often so grumpy please understand that the above examples comprise wholly 50% of my work day.