Today, I got a call from a very polite young man who claimed to be from Microsoft.
“Hello, sir. My name is Gupta, and I’m calling from Microsoft. We’ve detected a serious problem with your computer. It could be catastrophic for your data and online banking, but fortunately, I can fix it for you.”
“Oh, that sounds worrying,” I said.
Then I paused.
“The only problem is… I don’t actually have a computer.”
Silence.
“Uh… then it must be your laptop, sir?”
“Nope. Don’t have one of those either, Gupta.”
Another pause.
“An iPad? Maybe a tablet?”
“Nope. None of those.”
There was now a very long and uncomfortable silence.
Then I added casually,
“Actually, Gupta… I don’t even have a telephone.”
Dead silence.
I could almost hear his brain rebooting.
Finally, he snapped:
“Sir… now you are lying to me!”
I smiled.
“Well, Gupta… you started it!”
Click.
And just like that, Microsoft’s newest technical support case was successfully closed.
