Techtosterone?

*awesome techno-woman link of the day*
GenderIT

My Rant about My Lappy: The Lappia Beta Coupe

I hate Vista, just like everyone else in the world. Absolutely hate it with a fiery passion but I usually enjoy that it gives me just a little bit more information and control than either Mac or XP does. There is, however, a problem with giving me this control. I don't know enough about Vista or computers in general to be able to really successfully fix anything. I just know enough to royally fuck them up. It's kind of amazing. In the first two months I had this computer I had to wipe it and completely re-install Vista at least TWICE.

Today I was given the ultimate insult. I was shown the BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH. I didn't even have time to read the text on the screen so I have no idea what happened to trigger the dreaded BSoD. Based on my wholly uninformed opinion I'd say registry errors of a rather Hardcore kind. We're talking XXX registry errors. Not that I know what a registry error really is, but still.

The point of all this is: I need to get my computer fixed but there's a small problem. I don't agree with the way technical support is done. I've worked in Technical Support and customer service with Apple computers before and consistently encounter two problems.

1. Most people prefer to work with technical support agents who are men because they feel that men are more adept at mechanical things and logic and will therefore fix your computer faster.
   
   My main argument against this is that, as a woman, I achieved the highest customer service satisfaction rating of anyone, man or woman, in my department and it wasn't just about talking people down and keeping them happy either. I managed to resolve technical problems 94% of the time so I knew what I was doing. Why then, was I often treated like I didn't know what I was doing?
   
   
2. This question brings me to my second point which is that a majority of technical support agents are males and inherently treat female customers as slightly inferior and assume they don't know what they're doing. I expect some people to argue that I'm biased and have no basis for this opinion. On the contrary, I worked full time on the floor of my call center and as my customer satisfaction was so high I was asked to help train other employees in how to improve their customer service satisfaction. The single biggest problem I identified was a lack of respect for the customer especially in the cases of male support agents and female customers.
   
   Is it wrong to have to explain to a customer service agent that they work for the customer regardless of age, sex, location, religion, or supposed intelligence?
   Because it should be.
   

I want my computer to work but I don't want to have to fight with the people who fix it. Maybe I'll just buy a new one. Again.