Apparently Ganny calls the Dish Network people when she accidentally pushes the wrong button on her multi-function remote and can’t get back to the screen she recognizes. She is under the impression that something is wrong with the cable when this happens and is oblivious to the reality that her predicament is a result of user error. I realized this today when I visited her apartment and the cable guy arrived. She complains periodically about her TV doing this and that, but she always seems to find her way back to Bonanza somehow. I was not aware that she was having the cable company send someone out to give her lessons on how to use the remote control.
The man in question was nice enough, so pleasant in fact, that I suspect he must visit her retirement apartment center often for similar calls – God bless him.“Well it just went off and it said all this stuff all over ever-where and it kept telling me to push ‘select’ and I did but it wouldn’t do anything,” she blurted out.How can I help this guy, I thought. Surprisingly, he seemed to be able to make sense of her convoluted complaint and made the screen saver appear: a black screen with a red logo in the top corner, and messages scrolling across promoting additional services you can request. It also includes a large message on the bottom that says “Push ‘select’ to return.” Well good, I thought, at least she got that far.“Is this the screen you saw?” he asked politely.“Yeah, but I pushed ‘select’ and it didn’t do nothin’,” she reiterated.“You might need to push this button,” he said, and he pointed to the ‘satellite’ button at the top of the remote, “to make sure you’re in the right mode.”Hmm. Mode, I thought. That’ll throw her.After modeling this procedure, the black screen disappeared and the TV show returned.“I did that and it didn’t do nothin’,” she repeated. “Why did it just go off like that?”He explained to her that the screen saver comes on when the TV has been on the same channel for several hours.“Well what if I want it on the same channel all day?” she asked defiantly, as if this trivial default action somehow violates her civil rights.“It’s okay Gan, you just have to tell the TV that. It doesn’t know that you haven’t forgotten,” I assured her in attempt to calm the frustration that was building. As mentioned in previous posts, losing her temper is not unusual when dealing with these types of situations and I really didn’t want see another innocent man trying to do his job fall victim to her irrational behavior today.“Well…” and she mumbled something incoherent. “So what do I do again?”The saint that is the cable guy walked her through the two-button process again. “Push this button here – ‘satellite’, then push ‘select’.”This time however she accepted it as if it had not been explained before. “Oh, okay. I’ll just do that,” she said and nodded. I was both annoyed and relieved: obviously relieved that this interaction was coming to a close, but annoyed that he said THE EXACT SAME THING 90 SECONDS AGO and it wasn’t sufficient for her then.
The man in question was nice enough, so pleasant in fact, that I suspect he must visit her retirement apartment center often for similar calls – God bless him.“Well it just went off and it said all this stuff all over ever-where and it kept telling me to push ‘select’ and I did but it wouldn’t do anything,” she blurted out.How can I help this guy, I thought. Surprisingly, he seemed to be able to make sense of her convoluted complaint and made the screen saver appear: a black screen with a red logo in the top corner, and messages scrolling across promoting additional services you can request. It also includes a large message on the bottom that says “Push ‘select’ to return.” Well good, I thought, at least she got that far.“Is this the screen you saw?” he asked politely.“Yeah, but I pushed ‘select’ and it didn’t do nothin’,” she reiterated.“You might need to push this button,” he said, and he pointed to the ‘satellite’ button at the top of the remote, “to make sure you’re in the right mode.”Hmm. Mode, I thought. That’ll throw her.After modeling this procedure, the black screen disappeared and the TV show returned.“I did that and it didn’t do nothin’,” she repeated. “Why did it just go off like that?”He explained to her that the screen saver comes on when the TV has been on the same channel for several hours.“Well what if I want it on the same channel all day?” she asked defiantly, as if this trivial default action somehow violates her civil rights.“It’s okay Gan, you just have to tell the TV that. It doesn’t know that you haven’t forgotten,” I assured her in attempt to calm the frustration that was building. As mentioned in previous posts, losing her temper is not unusual when dealing with these types of situations and I really didn’t want see another innocent man trying to do his job fall victim to her irrational behavior today.“Well…” and she mumbled something incoherent. “So what do I do again?”The saint that is the cable guy walked her through the two-button process again. “Push this button here – ‘satellite’, then push ‘select’.”This time however she accepted it as if it had not been explained before. “Oh, okay. I’ll just do that,” she said and nodded. I was both annoyed and relieved: obviously relieved that this interaction was coming to a close, but annoyed that he said THE EXACT SAME THING 90 SECONDS AGO and it wasn’t sufficient for her then.
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