Giving Instructions Over The 'Phone ISN'T Easy!
By Janey1966
@Janey1966 (24170)
Carlisle, England
January 8, 2012 7:14pm CST
I don't know about you but I can get quite worked up trying to give someone instructions on how to use something over the 'phone, especially when the person in question (Mum) lives 100 miles away and I have to "picture" the object in my head.
A case in point; the portable plug-in DAB/FM radio we bought Dad over Christmas. Now, Mum has a full-sized DAB radio but - unfortunately, it doesn't have FM and some stations are shared with different coverage of sports, for example on each station. Radio Lancashire is the one she wanted as the Blackpool game was on the FM frequency only..bearing in mind she has no computer either. Life would be so much easier if she had..I think!
Anyway, I tried picturing the radio in my head and the buttons that are on the front. I asked Mum what she was seeing when she plugged it in and she said,
"Screen showing the time."
It then took me a while to figure out why and then I told her to press the On switch at the bottom. This she did and the radio found channels itself and tuned in...on DAB rather than FM.
I told her to find the Stations button that would change the frequency from DAB to FM. This seemed to take an age but she got there. I also told her to lift the aerial up at the back of the radio in order to get the best reception.
Then it all went pear-shaped.
She got confused with the jog dial. This has to be moved round after pressing a function button. So, once the Stations button has been pressed, moving the jog dial enables a search. On DAB it's all done automatically but she wanted FM lol.
"It's not finding anything," Mum said, exasperated.
"Give it time..be patient."
"I can't be bothered with this. Can't do it. Forget it Jane. You listen to the Carlisle game."
- click -
Down went the telephone receiver.
Now, if I'd known she wanted to listen to FM radio a whole lot sooner (she rang me about 10 minutes before the game started) I could've gone through it in more detail. It was frustrating being 100 miles away and my Dad would be no good either as he probably couldn't hear me when I gave him a demo of it over Christmas!
He's getting his ears sorted in the morning..hopefully and Mum has calmed down from Saturday.
So have I.
Haha!
Anyway, I tried picturing the radio in my head and the buttons that are on the front. I asked Mum what she was seeing when she plugged it in and she said,
"Screen showing the time."
It then took me a while to figure out why and then I told her to press the On switch at the bottom. This she did and the radio found channels itself and tuned in...on DAB rather than FM.
I told her to find the Stations button that would change the frequency from DAB to FM. This seemed to take an age but she got there. I also told her to lift the aerial up at the back of the radio in order to get the best reception.
Then it all went pear-shaped.
She got confused with the jog dial. This has to be moved round after pressing a function button. So, once the Stations button has been pressed, moving the jog dial enables a search. On DAB it's all done automatically but she wanted FM lol.
"It's not finding anything," Mum said, exasperated.
"Give it time..be patient."
"I can't be bothered with this. Can't do it. Forget it Jane. You listen to the Carlisle game."
- click -
Down went the telephone receiver.
Now, if I'd known she wanted to listen to FM radio a whole lot sooner (she rang me about 10 minutes before the game started) I could've gone through it in more detail. It was frustrating being 100 miles away and my Dad would be no good either as he probably couldn't hear me when I gave him a demo of it over Christmas!
He's getting his ears sorted in the morning..hopefully and Mum has calmed down from Saturday.
So have I.
Haha!3 people like this
9 responses
@free_man (7330)
• United States
9 Jan 12
Hi Janey. I am the same way I can't give out instructions over the phone either. My mother in law called me one day and asked me our address and she couldn't understand what I was saying. Funny thing is she used to live just down the street from us and she couldn't remember her address.......LOL I finally got it clear to her, but the bad thing is my husband was asking me questions at the same time that I was talking to her........ I wanted to just give him the phone but he was driving and it is against the law here in our state.
1 person likes this
@free_man (7330)
• United States
9 Jan 12
I don't like using the phone anyway. When I call someone or they call me I want to say what I got to say and hear what they got to say but I want off the phone asap! I am not good at giving directions either. I mark where I am by land marks and think everyone should know what I am talking about........LOL
Right!
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
9 Jan 12
Hello! Haha, I love it, thanks for sharing that great story.
1 person likes this
@inertia4 (27960)
• United States
11 Jan 12
Tell me about it. I know how hard that is. And believe me, when I have to explain something to my mother in person it takes forever. Imagine having the item in your hands and the person sitting next to you and they still don't get it. That is more frustrating. At least on the phone it is basically a walk through and you can understand the frustration. But, next time you go visit your mother, make sure you show her and write the steps down on paper.
1 person likes this
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
11 Jan 12
Good idea!
It's good when Mum makes a joke on how she behaves at times. She once said, "Besides being blind I'm really, really stupid!"
'Nuff said!
By the way, regarding my Dad's ears...there has been an improvement in one but not the other after his syringing at the docs. This suggests to me that he's deaf in one ear and not both..but will he do anything about it I wonder?
Probably not!
It's good when Mum makes a joke on how she behaves at times. She once said, "Besides being blind I'm really, really stupid!"
'Nuff said!
By the way, regarding my Dad's ears...there has been an improvement in one but not the other after his syringing at the docs. This suggests to me that he's deaf in one ear and not both..but will he do anything about it I wonder?
Probably not!1 person likes this
@inertia4 (27960)
• United States
14 Jan 12
I highly doubt that your mother is stupid. What it is with our parents is that all this stuff is before their time. It is not easy for them to figure things out that we basically grew up learning. Thats good news about your father. I do hope he gets the other ear checked out further.
@webearn99 (1742)
• India
9 Jan 12
I'll say you are good at this. Why don't you join an on-line help system in tech support? My son used to do it for HP and yes, they were trained to visualize the PC/Laptop when solving problems for their long distance customers over phone.
1 person likes this
@webearn99 (1742)
• India
10 Jan 12
Well, there's this joke about Microsoft engineers on a road trip when their car breaks down and their solution to this was to close and re-open the windows (of the car).
The secret of tech support is that the solutions they give out is in their list. For problems beyond this list they simply ask the customer to send the system for repair. That is the reason why they hire entry level people for these jobs, train them how to handle "situations" rather than "problems".
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
9 Jan 12
That's kind of you to say so but, believe it or not, I'm not that technical (just the basics) so if someone were on the telephone that had more knowledge than me but was stuck on something..I'd have no idea how to help them.
Mind you, guys in IT (in offices) usually switch the computer on and off if they haven't got a clue what's up.
@bounce58 (17385)
• Canada
9 Jan 12
We just had a conference call with a customer here at work about an hour ago. It was about their part that we manufacture, but they want to implement a change. The part had many holes on it, and they want to take out one.
I couldn't believe how long we had to go through on figuring out which hole was going to be taken out. And after all of that (45mins or so), we ended up deciding sending a pdf drawing instead.
Some things don't translate well over the phone.
1 person likes this
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
10 Jan 12
My husband would identify with what you've said there as he works in the printing industry and sends work off to be approved after typing it all up, then it gets a proof done and printed out. He deals with pdfs on a daily basis.
@CTHanum (8234)
• Malaysia
9 Jan 12
It remind me of the day when one of my older sister called me and asked about some task which required her to do it by using Excel. I need to give the instruction through the phones and since she never use that application before so it's a bit hard for her to understand- my sister is not so into computer things~ her works does not need her to do it but when she got promoted she need at least know some basic skills about it.She screamed and yelled plus get mad to as she can;t get it not understand it...You know how I felt that time?? Never mind..she is already know how to do it now....(^^)1 person likes this
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
9 Jan 12
I really cannot stand Excel, probably because I don't understand it. Microsoft have this annoying habit of repeating things in drop-down menus..it's waay more complicated than it should be.
Microsoft have this annoying habit of repeating things in drop-down menus..it's waay more complicated than it should be.@CTHanum (8234)
• Malaysia
9 Jan 12
I just say and instruct her without my laptop in front of me so I just remember the icons and the program interface but then I gave up, turn on the laptop and open the application. A very step by step instruction given..but I admit it so hard to make her understand and get used with the features~(^^)
@changjiangzhibin89 (16784)
• China
9 Jan 12
It is difficult for old people to tune the hi-tech radio such as DAB radio.You gave instructions remotely over the 'phone,maybe the more you spoke, the more confused your Mum became.My Mum has a 10 bands radio that is not the type of digital audio broadcasting,but has FM in it.Each time when she wants to listen to it,I tune in on frequency she likes for her.
1 person likes this
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
9 Jan 12
It is difficult, I agree but Mum banging the phone down on me didn't help..we were nearly there.
@jwfarrimond (4473)
•
9 Jan 12
There's a lot to be said for simplicity! Sometimes I think that some things are made more complicated than they need to - not that I have any difficulty with technology! 
Sometimes I think that some things are made more complicated than they need to - not that I have any difficulty with technology! 1 person likes this
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
9 Jan 12
The problem with Mum is her eyesight but once her cataract is removed I reckon she'll be happier in herself. This is why I couldn't get mad with her as she's not stupid..just blind.
@derek_a (10873)
•
9 Jan 12
Yeh... Tell me about it Janey...
I have a friend who just coudn't get how to use his computer. I went to his house and we working through how to get on line and on to a web page. It was in the old dial-up days. Anyway, I get him all set up on downloading his e-mail into Outlook Express etc. etc. The next day he phones me and says that nothing will work.. He has gone on to a site he had signed up for - I can't remember which and he said it would not let him in.. He then asked what "logone" I really couldn't make out what he meant until I suddenly realized he was asking about "log on" I told him that he would have to put in his user name and password. He said he didn't have one, but had been working on the site before. I tell him he must have a password etc. because he was there the day before when I was with him. He then remembered that he had indeed signed in. So I tried to take him through the steps of signing in again. Everytime, the site told him he had the wrong password.. In the end I just went over to his house, and signed in first time.. He said it is difficult when all he can see what he is typing in the password box. He was obviously hitting the wrong keys but denying it. There were many many other incidents when my phone went, and never once could he get what I was saying and often had windows open that were nothing to do with what he was trying to do. It's very frustrating and sometimes the only relief I would get from such frustration was hysterical laughter at what he was trying to do.. _Derek
I have a friend who just coudn't get how to use his computer. I went to his house and we working through how to get on line and on to a web page. It was in the old dial-up days. Anyway, I get him all set up on downloading his e-mail into Outlook Express etc. etc. The next day he phones me and says that nothing will work.. He has gone on to a site he had signed up for - I can't remember which and he said it would not let him in.. He then asked what "logone" I really couldn't make out what he meant until I suddenly realized he was asking about "log on" I told him that he would have to put in his user name and password. He said he didn't have one, but had been working on the site before. I tell him he must have a password etc. because he was there the day before when I was with him. He then remembered that he had indeed signed in. So I tried to take him through the steps of signing in again. Everytime, the site told him he had the wrong password.. In the end I just went over to his house, and signed in first time.. He said it is difficult when all he can see what he is typing in the password box. He was obviously hitting the wrong keys but denying it. There were many many other incidents when my phone went, and never once could he get what I was saying and often had windows open that were nothing to do with what he was trying to do. It's very frustrating and sometimes the only relief I would get from such frustration was hysterical laughter at what he was trying to do.. _Derek1 person likes this
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
9 Jan 12
Oh dear. I think my Mum would be like him if she ever got round to buying a laptop!
@prinzcy (32305)
• Malaysia
23 Jan 12
It is hard. We're trying to show them something that would only take a minute if it's done face to face but may take an hour over the phone.
My aunt called me yesterday to ask about purchasing flight tickets online. Then she was asking about last digit codes, pin numbers, card number, and so on and on about the credit card and the website. I don't have a credit card on me but I could view the website, so I tried to answer her the best I could. In the end she still didn't understand anything and decided to go to the counter to purchase the tickets.
If I were online tech, I would definitely failed.
