^after a couple of years dealing with end-users I lost most all of my patience.
Getting an accurate description of what did happen or what was happening is next to impossible. I have always used the method of "Do this, now what do you see?" Oh, OK, do that, NOW what do you see?"
No offense to end users, but whenever they have problems their descriptions can be less than helpful without step by step guidance and the strict adherence to the "NO Interpretation" rule. I am sure BB would have been more than happy with a PC that worked without regard to why it didn't if he had got all his data back
I am equally sure any explanation of what happened would whistle in the left and straight out the right ear without sticking to a single brain cell.
I much preferred the completely uninitiated to them fuckin PC magazine readers that would come to work and try the latest Whiz-bang utility or super config setting on their work PC that I had spent months designing for reliability and proper integration into a COE with 1000's of users to keep running. Them fuckers would lose any "personal data" and get brand-spanking new image loaded on their machine.
I think working in a shop where the public came in for repair or trouble-shooting would drive me fuckin' nuts. They're "Customers?" You gotta be "nice??" Fuck that.
Typical conversation,
Dim-witted dude: "that computer yuo setup for me doesn't work"
me: "What doesn't work?"
DWD: "Nothin"
ME: "Does it boot up?"
DWD: "Yes"
ME: "Can you surf the web?"
DWD: "yes"
ME: "Ok, again, WHAT DOESN'T WORK?"
DWD: "I can't hear my music"
ME: "OK what did you change?"
DWD: "Nothin"
Me: "... Did anyone else change anything?"
DWD: "well my buddy came over and installed this really cool music download thingy and CD burner all in one"
Me: "Then why don;t you call you buddy?"
DWD: "AH, he don't know; he doesn't know shit about computers"
ME: "..."