[gumby]

I hear the know it all customer is the worst.

I once had a problem with my laptop, which was a problem with the drive. I pulled it out and duplicated the problem on a different laptop, so I needed to get a replacement. I kept mum and went through all the steps I was instructed to (reboot with this or that key held down, etc) until finally support said “well sorry, we’ll have send you a box for you to send back the laptop”. It would have been useless and annoying to the person on the other end of the phone to dry to skip all that. Like doctors, they must deal with a lot of people who studied at the university of Google and think they know it all.

I have a few times sent in bug reports on software I had previously worked on myself. Again, just file it like any other bug. Usually the bug just gets fixed (or not) but I did once get mail from a former colleague who said he was assigned my bug and how the hell was I? Sadly he also told me, “we aren’t going to fix it.” :-/

Of course most of the time I don't know any more than the next schlub. Otherwise I wouldn't have called.

[freedomben]

I'm at a point where I just treat the front-line CS person like a fellow engineer and tell them exactly what's wrong, and why I know that.

I've actually had pretty good success with this strategy, though it really depends on the company. Framework laptops and system76 for example were both phenomenal with this approach. The first reply I got from them was either an engineer or someone who talked to one, or someone very experienced in CS who would be a good candidate for engineering.

Worst case if the CS person has no idea what I'm talking about, then we start from scratch but at least they know I'm not a dumbass they can BS :-)

[gumby]

Most of them have to walk through a decision tree in response to their computer and don’t know about the domain anyway, so I don’t want to waste their time.