AEP/PSO Spam Desk

I wanted to update anyone interested in the AEP Help Desk. Indie, to debrief you quickly, when we changed our phone number we soon realized that we had the same number of the AEP help desk. This was an internal help desk dealing primarily with technical problems of the employees. Employees would call us and ask if we were the help desk and we would say they have the wrong number. I wish I could say that we were responsible and called and informed them and the calls ceased. Alas, we did not. Probably because we didn't know who to call and explain, "We aren't the help desk." We needed the number to the help desk ourselves.
Anyway, I decided that we might start answering, "Help Desk." Caller ID helped out. I started learning a little about what the poor AEP employees were going through with pagers not working, trying to log in to the network while in the field, trying to file payments, etc. Well, they aren't calling anymore, for some reason. Maybe it's because someone who needed my help didn't get the kind of assistance they deserved. The last woman who called needed tech support to get customer payments into the system. They just weren't going in right. I answered, "Help Desk," in kind of a nasally, half-hearted manner. I told her the problem was "standard", "typical", and then asked, "Where are you located?" "Which server are you on?" It had to be obvious I didn't know what I was doing. One time, a guy in the "field", asked of rthe password. I told him everything was messed up and that I'd give him a temporary password: "7768". He said, "That'll work?" I said, "It should." Of course, that's a little too half-hearted for a guy in the "field". Poor guy. He said, "Well, what happens when I need to log on tomorrow?" "Well, if we're back up tomorrow, you'll have to call in again." "Uh, ok." Now, the lady who called last week didn't feel like I-- I forget the name I gave her but she wrote it down, I spelt it even-- was going to get the job done. I told her that the issue would be solved by the morning. I said that I was leaving soon but that the night shift would get on it and that they knew what to do. She said, "The night shift..." "Yeah, they already know the problem and I'll leave a note." "So you, ... , are saying that the Night shift will resolve the problem by the morning." "Well, it's not that big of a deal, just some links and addresses in the system, so it will probably be early evening." "Ok." Then she called again. I said, "Help Desk." She explained, slowly, amazed for some reason, her problem, and I said, "Didn't I just talk to you?" "Uh, yeah. So the night shift is going to fix it?" "Yeah. I gotta run. End of the day." "Ok, I, well, to be honest I didn't really beleave you." "Oh, that's weird." "Well it just sounded kinda fishy to me." "Well, we're kinda fishy down here at the help desk." "Hmm. Ok, well I'll wait until tomorrow."

It's nothing to be proud of. But we haven't had another call. I think it was as good as telling someone. Plus, it was a little fun too. Poor people. I was being the spam desk.