Bizarre Questions

With my business partner we run a hosting company, as most regular readers know.
We offer a range of internet related services including hosting, domain registration and the like.
(This is not an advert – it’s more of an explanation)
Over the past few years we have taken (and made) a lot of phonecalls – 9 out of our 10 fulltime staff spend a good part of their day on the phone.
While some of the conversations may amuse hardcore geeks, others are simply bizarre.
About two years ago I got a phonecall in the afternoon. It was a gentleman’s voice with a rather strong regional accent. After doing the obligatory “Good afternoon Blacknight” I couldn’t have possibly been prepared for his question:
“Where can I get a combine harvester?”
Naturally I presumed that he’d got a wrong number, so I tried to explain who we were…
Bad idea!
“You’re an internet company?”
“Yes”
“So where can I get a combine harvester online?”
“I don’t know. Have you tried looking at the Golden Pages?”
“I already did. That’s how I got your number”
At this point I wasn’t sure if it was someone pulling my leg or a seriously confused gentleman, so I gently suggested that he try to search on Google and assured him that we couldn’t be of any further assistance.
A few weeks ago one of our staff got an even odder phonecall:
“Good morning, Blacknight. How can I help you?”
“Do you sell bras?”
“Sorry?”
“Do you sell bras? You know… ladies underwear..”
“Em … No. We’re a hosting company”
“But do you sell bras?”
She somehow managed to gently extricate herself from the call ….
People ask the oddest questions ……

By Michele Neylon

Michele is founder and CEO of Irish hosting provider and domain name registrar Blacknight.

9 comments

  1. Why not branch out? There seems to be market demand. 🙂 “Ok so your account has PHP, ASP and JSP. Oh, and you also get this attractive push up bra.”

  2. 🙂 if someone asked me for a random object I’d just buy it and resell it at a profit. Hey that BMW isin’t going to buy itself. (although since the advent of WEEE reselling electrical products is dicey)

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