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Tech support survey reveals men need to read the manual

By Martin James

Posted on 9 Nov 2009 at 14:59

A survey has revealed that 64% of men don't bother consulting the manual before ringing tech support.

Tech-support service Gadget Helpline surveyed 75,000 callers to gain a better insight on how the sexes go about dealing with tech problems differently, and the results don't make pleasant reading – or at least, not for men.

The research, conducted over September and October, found that women are far more likely to approach problems logically, are less likely to have made a basic error and are more patient when they do ask for help.

According to the survey, 64% of male callers confessed to not having read the manual before ringing for help, compared with just 24% of women.

This is particularly damning when set beside the finding that for 12% of men (versus 7% of women), the 'problem' was simply that the appliance in question wasn't plugged in or switched on.

Perhaps that would explain why the average call length for women was 32% longer than for men. But for helpline staff, short doesn't seem to be sweet, with 66% of helpline staff preferring speaking to women callers.

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User comments

What utta Rubb

Rubbish,
All surveys are rubbish including this one for reasons listed:
People lie on surveys, many people don't waste there time doing surveys,people phone help-desk on behalf of someone else,survey questions are often bias, samples of surveys wont always be a fair sample of the average UK age group, product set-up was not any different to another older product, what about the people who did not need the help-desk?, faulty product batch's, scripted India call centres that annoy a particular group of people are used.

The list of variables that affect surveys is enormous. Hence surveys are pointless.
Just a gimmick to sell news papers, or to fill gaps on slow news days.ish.

By Tibbs on 9 Nov 2009

60% of Surveys are made up

And yes, I made that survey up too. I asked Me, Myself and I and we all agreed it was rubbish.

Most survey data is worthless and compiled to justify the employment or education of someone, rather than to make any genuine scientific advancement.

All this proves is that you can interpret or misinterpret data any way you want.

Working in a support capacity in the IT industry I find stupidity, rudeness and refusal to learn mixed equally with common sense, politeness and earnest endevour on the part of BOTH genders.

THAT survey has taken place for close to 20 years, so my data is far more accurate than some slef-appointed think-tank's lunchtime phone around!

By cheysuli on 9 Nov 2009

Nonsense

No REAL man would ever call a helpline!

:) :) :)

By Bassey1976 on 10 Nov 2009

Nonsence

No REAL man would ever read a manual!

:):):)

By darkhairedlord on 10 Nov 2009

Wh@ utter balder -

It seems like just another men vs. women kind of survey. I know some women who cannot be bothered to read the manuals. They get annoyed when the item doesn't work the way they thought it should, and then think 'bl***y technology!'

By johnshop1 on 11 Nov 2009

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