Here’s a very interesting article about what goes on behind the scenes at tech support for a major computer company.
Quick summary: The agents (who have little training on how to actually fix computer problems) are trained to keep their average call time below 12 minutes, and are rewarded for keeping their call time as low as possible, not for solving customer problems. The agents use a variety of tactics to keep their call length low, but one stands out: “We don’t support that”. They only have to support computers that are in their “original condition”, so technically if you do anything at all, like say registering your computer when you first turn it on, your computer is no longer in it’s original condition, and they can hang up on you. Very scary.
Source: /.