Alpha, Bravo, Charlie. Do You Copy?

Anyone care to know how many times in the past 2 months since I got my new computer that I’ve had to call the HP helpdesk?? FOUR! I’m starting to think I’ve purchased a lemon of a computer. That frustration aside, at least it has provided for some “amusing” times on the phone with various people all over the world. On the first conversation with the helpdesk, I talked with a lady in the Philippines, but the problem was more than she could handle so we had to conference call a guy in India. That was pretty cool. Except I was on the phone for a total of FOUR HOURS. The third time I called I got a guy in Hyderbad, India. I tried to make conversation with him about India, but he was not interested at all. And he laughed at the problem I was calling for. So we really got off on the wrong foot. And THEN he spurned my use of my own version of the military alphabet when giving him my product key and serial number. Helpdesk guy: “What is your product key and serial number?” Me: “F as in father, E as in egg, 8, 9, 9, A as in apple, V as in victor.” Helpdesk guy: “Ok that is F as in foxtrot, E as in echo, 8, 9, 9, A as in alpha, V as in victor. Is that correct?” Me [laughingly thinking ‘well I got one right’]: “Yes. And my serial number is C as in cat, N as in nancy, D as in dog…” Helpdesk guy [cutting me off]: “You can just read the number. I can understand your accent just fine.” Me [a little hurt and embarrassed that he wasn’t impressed with the use of my makeshift military alphabet]: “OK. Fine. It’s CND9351E94.” Lesson learned: Don’t try to be helpful unless asked, ESPECIALLY when cultural differences and language differences are involved. I probably insulted the poor guy with my pathetic attempts to make sure he understood what I was saying. Good lesson to learn as I will probably soon be on his end of the equation... Just in case you need to study up before calling your computer helpdesk, or maybe you're just curious, here is a link to the military phonetic alphabet: http://usmilitary.about.com/od/theorderlyroom/a/alphabet.htm