Punters, givers and formatters. Tech support staff earn these colorful nicknames based on their approach to meeting an "average call time" goal of 12 minutes.

On the other hand, if your goal is to get your computer problem resolved you may be entertained (alarmed?) by reading this Salon article (viewing of small ad required) that explores life in the tech support trenches. The entertaining and scary story provides an insider's view of what happens when you call the customer support number for one of the "world's top 3 computer manufacturers". Much like the making of sausage and laws, this isn't a pretty picture. Unfortunately, the article doesn't conclude with any techniques for getting better service. However, awareness of the techniques one is likely to encounter when calling customer support can only be a good thing.