Tales of the Clueless

Dean’s co-workers are incredibly clueless about computers in general and the internet in particular. One day Dean cut an ad for a local restaurant and the salesperson wanted him to e-mail it to the client. He left this e-mail address on the production form: RestaurantName.com. So Dean asked the salesperson for the whole e-mail address.

Salesperson: “That’s the address, right there. RestaurantName.com.”

Dean: “That’s just their website. I need the whole address.”

Salesperson: “Just send it to that address.”

Dean: “I can’t. That’s not an address.”

Salesperson: “I don’t know why you won’t send it to that address.”

Dean: "This isn’t an address. It doesn’t have the first part. You know, the ‘someone@’ part.”

Salesperson: “I don’t know about any someone-at part. Just send it to this address.”

Round and round they went. Dean finally asked the salesperson, “Okay, what’s your e-mail address?”

Salesperson: “CompanyName.com.”

Dean: “No, that’s just the domain. Your e-mail address has the ‘someone@’ part in front of it.”

Salesperson: “Huh? I don’t know what you mean. That’s my e-mail address.”

This salesperson had been complaining lately that he wasn’t getting things he had asked people to e-mail him. No doubt because he’s been giving his e-mail address as just “CompanyName.com.”

Dean gave up, went to the restaurant’s website, checked the “contact us” section, found an e-mail address that he recognized as the owner’s nickname, and sent him the spot.

He then made a heroic effort to explain to the salesperson that his e-mail address was actually FirstName@CompanyName.com. To no avail. The salesperson was having none of this silly ‘someone-at’ business. He’s still giving out his e-mail address as CompanyName.com. And still complaining that he’s not getting his e-mail.