Tech Support to the Stars

Carl Bialik writes "The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Prince, Snoop Dogg, Ludacris, Bon Jovi, and U2 all have used technical support when on the road, when their Wi-Fi or Xbox or Sidekick needs servicing. The Journal takes a look at the lives of the essential, if overlooked, members of the entourage, the support tech. Joshua Kapellen, of Best Buy's Geek Squad, has been on the road with U2 since 2004. From the article: 'Last March, lead singer Bono needed his Xbox connected while the band rehearsed in Canada. Mr. Kapellen got a call. He hooked up the contraption and a few minutes later was playing videogames with Bono. "It was one of the coolest things that has ever happened to me," says Mr. Kapellen.'"

Comments

Whoa

[Airconditioning]

It's bad enough having good natured people on the other end of the phone line, can you imagine what it would be like with a total ego-maniac? For sanity's sake son, run like hell.

Re:Whoa

[bheer]

Ask anyone in IT who's dealt with top management-- I'm pretty sure they get a lot of practice dealing with egomaniacs :-)

Re:Whoa

[CyricZ]

I had one acquaintance who had taken a temporary job as a tech support technician. When he got calls from people like that, he'd apparently just insert words like "penis" and "assrape" into their conversations. He didn't care if he got fired, and considering the low quality of the firm he was with, the issue never even came up.

He said that saying such things would confuse the hell out of the callers, and their confusion would quickly override their arrogance and anger.

Re:Whoa

[ZiakII]

Ask anyone in IT who's dealt with top management-- I'm pretty sure they get a lot of practice dealing with egomaniacs :-)

You think thats bad.. try being IT in the USMC and dealing with officers. I hurried to find what was so wrong with the Comanding Officer's computer after he demanded someone come right now and look at it, to find out he wanted to change the paperclip to a dog. (sigh)

Can somebody please explain...

[Anonymous Coward]

Why on earth anybody, anywhere, in the history of the world, would ever care enough about this to utter "mrh?", let alone write a news story about it?

In other news: celebs are human!
In other news: celebs take dumps!
In other news: celebs eat food!
In other news: celebs breath air!
In other news: celebs use tech support!

Re:Can somebody please explain...

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Yes, but celebs also usually take dumps on golden toilet seats, eat better food that you can afford, breath fresher air than you breathe in your normal non-rich neighborhood, and therefore it was logical that they have their personal technician whenever they want to plug something.

The point you missed is, the story is interesting because it turns out some celebs rely on the regular tech support channels the rest of us use / have to put up with.

Re:Can somebody please explain...

[K8Fan]

Maybe he was trying to hook an X-Box to an HDTV? He'd have to get the X-Box in HD resolution, make sure the HD set was configured correctly, make sure he had the right cables and adaptors, and was hooked to the right input. Even something as simple as a component input has two varients YPbPr and YBbCr. Or this could have been a European TV and he needed a SCART adaptor. Or the TV only had an HDMI input - or a VGA - or a DVI.

Whatever. This job can be complicated even for those of us who have been doing this since the 1970s.

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Prince, eh? That Sounds Fun.

[Mad Martigan]

Reminds me of an anecdote from An Evening with Kevin Smith where he talks about dealing with one of Prince's handlers while he (Kevin Smith) was making a documentary for Prince:

She's like, "Prince doesn't comprehend things the way you and I do."

I was like, "What do you mean?"

She was like, "Well ... Prince has been living in Prince World for quite some time now." She's like, "So Prince will come to us periodically and say things like: 'It's 3 in the morning in Minnesota. I really need a camel. Go get it.'

And then we try to explain to Prince, like: 'Prince, it's 3:00 in the morning in Minnesota, it's January ... and you want a camel. That is not physically or psychologically possible.'

And Prince says, 'Why?"'

I'm like, "Is he an asshole?"

She's like, "He's not malicious when he does it. He just doesn't understand why he can't get what he wants. He doesn't understand why someone can't process a request ... like a camel at 3 in the morning in Minnesota."

I was like, "That's not my problem. I can't do what he wants. I don't know what to do."

She said, "You'd be doing me a huge favor if you tell him that."

I was like, "All right, I'll tell him."

I'm not sure I'd want to be doing tech support for this guy.

Re:Prince, eh? That Sounds Fun.

[sakusha]

Oh yeah, I've been on the receiving end of that sort of request. I used to work in a high-end service bureau, one of my jobs was doing Iris inkjet proofs. We had the fastest Iris RIP in town, a MacIIfx, and were known for our ability to turn out rush jobs quickly.
One day a frantic designer from Warner Brothers Music comes in, he wants a rush Iris print. I said no problem, I can drop everything in the queue and set up your job immediately, for only 2x the usual rate (our standard rush-drop-everything rate). I sit down with the client at the workstation and open up the Quark XPress file, it's the new CD cover for Prince's "Diamonds and Pearls." But it is totally fucked up. The designer has done everything possible that will take forever to rasterize and print, I can immediately see that this job is going to take at least 90 minutes just to RIP. The designer totally loses it, he says, "but.. but.. I have to get a print done and back to my office before Prince gets there to see it, I need it in the next 15 minutes, Prince is already in a limo on his way to my office! Money is no object, can't you get 5 or 6 people to work on it and get it done sooner?" I wasn't in the mood to explain the Mythical Man-month to him, I said, "look, we've only got one Iris printer and one RIP, but even if I had 6 of them, they don't work cooperatively, we would still only get your first print in 90 minutes, not 1 print in 15 minutes. You really should have gotten this job to us sooner if you wanted a print sooner. This job is going to take exactly as long as it takes, and no less. If you'd set this job up properly, it could complete in 20 minutes, and we go to a lot of work to educate our customers to prepare jobs to run efficiently, so if you'd like, I can explain that to you while we wait for your job to finish."
The designer broke down into tears, and ran out of my office and left the building. I decided to complete the job (there was nothing else really urgent in the queue, it could run unattended while I did other jobs), and about 2 hours later it was done (my estimate was a little low). I called the designer at Warner's but nobody could find him, I eventually spoke to his manager. He said Prince was still in the building and was ready to review the proof, so I had it sent over by my fastest, craziest motorcycle courier. I called the manager later to insure the proof was delivered promptly, he said Prince saw it and loved it. However, I noticed that the CD cover that was released for sale was a completely different design. Sheesh!

Bono Uses Celebrity For Good

[Mad Martigan]

I bet that there were strings attached when Bono played Xbox with that guy:

Bono: It'd be pretty cool if you could play this with me, right?
Kapellen: Yeah.
Bono: Alright, then we'll play -- but you have to promise to cure AIDS as soon as we're done.
Kapellen: (mulls it over for a minute) Yeah, okay.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is a socially constructive application of the power of celebrity. I bet that Kapellen guy is half way to a bachelor's degree in Biology by now.

What is the story?

[comp.sci]

I am sorry, but defining a few minutes with a celebrity as one of the best times in your life is just pathetic. Stop living off other peoples' lives. The tech support probably required more brains and talent than most celebrities have...
Some celebrities do good things, but most "ordinary" people do way more useful things. When is the last time you described spending time with someone like a doctor or nurse as an amazing time? To me, they are way more important people than any celebrity.

WTFC

[AlterTick]

He hooked up the contraption and a few minutes later was playing videogames with Bono. "It was one of the coolest things that has ever happened to me," says Mr. Kapellen.'"

Seriously, what's people's thing with celebrities? What, exactly, lends a higher level of "cooleness" to playing a video game with a celebrity? Is there something about the way an over-the-hill rocker says "bastard!" when you steal the ball in NBA 2K6 that's significantly better than the way your friends do? Is there something about being in the presence of giant egos that makes the mundane feel exceptional? I end up working for a lot of film and TV people at work and frankly, if it wasn't for the fact that they pay well (and reliably), I wouldn't work for most of them. In fact, we won't work for Nicholas Cage again because he's an annoying nutcase. Maybe it's just my proximity to them that lets me see what bratty, childish gasbags most of them are. Do people in "flyover country" really go this ga-ga over these folks?

Stars are easy

[joel8x]

I used to work at the studios for a major TV station in NYC and I'll tell you, the "talent" are easygoing and are easy to deal with. Its the over-eager assistants that will drive you insane. I believe that the people right under someone "important" (including people right under executives) make dealing with the "stars" a lot more headache-inducing than it needs to be.

Re:Is there a way...

[Firehed]

I suppose... they made it way too difficult to hook up apparently, if celebs aren't smart enough to match up damned colors. We all know celebs are the real brains of America (and elsewhere), so if it's too difficult for them, MS really need to rethink their TV-attaching methods. Then again, I think Bono does have something wrong with one of his eyes, so there's a semi-acceptable excuse.

Oh, that's why we created HDMI... just one plug, only goes in one way. But you know someone's going to try and force it in backwards and then complain that it won't work.

Right...

[Comatose51]

Geek Squad, which was sold to Best Buy in 2002, now has nearly 12,000 employees. Technicians like Mr. Kapellen are paid about $32,000 a year, the industry average for computer technicians, according to the Association of Support Professionals.

"Let's face it, computer repairmen are at the bottom of the food chain," Mr. Stephens says, but these glamorous job opportunities "give hope to every geek out there."

Right... Any geek with an ounce of brain would realize that the slim chance of "glamor" does not justify the low pay. Let's pretend that 100 celebs go to the Geek Squad. The chances of being one of those servicing a celeb is still less than 1%. And how much is the chance of playing the XBox with Bono worth? No thanks. I'll take a 6 figure salary and no chance of working for a celeb. It's kind of sad when the coolest thing to happen to Kapellen is playing XBox with Bono. Are geeks that desperate for recognition and popularity?!? Sorry Mr. Stephens "these glamorous job opportunities" does not give this geek any hope. Working for a cool tech company or doing cool research might.

Re:*One of* the coolest things...

[0racle]

No its not. And this is not one of the coolest things.

This guy is at the beck and call of people to plug their consoles in, how is that glamorous or cool.

Re:Wow

[aussie_a]

I can imagine it now.

The pharmacist for the stars!

The pharmacist says "yeah I've served Snoop Dogg before. One time, he asked me to get him some medication for the runs, I got a cream, and we just sat and talked while he applied it to himself. Then I applied it to myself. I didn't have the runs, but I wanted to get the most out of the experience. It was the coolest thing I've ever had happen to me."

Misleading title?

[mj_sklar]

Am I the only one who read the title to this article and though this would be about space and tech support? I was thoroughly dissapointed when it turned out to be just about Bono having to call someone to plug in an X-Box...

Getting paid for support the *stars*

[MissionAccomplished]

I've had the 'pleasure' of providing technical support to several high-profile personalities. In some cases, I dealt with an assistant and in others, with the actual 'star'. In both scenarios, I was promised payment by submitting an invoice to the appropriate person or agency. Good luck trying to collect on those invoices; while I billed at an hourly rate that I would any other client, it has been close to impossible to collect payment. I'm tempted to chalk it up to typical 'star' arrogance, but I'm just plain pissed that they feel they deserve free services simply because they are well known. If they asked for a favor, I would have done so, but in every case, I was promised payment. You just gotta wonder...

Re:Is there a way...

[Comatose51]

I will laugh so hard when one of these celebs have to call the Geek Squad because he/she gets locked out by the DRM on his/her own songs, movies, etc.

Big fish, Little Pond, Lots of mud..

[guildsolutions]

for the time I spent working tech support at a college, all I know is that some of the faculty teaching computers was more computer illiterate than a lot of the students. All the faculty knew how to do was teach from a book, nothing more.

For example, one graphics arts teacher who taught photoshop thought that our server was just a group of files that we copied to each computer and assigned that group of files a drive letter.

Another ( I am not joking ) Assumed that email was printed out and delivered to various faculty on campus by the recipients secretaries. (His, actually did that from time to time.)

Then the Dean of Information Technology would tell one person to do something, turn around and tell another person to assist but what they told the person who was supposed to be assisting was two completely different things, and latter one of the two would get asked why they didn't do what was asked of them.

With as much moolah as some of these stars rake in, I am seriously surprised that they dont retain their own tech support to go with them and live with them.

Who needs technology when you have someone to do it for you.

Tricked, i say!

[Anonymous Coward]

I helped Steve Ballmer hook up his xbox, and all i got was this lousy chair!

"I kicked Bono's ass at Warcraft III!"

[Nova Express]

"He kept building farms to feed the hungry, so my orcs just wiped him out!"

The pot calls the kettle black

[g4c]

Yeah, yeah... listen to you...

"I work with celebrities--but I don't like it. No, sirree. I don't like working with celebrities... Like Nicholas Cage. I don't like working with Nick. He's kind of clingy and he keeps asking for my autograph. Did I mention I work with celebrities?"