MSI Says RTFM… Just Kidding

I think every support person has the same dream. A customer calls with a simple-to-solve problem. Instead  of repeating the instructions that can be found in the quick start guide or the user manual, they can say one simple thing: RTFM. Ah, bliss.

MSI was living the dream… briefly.

In email sent out Mar. 25 to people registered for their forums–97,000 people including customers, vendors, and press, MSI said:

“The MSI-forum and MSI-support team are fed-up with explaining you what can be found in the manual. I mean, come on, how hard is it to read a manual? They are printed on paper so you see them.”

Wow, eh? They also followed up with a claim that MSI had installed an RTFM-chip that could track if people had read the support material. And if people hadn’t read the manual by April 1, customers would be banned from the forums, RMA and other MSI help.

This seems like an obvious joke, or would have been if MSI realized pranks go much better when it’s actually April 1. MSI apologized this week for offending people.

“We thought of this prank after answering the many posts where people ask the obvious that is already in the manual. But we learned a valuable lesson, no more April-fools jokes from the forum…Sorry that you took it for real and got mad,” wrote the head of the support team in the support forums.

But still, it’s really good advice to read the manual.

[MSI via The Register]