Not being able to retrieve e-mail is frustrating, to be sure. But is it worth killing yourself over? AOL thinks so, apparently, since one of its tech support reps called 911 after filmmaker Aviva Kempner, an AOL customer, told him that she was so unstrung at not being able to retrieve her mail that "I'm really going to kill myself." Next thing she knew, there was a fire truck, an ambulance and a cop car outside her house. After explaining to the emergency personnel what "hyperbole" means, Kempner was left to wrestle with her original problem. The AOL spinmeisters came back with this: "The safety of our members is our highest concern. So if we think that a member might be at risk, we like to err on the side of caution."
Tech Support
Not being able to retrieve e-mail is frustrating, to be sure. But is it worth killing yourself over? AOL thinks so, apparently, since one of its tech support reps called 911 after filmmaker Aviva Kempner, an AOL customer, told him that she was so unstrung at not being able to retrieve her mail that "I'm really going to kill myself." Next thing she knew, there was a fire truck, an ambulance and a cop car outside her house. After explaining to the emergency personnel what "hyperbole" means, Kempner was left to wrestle with her original problem. The AOL spinmeisters came back with this: "The safety of our members is our highest concern. So if we think that a member might be at risk, we like to err on the side of caution."
