As a 15 year employee of IT covering a myriad of different positions, I can assure you that people are stupid. Sometimes the folks that consider themselves "computer literate" are actually worse than the ones that still think the cd-rom tray is a retractable cup holder. They're the ones that love to get into regedit and make a few "tweaks" that'll make their system scream, and they're the reason why no one at my company has admin rights to their machine.

Unfortunately, America being the land of opportunity, competing technology (read: Servers/Workstations/Printers/Digital Cameras/Network Equipment, etc) companies are forced to bring everyone a complete computer set up with a flat panel monitor, printer, scanner and wireless router for $99. The only way they can possibly support that and still operate is to outsource their helpdesks. It's the most frustrating experience ever, but the reality is that it's because you're paying a reduced rate for the product.

Dell has actually their business/goverment helpdesks back to the states in Austin/OKC. The home user that gets the great deal is stuck talking to Habib... err, 'scuse me, I mean "Bob".