It pays to know keyboard commands
The other day my computer's monitor suddenly went completely black with no warning whatsoever. I tried plugging the monitor into another computer and it worked fine; I tried plugging a different monitor into my computer--no signal. Clearly the problem was within my computer.
So I called up Apple Care, navigated through the phone tree, and got to a real live tech support person. I explained the problem, and told him that I had tried shutting down the computer and starting it up again as well.
"So after the screen went black, did you turn it off by holding down the power button or unplugging it?" he asked.
"No," I said proudly, "I used keyboard commands to get to Terminal, then typed in a sudo shutdown command."
"Without being able to see anything?"
"Yup."
I was surprised and pleased at how much the tone of the conversation changed when the tech support person realized "Oh hey, this user actually knows what he's doing!"
So I called up Apple Care, navigated through the phone tree, and got to a real live tech support person. I explained the problem, and told him that I had tried shutting down the computer and starting it up again as well.
"So after the screen went black, did you turn it off by holding down the power button or unplugging it?" he asked.
"No," I said proudly, "I used keyboard commands to get to Terminal, then typed in a sudo shutdown command."
"Without being able to see anything?"
"Yup."
I was surprised and pleased at how much the tone of the conversation changed when the tech support person realized "Oh hey, this user actually knows what he's doing!"