In need of a word
There is a joke told to describe the technical support customers often receive from Microsoft:
A man is flying over Seattle in a helicopter. Due to heavy fog he is lost. Hovering next to an office building he holds up a paper with "Where am I?" written on it. A person in the office sees his sign and holds up a sign in response: "You're in a helicopter". The man then flies, without error, to the airport and lands. His passenger asks how he was able to find the airport based on such a useless answer. The pilot answers "It was factually accurate but totally uninformative. That person had to be a Microsoft employee. That meant we were beside the Microsoft building and I know where the airport is from there".
"Factually accurate but totally uninformative". I get many responses from students that are exactly this. I need a word to describe these useless responses. Calling them "microsoft answers" doesn't work. I have to retell the joke every couple of weeks. Also my students rarely call tech support so they have no experience with that activity.
Is there a name for technically correct but utterly uninformative responses?
A man is flying over Seattle in a helicopter. Due to heavy fog he is lost. Hovering next to an office building he holds up a paper with "Where am I?" written on it. A person in the office sees his sign and holds up a sign in response: "You're in a helicopter". The man then flies, without error, to the airport and lands. His passenger asks how he was able to find the airport based on such a useless answer. The pilot answers "It was factually accurate but totally uninformative. That person had to be a Microsoft employee. That meant we were beside the Microsoft building and I know where the airport is from there".
"Factually accurate but totally uninformative". I get many responses from students that are exactly this. I need a word to describe these useless responses. Calling them "microsoft answers" doesn't work. I have to retell the joke every couple of weeks. Also my students rarely call tech support so they have no experience with that activity.
Is there a name for technically correct but utterly uninformative responses?