This is not what you want to hear when you call tech support and tell them your operating system is OS X.

"What's that?" or "OSN?"

But that's what happened when I called Verizon to troubleshoot connection trouble on my EVDO card. I had to say it was a Mac before they understood. Well, sort of understood.

I was having difficulty where I would make a connection and within 30 seconds the connection would be terminated.

The first person I talked to asked me to launch Verizon's VZ Access Manager software. I explained that the instructions for Mac that came with the device said to just plug in the card and I would be able to manage it from within the OS. They did not tell you to install software. So therefore I could manage the card, but I did not have VZ Access Manager. This seemed to stymie the person on the other end and I was told that they don't get a lot of Mac questions.

On my own, while the tech fumbled for an idea of what do for a Mac user, I poked around on their site during the call and found an OS X version of the Access Manager and installed it. Once I did that we were able to troubleshoot and fix the problem.

But when I got home, I was still having access trouble. So I called Verizon again and gave them the case number. The support person asked me to choose tools from the menu option in VZ Access Manager. I explained that there was no tools option. I got another response that Macs "sure are different" and that they don't get many Mac calls. This technician fumbled around trying to give me steps for the Windows version of VZ Access Manager that I couldn't implement. Eventually it was suggested that I go outside and see if it worked outside the building. I agreed I'd try and we ended the call amicably.

Strangely, after I got off the call, the card connected and worked fine thereafter.

Now I must make clear that both techs I talked to seemed intelligent and were trying to be helpful. They just acted as if they had never seen a Mac before. They had no idea what this crazy "OS X" was, and had no scripts to help them support a Mac user.

Get it together, Verizon. If you advertise, as you do, that your card works with Macs, then you need to train your support personnel to know how to use them.