The dumbest question every technical support channel asks...

You need technical support. You start a chat session and the first question they asked is...

"How is your day going?"

"How do you think it is going? My computer is broken!"

"I am so sorry to hear that."

Consider that even if you respond immediately, there is a 10 to 15 second delay before they respond. Basically wasting 30 seconds on nonsense or at least communications which do not resolve the issue.

Maybe this is done intentionally to disarm disgruntled customers, to have the customer feel empathy and that their upset is being heard.

My occuring is that this small talk is a waste of my time.

Maybe this is done intentionally to give the tech support team more time for information to load on their computers. Maybe this actually works for other people and makes them feel empathy.

Still I think it is a stupid question.