Tales From Technical Support Content
My dad was just telling a story of when he was in the US Army. His last position before he retired was heading the Equal Opportunity Office on the base he was at. As part of the job, he had a secretary. A civilian secretary.
Now, Dad didn't have an actual separate office. He had the back half of a fair-sized room, and the secretary and waiting had the front half. Okay, the lady is sitting about ten-twelve feet from him in an open area. Easy to give orders, right?
Nope. There was a civilian supervisor that all civilian orders had to go through.
So, after about five months, Dad's figured out that this woman can't type, can barely ( and rarely) answer the phone, and was basically clueless. The kicker came when the computer Dad had had to carefully train himself on (a hodgepodge put together from reused stuff from around base) was acting up while Dad was on lunch. (Dad retired in 1990.)
So this fairly decent computer, white characters on black, was being a pill. Reboot, right? Basic first-line fix.
Umm, not as far as the secretary was concerned. Nobody was ever sure what she did, but the OS flaked out. They had to call in some guys to fix it, and then restored from backups. Thankfully, Dad has always believed in taking every reasonable precaution, and had been backing up every evening before he left work.
So, you'd think Miss Clueless would be fired.
Nope.
The union AND the civilian employment agreement with the military didn't allow it.
Dad did password-protect the computer, and the woman was banned from touching it.
And no, I don't know if she was a blond.
I've had problems with my internet service provider before, but usually a fix is easy and painless. They don't always know what they're doing, but I've gotten what I needed from the process in the end. But this time was a bit different.
The ridiculousness of what happened made me think I was dreaming during more than one part of it.
A while back (a couple years ago) I decided to get a new wireless router, the one I had was almost a decade old and couldn't even handle the bandwidth we received from our current provider. On top of that the router only offered WEP and WPA (not 2) as security options. So I broke down and got a new router that I could hook an external hardrive up to directly so that all the computers in the house (there are four) could access it without having to go through another computer. After hooking up the new router the internet cut out. I did the usual checks and noticed that the internet light on the modem (provided by the internet service company) was out. I tried multiple times to disconnect both the router and modem, and even did a reboot on my laptop to no avail. I've experienced this before, when I set up ports for the Xbox 360 and the Wii the same thing happened. Apparently anytime multiple new devices connect to the internet the internet is cut from their side. Not sure why or how they set that up, but that's what multiple people on their end have told me. So I call their hotline and get connected with a representative. I told the representative what was going on and asked for them to turn off the service and turn it back on. I was immediately told "no", and "let me get you to unplug your modem." After telling them I had done this already I was told to do it anyway. Since I figured that it would be quicker to just do it and finally get them to do what I wanted I went along. Shockingly nothing that they wanted me to try worked. Eventually the lady asks me to see what ip I my computer had been assigned. I tried to explain that I wouldn't have one since my modem wasn't connecting to the internet. I was told to do it anyway. Obviously, after running ipconfig it turned out that I was completely right. After all of this I figured she'd finally do what I'd ask and reset from her end. Nope, she told me that I needed to send my computer back to the manufacturer because it was broken. Nothing I could say would convince her that there was nothing wrong with my computer. After a couple of minutes she said she was going to hang up on me because she had done everything that could be done and I just didn't want to admit that I had a pile of junk. She actually said that my computer was a pile of junk. To which I said, excuse me but I have an Asus and it's anything but. To which she replied "you should get rid of it and get a Dell. Up until this point I had been nice. I feel bad for phone operators and having worked in customer service for a long time know what they go through. But this was the last straw. I asked to speak with her supervisor, and she hung up on me. I called back and when I got a technician, I immediately asked for a supervisor as well as explaining what had just happened. The guy a got this time said hold on for a second. He came back about a minute and a half seconds later and told me he had reset the connection and told his supervisor what had happened. Almost magically my internet was working again.
By the way my pile of Junk was an Asus Duo Core with 6gb ram with a gb of ram in the video card and 500 gb hard drive.
I work in tech support for a very popular satellite television company.
In a typical 8 hour work day I probably take anywhere from 35-46 phone calls, the majority of which go something like this:
OP: Old Person
Me
OP: I hate this service, this stuff must go out every other day and I have to keep calling to have it fixed! If you can't make this stop, I'm cancelling my service!
Me: I understand you're frustrated OP but I can definitely help you! Would you mind telling me whats going on with your T.V.?
OP: Its just a fuzzy screen and a sound like "shhhhhh"! It scares my cats!
Me:*I look back at account notes and notice the five zillion other notes about this exact same issue* Ok, is your *satellite company* box turned on right now?
OP: Yeah, it has a blue light!
Me: Okay, what has happened here is that you got your setting changed on accident, and our box and your T.V. can't communicate when that happens. Can you go ahead and use the channel button on your T.V. to put the T.V. on channel 3 please? (Or press input depending on whether the receiver is HD or not)
OP: Oh my goodness! You are an angel! Why does this keep happening?!
Me: You're accidentally changing your settings. Be careful which remote you're picking up before you change channels and you should be fine from here!
OP: Okay! (Or a more grumpy "That isn't possible!" which just sparks a whole other round of explanations)
*Click*
Seriously. Every. Single. Day!
I really am sorry sometimes that I have to make you troubleshoot. Especially when I know within just a few minutes exactly what the problem and resolution are. Unfortunately my company demands that I make you troubleshoot. If I don't I can get fired. I'd rather have my job that cut corners for you, especially when you're screaming at me like a spoiled little child. In that case, I will think of every possible step to put you through, and make you do it.
Also, if you're super nice, or I want to do something for you that is against policy sometimes I'll figure out a way to keep you on the phone for 15-20 minutes because after that point my phone calls aren't being monitored and I can do what I want for you. Please don't be abusive to me.
I really am trying to help you, trying to make money and trying to live.
Here's one on me.
Wanted to network the two desktops. Bought a nice little router, tried to set it up. Had trouble with some of the information to get it to talk nicely with the modem.
Call Qwest.
"Our modem doubles as a router. Would you like us to walk you through it?"
Later checked the setup paperwork that came with the modem. There it is, clear as day, in the part I didn't bother to read.
And, when I check, can see it online too. (Type the IP in the address bar, the result tells you all kinds of fun stuff to do with the modem.)
Siiighhh. Could've saved myself twenty dollars and a ton of hassle.
Some background info: We just had to reset everyone’s password due to directory corruption. Each user was sent an email on 6/8 with instructions and a new temporary password that they would be prompted to change upon logging in for the first time.
This is a direct copy/paste from an email exchange with one of our users. Notice how many times I have to reference the temporary password that we emailed him before he gets it.
User: I am having trouble logging into the server? Can you please assist.
IT: Were you able to successfully reset your password per the instructions that were emailed to you on 6/8?
User: No it’s not allowing me.
IT: What is or is not happening when you try to log on with the temporary password that was emailed to you on 6/8? Is there an error message?
User: Yes, error message.
IT: What does the error message say? Please make sure you are using the temporary password that was emailed to you on 6/8.
User: Error connecting to the server. I’m pretty sure im putting in the correct old password.
IT: Are you using your old password, or the temporary password that was emailed to you on 6/8? I just tried using your temporary password and I was able to connect.
User: Wow, it’s definitely Monday out here haha! Thanks for your help, all set.
I do part-time tech support for a local community college when one day I received a support call from one of the professors.
User: I'm having issues with my fax machine.
Me: What seems to be the problem?
User: I've been trying to fax a document to you guys for about an hour now, but the machine won't send it.
Me: Can you verify what number you are sending it to? [it was correct] Let me go check to see if we've gotten it.
I walked into the other room where the fax was and sure enough, there were roughly 30 copies of his document overflowing out of the tray.
Me: Sir, we've gotten your fax, I think your machine is working fine. Is it giving you an error of some sort?
User: No, it takes the page, runs it through and spits it back out at me.
Me: Right.
[pause]
User: Well, how did it get sent to you if I'm holding it here in my hand?
Me: Sir, I'm not sure I understand what you're asking...
User: Isn't the fax supposed to send this page directly to you?
[pause]
Me: Sir, faxes don't send the actual documents you put in, it just makes a digital copy and sends it to us.
User: (dawning realization, followed by embarrassment) Oooooh. Sorry, I didn't realize that...
Me: That's okay, it happens to all of us.
A Customer submitted a helpdesk ticket stating that they had no email in the "Deleted items" container within Outlook.
And that was it. No other details.
A few emails later the customer said they had used the "Deleted items" container to archive emails............... "for safekeeping" as they put it.
Eventually an email was sent out saying we couldnt restore the emails and let us know if they need help in creating email folders.
