Tales From Technical Support Content
I’m a retired computer tech who also spent a few years doing telephone support for a small software company. Never had a serious problem with customers, but wasted some time a few years ago when my memory let me down. A friend asked me if there was any way to improve the video resolution on his computer, as digital photos didn’t look very good. I went over, his computer was a few years old, and the internal video chip ran with 8-bit colour. I had a spare video card from my previous computer that died, so I put it in his computer and the 24-bit colour meant photos looked great. A year later, he called me. He’d disassembled his computer (tower, monitor, keyboard, etc) to move it to another room, and after connecting it all back together there was no video. I went over and we checked everything; all cables connected securely, etc. After an hour or so I suddenly said “Didn’t I give you a video card last year?” I moved the monitor cable from the built-in video jack to the video card jack, and all ok. I suggested he put a piece of tape over the built-in video jack to prevent this problem next time he moved the computer. We opened a couple of cold ones and consoled each other over our failing memories.
Over twenty years ago I was the "Integration Engineer" for an electrical wholesaler which sold, among other things, industrial computers. One customer bought a high-end UPS with 6 hours' backup capability. It was shipped directly to the customer's site and installed by the customer's staff. Since I was the "technical person," I got called when the customer called that it wasn't working. I asked if I could talk to one of the people who'd installed it, but the customer insisted that one of their electricians had installed it, that they KNEW it was installed correctly, and I had to come out now and fix it. It was a 3-hour drive to the customer's site. I reminded the customer that there was a $50/hour charge that started as soon as I left and continued until I got bacl if it wasn't a fault with the unit. He demanded that I leave immediately. I did. When I got there, the UPS was coming on, running for fic=ve seconds, shutting off, and then restarting. As soon as I saw it doing this, I called the customer over and said, "I've seen this before." I then showed him that the UPS was plugged into itself. I unplugged it; plugged it into an outlet, and it powered up just fine. The customer just stared. I handed him the purchase order for my time and asked him to sign. He signed without looking. I never heard, but I wonder what happened to the "electrician" who installed the UPS.
Stupid user story...
I am a high school student, and I serve as the admin of a few multimedia servers in our household. So, one day, my father wanted me to clean out a web and gaming server that had been overheating under a full load. Simple enough. I shut it off, disconnect the cables it was attached to, put it on a table, and spent the evening giving it a thorough cleaning. Then, I put it back in its spot next to the other game server and go to turn it on.
Nothing happens.
The power LED glows, but other than that, it's dead. Panicking, I power cycle it for a few minutes with no results. If I had managed to destroy this machine, my ass was on the line with my dad and the dozen or so people that use its game servers. I then open it in place.
Right in front of me is the first RAM DIMM, hanging out of its socket in a limp fashion. I reseat it, and it boots normally.
Moral of the story: Make sure you actually reassembled a computer before you try to use it again!
Reading along in a user forum, where questions can be asked and answers are given for free.....
Someone had tried to wipe the personal data off their hard drive and they don't understand what happened because now the computer won't do anything. Black screen.....nothing works.
Apparently "wiping the personal data" had become "wiping the hard drive" - because from their description.....the operating system was gone. Instead of wiping the personal data - they'd managed to format the hard drive somehow.
No recovery partition left and they didn't have a recovery disk set.
Credit card was stolen, there's no way from microsofts xbox account page to delete the credit card that is tied to you account, you have to fill out a webform and wait for a call back. After waiting 47 minutes for a call back it cut me off in the menu. Went back into the help system and it would not allow the box to request a call back to be active. Tried a different help question and was able to get into help chat after waiting 15 more minutes. Finally got 'Morgan' who after saying hello I'll look at your question finally started typing 5 minutes later, I know for a fact it was 5 minutes because I have a clock next to my monitor and was keeping track, here is the conversation.
“If your request concerns current problems connecting to Xbox LIVE, please close your chat session for now, as our agents don't have any more information. We are aware of the issue and will provide status updates at http://xbox.com/status. Thank you.”
All agents are currently assisting others. Thank you for your patience. An agent will be with you shortly. You are currently '2' in the queue.
All agents are currently assisting others. Thank you for your patience. An agent will be with you shortly. You are currently '2' in the queue.
All agents are currently assisting others. Thank you for your patience. An agent will be with you shortly. You are currently '2' in the queue.
All agents are currently assisting others. Thank you for your patience. An agent will be with you shortly. You are currently '2' in the queue.
All agents are currently assisting others. Thank you for your patience. An agent will be with you shortly. You are currently '1' in the queue.
Privacy Statement
You are now chatting with 'Morgan'.
john: I need to delete a credit card from my account, the phone system cut me off and wont let me get back in to request a call back.
Morgan: Hello, thank you for contacting Xbox Customer Support. My name is Morgan. Please give me a moment to review your question.
Morgan: Hi John!
Morgan: Thanks so much for waiting! How are you tonight?
john: I'm going to piss my pants if this doesn't move along
Morgan: What can I do to help you John?
john: Well, you spent 5 minutes reading my question is it not obvious?
Morgan: John I welcomed you within two minutes, If there is nothing you need help with, I'll end the Chat at this time.
john: if you do then I will file a complaint, my issue was plain in my first message
Morgan: I can't see what you issue is, this is why I've asked, What Can I help you with John?
john: You are now chatting with 'Morgan'. john: I need to delete a credit card from my account, the phone system cut me off and wont let me get back in to request a call back.
john: Morgan: Hello, thank you for contacting Xbox Customer Support. My name is Morgan. Please give me a moment to review your question.
Morgan: Ok, So you'd like to add a new Card or would you like me to cancel your Xbox Music Pass?
john: john: I need to delete a credit card from my account
Morgan: So you'd like me to cancel your Xbox Music Pass john?
john: are you really that stupid?
john: my credit card was stolen and I've already added the replacement
Morgan: If this language continues, I will end this Chat.
Morgan: I need you to confirm that you want your Pass cancelled. This is the only way to remove it.
I cancelled the chat, why keep dealing with someone who doesn't know what they are doing.
Houseguest had computer privileges (student). I came home to find that my desktop was covered with shortcuts to "new games" (what happened to doing homework?) that had been downloaded, wallpaper from one of the games, and a "new" screen saver (also from one of the games). Not one or two, or even ten - more like fifty or sixty (hard drive was almost full, too - I swear that running out of space to download & install games was all that stopped the mad need to get more free games).
As well as the games, the Norton anti-virus was squawking about Trojans, worms, viruses, and more.....it took about two hours to download & run updates and various malware removal tools & programs so that I could work from home on MY computer that night.
I thought about setting up a guest account - but it was bedtime and I wanted some sleep before going back to work the next morning (part time work - the work at home was because the night shift guy on the help desk had left the company and it was easier for them to set me up to work from home than hire someone for six weeks before we moved to a new, combined office with several people already on hand to take over the night shift).
The next week, I came home to find a lot of very odd photos had been downloaded to my computer and stored in the general photos folder - not even in a folder marked "student's photos". After opening up to see why the hard drive was full again - I went in to look at them & delete them one by one, if they weren't appropriate (work from home computer). I found that the photos were NOT safe for work and they were infected by more malware - the photos gave a whole new subtext of meaning to the phrase "embedded Trojans" - it proved to be faster, easier, and less damaging to my opinion of the student to pull out the recovery system disks and do a factory image recovery.
Thankfully, I had backups of MY photos and documents.......
Then I called work to let them know that I had had to do a factory image recovery due to "computer problems" that night and would need the program installation disks to set up the computer with the work from home access programs (again) the next night.
I also took the time to password protect the computer and my admin account, and set up a guest account for their use - with the same level of limited access that you'd give an 8 year old. I had an eight year old.....they could just share that account! (No download privileges at all.)
