Funny and Humorous Technical Support Tales and Stories

DH lost his phone on Monday. It was not turned on and he needed a working phone, so my older (spare) got reactivated with the phone number from the missing phone.

It takes a while because I misread the serial number and having a B input as an 8 will mean that it is NOT the phone in my hand that they are expecting to have call in to the activation number. Finally figure out that I have the wrong serial number and look to see which # or letter might be wrong.

Try B instead of 8 and the activation call goes through on the first try. Phone is activated. Two days later the other phone is turned in to Lost & Found.

Today it takes less than four minutes to transfer all the settings to the micro SD in the "lost" phone, swap it to the phone that is activated, and transfer the information back to the phone. AND format the micro SD card, just in case of changes when the firmware updated just after activation.

The "lost" phone is now being used as a charger for the spare battery and I am NOT tempted to offer it on Freecycle. This is not the first time DH has dropped a phone at work - it's just the first time we had a spare phone on hand of the same make & model!

I work as a contractor for a technology company. Most everyone I speak with has the title of Administrator or Scientist so you would think they would have basic computer knowledge. Trust me, do not judge a person by their job title.

Our company has a standing contract with one of the largest computer/software providers, not the Fruit company, the other one. All of our programs are designed to only work on that company's web browser. If they use another browser, the site/application will not load. Below is one of my favorite calls.

Me: "Thank you for calling (Company) tech support. How can I help you?"

Lady: Yes. "I am trying to get into (site name) and it will not load."

I do a little troubleshooting and test the site myself, just to be sure, then ask a few questions which leads me to believe she is not in the right browser so I ask her.

Me: "Ma'am. Are you in (Elemental animal browser)?"

Lady: "No. I'm at home."

I was extremely grateful for the mute button that day.

This is a tale from the other side of the fence.

I have been using/playing with computers since 1980. 1st computer was a Timex Sinclair ZX-81 hooked to a tape player and B&W TV!

We had purchased a Toshiba laptop late 1998. After about 3 months of using it (not heavily, just internet surfing and e-mail) the screen went wonky. I could still see, but I needed to find the contrast settings. Look high and low in the OS and even went page-by-page in the manual (yes computers came with manuals back-in-the-day!!) could not find settings. Took laptop back to [store with yellow tag] and they suggested that I call the Toshiba folks, even let me use the phone in the store. Nice tech had me open it up, turn it on then turn it 90 degrees to my left. "See the wheel in the side of the screen/lid?"

The bad part of it was there was ABSOLUTELY NO MENTION of this in the manual!!!