"Please send respond with screenshots...." Ugh My God, WHY....???
Happens *every time* you reach out to a Support page for assistance, forced to file another ticket.
You take the trouble of uploading screenshots and/or attachments ON the Ticket page, only to get *this* copy/paste emailed response: *Please respond with images, screenshots, or a recording of the issue so that we can investigate...* Really??? I did that in the support ticket. Why didn't you see see or get them? Can any Tech explain why this happens?
I'll take it the actual Ticket page doesn't sustain the images you've already uploaded for assistance. Help me out please, as I'm trying to understand it all, how it works. *\*slams maddening hammer on desk in frustrated disapproval\**
EDIT: Thanks in advance
​
https://redd.it/1ck1w8x
@r_talesfromtechsupport
I'd give you credit if credit were due
Rolling out a new version of a software we use - transitioned from PC based licensing to user based licensing. I send out a wide email detailing what to expect, the emails that will come from the service, and when we will roll out the actual software. Getting their accounts sorted in advance to safe a headache at the launch.
Instructions were to the effect of: Follow the instructions in the account creation email. Wait for software to be released through software portal.
Ticket comes in: Need admin to install $NewVersion. Typical request from someone who doesnt follow rules, downloaded software on their own, and wants it installed. Close the ticket, remind the user of our policy, and of the instructions in the original email.
Reply comes back with an attachment, email conversation checking in with another IT member its 'part of the rollout', and that he figured it was time to get it installed. As well as 'Give me some credit for knowing not to download software with Admin approval'.
Not to mind thats been our policy the entire time both he and I have been here, I can feel there's a disconnect. So, with a quick little check of his PC, there it is, the installer just sitting there.
So no, I wont be giving you any credit, because not only did you ignore recent instructions, company guidelines, but you also lied to me.
Users man.
https://redd.it/1chvphf
@r_talesfromtechsupport
Laptop is sluggish but it’s not the laptop
Today we had a phone call in today about a user's laptop being slow. At first we thought it was due to Microsoft 365 filling up the storage which is a known issue to us but he also mentioned it could be the battery which with his specific make and model, we have had warranty claims for.
I remote on to clear the storage on this laptop and so far it works fine, I disconnect only to have a second call come in to say that this user is still having trouble. While on the laptop, our 2nd line support checks the CPU and memory usage in the background, but there are no signs of high usage.
Eventually during that call, we decide to set up and arrange another laptop for him, so I get it set up and ready to go. But because of how we operate, it's remote so I could not visit him in person, after I send a confirmation in the ticket that it's all been arranged for delivery, etc. I was expecting the issue to be that the fan was clogged since we have figured it out that the higher up the corporate chain you go up, the worse the state of the laptop is in. (His manager's manager is the CEO). However, he phones back AGAIN. This time it's different, he found out the issue why it was happening.
His mouse.
It was his mouse, the end user touched the touchpad and noticed it was acting smooth, so he swapped out the mouse.
What makes this even better is that I had the exact same issue, my old mouse was sluggish, so I grabbed an old mouse from when old equipment from one of our offices came in and it works just fine for me now. We both had the same issue which isn't a lot but weird it happened twice.
If you’re out of luck on issues, change the mouse
https://redd.it/1chqlw7
@r_talesfromtechsupport
Psychics-R-Us
My father, while a decent engineer, can be pretty damn clueless when it comes to computers. Combined with his inability to understand the concepts of privacy & boundaries, as well as his tendency to cut people off mid sentence, he can be very difficult to work with.
I get a call from him one day, asking why the internet was down for his whole neighborhood. I did a quick check and the only notification was that the ISP the neighborhood was well into the process of switching to a local FO provider. They were also spamming the neighborhood with notifications, flyers, and signs all over the neighborhood, telling people when this was taking place.
When I told him to read one of the notifications, he was surprised that their area of the neighborhood was being switched over. He asked me when they would be finished, as if I had any clue. I even told him that I didn't work for FO provider and so his guess was as good as mine.
https://redd.it/1cg41xs
@r_talesfromtechsupport
IT Manager Doesn't Know IT
Backstory: Our IT Director retired. Then our CEO retired. The new CEO promoted one of his friends to the position of IT Director. Besides not knowing anything about IT, she also hated it and wanted to go back to her old job. She told the CEO, "My husband's pretty good with IT." He was instantly given the job.
I did not know it was possible for someone to know so little about IT.
Here's our last interaction, via Teams:
Me: We have 13Tb of data at a remote plant and no backup hardware. I need about $15k to be able to get a backup solution in place. We're also in violation of multiple customer and federal requirements for not having these backups. It's a critical situation.
IT Manager: Can't they just print it out for a backup?
Me: Lol.
It Manager: No really, can't they print it?
Me: We're talking about billions of pages. It would over a century to print. Plus, you can't really "print" an SQL database. Then, what would we do with it? We can't generate customer invoices from printed database tables and SQL statements.
(I'm kind of scrambling to make him understand.)
We can't mail paper to people needing to order from our website and have them circle their choice and send us cash.
You can't print software. How would we electronically transmit their data to <government entity to which we must report> if it's on a piece of paper? We'd literally need to lease a warehouse to hold the printouts, which would be completely useless anyway. We'd never be able to restore it.
This would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions, to implement and would be completely useless.
His response was, get ready for this, because this was said in all seriousness.
IT Manager: So we can print everything on microfiche as a backup.
The only thing he was able to understand was that it would take a lot of paper.
https://redd.it/1cenxv8
@r_talesfromtechsupport
Blurry Webcam
User: My camera quality when I go into meetings is terrible, I need a new laptop.
Me: Ok, I'll remote on and take a look, see if it's settings related.
Me: \remotes on and checks cam drivers, reboots and does a test call: The camera is still low-grade quality, darker and blurry.*
User: See, can I get a new laptop then?
Me: *noticing the tub of lip balm on the user's desk through the blurry camera*
Me: Can you get a cloth and wipe the front of the camera for me?
User: But it looks fine on this end.
Me: Indulge me, I just wanna check.
User: \movements of a bright cloth of the camera then moments later crystal clear video*
Me: There, fixed it, must've been when you put lip balm on, might have smudged it on the camera when you opened the lid.
User: *With a look of utter shock and confusion on their face*
User: Yeah, you can close the ticket... thanks...
The simplest fixes are usually the answer. :)
https://redd.it/1cbbo8k
@r_talesfromtechsupport
and demanded overtime to achieve this. As the tickets piled up, there was a "punishment" employee info on Friday night at 6:30pm. He accused the team of being lazy and sick too often. He didn't want to admit that the management meeting and the long decision-making processes might be the cause. When I found out that the helpdesk colleagues' wages were being cut, I resigned.
The confrontation with the boss was fierce. I told him to his face (apparently as the first employee in 20 years) that he was discriminating against employees just because they had completed their basic education at the "wrong" school, that he was violating personnel law with his unacceptable behavior and was no longer fit to be a boss. His response? He shouted at me, accused me of bullying him and claimed that I had mobilized the dissatisfied employees against him. Oh also had psychological problems and wasn't reflective. When he started asking me about my childhood (which was actually partly traumatic, but that has no influence on my life today) and found out that I had a trauma, he blamed everything on that. I left the meeting room with tears in my eyes, but with a signed letter of resignation. He wanted to fire me at the spot, then took it back and tried to be friendly to win me back (?). But nothing changed in my last 3 months (happened in europe), so I was happy to have my last workday a couple of weeks ago! :)
Looking back, I should have quit much earlier. Im now traveling and have already found a new employer starting in 3 Months. But!, I will also remember this 2.5 year of a circus, because (I hope) you don't experience something like this very often.
I could tell you so many more weird storys from that time, but that would go completely beyond the scope. But it was good to get it off my chest, maybe it entertained you a little - at least I hope so :)
https://redd.it/1cauuee
@r_talesfromtechsupport
Love my wife, but she's an end user too!
This one happened at home with the wife
My wife walked passed my home office setup and immediately gasped in shock. I turn around to see her jaw dropped and she is looking at me in disbelief
>Wife: “Why did you buy this? How much did it cost?” looking at my newly set up monitor
I realized immediately she mistook the monitor for a PC, even though I told her I had plans to buy a monitor, bu’wha’evah
>Me: “This? It cost only 200€.”
>Wife: “WHAT? That is a STEAL! Where did you get it from?”
>Me: “No honey, that’s not a new computer, just a monitor”
*Blank stare that communicates further elaboration is required*
>Me: “See this cable that is linked to my laptop? I just connected them together.”
>Wife: *still not quite believing me*
I pull the cord and show that it is just a monitor, she accept’s that it is in fact not a computer. Somewhere in her eyes I could see that the concept of a monitor is still somehow baffling to her.
>Wife: “Omg I thought that thing cost 1000€, I thought you spend all our money.”
>Me: “Honey, I would never do such a thing, that is more in character with you.”
>Wife: *laughs* “yeah that is true.”
After that exchange some time passes and I connect my phone to the monitor through my docking station. The wife is again awestruck that my phone’s screen is on the big monitor.
>Wife: “Wow, your phone can connect to the monitor? Can mine do that too?”
>Me: “Yes darling, it can an-“
>Wife: “Omg organizing my foto albums could be so much easier with this!”
>Me: “... yeah it could (why did she cut me off?)”
>Wife: “That is so amazing, wow ...” *as she wanders off*
https://redd.it/1can3xg
@r_talesfromtechsupport
Client claims we scammed him since his phone gave a, probably faulty, notification
Some context: I work in a phone repair shop, and this is one of the many stories I have. The actors in this story are me and an old guy with a hearing aid, whom I'll refer to as OG. OG is a godsent test of patience, as he's one of the most annoying clients I've had to deal with. Partly because he tends to scream at me, likely due to being partially or fully deaf, as deaf people usually have trouble regulating their voice. I understand that much, but I lost my sympathy for him once he started demanding that we work for free or else he'd sue us.
So one day, OG walks into the shop. Due to his age, he's a bit slow with everything. I greet him with my regular cheerful tone: "Hi, how may I help you?" OG doesn't say a word, puts his retro briefcase on the table, and slowly rummages through it, looking for his phone. Many clients do this thing, the old 'let me be dead silent until I find what I'm trying to show you' performance. Really awkward, 10/10 experience. I sigh in my mind, knowing that this is going to be another SLOW client on more than just one level.
After FINALLY pulling out his phone, he explains the problem to me. HE SCREAMS: "HELLO, MY PHONE'S BATTERY IS NOT VERY GOOD. THE PHONE GAVE ME A NOTIFICATION!" checks his notes, "ON [random date\] AS WELL AS ON [random date\] THAT THE PHONE'S BATTERY HAS AN ISSUE! CAN YOU CHANGE MY PHONE'S BATTERY!?
Now, we can do that, but note that his phone is old AF, a Samsung Galaxy J3 (2016). It won't receive any software updates, the OS is filled with unneeded temporary files, and therefore prone to bugs. Maybe it's as slow as he is on the uptake. I answer that we can, he agrees, we change the battery, and he is returned the phone. Interaction ended or so I thought. This was nowhere near the last time I had to see this guy.
A week later, he comes back into the shop to loudly claim that: "YOU NEVER CHANGED MY PHONE'S BATTERY. I STILL GET THE ERROR MESSAGE ABOUT THE BATTERY.CHANGE IT OR I WILL SUE YOU!" I assure him that we definitely changed the battery. But old guy was not gonna hear it. I explained it all, yet it seemed, he didn't hear me and continued his accusatinos. I tried talking louder but this guy was having none of it. "EITHER CHANGE THE BATTERY (For free mind you) OR I WILL SUE YOU!" he shouted. I tried to the very best of my ability to nicely explain to him that we didn't want to scam him. In the middle of my explanation he cuts me off with "IF YOU WONT CHANGE IT, THEN BE PREPARED TO HEAR FROM MY LAWYER!" and then he storms out, at the pace of continental drift.
Cue next month, when he returns. He does his whole ritual again: slowly walking up, dead silent, opening his briefcase, looking for his phone and paper note, and then begins screaming: “I GOT THE BATTERY ERROR MESSAGE AGAIN AT [random date\] AS WELL AS LAST WEEK. CHANGE THE BATTERY OR ELSE!” I try to make him understand that the error message was probably due to his phone's old age. I asked: “Maybe the phone's OS didn't recognize the change of battery and is giving this faulty message. Did the battery life change for you? How long does it last?” He replied: “SO YOU WON'T CHANGE IT? FINE, THEN WAIT TO HEAR FROM MY LAWYER!” and he drifts away again. God almighty, please give me strength.
After 3 months, he returns. Same ritual, he claims we scammed him. I try to be reasonable, although much less nicer than I was at the beginning. Same result, he will sue us! And at this point, I hope he does. I'd much rather deal with lawyers than being screamed in the face for the umpteenth time, while trying to convince him otherwise because that is exhausting. He came back a few more times saying that he reported us to the authorities and DESPITE that demanded that we change his battery for free again. We never heard from any lawyer or consumer protection. But I can still hear him scream in my head.
https://redd.it/1c95grn
@r_talesfromtechsupport
The software needs a license or something like that applied! Can I.T. help?
So much like my last post, this ones a real fun one. I'm technically a Tier 2 Technician, I handle a few more things than what Tier 1 does, usually ends up being software installs. These tend to be more "I can't find any sort of details of wtf this software is ANYWHERE" sort of deals. No biggie, it exists somewhere as an install script via our ticketing system, in our network wide installs folder, or resides on a file server somewhere.
Some of this stuff goes real fast and simple. Sometimes, key/license files are already provided to us, other times it turns out someone in the dept holds that info and gives it out to us or handles it themselves after we've done our part. The lines get blurred when it comes to the later apparently....
I get a ticket in, T1 tech that's our 3rd shifter (we've got some overseas operations) hands me a ticket before he leaves about a software. Said it looked and sounded a little dodgy. Okay I'll take a look. The name does sound really weird, okay whats it's function? Quick google search later, its basically a more robust file explorer. Why...? Why is this required..? It does the same exact stuff built in windows functions have. Whatever, none of my business, I pull some records because I've not even heard of it in my tenure at my employer, looks like a few within the CNC dept uses it. Well it's prompting for a license OR to use the "personal use" version. More over, this isn't software we manage ourselves, someone in the CNC dept does.
This is where I start to hate software. We're a company, (small fish, maybe medium) we can't be using commercial categorized software's (even if there is a personal use. This software encouraged caution if your using it in a business environment and urged you to buy a single time key for it) for "personal" use if we're running a business with it. No bueno, someone's got license keys for this in their dept, ain't no way managers and managers T2+ let this go under the radar much less I.T. We get caught, we get fined. 100%.
So I inform the end user that whomever in the department authorized and manages this software needs to get with him since I.T. doesn't actually manage it. We don't hold the license keys (if they even exist, who knows what the floor does 90% of the time when it comes to someone handling their own software) He doesn't know who in his dept handles it. This is also where I draw the line of customer support and I.T. support. It's not in my job duties to hunt that individual down for you. Idk who it is, idk who's all in your dept that uses it, and you can't tell me who handles this little software. So I follow up with some sound advice I've been given multiple times if I can't find a specific software. I say ask a fellow dept member who has the same job function and requires this software, they might be able to point you to who manages this for your dept. Once thats done I will gladly reinstall or reactivate the license for this once provided if required.
This guys manager didn't like that apparently. So I logically explain it to my manager who wasn't really upset but, still wanted me to justify it.
Simple. He doesn't know sh*t about who handles it, I don't know sh*t about who manages it, he can't help me in order to help him. case closed until he does what I told him to do. What's so hard about going to ask 2, 3 4, hell, 9 other possible people who in the dept bought this for them so he can get the license key/file (if it even exists, I still don't think they ever contacted back about this...happened 2 weeks ago. so someone clearly handled it out there.) from them and hand it to me? It would take me longer making a million calls and eating up half my day all the while making every other end luser mad that I can't fix their issue because John Doe out on the floor can't ask a couple of questions for me.
My manager said he'd handle the irritated manager, he did review the ticket and understood my response. But said not to do it in that same manor again.
4 hours with no computer?
First off, I'm not tech support but I figured this fits here.
About me: I (M 36) am a security guard on a data centre at weekends to pay for my Cybersecurity degree I am just wrapping up. It was staff at this data centre that actually pushed me to university as I was asking a lot of questions.
Today, I come into work at 7am and have a quick handover from the night guards (M 30's). He tells me he accidentally turned the PC off instead of locking the screen before his patrol in the night.
The computer, being on a data centre, has high level of security than a normal office and is encrypted with bitlocker. The night guard tells me he has not managed to get past the encryption to log back in. With him being a new guard on this site, I assumed he just didn't know how to use the yubikey correctly so I start to show him how to use it.
I go to plug it in to the computer and it is switched off. I turn it on and was surprised when he asked what that button was for?
I can not fathom how a young bloke in his 30's does not know how to even turn on a computer. The schools here, as in many countries, have classes dedicated to using computers and have since before I was in school, around the same time as him, and he never even picked up what a power switch is for.
4 hours he had no computer, and in turn, no cctv because he didn't know he needed to turn on the computer to log in.
https://redd.it/1c8ty86
@r_talesfromtechsupport
years later.
https://redd.it/1c75f3k
@r_talesfromtechsupport
Starship troopers mishap
About 2 months back I'm sitting at my desk when my boss comes to talk to me. We're shooting the shit talking about the windows 11 update we're going to be pushing to our users, as they are currently on windows 10.
Finally he tells me he wants me to shoot some training videos and I joked I should shoot them in the style of starship troopers. We joke and talk about how I'm going to shoot them, and were just throwing ideas out for a solid 10 minutes joking around about these videos, were laughing hard just shooting the shit. Finally I get back to work. A week later he comes by and asks how those starship videos were coming along, to which I asked "Oh you were serious?" I then spent the next 2 months on and off shooting videos in the style of starship troopers introducing windows 11 to my users. We released them last week and I was pretty proud of it since I did the entire thing myself and got to learn about a video editing software I'd never used before/had never done before.
Well the videos were a pretty big hit, I talked in a deep voice the entire time, I "starshipified" the script, it was over the top patriotic, I also work for my local government so I also used my governments seal through out the videos. I put in background patriotic music that was free licensing.
It took off on Friday and we released a video each day for the next 3 days.
My users really loved the videos and weren't expecting the starship troopers references and so they started talking amongst each other and unknown to me they decided to watch the movies since enough of them reminisced about it. Today one of my users came to talk to me about how she could only watch the first 20 minutes.
She talked to me about the drug use and the police and it took a few minutes but finally I understood she had watched Super troopers. Whose opening scene is a shit ton of drug use and features a lot of over the top shenanigans.
After setting her straight and us both laughing she decided to give Starship troopers a shot.
https://redd.it/1c6i8l4
@r_talesfromtechsupport
The easiest way to make 200 bucks
Note: I am NOT an IT professional, more of an enthusiast. I was our defacto "IT person". Also, this happened about a year and a half ago.
While I was attending online college from home for a year, I picked up a corporate internship. The job wasn't supposed to be IT, to be clear, it was administrative duties. Which, apparently, included IT. Because since I was the only person in the office who knew how computers worked in any capacity. And because my boss was too cheap to hire an actual IT professional.
Now, my job was mostly remote. Easy! Do classes online, work online, it was paradise. But, sometimes, for IT problems, they'd have me come into the office. We did agree before the start of my internship that I'd get a minimum of 4 hours work billed at my 25/hr rate if I got called out, since the office was a little under an hour from my house.
Recently, we hired three new people. So, they bought three new computers. Without talking to me about it at all. And not a single one was WiFi-capable.
They called me up, and told me that the computers wouldn't connect to WiFi. I asked them to send me the link to where they ordered them, and sent me an Amazon link to a model that was WiFi capable, so I figured that wasn't the problem. Asked if Ethernet cables worked. Apparently, our office does not have Ethernet ports that are accessible from the actual office space (it's a small office, and all the ports are in the maintenance room).
So I head in. (First 100 dollars). Boot it up. Not WiFi-capable. Run some diagnostics (remember, at this point I think it is a WiFi capable model). Not working. Search up the specific model number. Ah. There's the problem. Crack it open, there's a slot to install a PCIe card, great! Check the other ones, same deal. Told my boss the problem, goy admonished for letting this happen (again, ordered without consulting me), and told him it'd be an easy fix just needed to order some parts. None of the stores near us had em available that day, so had to do next-day shipping. He was mad, of course, but what could he do?
I go home after being in the office for about 30 minutes. Next day, head back in (second 100 dollars), install the WiFi cards, and we're clear! I get to go home again (after about another 30 minutes). With commute, maybe 4 hours total spent on this. Except! I took the train was worked on the train, so I got paid hourly for that too!
Anyway, after I left to go do college in-person our boss got fired for embezzlement. So that was a nice bonus.
TLDR: Spent an hour over two days installing WiFi cards in PCs without them after they were ordered without talking to me first. Got paid 200 dollars.
https://redd.it/1c5lx2s
@r_talesfromtechsupport
I work with luddites
A Ticket came in - since the removal of the on prem servers and move to Entra ID, the printers on computers are now named by their model numbers and not by the previous friendly names.
Two of my colleagues are moaning at each other as the earliest we can get someone there is next Wednesday, and it will be 1/2 a day to visit all the machines.
While they were arguing with each other, I cobbled together four lines of PowerShell and executed against all online devices. abracadabra - all renamed.
This is pretty much my everyday life, actually utilising the tools we have to do our job while my colleagues live in the 90's when remote admin was a pipe dream.
https://redd.it/1c5khjo
@r_talesfromtechsupport
"Insufficient troubleshooting"
Man, I have no idea who I irritated at Dell, but I'm pulling my hair out here.
At my job I'm the only person who's dell certified and up until recently have been doing parts orders for my coworkers so they don't need to go through the chat, but I must've peeved someone off on the Dell side.
I have a laptop that has a motherboard issue, how do I know it's a motherboard issue?
Well, the keyboard lights up and the backlighting for the screen kick on, confirming it has power.
The laptop doesn't even get as far as the BIOS or the Dell logo- on the screen or on an external monitor.
Every cable and internal component has been reseated, I have done everything short of cannibalize a new-in-box laptop for its motherboard to confirm.
I keep getting "insufficient troubleshooting" from Dell. This is the third time I have resubmitted. It's infuriating.
https://redd.it/1ciknv1
@r_talesfromtechsupport
Big Brother is always watching. Always watching.
Lately I spend a lot of my time auditing license usage. Essentially, I review our internal logs and look for users who haven't used an application in a long time or perhaps have never used it. Then I ping the relevant users to confirm "you don't need this anymore right?"
Most of the time folks agree I can take the license for someone else to use. Their role changed or their team switched to a different app, etc etc. Sometimes they explain that their usage is seasonal, and they typically only need it at the end of the quarter, but they always do need it. That's the pattern. We exchange a few sentences and I move on.
Occasionally I run across a user who adopts a different approach. A chat I had today with a user encapsulates how the different approach normally plays out.
Me: I'm writing to you about your usage of the Example app. We have relatively few licenses and I've been asked to do a review. You were assigned a license back in October of last year. I see you've been using the app consistently. Are you using it to create new content? Or just to view the content that others have created?
User: I do both. I use it to create new content and to view content.
Me: May I ask what content you're creating? I checked the logs and they don't document you creating anything.
User: Well, I'm new to my role. I've been viewing up to this point but I will create new content going forward.
Me: I'll move you to a free restricted license. You'll be able to view content that way. Your experience won't change. Once you do need to start creating content, please submit another ticket and we'll follow the process.
User: I'll have my manager contact you.
The next person I pinged said that they use the license every day. I pointed out that the logs said they hadn't logged in for almost two months. They responded that they had been temporarily reassigned and once they get back to their old team they'll go back to using the app daily again. Same exchange. I explain I'm taking it back and they complain.
This job would be so much easier if users were honest.
https://redd.it/1chr40u
@r_talesfromtechsupport
Per your request
Today
It is another day spent in glorious service to <Faceless Megacorp>.
Today's honour is to build up two rooms for presentations. The ticket comes through for X number of desks with dual monitor desktop computers and one presenter PC, and the same in the neighbouring room.
My chest tightens, my voice falters. I weep silently for the prestige bestowed upon me.
Mine is to trolley forth the requisite number of PCs, and twice their number again in displays, to unbox and connect, document seating plans, import assets and image.
For Mother Nation. For the AllFather. For Empire.
I submit my humble work for approval. The Estates Organiser has "seen" my message. There is no query nor reply, silence is the reward for adequacy. I offer my presence on the next day to guide our Presenter to their duties.
The Next Day
Me: "Your rooms, my Presenter"
Presenter: "WTF IS THIS????"
Me: "...Presenter?"
Presenter: "THERE'S TWO OF THEM??"
Me: "As you wished, I have made so?"
Presenter: "Yes yes excellent work, but there are TWO ROOMS??"
Me: "...?"
Presenter: "But there's only one of me, isn't there?? What am I expected to do, stand in the corridor and shout through both doors?? I start in 15 minutes!!"
"It's not your fault, I'll take this up with Estates" The Presenter is generous, and forgiving.
It is another day spent in glorious service to <Faceless Megacorp>.
https://redd.it/1cgv7ma
@r_talesfromtechsupport
This guy... would like... to connect... to his computer
About 13 years ago, I was working IT at a major hospital, and while we had difficult users, one made us both amused and frustrated.
One day, he calls and said "I would like... to connect... to my computer." He wasn't upset or saying it in any angry way, it was clear that English was not his first language. My coworker who had the patience of a saint got the first call. After much trial and error with the language barrier was able to discern that he just needed his password changed.
The next day, same thing. He calls again, and we help him & send him on his way. Every day for a week, he calls and always starts with the same "I would like to connect to my computer." A couple of us were thinking the guy was either was somehow senile, or trying to pull a joke on us.
The last time he called, one of his assistants told us that he was indeed senile. How he still had his job was anyone's guess. The calls eventually tapered off to maybe once every month.
https://redd.it/1cg0ous
@r_talesfromtechsupport
Why am I notified about list entries that show me as the key contact?
Some days, I think easy questions would be a "nice" way to experience a technical support job, and then you get something like this.
First, understand that $powerUser has had many instance of "not getting it" in the past, for functions for the $platform which we support and they use. This clue-sink-nature has persisted in spite of multiple e-mails from multiple analysts and in-person meetings. $powerUser also deleted production data once, while browsing it, thinking that "delete" simply removed it from the results they were looking at.
I received an e-mail from $powerUser complaining about getting multiple e-mail notifications about a $webCollaborationTool's list. It is important to understand that $webCollaborationTool isn't part of $platform, it is one of those "cloud" applications that let people work together. Our group doesn't support that cloud; we use its applications like everyone else does. For one of them, we have a list for requests, and when you create an entry, you have to specify the person who is the key contact for that request.
So someone else created a bunch of requests and named $powerUser as the key contact. They decided to e-mail me to ask why they got so many e-mails.
I should note that I had nothing to do with setting up this list. I had nothing to do with creating the requests. The requests don't involve me at all. I'm not the manager of the department in question.
Apparently, that makes me the perfect person to address this issue.
TGIF
https://redd.it/1cdwhsg
@r_talesfromtechsupport
"Here! Use this!" - A tale of non technical users offering to fix technical problems.
A while back, I was working for a group that was trying to setup a grass roots esports event. One of the issues is that we needed to network together a series of high end cameras, but nobody had the budget to buy purpose made hardware, so it was literally a box of random ass equipment that "should do the job" offered up by various people who were running the event. We're talking a daisy chain of switches, the odd 5m CAT5e, and at least 2 home routers.
At some point, we run out of places to patch things. The call I make is to buy a 5 port ethernet switch. I'm handed something that "Looks" like a PoE switch. It's actually an edge router.
> Guy in charge: "Here, will this do?"
> Me: "No, that's an edge router"
> Guy in charge: "It has network ports, what's the difference? I've used this before no problems"
> Me: "That is an edge router. It's function is to act as a dhcp server to all devices on its network. You don't use these to patch a few things together, you use this to connect a LAN to a WAN."
> Guy in charge: "Just try it please"
whatever, plug it in, yeah everything connected together. Venue calls me 2 minutes later.
> Venue IT: "Hey uh, something you guys plugged in just took down half the network, there's a rogue DHCP server on the network, please remove it"
> Me: "On it." Unplugs edge router "Did that do it?"
> Venue IT: "Yup."
> Guy in charge: "Why did you unplug that, it was working"
> Venue IT: "It broke our network, please find a different device to do the task or we're doubling the fee."
and that's how I was tasked to run up to the store to pickup a switch last minute.
EDIT: before anyone asks "they can afford high end cameras but not networking equipment", a lot of the equipment was on loan. Being grass roots, there was a lot of people with limited technical knowledge calling in favors from work, etc, to bring in equipment. These people were good at what they did, but what they did wasn't network/systems administration
https://redd.it/1cawbq5
@r_talesfromtechsupport
The LAN Knight Rises: A Tale of Tech Resistance (a Sysadmin story)
I wanted to share a story from my former employer, which is a bit longer but hope it may entertain you!
Ive been with an employer for the last 2.5 years that has... let's say, a slightly different view on modern technology.
I was part of an internal IT department with about 40 employees. Our users worked in large office spaces with enough room for the IT Dept., but our location was completely decentralized and at least 20 mins away from everyone else. The perfect stage for drama, since none of the CEOs have ever been in our office (very rarely).
Why I mention this: Our IT boss is a staunch anti-radiation activist. He is against anything to do with 5G and DAB+ radiation. After a mysterious accident that no one really knows what exactly happened, he claims to be able to "feel" wifi radiation. The result? No WLAN in our offices. Instead, there are switches on the tables in the meeting rooms, surrounded by up to 20 LAN cables lying all over the place and completely unsorted. A sight for the gods - if you're into cable clutter.
When you have a meeting with the boss, you have to be prepared for a little inspection. He uses a device to check whether there are any active sources of radiation. Cell phones, laptops and smartwatches? Offline mode. USB dongles for wireless mouse? Not in his meeting room. And pagers? Absolute no-go (which is a challenge for me as a member of the volunteer fire department).
But that wasn't all. Our boss, in his radiation paranoia, poured the company budget into alternative technologies. We had radiation-blocking curtains and insulation that were so effective that our mobile reception was zero and we could not receive MFA with Microsoft Authenticator anymore. To get a signal, you had to go out into the corridor.
Then came LiFi - WLAN via light. Meaning: a special lamp as a transmitter, an adapter as a receiver. You cover the receiver with your hand? too bad, no connection for you!
The micro-management was another level of madness. Every technical decision, no matter how small, whether GPO settings or server hostnames, had to be made in the management meeting (called Führungssitzung - yeah I know what that sounds like) that could last up to five hours. The decisions were often the worst possible ones, and the principles were constantly changing. Cloud today, on-premise tomorrow. Today I don't want you to set up MS Teams, tomorrow I'll shout at you why Teams isn't running yet! An example? An add-in that is only compatible with 32-bit Office is required, but the boss only wants 64-bit Office? The solution: A VM with Windows 10, despite existing Citrix systems. I mean who uses published applications, that would be unprofessional!!!! Problems with users disconnecting sessions with your super solution? Simply set up a second VM and a calendar for reservations.
With over 7000 users, you can imagine how inefficient that was.
Criticizing the boss? Impossible. He screamed, threw objects (laptops, docking stations, you name it) around and nobody dared to contradict him. External consultants were shocked and said they had never seen anything like it.
The point where i decided to quitt was a Situation with our Helpdesk. There had been too few staff for years, I constantly pointed this out to all team leaders. Instead, more and more colleagues were hired in my team (but they only worked on 5 tickets a month and maybe a small change - but had a quiet and chilled time at work, while me and another sysadmin - aswell as the IT Helpdesk team were drowning in tickets, calls and projects. But somehow they never really got blamed), too little knowledge in Helpdesk, and no promotion or help for them in order to get better. There were also employees who had completed their basic education at what he considered a "bad" school - and therefore, in his opinion, were no good (which was not the case!).
At some point the boss demanded an empty ticket queue (i.e. only the new tickets - i mean who cares if an employee has 100 tickets with him at the same time)
Phone Repair Shop – The Saga Begins
This is the origin story of how I became the shop's de facto IT/tech support. I like writing these; hope you enjoy.
I work in a very small shop. When I joined, it was just me, a coworker, and the owner. After one month, two new apprentices joined—basically two inexperienced teens from the 'iPad generation' who barely could operate a computer. My coworker, while an amazing worker, only knew what he had to know about computers, like printing labels or using Excel. The boss-man worked mostly remotely because of his newborn. So that left me with a higher level of Google-fu and troubleshooting skills.
My job initially dealt with customers and back-office tasks. However, I always tried to come up with new helpful ideas for the firm since it really had a significant impact on our quality of life, structure, etc. Also, my employer is a really nice guy who isn't exploitative, which motivated me in the first place to go 'above and beyond.'
I quickly noticed that our day-to-day operations were really disorganized. Work was getting done, but it was a total flustercluck. One problem, in particular, was that we sometimes didn’t order replacement parts for waiting customers. Since I dealt with customers, it mostly fell upon me to apologize for the inconvenience caused. Really embarrassing situations. It turns out the cause of the problem was that we simply forgot to do so! We literally applied the everso reliant method of 'just remember' to handle ordering parts for customers. Occasionally, when the Lord bestowed my coworkers with his blessings, they would write the job order on a sticky note that, at times, was placed in view of our workstations.
I couldn’t fathom how in the world there was no system in place for handling orders for repair parts. Neither did we have an inventory management system; our policy was 'look at what’s in the box, that’s what we have.' Internal pain.
I quickly threw up a very rudimentary solution. My solution was nothing more than a Google Doc with a table that used the job number, phone model, parts to order plus status. It was as simple as it gets. Just fill in the info and set the status to 'ordered,' 'shipping,' 'delivered,' or 'not available.'
It took more than a month until my coworkers used the system properly. Now it has become a staple in our daily operations. Which is flattering and concerning at the same time. In the end, it works much better than the old 'system' (surprise Pikachu face), yet the list was effed multiple times over, which then I had to fix. Thank the universe for the version history feature! Everyone was happy, the team as well as customers. My God, they still managed to miss orders and accidentally delete rows above or below where they intended, although that happened more seldom as time went on.
And that basically marks the first of MANY significant tech improvements I made. That, in return, led me to learning some basic JavaScript and programming a basic inventory management software.
https://redd.it/1caeny8
@r_talesfromtechsupport
Still puzzled how asking someone to get me name of who manages it is asking too much but, welcome to entitlement I guess.
https://redd.it/1c98gmx
@r_talesfromtechsupport
The very important job
About two months ago, I was booked on a flight to Germany to fix a server system, being the only one familiar with the ancient tech involved. Flights/hotels etc all booked. Nice n' swanky.
Suddenly get a ticket from "the powers that be": "very important job - drop everything for this". HR has cancelled my flight, and the hotel (no refunds apparently - so money wasted).
What was the issue you ask? Was a server on fire? Had the CEOs second mistress found out about the other three and he needed his browsing history securely deleted?
Nope - the COO's secretary had bitched about her keyboard "not working" had emailed the board of directors stating she had critical work that would bring down the entire company if not completed (or words to that effect).
Off I race down the motorway. I get to the building. She's not there. Apparently she raised the issue then f--cked off on holiday for two weeks........
And what was the problem with the keyboard? It wasn't plugged into the USB port........
https://redd.it/1c8w8z6
@r_talesfromtechsupport
Billing agent turned tech support for 1 call
So I’m a billing agent with one of America’s ISP. Anything you need help with clarifying about your bill, I can handle it.
Now, I’m the household IT too. I have an IT degree and pretty handy myself too. I have a TP-Link ecosystem in the house I live in and I have quite a good grasp on configuration of Access Points and Mesh systems.
This customers call lands on my queue and our tools shows a clear indication that he’s been calling at least once a day for the last two weeks to have his issue sorted out.
He upgraded his ISP-provided modem to a new one that could sustain faster speeds since he upgraded his internet to the fastest one the company I work for can offer in his area.
His setup is that he has the Wi-Fi router from the ISP and has a TP-Link extender just in his bedroom where he works.
His reason for calling in was his TP-Link extender hasn’t connected to his new router even though he was told it would be the same, as if he didn't swap modems.
Then my brain definitely knew what to do at that point. He’s told me that our own tech support transferred him TP-Link’s own tech support but they didn’t end up solving his problem. The IT Helpdesk of the company that he works for has told him to reach out to us again.
Let’s just say that after deciphering the issue and just going a bit of back and forth with him, the issue was, even though he is under the impression that he has a new Wi-Fi router that's meant to be configured to be just the same, that just wasn't the case for his TP-Link extender because it doesn't recognize the "new modem" as the "same modem" (if that made sense). He acknowledges the possibility but now hates how he was mislead by the first set of people that assisted him.
I definitely told the customer "I want this to be the last call you'll have with us for a while" and his reply, with a mix of sarcasm and a threatening tone, "I sure hope so."
The last time he's configured the extender was almost 5 years ago and I asked him if at any point was he advised to download the Tether app of TP-Link and reset & reconfigure the range extender to connect to his new Wi-Fi router. He said no and that was the first time that he was suggested to do so.
Its a good thing this particular user/customer was quick on his feet too since he was able to go through mounds of registrations and 2FA set up on the TP-Link app.
15 minutes of asking questions to get the context of his issue and state of his equipment, 15 minutes of him doing the actual work with me on the phone, with the most critical thing for him to do was reset the extender with a paperclip on the reset button while the extender is plugged in.
After the Tether app says its all configured, he connected to the Extender from his company laptop, was able to connect to their company VPN, and he was good to go.
With a sigh of relief and him actually clapping his hands when he was all connected, he was happy, I was satisfied with the assistance provided, we ended the call on a good note despite him having a pretty neutral and "im gonna rain hell on you if you don't fix this issue" tone in his voice at the start of the call.
Felt good, might do it again in another call when necessary 😂
https://redd.it/1c81ynk
@r_talesfromtechsupport
The first time I saved the day
My first job: Configuration technician, building up IBM PC's and PC clones to customer specification. I even went to school for computer hardware, and my classes included AC & DC circuitry, machine language coding, integrated circuit theory . . . all kinds of stuff.
About the only things I've ever used since are the troubleshooting class and technical writing, but I digress. As I said, building up machines to customer specifications, usually hundreds of machines for companies (my first project was 150 IBM PC/ATs for the US Postal Service), but sometimes I'd get called on for other duties as assigned.
We sold not only PC clones, we also sold computers by a company called Convergent Technologies (CT). I've started some discussion of CT machines in another post but what is relevant to this story is this: Like iPhones and iOS, CT was a closed system. You couldn't walk into your local Egghead and buy a word processor; software for these machines was sold only by CT authorized resellers, like us. We didn't buy the physical media from CT--well, not all of it. We had a license to copy and sell the software, and we did it with The Robot.
I've looked for photos of The Robot on the internet but I've yet to find a photo of a model similar to the one we had, but let me try to give you an idea of how big this was and how it operated:
First, you'd load up the input hopper with 110% of the number of copies you needed--there were usually a few failures, and I just remembered I forgot to tell you to select the size of the hopper: This machine copied both 5.25" and 8" floppies, using the same heads. You just changed the blank disk hopper.
You'd boot up the machine with a master boot floppy (that was on 5.25"), then load the appropriate disk format from another disk (We, theoretically, could copy PC, CP/M, and Apple formatted floppies, if we had the appropriate disk for those formats.) (Yeah, even copy-protected game disks. The Robot was amazing.).
We'd tell The Robot how many copies we needed, hit the start button, then sit back. It would load one disk from the hopper into the drive, and as I said, the same drive heads were used for 5.25 and 8-inch disks, and I forgot to mention it selected 360 KB and 1.2 MB disk formats automatically. It then confirmed the copy, and good copies would slide into the good output hopper and bad copies into the reject hopper.
We had a couple of customers that ran large CT systems and, yes, we would sell 50 or 100 copies of the CT word processor (or spreadsheet or whatever) to them every couple of months.
One day, The Robot stopped working. Wouldn't power on; it was deader than a parrot. Of course it broke when we had a large rush software order for The Office of the Commandant of the Coast Guard, who was a Very Important Client. I wouldn't say there was panic but there was A Large Amount of Serious Concern from a lot of people.
We had no service contract for The Robot because it was bullet-proof until, of course, it wasn't. A humongous PO had been cut (but not yet submitted) to have a tech flown out from Texas (we were in Maryland) for next day service.
My boss's boss was pooping in his pants because his budget had suddenly been shot to hell and back. But remember: I took a troubleshooting class, and I asked if he minded if I took a look at it. Silly me, OF COURSE he didn't mind. He had nothing to lose.
I went to the robot and did the basic checks: power cord was tight; I tested the plug with the only other 220V item in the shop our electric forklift, and that was a helluva exercise to get it near to that plug.
Then I saw the fuse access. Opened it up and . . .
Yep. Blown fuse. One quick trip to Radio Shack later and The Robot was up and running (and the service call cancelled). That was my first "Attaboy!" in my file and it meant exactly squat because the company went belly-up five or so
A rack. Standard 42U. Nothing special. Comes in Black.
A rack. Standard 42U. Nothing special. Comes in Black.
Tuesday 3pm.
Under my breath I was cursing out whoever decided how costs got allocated in the business. At the same time ProjectX Manager was openly cursing me out on my recommendations for his new servers.
>XMan: You need to re-do this supply sheet Airz! 6 Servers total ... 2 switches! The hell do I need 2 switches for?
>Airz: Redundant paths.
The manager looked at me expectantly, as if willing me to continue. I just looked back ... bored.
>XMan: Each switch has 24 ports! We only have 6 servers to plug in! Just use another port!
>Airz: Yeah, that’s not how it works. Look at the specification you sent the client it says “fully redundant”. This is what you need.
ProjectXManager looked exceedingly stressed. He didn’t seem to like the words I was saying.
>XMan: We cannot afford all this. Let’s have a think! Let’s re-do this whole thing.
>Airz: It won’t change.
ProjectXManager had already got up, and looked down at me.
>XMan: Budget. In. Mind.
I tried to hide the growing happiness, that the meeting had ended. After getting back to my desk my mood was crushed again though. Meeting request for the following week.
----
Tuesday 3pm.
ProjectXManager was already setup in the meeting room when I arrived the following week. He smiled as he slid across sheets of paper.
>XMan: I fixed it.
Looking down at the paper with slight trepidation, I could feel the fight or flight response kicking in.
>XMan: You’re right, I looked into it. We do need 2 switches. But we only need 7 ports. One for the upstream, 6 servers.
>Airz: ...
The first sheet was a internet printout from Argo$. An 8 port switch from Netgreer. Only the price was highlighted. Flight or fight?
>XMan: And we never promised any type of network, so I changed it from SFP over to Ethernet.
>Airz: ...
The second sheet was a 2ft Ethernet cable. Only the price was highlighted. Fight or Flight?
>Xman: Also I found a server!
>Airz: ...
The third sheet was a second-hand server from efay, it was many generations old. Only the price was highlighted. Flight or Fight?
>Xman: Now we’re in budget!
ProjectXManager looked very happy, as if expecting praise. Fight or Flight?
>Airz: ...
>Xman: I just need you to sign off, and we’re golden.
Flight or Fight?
>Airz: Sign off on what?
>Xman: You’re happy to move forward.
ProjectXManager slid over the approval forms. I just slid them back. Unsigned. Definitely fight.
>Airz: No.
>Xman: No?
>Airz: No.
ProjectXManager looked down at his work. Confused. Not happy.
>Xman: Is it the swtich? I’ve never even heard of Amista!
>Airz: You can buy whatever you want. We just wont support it.
>Xman: But my budget....
----
https://redd.it/1c67zqb
@r_talesfromtechsupport
I would like to intern. Should I intern at an IT department?
I would like to intern somewhere, before getting hired to see if it's right for me. I know quite a bit about computers. Would it be a good idea to intern at an IT department for a school, or would it melt my brain with the amount of clueless people there are around those places? (At a school division) A bit of backstory: I went there, and the school division sunk too much money into tech, and not enough into tech fixers. The IT people take months to resolve support tickets, and just don't do things really at all, and I want the new people coming to that school to have a good experience with the tech. Would it be a good idea to go there, focus on fixing all the tech at that one school, and then slowly branch out? I have personal connections to that school.
(Let me know if this is the wrong sub for this, and I can take it down)
https://redd.it/1c5v70y
@r_talesfromtechsupport
through a big box store with a coworker. We had spent a solid 45 minutes on the phone with a Remote Tech, trying to decipher why this scan gun at this tire center wasn’t working, before the phone tech asked us to turn it over and read the serial.
“It’s the wrong fucking gun,” he’d snarled, “they fucking stole it from somewhere else again.”
He didn’t slam the phone but the connection cut abruptly once it was clear an onsite tech would need to order the part.
I felt bad, I told my coworker, “Like I wasted his time.”
“You didn’t wasted his time,” my coworker (the Innocent), “The Company wasted his time.”
I can only assume that all other parties moved on to other lines of employment. Or stayed where they are. I don’t care to follow people who have hurt me, it’s bad Karma.
This is a creative writing exercise. Any resemblance to any persons or entities living or dead is purely coincidental. Should a person or entity see in this story, a mirror of themselves, well, it would be very very funny to tell this story in a courtroom. But I hate wearing suits, so lets’ just have it be a funny story between ourselves. ;)
https://redd.it/1c3xe8x
@r_talesfromtechsupport
