Silly Clients
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Going back a few years, I had one chap call me up to say his computer is really slow. Tried to remote on to his computer but it wouldn't load so I asked him to restart. Just as he said ok I've clicked restart, I managed to get a connection and remoted on to his PC. Screen loaded and he was flicking between the sun website and his emails. I thought thats odd, he just said he clicked restart. Anyway watched him for a bit while he was talking me through what his PC was doing.
'OK its shut down now'
'Just loading Windows'
'Just logging in now'
'Ok I'm logged in now'
At this point I asked him whether he going to restart his computer like I asked him to and his reply was, 'Oh I thought you was going to do it'
What? Why tell me you've restarted the PC if you thought I was going to do it?
Maybe he wanted a friend?
To be honest, after the 15th time you've told the same person how to do the same thing, you tend to get a bit fed up with it
It's because most of the time it's actually basic common sense failures rather than anything actually technical
Oh, everyone's had loads of those.
User: "Computer's dead".
Me: Turns screen brightness up.
User: "All my programs have disappeared"
Me: Minimises single window that is covering desktop.
User: "My PC is slow"
Me: "Do you need all these fifteen application program running in the background that you appear to have started a few days ago and haven't used since?"
User: "Yes"
Me: "Then your PC will be slow. Close them if you are not using them".
I did walk in on a group of programmers and support people who told me they had been trying and failing to bring up the large drive array on one of the Solaris development machines for the last hour. They listed all the complex things they'd tried to access the array remotely. I walked into the server room, noticed all power was off on the array, and swapped out the power lead to fix it.
I've also seen a support engineer come in, carefully be told which Sequent S80 server was the one with the failed drives, walk around the back of the units, and power off the wrong hardware because he couldn't figure that right and left is reversed if you walk from the front to behind the racks. Hardware that was currently supporting 200 live telephone agents on the other side of the city, so now we had two corrupt databases, instead of one.
I remember years ago, my manger at the time warning us that IT people would be out of a job soon, because once Windows 95 arrived, we wouldn't be needed any more. I laughed and told him that there would be more need of us than ever before, as the average user could barely tie his shoelaces, let along fix IT problems.
User: "Computer's dead".
Me: Turns screen brightness up.
User: "All my programs have disappeared"
Me: Minimises single window that is covering desktop.
User: "My PC is slow"
Me: "Do you need all these fifteen application program running in the background that you appear to have started a few days ago and haven't used since?"
User: "Yes"
Me: "Then your PC will be slow. Close them if you are not using them".
I did walk in on a group of programmers and support people who told me they had been trying and failing to bring up the large drive array on one of the Solaris development machines for the last hour. They listed all the complex things they'd tried to access the array remotely. I walked into the server room, noticed all power was off on the array, and swapped out the power lead to fix it.
I've also seen a support engineer come in, carefully be told which Sequent S80 server was the one with the failed drives, walk around the back of the units, and power off the wrong hardware because he couldn't figure that right and left is reversed if you walk from the front to behind the racks. Hardware that was currently supporting 200 live telephone agents on the other side of the city, so now we had two corrupt databases, instead of one.
I remember years ago, my manger at the time warning us that IT people would be out of a job soon, because once Windows 95 arrived, we wouldn't be needed any more. I laughed and told him that there would be more need of us than ever before, as the average user could barely tie his shoelaces, let along fix IT problems.
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I delivered a repaired TV to a customer a few years ago. As he was on his way out he asked me to leave it in the hall.
Next day he phones shouting the odds that the TV I delivered was still faulty..In fact worse now as it was dead.
I asked him if it was plugged in and switched on.
He shouted of course its damn well plugged in and switched on. Then I heard a womans voice from another room.
Customer then says oh its just come on.
Next day he phones shouting the odds that the TV I delivered was still faulty..In fact worse now as it was dead.
I asked him if it was plugged in and switched on.
He shouted of course its damn well plugged in and switched on. Then I heard a womans voice from another room.
Customer then says oh its just come on.
this happened to me too, and I used to get loads of messenger requests from the guys old school friends, was pretty annoying. Then one of his friends considered her self a glamour model and sent him (or rather, me) some photos, including some rather intimate ones. Was not bothered by it any longer.
Not sure this entirely true. As this thread will attest.....
Not IT related but many years ago I was a cashier at Nat West, and a lady came in and held the place up for 45 minutes. Her daughter was at University and had run out of money, so she wanted to send some to her urgently, no problem, we can do that, can I take both your details and I will set up the transfer.
The mother banked with Capital One and the Daughter was with Lloyds. She screamed and shouted non stop after I calmly explained to her that there was no way for me to transfer money between two non Nat West accounts, and that she would have to go to her own bank.
The mother banked with Capital One and the Daughter was with Lloyds. She screamed and shouted non stop after I calmly explained to her that there was no way for me to transfer money between two non Nat West accounts, and that she would have to go to her own bank.
Associate
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Soldato
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I was have to be piggy in the middle to sort out a replacement laptop for a student.
The person who was meant to be sorting it complained to my boss that I'd taken 3 days to email her back. My boss was a bit cross because he knew I'd first be asked to get involved several months ago and was surprised the issue was still ongoing.
Luckily he started to see the situation from my point of view, when I pointed out the person who made the complaint had taken 3 months to email me the details!
The person who was meant to be sorting it complained to my boss that I'd taken 3 days to email her back. My boss was a bit cross because he knew I'd first be asked to get involved several months ago and was surprised the issue was still ongoing.
Luckily he started to see the situation from my point of view, when I pointed out the person who made the complaint had taken 3 months to email me the details!
If she held up the place I would be calling the police
Someone in the queue had to in the end as she wouldn't leave, and wouldn't let anyone else be served. I doubt anyone (except Rilot, maybe) has actually been to Twyford NatWest, but there is room in there for maybe a queue of 4-5 people and at the time I was the only cashier. There was about 40 people waiting to be served.
Soldato
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I'm the ICT Manager in a special needs high school in London and the number of times I can be called into a classroom to fix a mega complicated issue and be out of the room in less than a minute is quite high. I often get called to classroom because none of the students can log on. I walk in and the students say, "It says can't connect to the server". So I go to the network switch on the wall and turn it on. The teacher will sometimes say, "No, this computer". I know that someone has most likely turned the power to the network switch off.
Last year a student found that if he turned a network switch next to the computer he sat at during lessons off he could stop the teacher's computer from accessing the network. It probably wasn't the best way to connect a computer to the network that my ex-boss ever came up with. The first time I got called to that room for that issue it did fox me for a bit before I decided to track the cable back visually and then spotted the network switch with the student sat there next to it trying his best to look innocent. I wander over and lo and behold the switch is off. I asked him if he knew who turned it off, he says he doesn't know when we both know it was him. So I turn the switch on, tell teacher to wait 30 seconds and then try again. Fixed.
So I try to learn from each incident and remember next time, it could actually be really simple. Like last week a teacher told me that she couldn't connect her Macbook to the projector. I turned up and she said she'd unplugged the adapter and plugged it back in and had checked the projector was on the right input etc. I walk in, unplug the adapter, plug it back in, projector detects input and displays the Macbook desktop. I walk out with a smug look on my face and teacher looking a bit peeved that I did what she did and got it to work.
Some of my colleagues do ask the same question time and time again but I remind myself that they are keeping me in a job so I don't care.
Yup, those are normally the ones that get rude quickly and moan about how stupid other people are when sitting at a desk earning 20k a year asking people if they've plugged cables in or not.
Soldato
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Why not actually fix the problem instead of using the bodge time and again? The same for the network cabinet and have a fused spur installed.
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
That was nice, perhaps you should have been the one to contact the maintenance team given she had a class of pupils to attend to and the primary business activity of your organisation is... teaching pupils.
Doubtless you'll reply with 'Thats not my job' but then chasing who to ask to fix the power cut isn't her job either and is arguably more yours than hers.
Soldato
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Budget, lack of. There are many things my ex-boss did wrong and I can't fix them all in one go.
What network cabinet? The network switch turned off by the student? Again, budget, lack of. My new boss would say unless it was broken, don't bother with it and pay attention to what is fixed.