I developed the habit of cutting people off and repeating the question until I get the right answer. It works great.
Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
You're Wrong, Tech Support, but Fix It Anyway
Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
-
Me too
[/I]Quoth gremcint View PostI developed the habit of cutting people off and repeating the question until I get the right answer. It works great.
Even the answers "I don't know" or "I don't understand the question" are far better replies than the long non-answers many people give to hide their lack of knowledge.
Comment
-
Some years ago I had a customer who would screw up the after end of year procedure. He did it for about 3 years in a row before I realized he was doing it, because who remembers 12 months ago in detail?
So when I worked it out, I told him that he had done it before, and he opened his instruction manual and discovered red underlines under the parts he needed to follow and penciled in notes in his handwriting from previous years.
I understood that he could not remember from year to year, but he did it the next and the one after and the one after that. Somewhere in there I started offering to fix it so he did not have to remember the instructions. I was going to add a check for the mistake he kept making and pop up an error message then abort the program.
He said (every year) "No! I can remember it"
And the next year he would forget again.
And I would offer to fix it.
And he would refuse.
It was not a big deal to fix it every year, but it was embarrassing for him.
The torture finally stopped when he sold his business to a larger conglomerate who used a different computer system.
What was that definition of insanity?
Comment
-
Quoth mhkohne View PostRefusing to give the error message to tech support is one of those things that ought to warrent flogging at least. I can understand not remembering what the message is, but refusal? To the whipping post with you!"Hi, this is Silver. How may I lose my self respect in order to cater to your over- inflated ego today?" --- Silverrb
Comment
-
Timing
Quoth SilverOrb View PostHehe. At my office job, I'd get errors sometimes. Weird ones. I'd just screenshot them, format in Paint so they looked ok (leaving on the time) and print, making any additional notes needed. I thought I might have been a bit annoying and overly thorough, but I'm guessing that's why the IT guys all liked me lol.
I am not surprised that techs love you.
Comment
-
Part of the reason I used paint was that I ran 4 monitors at once, any screenshot meant 2 screens were captured. It would be too tiny then to see the info. I'm sure there are much better ways, but it worked and took only a min or two. Plus I could figure it out LOL."Hi, this is Silver. How may I lose my self respect in order to cater to your over- inflated ego today?" --- Silverrb
Comment
-
Sense
Quoth SilverOrb View PostPart of the reason I used paint was that I ran 4 monitors at once, any screenshot meant 2 screens were captured. It would be too tiny then to see the info. I'm sure there are much better ways, but it worked and took only a min or two. Plus I could figure it out LOL.
Four screens with I don't know how many programs would be a mess to capture the errors. Just keep at it.
Comment
-
I assume you screen cap by using Print Screen? If you use ALT-Print Screen it just grabs the current app that has focus, even if you are on multiple monitors. (If your app is straddling monitors it might grab things that overlap it in the straddle). Of course then you don't have the Taskbar with the time stamp on it, but that can be added in after. (You can click the Task bar in Win7 and press Alt-printscreen to paste it into a graphics program as well)
Comment
-
Thanks
Quoth Jetfire View PostI assume you screen cap by using Print Screen? If you use ALT-Print Screen it just grabs the current app that has focus, even if you are on multiple monitors. (If your app is straddling monitors it might grab things that overlap it in the straddle). Of course then you don't have the Taskbar with the time stamp on it, but that can be added in after. (You can click the Task bar in Win7 and press Alt-printscreen to paste it into a graphics program as well)
Comment
-
another one is use the snipping tool if you have Win 7. (you'll find it on the Accessories menu)
you can then select the area of the screen you want. mostly you won't get in the time but you can always mark that in the file name or something.I am so SO glad I was not present for this. There would have been an unpleasant duct tape incident. - Joi
Comment
-
Quoth HawaiianShirts View PostWhich is exactly why all those malware installers work. They throw something at an inexperienced user that looks like a generic error message; out of habit, the user just clicks OK without reading the message or even thinking about it.
Quoth Gizmo View Postanother one is use the snipping tool if you have Win 7. (you'll find it on the Accessories menu)"For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
"The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
"Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
"There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
"Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
"Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
"Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me
Comment
-
This same co-worker pulled another one.
A control icon disappeared from a website that she has to use often. I don't know why. I don't have any control over the site; we just post content to it. Co-worker flipped out and complained to me and to my manager that she can't do her work properly without that control icon. I pointed out that she could execute the same command with a drop-down menu selection (total of three clicks). That, apparently, wasn't good enough.
So we contact the vendor. Vendor does some research, determines that it's a browser thing. We can't use one browser on this site due to security concerns; the other two we're allowed to use don't support whatever it is that made that control icon work.
I report this to Co-worker. She doesn't like it. She argues with my manager, and they go to the vendor again. I was taken out of the loop for a while.
I just heard the resolution last week. The vendor suggested a workaround that involved a drop-down menu selection. Y'know, the SAME SUGGESTION I MADE the MOMENT the problem was reported to me. That was acceptable. Co-worker informed me that she and her team will now be using that drop-down menu to do that one step that they occasionally need to do on the site.
Grr.
Quoth SilverOrb View PostI thought I might have been a bit annoying and overly thorough, but I'm guessing that's why the IT guys all liked me lol.I suspect that... inside every adult (sometimes not very far inside) is a bratty kid who wants everything his own way.
- Bill Watterson
My co-workers: They're there when they need me.
- IPF
Comment
Comment