They Don't Pay Us Enough To Know Everything

[Jay 2K Winger]

Ugh.

So, occasionally, a printer at The Client will stop working properly for a user. Instead of printing out the correct documents, it prints out sheet after sheet of "garbage" code. It usually only does this for a particular user, not for all users.

Sucky User calls up and reports she's having this issue, but she believes it should be an easy fix, because a coworker of hers had had the same problem once, and "you guys" were able to remote in and fix it for her.

Problem: I have no way to confirm that this is true. It might be true, but it might not have been ITSD that did the remote-assist. If it was, there's a further problem-- I don't know the fix off the top of my head, and our procedures database (which has a lot of documentation on how to fix various problems) wasn't turning up anything on how to fix it.

So I gather info from SU-- the print queue name, her location and phone number-- and type up the ticket, and search in vain through our database for a fix. When I admit I'm not finding the procedure I need, she says, "Well, can you see what they did to fix my coworker's problem?"

NO, I CAN'T. Because you won't give me your coworker's name, and I'm not going to sift through over 2.3 million tickets to maybe find your coworker's ticket, and hope that whomever helped her documented their work properly.

I don't say all this to SU, though. I just tell her I can't find her coworker's ticket, because there are too many tickets to sift through to find it, and instead send it up the pipeline so it can get to someone more familiar with the problem. She wasn't happy about that, but she was mollified when I stuck an "immediate" urgency on the ticket.

[Evannah]

Funny, isn't it, how customers think we're miracle workers and capable of doing anything, but also talk to us like shit because we're only mere service workers.

[wolfie]

Does it ALWAYS do it for this user, or only in particular applications? Also, does it follow the user or the PC? I've seen this behaviour when printing PS to a PCL printer or vice versa - they may have the wrong printer driver.

[emax4]

I would have told her, "Well, do you want me to try and resolve your issue immediately, or would you like me to spend the rest of the week looking through trouble tickets to find your coworker's issue?". Then add, " I'm a technician, not a magician..."

[Ironclad Alibi]

Then add, " I'm a technician, not a magician..."

The customer's response to that is, "There's a difference?"

[raudf]

The customer's response to that is, "There's a difference?"

As far as the SC is concerned, they both rely on magic smoke. >.<

Yes, I had someone say that because their stereo broke.. "The magic smoke got loose, so it won't power on." When something becomes incompatible with "No Smoke," usually that means it's fried, dear, clueless, never should own technology beyond a rock, SC.

[otakuneko]

Ah, magic smoke. I love that little joke. I mean, how many electronics continue working after the magic smoke escapes?