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  • You're Wrong, Tech Support, but Fix It Anyway

    Co-worker comes over to my desk...

    CW: [Program I Support] isn't working.
    Me: What's wrong with it?
    CW: It's not letting me in!
    Me: Did it give you any kind of error message?
    CW: No! It's just not letting me in.

    I check her user account. Everything's fine. I tell her so. Then...

    Me: Can you give me some more details? What exactly is it doing when you try to sign in?
    CW: I put in my user ID and password and click the submit button, and then it says, "Error on page."
    Me: So it did give you an error message. What browser are you using?
    CW: It doesn't matter! [Program] should work in whatever browser I want it to!
    Me: It should, yes, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it will. What browser are you using?
    CW: Internet Explorer.
    Me: Thought so. There was a security update a couple days ago that made [Program] incompatible with your version of IE. Try a different browser.
    CW: (growls)

    Co-worker leaves. I don't hear anything else from her the rest of the day. I check and see that she signed into [Program] successfully, which means she either upgraded her IE or used a different browser.
    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

  • #2
    Refusing 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!
    Life: Reality TV for deities. - dalesys

    Comment


    • #3
      Sorry, no error message, no problem for me to fix. Come back when you're ready to give me the information I need. Bye now!
      You're only delaying the inevitable, you run at your own expense. The repo man gets paid to chase you. ~Argabarga

      Comment


      • #4
        Quoth Kittish View Post
        Sorry, no error message, no problem for me to fix. Come back when you're ready to give me the information I need. Bye now!
        Here is the conversation I seemed to have every few months with a family member.

        Her: I tried to [browse/view a photo/open a file/do something] and it didn't work
        Me: OK what happened when you clicked on it?
        Her: Nothing!
        Me: It must have done something.
        Her: No, nothing happened.
        Me: So were there any error messages, or any sort of a box on the screen where you had to click?
        Her: No, nothing.
        Me: Why didn't it open? It must have done something.
        Her: Nothing.
        Me: So the computer just sat there and did not do anything and then you had to reboot it because it was frozen?
        Her: No, I could still do other stuff, just not [browse/view a photo/open a file/do something].
        Me: OK show me.
        Her: [browse/view a photo/open a file/do something] up pops a message on the screen with an error message that explains why it didn't work.
        Me: Did it do that last time?
        Her: Yes, but it didn't [browse/view a photo/open a file/do something]
        Me: And that message there tells you why. I can't explain it better than that AND that is not nothing.
        Her: But it didn't [browse/view a photo/open a file/do something]
        Me: And that message there is what I asked you about several times. You clicked on the "OK" button didn't you?
        Her: But it didn't [browse/view a photo/open a file/do something]
        Me: But it's still not nothing.
        Her: ....I'm not asking you again!
        Me: Next time read what it says on the screen and ask me what that means, instead of saying "nothing"

        Comment


        • #5
          Quoth gerund View Post
          Her: ....I'm not asking you again!
          Can I have that in writing?
          "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


          • #6
            I go through a version of that above with my mom every couple days...although the new laptop seems to have cut down on issues. I did get a call while on vacation about the sound not working; I didn't know what she did but told her to reboot the laptop, she waits until I get home and...first thing I do is reboot the laptop. Surprise, sound works again.
            Her: "What did you do?"
            Me: "Just rebooted it. The same thing I told you to do three days ago." (she leaves her laptop on basically 24/7; the only times it reboots is when Windoze has to install updates)

            Dad is savvy enough to not only tell me what the error is, but also what he has tried--and it's never blind flailing; he knows his stuff. This is a guy who rebuilt his computer from the ground up--with surprisingly little help from me--at age 70.
            "I am quite confident that I do exist."
            "Excuse me, I'm making perfect sense. You're just not keeping up." The Doctor

            Comment


            • #7
              We kept having this sort of thing in one of my computer classes. It's a second level Windows class, and guys would still call the teacher over because...

              Student: I can't get it to work.
              Teacher:Get what to work?
              Student: Step 13
              Teacher: What are you supposed to do in step 13?
              Student: *reads textbook*
              Teacher: And what exactly happens when you follow the instructions?
              Student: *tries to reproduce problem* Oh. It worked this time.

              I really liked that teacher because he didn't baby us through anything. I successfully made an answer file, and captured and deployed an image. (I'm sure this is old hat to many of you, but it was scary for me)
              Replace anger management with stupidity management.

              Comment


              • #8
                Quoth notalwaysright View Post
                We kept having this sort of thing in one of my computer classes. It's a second level Windows class, and guys would still call the teacher over because...
                This reminds me of CompSci 101. Our lab consisted of x386 machines on Windows 3.1 running Borland's Turbo C++. Once you got the machine into an infinite loop, there was simply no way to abort Borland without a reboot. And the problem with that reboot? It took at LEAST 15 minutes as it had to completely rebuild the machine image from scratch over our very very small T1 to main campus pipeline (a T1 that served the ENTIRE campus that only went to the main campus). It was fun to watch the same folks, over and over, do the musical chair of shame as they switched machines several times in the same class for the same issue.
                But the paint on me is beginning to dry
                And it's not what I wanted to be
                The weight on me
                Is Hanging on to a weary angel - Sister Hazel

                Comment


                • #9
                  Quoth EricKei View Post
                  Can I have that in writing?
                  Didn't matter. She would say that, then about a week later the same thing would happen all over again. And the same ending.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    I know I have posted this before (WARNING weapons grade stupidity)

                    Phone rings at VERY predictable time EVERY MORNING (yes the Naval Obserbatory Atomic clock was set using this method)

                    Me: who else
                    NFWC - NUT in west coast office

                    Me: blah blah
                    NFWC : HOW do I do <procedure>???
                    ME : that same way I told you yesterday (and the day before and the day before and so on ad nausem)
                    NFWC: SO how do I do it again???
                    Me: <repeat what I said above AND refer him to the numerous Fax'ed and e-mailed instructions sent previously>

                    Next business day

                    Lather rinse repeat

                    UNTIL that system was nucked for new Y2K compliant system.
                    I'm lost without a paddle and headed up SH*T creek.
                    -- Life Sucks Then You Die.


                    "I'll believe corp. are people when Texas executes one."

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      I'm not in tech support at my job, but sometimes if a program goes down or gives unexpected results, I'm asked to research it. The first thing I try to do is recreate the problem. The users are usually pretty good about giving me enough information to go on. This particular one was not.

                      I got a trouble ticket about one of our online transactions going down. The ticket mentioned which transaction it was, but really gave no useful information. So I asked the user what exactly she was doing when it happened. Her answer was basically, "I was using (transaction) to (general description of what that particular transaction is for.)" My first thought was, "Well no shit!" But of course, I couldn't put that in an email. I took a deep breath, and then replied that I needed some information so that I could try to recreate the problem -- what she had entered on the screen, what keys she had pressed, etc. Never heard from her again. When I told my manager what happened, her response was basically, "If she can't give you anything to go on, then don't worry about out."
                      Sometimes life is altered.
                      Break from the ropes your hands are tied.
                      Uneasy with confrontation.
                      Won't turn out right. Can't turn out right

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Quoth notalwaysright View Post
                        Student: I can't get it to work.
                        Teacher:Get what to work?
                        Student: Step 13
                        Teacher: What are you supposed to do in step 13?
                        Student: *reads textbook*
                        Teacher: And what exactly happens when you follow the instructions?
                        Student: *tries to reproduce problem* Oh. It worked this time.
                        I also get this on SCO. Someone calls me over because something's not working, I ask them what the system is telling them to do, they do that and it works. Shocker

                        RM, they knew you would do it for them hence why they never learned. I'm going through the same thing...although it seems that slowly, some people are learning (or if I see another customer is going to embarrass them I let things be).
                        "I am quite confident that I do exist."
                        "Excuse me, I'm making perfect sense. You're just not keeping up." The Doctor

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Quoth gerund View Post
                          Me: And that message there is what I asked you about several times. You clicked on the "OK" button didn't you?
                          Which 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. I lost track of how many people would come into Major Electronics Retailer with computers all messed up because they installed that Win Anti Virus 2008 or whatever it was that pretended to be security software.

                          Quoth gerund View Post
                          Her: But it didn't [browse/view a photo/open a file/do something]
                          I didn't ask you what it didn't do; I asked you what it did!
                          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


                          • #14
                            My parents are notorious for this on the opposite ends. My Dad will point at whatever he has a problem with and say "fix it" without telling me anything else. My mom on the other hand will blab for 5 minutes about what she's trying to do do but never answers the question of what she actually did. In both cases trying to get the relevant info out is akin to pulling teeth.

                            ARGH!

                            I love them, really I do but when I hear "I need help with (insert electronic device)" the thought of tunneling a hole and covering it up over myself is very tempting.
                            I AM the evil bastard!
                            A+ Certified IT Technician

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              My mom is a combination of the two. The newest gripe is "why isn't the Roku loading?" OUR wifi is FINE, the problem is everyone else in the building who's streaming/gaming/etc at that time. 10Mb/s (or whatever Comcast is claiming now) isn't just for us, it's what comes into the entire building.
                              Last edited by Dreamstalker; 01-17-2015, 03:03 PM.
                              "I am quite confident that I do exist."
                              "Excuse me, I'm making perfect sense. You're just not keeping up." The Doctor

                              Comment

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