Just got off this call. I wouldn't exactly classify the guy as Sucky, just frustrated, but we went around and around for almost fifteen minutes on this.
So it transpires that [User] has been having nothing but problems since he was transitioned from ONE to ENVY (the network environments at The Client). Key among his issues are problems with his mouse going "zippy" (unresponsive, or the cursor goes zipping all over the screen from the slightest of movements) and with his word program being extremely slow.
The mouse issue had apparently been fixed earlier that day, when a tech came by and swapped out the mouse. However, the problem returned, and even when the user swapped out another mouse, it persisted. Hence, the problem is not with the mouse, but with his workstation, or with the toggle device that allows users to switch between ENVY and the other networks The Client uses. In either case, it means a tech has to visit his workstation to troubleshoot, and at 8PM, that won't happen until tomorrow. There is nothing I can do from ITSD.
The word program issue has been ongoing for almost a week now. He could type out a sentence, and it takes several minutes for the letters to appear on the screen. Ditto for deleting things. His major concern, however, is that he needs to go home for the day, but he is unable to save his work.
It's worth mentioning that [User] is apparently one of those users who doesn't realize that there are keyboard shortcuts in word programs like this. Ctrl+S is a common save function. But no, apparently [User] uses the mouse to click the Save icon or go through the menu. And with a zippy mouse, that's virtually impossible to do.
[User] wanted me to remote in to see if I could troubleshoot it, but he admits that he wouldn't be able to click the buttons that grant me access to do so, due to the mouse problem.
I tell him about the Ctrl+S shortcut, which works, but again, he doesn't know how to use the keyboard for when the mouse won't work, and he can't get the cursor into the file-name field any other way.
And then, to top it all off, his workstation locks up completely. Even his keyboard won't respond, and his monitor is frozen. At this point, the only option to unfreeze it is to perform a hard shutdown.
Naturally, [User] doesn't want to do this, not without saving his document. He asks if there's any way I can do an auto-save, but I explain there's nothing I can do without access to his system, and if his computer is completely frozen, that means there's even less I can do.
We went around in circles a few more times as he reiterated how long he's been having this issue with his word program, and the mouse issue, and I reiterated for him that I had re-opened the mouse issue's ticket, and that I'd sent an escalation request email to the tech and team assigned to the word program's ticket. Apart from that, however, there was nothing more I could do.
I explained there is an auto-save feature in the word program, and since [User] has apparently been working on this particular document for a few months, he won't have lost everything. At most, only everything he'd done that day, at best, only a few minutes' worth of work. There's no way to tell, I told him, until after performing a hard reboot.
Finally, [User] accepted that, as I'd been patiently (or near to it) explaining, there was nothing I could do, and he hung up.
So it transpires that [User] has been having nothing but problems since he was transitioned from ONE to ENVY (the network environments at The Client). Key among his issues are problems with his mouse going "zippy" (unresponsive, or the cursor goes zipping all over the screen from the slightest of movements) and with his word program being extremely slow.
The mouse issue had apparently been fixed earlier that day, when a tech came by and swapped out the mouse. However, the problem returned, and even when the user swapped out another mouse, it persisted. Hence, the problem is not with the mouse, but with his workstation, or with the toggle device that allows users to switch between ENVY and the other networks The Client uses. In either case, it means a tech has to visit his workstation to troubleshoot, and at 8PM, that won't happen until tomorrow. There is nothing I can do from ITSD.
The word program issue has been ongoing for almost a week now. He could type out a sentence, and it takes several minutes for the letters to appear on the screen. Ditto for deleting things. His major concern, however, is that he needs to go home for the day, but he is unable to save his work.
It's worth mentioning that [User] is apparently one of those users who doesn't realize that there are keyboard shortcuts in word programs like this. Ctrl+S is a common save function. But no, apparently [User] uses the mouse to click the Save icon or go through the menu. And with a zippy mouse, that's virtually impossible to do.
[User] wanted me to remote in to see if I could troubleshoot it, but he admits that he wouldn't be able to click the buttons that grant me access to do so, due to the mouse problem.
I tell him about the Ctrl+S shortcut, which works, but again, he doesn't know how to use the keyboard for when the mouse won't work, and he can't get the cursor into the file-name field any other way.
And then, to top it all off, his workstation locks up completely. Even his keyboard won't respond, and his monitor is frozen. At this point, the only option to unfreeze it is to perform a hard shutdown.
Naturally, [User] doesn't want to do this, not without saving his document. He asks if there's any way I can do an auto-save, but I explain there's nothing I can do without access to his system, and if his computer is completely frozen, that means there's even less I can do.
We went around in circles a few more times as he reiterated how long he's been having this issue with his word program, and the mouse issue, and I reiterated for him that I had re-opened the mouse issue's ticket, and that I'd sent an escalation request email to the tech and team assigned to the word program's ticket. Apart from that, however, there was nothing more I could do.
I explained there is an auto-save feature in the word program, and since [User] has apparently been working on this particular document for a few months, he won't have lost everything. At most, only everything he'd done that day, at best, only a few minutes' worth of work. There's no way to tell, I told him, until after performing a hard reboot.
Finally, [User] accepted that, as I'd been patiently (or near to it) explaining, there was nothing I could do, and he hung up.
Comment