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So, I get a rambling voicemail from an end user about how she was trying to set up a folder in her Outlook for <local group> and it wouldn't let her because she had 'too many windows' open so she decided to 'delete some windows' and now her folder and all of her email are completely gone and it won't send or receive and this happened last Monday but she felt sick and decided to go home and can we fix it now that she is back?
So, trying to log a ticket for the specific problem was a bit difficult. Other than the ID-10-T label.
I find out that the PC she's having the problem is not even her own PC, but a shared PC. Granted, she uses the shared PC about 40% of the time, so it is not unusual for her to be on it.
This morning, I assigned the issue to our IT contractor, and he said Outlook was set to Offline and he fixed that. He noted that there were no deleted messages to be restored from the server for the exchange account tied to that email and there was nothing in the Deleted folder so, while emails could be sent and received, there was nothing else we could do for her. Ticket closed and all is good.
About two hours later I get another rambling phone call about the same bloody problem. And why haven't we worked on it since it started last Monday and she's been out sick and we had all last week to work on it. Even though her last voicemail from 7:30 AM noted that she chose not to call us until this week. Good thing I save those voicemails.
So, I call her back and ask why she's still having the problem when <contractor> was able to resolve it. The response: Oh, I didn't try it, but the computer didn't look different so I didn't think anyone had worked on it. (Side note: Apparently the computer looks different if you fix the email settings?
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Five minutes later she calls to say the problem is not fixed because her emails are still missing. I go over the notes with her explaining that nothing was on the server or in her deleted files and it looks like any information that was lost is gone for good. Cue rant about how we deleted her files and caused her to lose all of her contacts, etc.
Finally, I get her off the phone, log a new ticket for my work and head down myself. I get there, check the Outlook account is setup, verify nothing in the deleted folder (and I checked the backups on the server on my way down to ensure there was nothing we could restore for this account - there wasn't.) I reiterate again that it appears everything was deleted long enough ago that we don't have any copies to be restored and that she or one of the other users must have deleted the emails.
She insists she only 'deleted windows' and not emails. I get her to show me how she deletes windows and she demonstrates by closing out IE using the 'big red Delete X in the corner.'
After a good 10 minutes of back and forth about how IT did not, in any way, shape, or form, delete her email and folders she finally mentions that she sent an email to herself and didn't get it down here.
And at this point the light goes on in my head. So I ask - Why would you get personal email here when this is the shared email account for the store personnel and not tied to your personal email?
She looks at me like I just grew an extra head or three and says 'Well, I sat down here so the computer should know I want to see my email when I open up Outlook and not the store email.'
I then open the Outlook web portal and have her log in to her email and VOILA! she's astounded that I've 'undeleted' the lost emails and folders. I explained the difference - several times - and eventually escaped sans aneurysm.
What really kills me about this is that she has been accessing her own email from that computer with the web portal for several years and has now just completely forgotten all of that for no apparent reason other than to torture us with extraneous IT tickets.
So, trying to log a ticket for the specific problem was a bit difficult. Other than the ID-10-T label.
I find out that the PC she's having the problem is not even her own PC, but a shared PC. Granted, she uses the shared PC about 40% of the time, so it is not unusual for her to be on it.
This morning, I assigned the issue to our IT contractor, and he said Outlook was set to Offline and he fixed that. He noted that there were no deleted messages to be restored from the server for the exchange account tied to that email and there was nothing in the Deleted folder so, while emails could be sent and received, there was nothing else we could do for her. Ticket closed and all is good.
About two hours later I get another rambling phone call about the same bloody problem. And why haven't we worked on it since it started last Monday and she's been out sick and we had all last week to work on it. Even though her last voicemail from 7:30 AM noted that she chose not to call us until this week. Good thing I save those voicemails.
So, I call her back and ask why she's still having the problem when <contractor> was able to resolve it. The response: Oh, I didn't try it, but the computer didn't look different so I didn't think anyone had worked on it. (Side note: Apparently the computer looks different if you fix the email settings?
)Five minutes later she calls to say the problem is not fixed because her emails are still missing. I go over the notes with her explaining that nothing was on the server or in her deleted files and it looks like any information that was lost is gone for good. Cue rant about how we deleted her files and caused her to lose all of her contacts, etc.
Finally, I get her off the phone, log a new ticket for my work and head down myself. I get there, check the Outlook account is setup, verify nothing in the deleted folder (and I checked the backups on the server on my way down to ensure there was nothing we could restore for this account - there wasn't.) I reiterate again that it appears everything was deleted long enough ago that we don't have any copies to be restored and that she or one of the other users must have deleted the emails.
She insists she only 'deleted windows' and not emails. I get her to show me how she deletes windows and she demonstrates by closing out IE using the 'big red Delete X in the corner.'
After a good 10 minutes of back and forth about how IT did not, in any way, shape, or form, delete her email and folders she finally mentions that she sent an email to herself and didn't get it down here.
And at this point the light goes on in my head. So I ask - Why would you get personal email here when this is the shared email account for the store personnel and not tied to your personal email?
She looks at me like I just grew an extra head or three and says 'Well, I sat down here so the computer should know I want to see my email when I open up Outlook and not the store email.'
I then open the Outlook web portal and have her log in to her email and VOILA! she's astounded that I've 'undeleted' the lost emails and folders. I explained the difference - several times - and eventually escaped sans aneurysm.
What really kills me about this is that she has been accessing her own email from that computer with the web portal for several years and has now just completely forgotten all of that for no apparent reason other than to torture us with extraneous IT tickets.
I AM the evil bastard!
it's fighting against all kinds of stubbornness and in the end, I just don't care... it's YOUR COMPANY that's wasting time and computer power.
It . . .I quit!"
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