IT tales

[topane]

Here's a conversation between myself and an end-user at my company:

User: My Notes is broken
Me: Um, OK, what seems to be the problem?
User: Well, when I type in "Judy" in the To box, it asks me if I want "Judy" or "JudyG"
Me: OK, and your problem is...
User: Well, it never used to do that
Me: Never used to ask you?
User: No
Me: If you put a comma after "Judy" in the To box, it will assume that's the end of the name and pick "Judy". If you don't have any separator in there, it will ask
User: It never did that before
Me: Yes it did, you never noticed. You could always double-click the names in the address book.
User: No it didn't
Me: Yes it did, it does the same thing for me and everyone else
User: Well, it didn't for me

and on and on...
*sigh*

[Burzhui]

Yea i remember the IT days at Pace some people are retarded did i tell about when a user called and said that her cd drive doesn't work?
And to make a long story short after i took it appart there was a floppy disk stuck in there... but not from the top, like you would load a cd, but from the bottom of the tray? I had to leave her office cause i wanted to sla her around a bit, call her names, and take her computer away.....


Honestly i want to start a PETA type organization for computers

[jase71]

My job ends up being about 50% hardware tech work, even though I'm supposed to be a consultant.

But we've got one guy here, a desktop support guy, who couldn't troubleshoot his way out of a paper bag.

He blames a huge number of problems on bad network cards. Network cards very seldom fail. I get tickets all the time with no explanation other than "bad nic. replace".

Last time I got a ticket from him, the problem description was "PC will not boot. Comes up with "Operating System Not Found" error." This guy's description of the problem? "Bad Nic. Replace." Needless to say, it wasn't the NIC. It was a dead hard drive.

Time before that a PC was blue screening with an error related to
CSAudio.sys. His solution? Bad nic. Replace. He'd installed the wrong audio drivers on the pc.

He kills me...

[topane]

Same person, 3 minutes later...

User: Can you do something about this Notes?
Me: What seems to be your problem? (She didn't notice the word your instead of the)
User: Now I can't send email to Kristine?
Me: What kind of error are you getting?
User: Kristine not found in any address book
Me: You mistyped "Kristine". It's spelled with a "K"
User: No, I didn't (typing in background). Oh, it's working now.

*bangs head on desk*

Next time I'll tell her it a "bad NIC"

[Markel]

Way back during my senior year of college (29 years ago, gulp!) I get a call from a lady that did data entry at a place I was doing some work for. She just was saying that the computer wouldn't start. In those days, there was no autoboot. On this particular system you would enter a particular command into a switch panel, click on a button to execute the command, and it would read a header block from the tape. You would then press a "Start 20" or "Start 200" switch to get things running. This lady had very detailed instructions (turn the teletype to "On" and not to "Local") on how to get things started. After I had about exhausted everything I could think of, I asked her, "Did you turn the computer power on?". And from the other end of the line, I hear "Oh...."

[jase71]

Notes is a rough one to support on the phone.

I used to have to do some Notes support. I
dreaded hearing "I'm having a problem with
Lotus..."

Sales Reps, dialing up on laptops out of
hotel rooms, were the worst. Arrogance
and ignorance make a dangerous combination.

[Burzhui]

Originally posted by jase71

He kills me...
Kill him back, why do they keep him on the job?

:angry:

[chrissy]

When working for UPS, some/most of our calls came from customers using our equipment (if they had large enough accts, they had a contract for our computer system being installed at their site). So we had to troubleshoot over the phone with people whos computer usage was type in custID and hit F10 to get the label. The bad thing is, most of the time, a simple reboot would fix the problem. But our field support guys, when they installed the system, would put a label over the power button with "DO NOT TURN OFF!" written on it. *sigh*

The Acct. Reps. where just as bad. They would go down to the customers site, and if they didn't qualify for our hardware, take it upon themselves to install our software on their network. The software can do this, but it is picky. The shared directory has to be a mapped drive and the "admin installation" has to be in a place where the person using the software can get to it. Normally this is a secretary somewhere or a mailroom. I can't tell you how many times we would get a system where the IT dept had installed it to the admin being on the network or thier system and they couldn't figure out why the mailroom guy had to bug him at the end of the day to get the daily reports --"why can't this be done from his system?"

*sigh*

Glad I am not in that mess anymore...

[jase71]

Originally posted by Burzhui

Kill him back, why do they keep him on the job?



I'd like to know the answer to that myself.

But I suspect it's because he's been there for 23 years. And he whines and moans enough to convince his manager that he's a poor, oppressed, overworked victim. Not to mention, his manager understands NOTHING technical, so he never really grasps how inept the guy is.

Glad I'm a consultant, not an employee. But I still have to deal with the idiots.

[Burzhui]

Originally posted by jase71
Notes is a rough one to support on the phone.

I used to have to do some Notes support. I
dreaded hearing "I'm having a problem with
Lotus..."

Sales Reps, dialing up on laptops out of
hotel rooms, were the worst. Arrogance
and ignorance make a dangerous combination.


We still use notes, i hate notes:angry:

[Markel]

We use Notes as well. The only good thing I can say about it is that at least we aren't as susceptible to all the Outlook vulnerabilies. But notes is so typical IBM - "Never use an existing standard. Create a new one."

[Burzhui]

Originally posted by Markel
"Never use an existing standard. Create a new one."

I hate that by the way,, their computer have flathead scrws in them it was such a pain in the A$$ when i did tech work... why would you create a standard and then break your own standard... also their computers are pure crap, if i was to buy a brand name manufacturer... it would be dell or HP, never an IBM or compaq

[Markel]

This has been the IBM way since the dark ages. Remember how long they stuck with EBCDIC when the rest of the world was using ASCII? Remember how long they tried to prolong the use of punched cards (even to the ridiculous 132 column "mini-cards") when the rest of the world was using direct input? [Well, maybe some of you don't remember. :) ] It just goes on and on.

[topane]

Originally posted by Markel
We use Notes as well. The only good thing I can say about it is that at least we aren't as susceptible to all the Outlook vulnerabilies. But notes is so typical IBM - "Never use an existing standard. Create a new one." Yeah, the server is a pretty sharp product, but the client app is a pain. Why is F9 refresh when it is F5 for every other windows app? Hell, F5 logg of your ID. It is maddening, but I suppose you get used to it.

[Markel]

Originally posted by topane
Why is F9 refresh when it is F5 for every other windows app?
It is exactly for the reason that every other app uses F5 that IBM MUST use something else. I think it is so that they (and the ones they indoctrinate) can appear to be so "expert", just because they know their ways around the non-standards.

I remember at a past job when my (sometimes hardheaded) manager and an IBM rep got into an argument on the "correct" pronunciation of "EBCDIC". :heh:

[hoey222]

I had one person ask me why she couldn't drag a folder to her CD drive.

"I put a CD-R in, why won't it work?"

Me: ummm....Cause you don't have a CD-R drive......

ug........:banghead:

[Thunder]

the story goes something like this...

we moved our entire IT department to a new building...and moved a bunch of our stuff to new servers. in the process we also moved our entire company intranet to another server...

someone calls and says the intranet on their computer is no longer working...it used to, but not anymore. she wanted an IT person to go to her station and 'reinstall' the intranet on her computer agian :)

[PuTangClan]

My IS prof. told me about this one:

A lady called him up asking him why her pedal on her PC wasn't working. After a few seconds of silence my prof. asked her what the hell was talking about. Turns out she was using the mouse as a pedal.

[evil-will]

Originally posted by Thunder
reinstall' the intranet on her computer agian :)


Bwa-ha-ha-ha!! I used to get calls from users asking me to help them "make their AIM work" or " why cant i download from napster here, i can do it from home"

[Jeffbx]

Originally posted by Burzhui



We still use notes, i hate notes:angry:

I hate Notes too. Everyone hates Notes. I wish I had Exchange... :(

[jase71]

Originally posted by PuTangClan

A lady called him up asking him why her pedal on her PC wasn't working. After a few seconds of silence my prof. asked her what the hell was talking about. Turns out she was using the mouse as a pedal.

I had a similar call once. An older lady called up and asked for mouse with bigger buttons, because the ones on her current mouse were too small for her toes. Took a minute for that to register...

To be fair, she was an older woman, had never used a pc, and just started the job. Her new co-workers told her it worked that way, and she believed them...

[topane]

Originally posted by Jeffbx


I hate Notes too. Everyone hates Notes. :P

[Markel]

Originally posted by Jeffbx

I hate Notes too. Everyone hates Notes.
Except the people who make big bucks because they've learned how to administer Notes. Typical IBM scenario. :(

[fakesurfers]

Originally posted by Jeffbx


I hate Notes too. Everyone hates Notes. I wish I had Exchange... :(

Notes isn't that bad, when it's properly administered.

[Jeffbx]

Originally posted by fakesurfers


Notes isn't that bad, when it's properly administered.

No, not bad, but by comparison Exchange/Outlook is so much nicer. I had an error with Notes the other day where the client wouldn't allow me to copy or paste anything anywhere. The fix? Reboot. Dang Notes.

[Loki]

One of the many IT horror episodes I've encountered:

User: My email isn't working.
Me: ok well let's see if you can get online at all.
User: ok
Me: can you get on the internet?
User: no
Me: Let's check you email settings
User: ok
Me: (goes through and checks to see if the servers are correct)
Me: Ok well I'm not sure why you can't get online.
(me thinks for a moment)
Me: do you have a laptop?
User: yes
Me: Is it plugged in to the network?
User: No it runs off the battery
Me: (thinking I heard wrong) Did you say that there are no cables going from your computer to the wall?
User: no

:banghead:

[topane]

Originally posted by Jeffbx


No, not bad, but by comparison Exchange/Outlook is so much nicer. I had an error with Notes the other day where the client wouldn't allow me to copy or paste anything anywhere. The fix? Reboot. Dang Notes. Yeah, Notes has this funky thing where if it gets whacked, it wants a reboot. Try killing the "nhldaemn.exe" process and you should be able to restart the client fine.

[attgig]

Originally posted by Jeffbx
No, not bad, but by comparison Exchange/Outlook is so much nicer. I had an error with Notes the other day where the client wouldn't allow me to copy or paste anything anywhere. The fix? Reboot. Dang Notes.

HEY!!! that's just like MS Windows....
problem.....anything
the fix?
95% - Reboot :D
4% - reinstall windows. :D
1% - go to regedit and have fun :D