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Thread: Tales from Techsupport

  1. #621
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    Quote Originally Posted by Mileron View Post
    Email from Project Manager overseeing my office's move next month:

    PM: While reviewing the phone circuit setups we noticed there's no internet connection ordered for the new office.
    Maybe you should check the plumbing setups. They may be where they were expecting to get access to the intartubes.
    Virtually all U.S. senators, and most of the representatives in the House, are members of the top 1 percent when they arrive, are kept in office by money from the top 1 percent, and know that if they serve the top 1 percent well they will be rewarded by the top 1 percent when they leave office

  2. #622
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    I just spent 40 minutes total with one of my major problem users (a Sales rep) explaining the different between Normal/100%/96DPI fonts, and Large/150%/HUGE-DPI fonts.

    I can't tell you how many times he said "Now which one's bigger?"

  3. #623
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    I just spent 40 minutes total with one of my major problem users (a Sales rep) explaining the different between Normal/100%/96DPI fonts, and Large/150%/HUGE-DPI fonts.

    I can't tell you how many times he said "Now which one's bigger?"
    SMALL
    big


    Neither - they're both the same, it's all an optical illusion.
    I've got beer to drink and You guys are wasting my time.

  4. #624
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    The one that's closer is bigger, everybody knows that! I can eclipse the Moon with a dime!

  5. #625
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    Email from Problem User: I've been trying to print this 58 page report for the last hour, but every time I try, nothing's coming out.
    Me: Which printer are you using? Are there any errors?
    PU: No errors. It says "spooling" then I see the balloon that says "Print successful on HP printer." But, my printer isn't HP, it's Lexmark. Nothing's coming out.
    Me: We don't have any Lexmark printers in the office. Are you working from home?
    PU: Yes.

    I walk over to the printer and find a full output bin of multiple copies of the same report. More than a ream of paper's worth. So she had to print it 10 times.
    I had to delete 4 additional copies of the job from the server print queue.

  6. #626
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    Caller: Every time I open my program, I get a prompt about something, which I ignore. When I try to print, I get the same error message.
    Me: Is the error message referencing installing .NET Framework 4?
    Caller: Yes, how did you know?
    Me: You need to get your tech to install it.
    Caller: I don't want to, I just want to print.
    Me: You can't without it.
    Caller: I don't want your shitty software, I just want to print.
    Me: This software the program requires is from Microsoft.
    Caller: Oh? I love Microsoft! But I just want my fucking tax form to print!
    Me: Talk to your tech.

  7. #627
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    it is honestly amazing how dumb people are still around technology. I have even come across college students who do not understand basic concepts, And today these are kids that have had technology most of their life. It is not like they grew up in the 1980s and had to start programs with a command line.(I think half would be lost if they had to do C:\games\angrybirds.exe )
    Today we sail
    On the Solar Rail
    For there's much we just don't know
    So farewell with a kiss
    Then it's fast for the mist
    Till we're sleeping in the cold below

  8. #628
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    AW: Tales from Techsupport

    Quote Originally Posted by FilanFyretracker View Post
    it is honestly amazing how dumb people are still around technology. I have even come across college students who do not understand basic concepts, And today these are kids that have had technology most of their life. It is not like they grew up in the 1980s and had to start programs with a command line.(I think half would be lost if they had to do C:\games\angrybirds.exe )
    And the world would be a better place.

  9. #629
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    We used to rely on the enjoyment of a small but distinct learning-curve barrier to entry in our field, but ever since the late Nineties the tech has allowed people too lazy and stupid to remember a small handful of commands to just sort of poke and flail about until they can wriggle their way into anything, even an IT job sometimes. It's sort of like the Endless September.

  10. #630
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    Had a call from one of our users yesterday -

    User - my mouse keeps sticking - the cursor kind of stops moving. Can I get a new one?
    Tech - what kind of mouse is it? ball or red light type?
    User (after a minute or so trying to work it out) - ball
    Tech - it's probably just dirty then - you can clean it out yourself
    User - (sounding VERY unsure) can you send a tech out to fix it
    Tech - (with me thinking WTF? in the background) um...... ok. So we are sending a desktop support tech out to clean a ball mouse.

    The effective intelligence of some of our users really scares me sometimes.

  11. #631
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    We have a new software for managing payments. Well, managing finances and everything. But it also manages payments, i.e. you enter your invoices and every now and then you let it generate a list with due payments and import that into your banking software.

    Someone with at least 1.7 times my income is too dense to remember which buttons to click. I get called at home to babysit the guy through the process via teamviewer.
    Not once. Not twice. Third time already and I know it's going to happen again.
    This is on top of him having printouts of the screen of EVERY step he needs to take. For fucks sake, this man went to university and got a degree in finances but can't handle the software we use. WITH INSTRUCTIONS PRINTED OUT NEXT TO HIM.

    Yeah it's ok I was bored anyway, let me do your job on top of mine.

  12. #632
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    I think maybe companies need to worry less about specific degrees and worry more about how competition future employees are with the tools of the job.

    It seems a common theme in this thread is that lots of callers to the support line are very well educated people that have no clue how to use the tools they need.
    Today we sail
    On the Solar Rail
    For there's much we just don't know
    So farewell with a kiss
    Then it's fast for the mist
    Till we're sleeping in the cold below

  13. #633
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    [QUOTE=FilanFyretracker;1776859]I think maybe companies need to worry less about specific degrees and worry more about how competition future employees are with the tools of the job./QUOTE]

    You meant "competent," right? Irony!

  14. #634
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    [QUOTE=Alikat Astrae;1776861]
    Quote Originally Posted by FilanFyretracker View Post
    I think maybe companies need to worry less about specific degrees and worry more about how competition future employees are with the tools of the job./QUOTE]

    You meant "competent," right? Irony!
    That is what I get for typing quickly on a phone =x I proof read much better on my big monitor.... And downside with rants is no edit button.
    Today we sail
    On the Solar Rail
    For there's much we just don't know
    So farewell with a kiss
    Then it's fast for the mist
    Till we're sleeping in the cold below

  15. #635
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    Yesterday morning I get an email from a tech in the NYC office of my company's NetOps group.

    "We got a report from the AV system that a computer used by User_001 is infected by a virus (with included virus name). Please refer to Internal Company Document for assistance in discovering more information about this virus and for steps on how to fix this."

    So I look up the name of the virus. It doesn't exist. It's not on the AV manufacturer's website. It doesn't come up on Google. The logs of the AV on the user's system don't show any reference of that virus - or any other - since it was installed.

    WTH.

    The user is the QA manager and is in charge of packaging my company's software, so I knew I couldn't keep it for too long.
    So I take her system and run a safe mode scan on it with the AV. Still nothing. I pop the drive out and scan it via my computer. Nothing.

    So I put it back together and run an online scan which over the course of 3 scans - Quick, Full (which wasn't), and Custom (whole drive), finally find pretty much everything.

    Except there's one "suspicious" file that's part of the dev group's version control system. I can't delete it until she can contact their support for troubleshooting.

    So I put the computer back on her desk, show her the scan log report and the name of the file that was marked as "suspicious". She doesn't recognize it.

    So what does she do?

    Copies the full file path to that executable, opens an Explorer window, pastes in the path AND EXE name, and hits enter.

    A DOS prompt flashes up on screen and the computer shuts down.

  16. #636
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    Looks like an opening for a QA manager.

  17. #637
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    Quote Originally Posted by Mitebe View Post
    Looks like an opening for a QA manager.
    This is exactly what I would expect a QA Manager to do - test the object in front of her. In her case, it passed the initial test - it did, in fact, break her computer, as intended.

    Nice.
    FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC
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  18. #638
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    Quote Originally Posted by Yttrium View Post
    This is exactly what I would expect a QA Manager to do - test the object in front of her. In her case, it passed the initial test - it did, in fact, break her computer, as intended.

    Nice.
    She had no func spec to base her actions on. She did not develop a test case and have it signed off by the necessary parties. She did not have an expected results list. She did not follow any sort of regimented QA procedure.

    Fail.
    Virtually all U.S. senators, and most of the representatives in the House, are members of the top 1 percent when they arrive, are kept in office by money from the top 1 percent, and know that if they serve the top 1 percent well they will be rewarded by the top 1 percent when they leave office

  19. #639
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    How you test a button? You push it and see what happens. After that phase, you start considering if that what happened was the intended result.
    Terry Pratchett: A European says: I can't understand this, what's wrong with me? An American says: I can't understand this, what's wrong with him?
    Torcer Arcana: There are times I really love the Dutch.
    Zedd: Bran, I think you exhibit moonbat qualities at times
    ?????????: Never argue with a stupid man, because he will drag you down to his level and beat you because of his experience.

  20. #640
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    Re: Tales from Techsupport

    But you don't push the button until you RTFM, and why push it at all without a func spec? You have no idea if the outcome is the desired one without a func spec.

    For all she knew, that could have been the History Eraser Button! The shiny red button! The jolly candy-like button!

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