But youens ran them wires! (end user story) Tech Support |
| But youens ran them wires! (end user story) Posted: 01 Jul 2018 08:36 AM PDT Another story from my days as a tech support worker for a small ISP in rural Indiana. Me: "$typical phone greeting" Customer: "My power is out." Me: I'm thinking maybe he just got some numbers mixed up and maybe I should just give him the outage number for his electric company. I'm able to quickly pull up his account based on his phone number. "OK, I have the number for $electriccompany here, are you ready to write it down or would you like me to transfer you to them?" Customer: "Whut? Youenz needs to come fix it, youenz ran them whaaarrs" (wires) Me: Rather amused at this point "We ran the fiber optics to your house, but not the electricity. $Electricconpany would need to fix them. Would you like me to transfer you to $electriccompany?" Customer: now quite upset, starts yelling at me to come fix his electricity because "We ran the wharrs" Me: I begrudgingly start to open a ticket, whereas before I didn't even feel the need to log the call as it seemed like a wrong number. As I pull up more account information, I see that several set top boxes are up and functioning normally. "Uh, it looks like your TV service is working, and I also see your data services are up and running too-- did your power come back on?" Customer: "No damnit, the power is only out in ma garage! Where youenz ran the wharrs!" Me: "Oh, you mean the battery backup for your fiber services? Yes that's installed in your garage. But it seems to be working, I'm seeing a normal battery status from here, so the power must only be out for some of you outlets." ..... This leads to me teaching a grown man about GFCI outlets, even though this has nothing to do with our service, all the while with him ranting about how our wharrz messed up his power. Edit: By request, adding the resolution. I just asked questions regarding the outlets in his garage to see if any were GFCI. We found one with the button out, so I told him what that means-- that something shorted or faulted an electrical circuit, and all the outlets on that circuit would stop working. He found a crappy extension cord running through a part of his garage with a puddle. I recommended he unplug it before resetting the GFCI. He did so, then reset it. Power was restored to his garage, including to his garage door. He was actually very thankful and apologetic-- I don't remember the exact words but something to the effect of realizing it "wasn't youenz whars after all." Happy customer with problem (albeit not our problem) fixed. [link] [comments]  |
| Coolest family support I have been apart of so far Posted: 30 Jun 2018 01:24 PM PDT Any vital details has been changed for very obvious reasons. So my mother calls me up:
Jeff is a happy old man, and his personality is like the perfect granddad. He starts shooting me pictures of some software I have never seen before and start talking about a server he can't connect to. This leads me no where, so I ask him if we could do some remote support. He responds back that it will not be possible but he will be over the next day if that is okay. I tell him it is. The next day there is a knock on the door:
Jeff hands me this very old laptop. Looks at least 15 years old and I look at it and see a sticker that has been torn off where i can make out "avy".
Jeff: <REDACTED NAME>
We get the computer started with no issues
I click on the shortcut where there is a radar on it. And I get an error message. I quickly figure out that the installation is wrong and I go through the process of reinstalling it. I will skip this part because it just trouble shooting and following 2 guides that are both right and wrong, but I get through it and gets the server started.
I start the client and it pops up fine and suddenly I have a screen of my nations outline that looks like a RADAR picture and all surrounding contries. I look up on the task bar and see plane, boats, tanks, and nuke icons plus alot of other military looking things.
So what I have not said yet was that Jeff is a veteran and a highly ranking one at that. He somehow convinced the army/navy of my country to hand him a decommisioned tool that was used by our army for real and is now trying to use it for role playing games in a real world war 2 bunker where collages kids is going to see a scenario play out on a former real life war program, controlled by him.
TLDR: I did family support for a family freind, expecting it to be just normal computer error. Instead I got to play with software used by the army/navy 10 years ago on an old windows NT machine that is going to be used in a roleplaying game in a real bunker 2 months from now, with live radar feed from my country! Currently Jeff is sampling the system. If it goes okay I may have an update on how the role playing went in about 2-3 months as I might need to help them set it up. UPDATE: I remembered wrong. Jeff did not get live feed. Jeff would get a CD with data taken from live feed where there was an ongoing drill happening with mock enemies and such, which dates back some years. So sorry for that confusion. I also talked to Jeff about releasing it online. He was not overly fond of the idea, even though the program has been declassified, so I will follow his feelings and not release it. I am sorry. I will however take some screenshots so you guys can see what the program looks like. I will posts these later today. UPDATE 2: Here is a screenshot of the program. I have covered up anything that would give away to many details. The maps is zoomed in to a local area. I added some object to it as good as I could. I have very basic knowledge from Jeff. I hope this is a good replacement instead of the actual program: Edit: Fixed typos and wow, Thanks for the gold! Edit 2: A lot have asked for the program. I have it running on a virtual box at the moment, so this is possible. However, I will only do it if I get permission from Jeff. I will ask him. [link] [comments]  |
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