TICKETS WE DON'T NEED NO STINKING TICKETS!!! Tech Support |
- TICKETS WE DON'T NEED NO STINKING TICKETS!!!
- The caps lock classic
- Water and electronics don't mix
- Let Me Just Read That For You
- Ever since the fire....
- Support from hell
| TICKETS WE DON'T NEED NO STINKING TICKETS!!! Posted: 24 Sep 2018 02:02 PM PDT I sat down to day with myself (the sysadmin), my director, project manager, another sysadmin and the Helpdesk manager to discuss a major issue. We have an old ticketing system that has been mothballed for over 2yrs now. We no longer own the license for the software, server OS, or virtual OS the server is running on and the hardware it is currently on is out of warranty. It would seem to be a no brainer that this system be shutdown. Not so fast! We have one user (the manager of site services) that still uses the application to reference old tickets. For two years now we have been trying to get him to move those tickets to the new system to no avail. He has in excess of 70,000 tickets in the system and his argument is that he may need to reference one of them to duplicate a solution. Our compromise to him was to export the tickets into CSV format and he keep a local file. The helpdesk manager has been attempting to do this and each time he tries to get the csv to export, he gets a 505 error from the website. After months of trying he called a meeting to discuss what other options we could employ to get these tickets out the system. Needless to say the customer is not going to budge on his need for all SEVENTY THOUSAND TICKETS! The first idea that was brought up was to increase the server resources. Since the hardware array is all but empty both us system admins agreed that was an option. The other option was to access the database directly and bypass the web gui and extract the tickets manually. That was also an option although the individual that would be tasked to do this balked at the idea since it entailed significant work. That is when I asked the following question "What range of tickets have you tried to export?" The helpdesk manager looked at me like I was speaking Greek. I said "Have you tried a week?" He said "I am not going to go week by week for 9yrs until I pull all his records!" I said "No. I am not expecting you to do that" I am asked to see if it is even possible to pull the records at all. You start with a week, expand to a month, then a year, then two and see where the process times out." He said he had not thought of that. 10mins later we determined that you could indeed extract tickets a year at a time (9 extracts) without fail. The glares I got as I exited the room were enough to make me look over my shoulder as I walked to my car this evening. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Sep 2018 01:37 AM PDT LTL;FTP, I'm afraid to say this isn't a particularly exciting story, but I felt the need to share since I wouldn't have solved it without this subreddit. Little bit of background. I've been using tech for years now but I'm very new to professional tech support. About 3 months into an IT apprenticeship. We are a fairly small support company that support local businesses (ones that aren't big enough to have their own IT). Right, onto the story. Sitting in the office on my own and pretty much 9'o'clock on the dot the phone starts ringing. The user, who works for a decently sized manufacturing company, is having an issue logging in. Go through the usual; unblock account, check username is correct, reset password. However even after resetting the password he still can't get in. I make sure 100 times over he is typing it in correctly. So I asked him to slowly spell it out. "Caps lock on, x, caps lock off, y, z, 1, 2, 3, exclamation mark." And then I remembered all the posts from this very subreddit. So many people using caps lock for symbols. I ask him how he types an exclamation mark and there it is. "Caps lock on, 1, caps lock off." So I explained how to correctly use symbols on the keyboard and sent him on his merry way. Thank you TFTS. TL;DR Caps lock is for capital letters only. [link] [comments]  |
| Water and electronics don't mix Posted: 24 Sep 2018 04:39 PM PDT About a year ago I got a call to go to a store because their network has hard down. Internet and phones both which was kind of odd that it was both since they still had their phones running on analog. I get to the store and the show me where their equipment was. They was a switch and 66 block. Switch was powered on but I was getting no internet even with the correct static and none of the lines work on the block. So a follow the cables to the other side of the warehouse where I find another switch and 66 block but same issue again so I continue following the cables back to the middle of the warehouse where the ran down the wall and into a hole in the floor. All the employees are busy (only 3 employees were there) so I start opening doors until I find stairs to the basement. I flip the switch that I assume is the light switch but nothing happens so I use my phone as a flashlight, go half way down the stairs, and see the equipment I need but it was sitting in about 3 feet of crap water. Apparently the toilets backed up and flooded the basement but no one knew because they never go down there. I called the company who sent me and informed of the problem. They wanted me to figure out a way to get the site temporarily up until they could permanently fix them but I told them no. Besides the fact the it was highly unlikely any of the equipment was salvageable there was absolutely no way I was going into that water. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Sep 2018 03:31 PM PDT Long time TFTS lurker, first time posting! I am a web developer/IT manager/support tech for my location. My boss is the Director of the IT department for the whole organization [DIR]. Today's story, unforunately for me, happens pretty regularly. I create detailed documentation on how to do something, use a system I have built, etc, and my boss proceeds to read part or none of it and then calls me with questions that make me want to slam my face into my desk. [DIR] I have a question about NewConferenceService that might be stupid [ME] Okay what is it? [DIR] How does the system know if I am the host or an attendee? [ME] It says right in the instructions that if you are the host you enter your host pin. Under the Attendee section, it says to press # if you are NOT the host and to then enter the attendees pin. (side note: the system also tells you exactly this verbally when you dial in) [DIR] Oh, I didn't see that. How do I know what my host pin is? [ME] It's your voicemail pin. It also says that in the document I sent. [DIR] Oh, I must have missed that too. [ME] ... I have been complimented numerous times by people across our organization, at all levels, on how comprehensive and easy to understand my documentation is, so it is endlessly frustrating that [DIR] refuses to ever actually read even the simplest documentation (this particular doc had two sections, for Host and Attendee, with 4 steps to follow listed under each) and instead wastes my time by having me essentially read it to him. The only thing worse than reading to my boss is when a user calls me because they can't log in, and their login screen clearly states their password has expired and to click to set a new password... [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Sep 2018 04:24 AM PDT I spend my working life out at client's sites, and occasionally encounter some blinding leaps of logic that make the Monty python witch burning science scene in The Holy Grail seem not so far fetched. The MD at one of my clients is older and set in his ways, never writes an email himself, he dictates them and posts the tapes from his trusty Dictaphone to his personal typist. Once he gets something in his mind, its very hard to persuade him otherwise, even with facts, colourful charts and a puppet show. There was a fire in the estate where my company is based. Nothing bad, no lives lost, no injuries, but the people at my office had to evacuate while all of our systems where left running. Our building was completely unaffected. Most people just went and worked from home like nothing had happened. this particular client is 15 miles from my offices anyway, at my next visit... $MD = the old MD $Podgerama = me $MD: $podgerama, i need to speak with you, ever since the fire at your offices my computer is coming up with strange messages. I've spoken with your helpdesk and they are all trying to fob me off. $podgerama: Pardon? $MD: Ever since there was the fire at your offices, my laptop that i use to connect to my office computer has been giving these strange warnings. $podgerama: I understood your statement, but i'm confused as to how you think the fire 15 miles away has affected your laptop that spends most of its time on the other side of the atlantic? $MD: Well isn't it obvious, when your company were evacuated they went on to their backup systems and since that change over it has effected our systems and now i get this message about security and i want this fixed as we are currently insecure due to your systems! $podgerama: errr, i think you are jumping to a bit of a wild conclusion, but i'll look at your laptop $MD: I'll show you the issue. He logs into his laptop. clicks on an RDP shortcut on the desktop which is configured to connect to his office desktop computer. he gets the certificate warning you always get when connecting to a computer that doesn't have a certificate installed , and he has not selected to ignore warnings about it. $MD: see, ever since you changed to your backup systems, you moved on to a backup certificate server and i have been getting this, and now my whole company is insecure. I demand you reinstate the original systems. $podgerama: this is your new laptop you bought on the other side of the pond isn't it? $MD: yes $podgerama: the one you said you would have your man in the US look at? $MD: yes. $podgerama: yes, well, he forgot to tick this one box, which would stop the warnings. this is absolutely nothing to do with the infrastructure at my companies office, there is no involvement between our two organisations like that whatsoever. The last i heard as i walked from his office was him dictating an apology email to my boss and the helpdesk, apparently the day before he had send a rather scathing letter about all of this and accused the company of not doing its job and making his company ripe for hackers to attack. TL;DR silly person with wild imagination puts 2 and 2 together and gets "syntax error" [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Sep 2018 05:28 AM PDT Hello there, First time post after lurking around for nearly 1 year. As a 1st-level-Helpdesk admin I was exicted about getting my first little deployment project. So this is a Story about $me, a colleague $bro, our client $client and the support for a MDM branded by a big ISP in my country $support. $bro: "Hey $me, the boss from $client got in touch with us. He wants a Server for the MDM Cloud deployed. I don't have the time. Would you like to do it. If needed you can get help from $support. $Client booked 3 hours support, so go for it" $me: "of course, thanks for the opportunity." So I install the server, try to follow the most shitty manual I ever readed. Now I had the problem to connect the server with the Cloud for the MDM. So I dial up the $support. And ask them for the ports so I can fix this in the firewall. Everything fine. Than after 2 days of getting around the system I dial them up on getting the roles right and how to roll out the Apps for the Android devices. Also everything fine. And now the problems started. I ran into the issue that I can't connect to the mail server anymore. So I dial them up: "Hi this is $me. I am calling again because I can't responds from the Mail server. I did as you said but still refused connection." $support: "Ah you forget to set up the certificate. please issue it from the Cloud via the menu." $me: "You sure about it a need a pkcs7 cert, but don't get the PK for it." $Support: "totally sure." okay I do and ran, as expected the issue. Calling them up again. They "Fix" something in the cloud. Now every cert functions. Calling them up, they first deny it, after showing they just send me a "correct" cert. Still not working. I escalate my issue to higher support who still can't fix this issue, even their 3rd Level doesn't know. So I brainstorm with my $bro. We try some ideas and after making a correct cert via openSSL and booking the right cert in a well known SSL store. We finally getting the thing up and running and the $client happy (we needed more than a month). Than things went horrible for me. $Client asked us what the problems were and we delivered the mails and information on the problems we had with $Support especally on the fact. That we asked them 3 times if they respond is correct and they claimed that it was correct (but wasn't). $Support accused me on lying and stuff like that. Even billed us for calling them (twice the amount of time I called with them and ignoring the booked support by $client). My bosses weren't happy, becaused our company had a tough time and we wasted even more time on this. In the end the CEO of $Support apologized to us and tried to get me into his firm. TL;DR: I had my first small project on deployment. Bad manuals and shitty support made me figure it out all by myself. After fixing some shit was thrown at me. [link] [comments]  |
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