Welcome to Hell: Part II Tech Support |
- Welcome to Hell: Part II
- Welcome to Hell: The unfortunate travels of an airplane mechanic
- Putting On Airz
- How Alex, My Teammate, Made a Customer Cry
- Sometimes it IS that simple
- Send a tech down to unplug and replug my devices!!
- The Case of the Uninstalled Program
- FTP is not an email address
- THIS is what you can write in you ticket!
| Posted: 27 Sep 2018 08:01 PM PDT PART 2 Day 2: The shit-storm starts brewing (continued) As I said, the FSDO was NOT particularly happy with our assessment of this aircraft. Ultimately, the consequences of the decision to allow it to fly do fall to TurBoss and I, but this FSDO doesn't seem happy with that. Our shop/repair station has the capabilities to do all of the things they're unhappy with, but our shop is the one we're trying to get it to, and nobody at this airport has any of the necessary (very expensive) equipment. Great. Well, we figure the least we can do is service the oxygen and nitrogen. It turns out, contrary to what we believed, there is a maintenance facility on base here at unnamed airport, so we decide to pop on over to see if we can pay them for some of their precious N2 and O2. They don't seem the most thrilled, but they lend us their N2 bottle. The O2 they say is down at another hangar, and is regularly used to service the Meanwhile, the guy whose hangar the oxygen is at returns from wherever he flew to. We drive down there, ask him about the oxygen, and he states that he has none, has the local shop service it, and recommends going down there. Fuck this. We inform buyers of what's going on, and they find a local gas store to get our N2 and O2 from. Finally something is going We decide to return to the hangar where the oxygen is supposedly stored and see for ourselves if it's there or not. Thankfully, the door is unlocked, however as soon as we open it, the alarm system the hangar apparently has starts beeping, so we immediately leave and go back to the local shop. They give us the key and alarm code, and we go commandeer an oxygen bottle, and after an hour of more bullshit, finally get it fully serviced. Problems solved, right. Nah.... We go back to the hotel and spend hours getting and filling out the paperwork. The hotel computers won't let us access the FAA's website to get the forms, but eventually we get them and send them to the FSDO. This dude is still not having it. First off, he doesn't answer his phone. We'll call him, and he won't ever call back, but a long time later he'll email us. He's still very iffy on giving us the ferry permit, so we call bossman to see what he can do. He calls OUR FSDO, has them talk to this FSDO, and eventually calls this FSDO himself. In an absolutely unprecedented sequence of events, bossman gets on a conference call with not one, but FOUR feds with the FSDO here. They continuously try to offer explanations for why they can't grant the ferry permit, but bossman, with his decades of aviation experience and familiarity with the FAA regs, shoots down all of them. Now the FSDO wants their OWN mechanic to come out and check out the plane and the logbooks to ensure what FAA certified A&P (airframe and powerplant- the certification for aircraft mechanics) turBoss is true. That brings us to today. September 27th. Part 3 coming soon. Sorry for formatting and grammar- I'm in the midst of drinking to forget these problems, and I'm not sure how many I've had. [link] [comments]  |
| Welcome to Hell: The unfortunate travels of an airplane mechanic Posted: 27 Sep 2018 02:19 PM PDT Hey all! To preface this, I was inspired by u/Zeewulfeh 's TFTS stories about his experiences as an aircraft mechanic. I'm also an aircraft mechanic, and wanted to share some stories of my own, however I didn't think I had many worthy of dedicating a whole story to. Today that has changed! I'm writing this still in the midst of the hell of a shit-storm we're in. Let's begin. PART 1 Characters in this story: Crympt: Yours truly TurBoss: Our shop's turbine manager, and my coworker with me on this adventure Buyers: The two people buying this airplane Seller: The guy selling this airplane Bossman: The owner of our shop The Feds: The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) representatives Here goes: I don't even want to type this out because I'm so sick of even thinking about this bullshit, and I'm so mentally dead, but perhaps having people laughing with me at my suffering will help. Day 1: Welcome to hell Our company was tasked with traveling out of state to perform a pre-buy inspection on a Citation (small business jet). Right off the bat SHTF. Turboss and I depart airport, arrive at other airport for a connecting flight, and then find out our flight has been delayed. No big deal. I have unlimited data so I'll spend the time watching Hulu. Our flight gets delayed again. And again. And again.andagainandagainandagain Finally they go ahead and cancel it, at which point we decide simply to change our rental car reservation and drive to our destination, as it's only two hours away. During the whole drive we monitor what would have been our replacement flight, and see that get delayed and delayed, and finally cancelled at 9:30. Score. We made the right choice by driving. We check into the hotel, have a few beers, and go to bed, eagerly awaiting the easy money that is our few hours of work the next morning. Day 2: The shit-storm starts brewing As expected, our inspections go off without a hitch. TurBoss and I meet buyers and seller at the hangar. We unload our tools and get to work performing our inspections. The airplane looks great. Sure it has 3 years of maintenance due, but from the few things we checked, it seemed to be in good enough shape to get the ferry permit to our shop. (A ferry permit is a one-time authorization from your local FSDO ((Flight Standards District Office)) to fly the aircraft to a location where whatever due/overdue maintenance can be performed) We finish up in about 3 hours, then send off the FAA Form 8130-6 (for the permit) to the FSDO. The Feds aren't happy with us. They call and complain about several items. Uncertified transponders, uncertified airspeed indicators and altimeters, empty oxygen bottle (for emergency air), empty nitrogen bottle (to force the landing gear down if it doesn't work for some reason). We don't have the capabilities at this airport to resolve any of those issues, however we should be able to get a ferry permit regardless. This is an unusual experience for us, as back at home it takes a phonecall and 10 minutes to get a permit. Little did we know, that the shit-winds had JUST started blowing. Our problems hadn't even started. Edit: Part II is here! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Sep 2018 02:35 PM PDT To my dear TFTS friends who saw this title and got a cold sweat, I'm so, so sorry. But I had to. I got to clean out/organize/inventory a middle school server room today. And in that room, I found...
No one has ever needed this many power cables. I don't think that many computers are or ever have been present on the school grounds. Well, that's a lie, there are a few labs. But they all each have their own power cables already, as evidenced by the fact that their users are sitting docile at them rather than submitting 15 tickets in as many minutes. Why did someone store these power cables? Did they think they would order twelve thousand PCs and none of them would come equipped with the most basic not-even-a-peripheral? And what the fsk am I supposed to do with them, make a mat and curl up under it to die? Sounds tempting right about now. And I'm all out of coffee. [link] [comments]  |
| How Alex, My Teammate, Made a Customer Cry Posted: 27 Sep 2018 01:52 PM PDT A little bit of background before I start, we're an off-shore technical support representative for a telecommunications company. We specialize in telephone service difficulties such as having no dial tone, unable to receive incoming calls or the inability to make outgoing calls. Alex and I worked graveyard shifts but our clients are only two or three hours ahead of time so technically speaking, when we're working, most of our customers are deep in slumber, suffering in insomnia because they don't have a phone service, horny, and/or drunk. I won't go into detail as to how many horny customer calls I've received, I will however, tell you the story of Alex, my teammate. Alex is a great coworker. You can't ask for anything better. Since we don't have that many calls during our shifts, he would entertain us with his stories, however, something more entertaining than listening to his adventures was also listening to his calls. English is not our first language and sometimes, what we want to convey doesn't come out exactly correct. One time, he even asked a caller, "Do you know your name?", but this story is the most uncomfortable of all. One boring night, Alex receives a granny call. This elderly woman asks for a wake-up call because she needs to catch a bus early in the morning. We don't technically cater wake-up calls, but Alex, being the gentleman that he is, asks a couple of questions first before giving in to this lovely grandma's request. Alex: I'm sorry, ma'am, we do not do wake-up calls. Grandma:: Son, I really need you to do this for me. I don't have a cellphone or an alarm and I really need to catch that bus. Alex: As much as I really want to, we're not allowed to do outbound calls. Do you not have anyone in your life to wake you up? (silence) Grandma: No. Alex: You don't have any loved ones to wake you up? (silence) Alex: Because ma'am, you can ask any of your loved ones to wake you up. Are you living alone? Grandma: (sounding sad) Yes, I live alone. Alex: (still perky as hell) Ahhhh, you don't have any loved ones. Grandma: (starts bawling) Why do you keep on insinuating that? Yes, I live alone! Yes! My children forgot about me and yes! If I don't wake up in the morning and die, nobody will notice! Is that what you want to hear?!! Around this time, Alex starts to panic. Alex: Ma'am, that's not what I was trying to say. I was just asking if you don't have any loved ones there to wake you up. That's all. I'm not insinuating anything, ma'am. Grandma: I was only asking for a wake-up call! I didn't call to get insulted! I expect that from my children, but not from a stranger like you! You don't know me! Alex: Okay, ma'am. Calm down. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you. Okay, I'll escalate this to my subject matter expert and request for an outbound tomorrow morning so that we can give you a wake-up call. Please, ma'am. I didn't mean to offend. Grandma: No! I don't want you doing me any favors because of pity! To hell with you! (hangs up) After that call, Alex starts to run around the production floor, looking for someone who he can escalate the situation to. After a couple of days, we had a call-listening session and calls were picked randomly. Unfortunately for Alex, that call was chosen. We were all quiet during the call listening session but Alex was the most uncomfortable of all. He saved her details and tried calling back the customer to wake her up but nobody was picking up the phone. To this day, Alex is still filled with guilt and starts to panic whenever he receives a granny call in the middle of the night. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Sep 2018 04:16 PM PDT So greetings to my fellow techs of all shapes, sizes, ages, and homelands. I am happy to say I can FINALLY, 6 months after college, call myself a tech and not a retail employee trying to escape from $sparkmart. I'm on mobile so obvious apologies for formatting editing spelling and all that jazz. I have posted a few small stories in the past this one is one of those ones that when it's over you just feel so stupid. I just started 4 days ago to work for a small sales and service shop where I live in small-town usa. Today I was working on a laptop that couldn't connect to Wi-Fi. Now I was working on other projects at the same time as the boss/owner wants. I plugged it in turned it on and verified what was going on. Wi-Fi was off, so was airplane mode. I looked over the case for a WiFi switch but didn't see one. Here's the highlights of the next 3 hours: airplane mode on then off, network settings turned on wifi it went off immediately, updated drivers, ran sfc, chkdsk nothing worked. Finally, half hour before close I employ the boss's help. He looks at it does many of the same stuff he asked if I checked for a switch and I said yes. He's looking at it to see how easily the the bottom plate comes off and then he says "what's this?" And folks, my heart sank into my shoes. There it was, really tiny, like less than half an inch, the same for as the case save for a tiny white dot in the middle, on the front edge of the case right below the touchpad: a WiFi switch! I spent the next 5 mins trying to defend myself and feeling like a total idiot. [link] [comments]  |
| Send a tech down to unplug and replug my devices!! Posted: 27 Sep 2018 11:45 AM PDT Title says it all... Note: Where I work the on place technicians have to travel alot to get to their destination, so we have to try our best to minimize unnecessary deplacement for them. I have recently been hired in client support service within a tech company, we do basic troubleshooting and if all fails, the appropriate team takes over. So this client calls me about their mouse that isn't working, so I normally ask them to try and unplug it, they could barely figure out where the mouse was plugged.... Eventually they managed to find it and from what i could hear, half assed tried removing it and putting it back in, they sounded exhausted so I thought yknow maybe they have a physical condition. The convo then goes as follow Me: Can you ask one of your coworkers to help you? Client: No! Ok so I assume theyre all busy. So I decided to remote to their computer to verify the drivers and devices. (Yes even if the mouse itself is broken you can control the cursor from remote). Before remoting though we need a specific tag. Me: In that case may I please get the pc tag so i can connect remotely and verify something? Client: I dont have my glasses let me get one of my coworkers to read it for me .... are you fucking kidding me? So I then try to connect and tell the client to press enter so that the pop up asking if they want to allow me connect can be accepted. Client: I cant see anything the screens are flashing!!!!! Me: Did that start just now? Client: Yes!! Me: Ok can you get your coworker who read the tag for you to verify if everything is properly plugged in? (I thought maybe she accidently tugged on the monitor cables earlier). Client: No! Me: Why not? Client: I just cant! Cant you just send a tech here?! Me: I will send a tech if we do the basic troubleshooting and the issues are continuing ok? Please try rebooting your computer. I prayed to god that fixed their issue even though I knew it would very likely not. After rebooting is done. Client: The screens are still flashing!!! Me: Ok before I send a tech down please have a co worker help you with all the cable connections. Client: Just send a tech down! And then they hung up... Tldr; Client's mouse problem turned into a monitor and mouse problem because they did not want to cooperate. The pay is worth it though and most the clients we get are super sweet people. [link] [comments]  |
| The Case of the Uninstalled Program Posted: 27 Sep 2018 08:50 AM PDT There I was, innocently strolling into the front door of one of our biggest clients; smile beaming ear to ear as I greeted the employees with a chuckle and hello. The receptionist needed some account management troubleshooting as she could login to her domain account on the desktop, but not her home laptop. Easy enough fix, I just reset DNS address, refresh trust relationship, reset password. Badabing, badaboom. It wasn't until I had finished the small talk, collected my things, and started to leave that I realized something wasn't quite right...."Hey ChristopherSquawken! Can you take a look at my computer really quick?" It was the other front desk employee, flagging me down from across the office. I proceeded to her work station and inquired as to what was troubling her productivity. "Well the new EHR we are supposed to use...it was here the other day and now it's gone." No problem, probably just changed profiles and needs a new shortcut. "Sure", I said, "this will only take a minute." I opened C:/ to navigate to the install path only to find...no folder. Strange, it must be in x86 by mistake....nothing. Someone probably installed it to the admin desktop or something...nope. A glance to Programs and Features; nothing...but....what is this? One of the separate components that is required to run it still shows as installed? Strange, it most definitely existed here at some point. I find myself now immersed in log files scanning for any source of foul play or tom foolery. For now the culprit is at large; but I will find them. I will find them. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Sep 2018 07:20 AM PDT Hi TFTS! LTL, FTP (heh) I'm a systems engineer with a heavy hand in 2nd/3rd tier support. I have to interact with people a lot, especially when there are some data issues (I'm one of the database specialists). We require our clients to regularly upload data files to our FTP server. One of our long-time clients' data started failing, and we got in contact with them. Now, we try to avoid uploading the data ourselves for them for various read: legal reasons, but we often get sent the files in an email to upload - which we subsequently have to turn down. Cue my conversation with their technical manager.
Now this is strange, they should have these saved as we're receiving data every day. Whatever, we've dealt with them before and they're always nice, so since we don't store their logon info I quickly create a new user for him and set it to expire in a few hours.
Oh boy.
He was really cool and polite with the whole thing so I'm more surprised than anything. But this explained a lot; this is the guy who asks us to upload a summary file at the end of every month, we have to turn him down each time and he complains that it should be easier. Now, it's perfectly fine to not know how FTP works. But I'm not sure how someone becomes the manager of the technical department without knowing the difference between an email address and an FTP server. [link] [comments]  |
| THIS is what you can write in you ticket! Posted: 27 Sep 2018 01:06 AM PDT This just happened. I am an intern in a small IT business that supports businesses and private customers. This morning, I received the rudest call yet. $C - me. $AC - angry customer. $Boss - one of my bosses. The phone rings and since I'm the only one there, I pick it up, opening the ticket system in advance.
He repeats himself and ends the call.
I did exactly what he asked and wrote into the ticket: "$AC got quite upset and would like to be called by $Boss or he will be taking his business elswehere." [link] [comments]  |
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