Lost the best job of my life.... Tech Support |
- Lost the best job of my life....
- It’s not my fault you don’t know country codes.
- Your computer will be ready when I say it is
- BCC Magic
- Sort-Bipolar
- Finally got that call
- A man with a screwdriver is very dangerous
- My Favourite "Support" Ticket of all time
| Lost the best job of my life.... Posted: 29 Jan 2019 03:59 PM PST This was a few years ago, but I just found this /r/ recently. I worked for a Cloud Computing Company (IaaS) and was titled for my first Engineer job. (Cloud Engineer I - If that's a title anyway). I would help set up VMware environments for companies to build their environments in (Kind of inception deal, VM in a VM in a VM kinda thing). The job was dreamy, not only because of the exposure to Cloud Computing and virtualization but because of they're a super relaxed environment to work in. They had 2 fridges, one with beer one with drinks. They had the cabinets completely filled with snacks, a pools table, foosball table, Raspberry Pi Arcade machines with any controller you can think of, the works. We could drink a beer on lunch and take one home. It paid handsomely given my 3-4 years of network experience and I was in dreamland. I even loved the people I worked for. Well, our # 1 client (they used us for storage and seeding.) had an under the table request (Aside seed project). Well, on a daily basis, I would go to our local Data Center and swap out these drive and multiple NAS devices. I would also do side tasks for the 'real' engineers and help set up stacks (Switches, servers, storage, the works). Well, one day, I received an email to removed 'drive 3' and ship it back to them. I promptly attended to their request. within minutes, I started receiving email after email about how drive 3 is down. I reply back stating that I removed it as requested. Little did I know, I just removed a raid disk in the middle of a crucial backup with no redundant drives to prevent corruption during a hot removal. They promptly had my boss involved in which I showed him the emails and explained my actions as requested by the EU. I guess the EU was already on edge with our company and somehow got my boss to fire me within the hour. I was let go and was escorted out of the office as soon as I returned from the data center. Funny thing is, my boss said I could use them as a reference... turns out that's a lie because I have used them and each time I hear back they won't refer me. TL:DR: Got fired for doing what I was asked. Lost my dream job =( [link] [comments]  |
| It’s not my fault you don’t know country codes. Posted: 29 Jan 2019 07:43 AM PST I work in first level tech support for one of the biggest shipping companies in the world. We mainly support errors on our website, password resets, and our shipping application. Some of us, such as myself, also support API related issues. We deal with major companies such as Amazon, ebay and so on. We stricktly support Xml/Json/soap/php requests only, and only through email, because some errors can take quite some time to resolve and no use to have them on the phone. One day i get an email from a well know online retail company saying that they cannot process requests for a shipment, as there is an error. I download the Xml request file, run it on the test server and get an error stating the requested service is unavailable between the selected countries. I advise him that he is using the wrong service, and should check the codes in the guide i attached. Keep in mind we are outsourced and have no idea about what services are and are not available. We check format errors, making sure that all required containers are present, URL's and credentials. He responded saying he checked the codes and it does not work. I check again the request file he sent me, enter two addresses, run the request with updated codes and voila, successful request. He responds saying I am incompetent as it still doesn't work for him no matter what address he enters and states I should do my job and escalate the issue. Confused, I ask him to send the exact request file he is trying to process with the address included. This time I thoroughly check the addresses in our database. The first address Is fine, no issues, but the in second address he put the country code "SP". I email him back and ask what country does he think SP is? He responds Spain. I couldn't believe this guy, so I responded that the two digit country code for Spain is ES and not SP. He then requests my managers email address because it took me too many emails and too long to find his error. Like seriously buddy, I'm here to check your format, not to make sure you know how to spell the address you wish to send your parcel too. Some people amaze me. [link] [comments]  |
| Your computer will be ready when I say it is Posted: 29 Jan 2019 11:54 AM PST I recently started at a company supporting internal IT needs. Part of my job includes provisioning new users in AD and if necessary, building new computers. A user recently requested a top of the line Thinkpad Yoga after his Surface gave up the ghost. Got special permission from the CIO as it's not on our pre-approved hardware list. Now, since we have to special order it, it was gonna take a few days to get in and get ready since we dont have an image for it. User needed the computer ASAP because he was flying out today for a week, he only requested it last Monday. (Your poor planning is not my emergency, etc). Cue him asking if we can get it done by friday so he can have it over the weekend. I plainly told him that it was supposed to be in by Friday afternoon, and most likely it will be ready by Tuesday. Not good enough for user, user ends up nagging me multiple times a day on Friday and Monday about it's status. Now, I get the system on Friday at 4:30 (office closes at 5). So all I can do is start updates. Monday we get hit with a fairly severe snowstorm, and I'm one of about 5 lunatics who decided to drive in. Since other issues are slow, I am able to get the laptop done before user needs to leave, but he grumbles about needing to drive in to get it. Ultimately, since I'm new I don't have the political cachet or office knowledge yet to figure out how much I can shut people down for being unreasonable, despite having a ton of access to systems, etc. So, I get it up and running, and user is happy enough. TL;DR: User wants their new toy ASAP, I give it to them with mild resentment. He was at least somewhat apologetic about it, and actually gave me a nice 6 pack of beer for my troubles. So that's why this isn't a total flaming rant, haha. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 29 Jan 2019 03:48 PM PST This will be the first of many posts. Note: I am not IT but you may see a trend in these stories. For nearly a year after I started at an international headquarters for a retail fashion giant, HR would send email blasts to the entire HQ. These emails would be anything from sample sales to required company surveys, which is where the fun starts. Lastly, note that we have quite a few people with poor English, primarily in Koreans but other countries of origin too. So HR would beg people not to "reply all" back to the emails. There were a few times they would start replying back, definitely angry that no one read their first email. This would, of course, result in even more emails from people not reading. This was the worst when doing giveaways or prizes. I remember one reply "I wish I could have the tickets". That was it. HR did not ask if someone wanted tickets, or who had tickets, no. People would reply with the most random of things. Finally I had enough and emailed HR directly, letting them know about BCC and what it does to prevent the replies. We have 5 HR departments, so I figured I was barking up the wrong tree but I waited. The next time an email goes out, lo' and behold - we were BCC'd! I thought that surely it was a mistake, clearly they always had to have known about BCC. Yet they never once sent another email that wasn't blind carbon copied. How do people make it into these positions with knowing the basics? Baffling I tell you. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 29 Jan 2019 03:09 PM PST Be $Me, working for $ITCompany, on 'loan' as onsite at $ShippingCompany. $ShippingCompany has insane Bipolar Boss, $BB, who swings more than a 30's jazz party. When up, is everyones best friend. When down, literally fires employees for being 5 mins late. Am on 'loan' so dont really GAF, will just rotate, but have somehow outlasted all my predecessors. Some quick unrelated examples of $BB before getting to the relevant incident. $BB goes through personal assistants like most people go through socks. $BB gets new assistant, fires her same day for scanning a PDF upside down. Assistant 2 cant handle the stress, MIA after a week. Assistant 3 is crying before she ever logs into her AD account. Assistant 4 is in perpetual DGAF mode like me, but doesnt make coffee the way he likes it. Assistant 5 had a mental breakdown, and quits a few days in. Never delete fired users from AD, just deactivate, $BB sometimes rehires when 'up' 10:1 ratio of deactivated to active. Not relevant, just an interesting tidbit. The Email Incident $OldEmailServer is outdated, and overdue for upgrade. Importantly, email client software is NOT changing. It's the back end server only. $NewEmailServer planning, project, budget, build, etc, and finally, we get to email migration day. Coworker $EmailExpert1 and 2 from our $ITcompany is there, $NewEmailServer is running, and graceful migrations of mailboxes in progress. Everything going wonderfully; no downtime, just very minor email delay for specific users while their mailboxes are being actively migrated. Decide to save $BBs mailbox for after he leaves for the day, so imagine my surprise when $BB demands my presence in his office to fix his email.
Oh good. Hes in a 'down' state.
Yup. Full tirade mode today. Goodie. Never argue, just shrug and agree with whatever he says.
Mentally pat myself on the back. Perfect way to get him to show me whats wrong without telling him he's probably, actually just an idiot.
$BB points to his email, fully functioning, normal, everything seems fine. He starts clicking around on different emails, occasionally nodding, and glancing at me as if to say 'See?' like if he's demonstrating how broken it is. Except it's working.
Quickly pull out phone, send him a test email. Seconds later, appears in his inbox, notification sound, pop up, etc.
As I watch him point, I finally realize his true issue; all the emails are arranged by the sender, not by date, as he expects. He'd clicked on the 'sender' column at some point this afternoon, rearranging the order, and is now freaking the fuck out.
I stare in disbelief. My brain is having trouble processing a response.
$BB looks at me expectantly, as I finally manage to cope with the fact that he has, just now, after years of using this same email client, in the middle of the eight hour window we set aside to perform an email upgrade, stumbled blindly upon the sort-by-sender option. The planets have aligned in a very ugly way.
MFW I had to go kick my coworkers out of a server room, because $BB doesn't know how to click a sorting column header. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 29 Jan 2019 09:49 AM PST Email server was acting weird this morning so we reboot. Normal calls come in asking if email is down and we say yes. Then that guy calls. Guy: I'm not getting email. Is email down for the whole company? Me: Yes it is, server was having issues and we had to reboot. Should be up in about 15 minutes. Guy: It would have been nice to get an email saying it was down. Me: ... well it's kind of hard to send an email when the email is down. Guy: ... then you should have called everyone. Me: ... [link] [comments]  |
| A man with a screwdriver is very dangerous Posted: 29 Jan 2019 08:25 AM PST So this happened a fair few years ago and is still one of my favourite stories from my early days of support. To set the scene, we supplied hardware, software and provided support for both, the front end system was connected to a server, we could access that by dialling in to the Back office PC. Think Retail environments. The server which we fitted on sites is in a secure metal box (not that secure as it turned out) the server would sound a note, useful for us, bit like a bios boot sequence we would know the potential fault from the sequence of beeps. And then there is the alarm tone, which was seperate, this meant someone had opened the metal case. So a fault was logged, Front office systems down, nothing working, Call Centre had struggled to make sense of what was happening. One of my 1st line analysts took the call, he was in training and called the site, I told him to put the call on speaker so I could help him if needed. The site in question was in Birmingham UK, the accent of the Manager was thick, a real heavy brummie accent, get the sound of that accent in your head. Analyst - So what happened. Manager - We had a powercut everything died, since then the system hasnt come back on. Analyst - Ahh okay, have you checked your fuse box? Manager - Fuse box? Why do you think its a fuse as well? Analyst - Our systems run on its own loop, so its probable that the you just need to turn the trip switch back to on, if you are comfortable doing that. Manager - okay is that with the other ones for lights and stuff? Analyst - Yep Manager - okay, He starts walking through to the office, soon as he enters the room we can hear the alarm going over the speaker, the analyst having never heard this looks at me. Me - Hi Earthy here, erm, has someone opened the server, the metal box on the wall, the size of a small suitcase? Manager - yes my mate Dave, he knows electrics. Me - Thats a sensitive bit of equipment, he really shouldnt be touching it, more importantly its very dangerous. Manager - (tries to cover phone) Dave, Dave, I dont think you should be doing that mate, the bloke from the helpdesk says its really dangerous. Me - How did he get into it? Manager - he used a screwdriver Me - Why did he open it. Manager - Well he took all the fuses out of everything and now nothing works. Me and the analyst looked at each other, we shared a moment of silence. Me - Im afraid we are going to have to send an Engineer our to fix this for you. Manager - do you think its that bad then? Me - Yes, and I really do suggest you dont let your mate touch anything else. Manager - Okay, when do you think he will get here? Me - Ill pass this straight over now, you'll get a call with an ETA shortly. H/W Engineer went to site, in the end it was the trip switch, however he had to replace all the fuses for our equipment, replace the server case, a few cables and it was chargeable [link] [comments]  |
| My Favourite "Support" Ticket of all time Posted: 28 Jan 2019 02:08 PM PST I first posted this in r/sysadmin*; but was told it was the wrong place. I hope this is the right place. :)* This happened 12+ years ago. I was in my 2nd year university on my first co-op job as a Support Analyst at a big district school board in Canada. I was on my 2nd week of the co-op placement and I was still shadowing a colleague for training. Story: Phone Rings Colleague Answers: How can I help you? Customer [Female admin staff at a school]: My monitor is discoloured. I just got back from vacation and it wasn't like this before I left. Colleague: Do you have any magnets around the monitor? [This is back in the day of CRT monitors still] Customer: No. Colleague: Ok, can we trace the cables. [Walks customer through tracing cables; no issues all cables connected properly. Computer working properly otherwise.] Colleague: Are you sure no magnets are around your monitor? Nothing new was added when you where gone or nothing new was put near or no your monitor? Customer: No. Or course not; I would know and tell you. [Her voice is clearly getting annoyed now] Colleague: Ok; I will come down to your school in the new few hours. [About an hour later we start our drive to the school. The School is at the other end of the school district; takes an hour to get their] We walk in; my colleague has clearly been to this School before and knows the user. Walks up to her desk. Lifts a "Bahamas" magnet paper weight off to top of her monitor and tosses it directly in the garbage besides her desk. He starts walking out without saying a word. I noticed as soon as the magnet was lifted off the monitor that the discolouration disappears. Customer: Wait; that is my souvenir from my trip! Colleague [Still walking out and but turns around]: I don't care. I asked if you had a magnet and you said you didn't. Take it out of the garbage if you like; but don't ever put it near you monitor again. Customer: But that is where I want it. Colleague: Do whatever you like then. Just don't call us about the issue again. [We drive back to the office] When we get back my colleague gets called to my managers office. He "got in trouble" for his "attitude" but I'm positive I heard laughing coming from his office. tl;dr: Support call for discoloured CRT monitor. Claims no magnets around monitor. Ends up wasting colleague and my time driving to office to remove a magnet from the top of the monitor. Colleague tosses it in the garbage. Happy Monday. Hope this cheers you up a bit. [link] [comments]  |
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