TV Doesn't Like Being Turned Off Tech Support |
- TV Doesn't Like Being Turned Off
- Please give me credit, even if I gave you the wrong file!
- If I Call Back, I'll Get A Different Answer
- SEE IT DOESN'T WORK!
| TV Doesn't Like Being Turned Off Posted: 10 Aug 2019 05:52 PM PDT Hey all, long-time lurker, first time poster, so be gentle. I work for a secret agent themed service department for a large electronics retailer in North America and get a cross of in home service customer service and basic Tier 1 Troubleshooting of Home Theater system (I know it's not computers, but hope this is allowed here). Had the $Client call in one night reporting that his Vizio TV would turn itself back on almost immediately after he turned it off. I went through basic troubleshooting with the guy (you know, "have you tried unplugging it and plugging it back in" and a google search for known issues), he told me he did his own research and called the manufacturer, saw an isssue where the CES would do that sometimes - disabled it, still having an issue. At this point, I could have offered our paid in-home troubeshooting service, because we are just supposed to offer basic troubleshooting, and he was outside of his warranty, but I was curious, damn it. Started going through some of the less-likely culprits: *IR interference *Checked for another device causing electromagnetic interference (stretch, I know); no devices right near IR receiver. Keep searching on google while talking to him, and I come across a post by u/HankyDoodleDandy, he had the same issue on a different model of TV and shared his solution with the good people of r/VizioTV. Turns out the dang ECO mode on the TV turns it back on after turning it on, client is happy because now he can remove a poltergeist from the issues he has to deal with, and I feel pretty satisfied. Shared the solution with our team that manages our knowledge base and now I'm on a new committee at work, which doesn't really mean much from what I've seen so far. P.S. Thank you, u/HankyDoodleDandy, you are the true hero of this story. Edit: removed the random string of characters after the first sentence. [link] [comments]  |
| Please give me credit, even if I gave you the wrong file! Posted: 10 Aug 2019 05:57 PM PDT To give a bit of background on this story, I used to work on the Help Desk at a CRM software company and I now work as a DBA at the very same company. I wanted a side-gig for some supplemental income and I decided to take up teaching part-time at my alma mater, a university. My mentor warned me that there were some real characters when you take this type of job up and boy were they not joking. I have patience, really I do, but sometimes you just run into someone that you can already tell is going to make your life difficult. I look back on my time as a student and well.. I've done stupid things and its never your fault, right? Always the instructor's, right? This story kind of skirts the boundary, but I did have to do a bit of digging and kind of help someone figure something. out. When you're a teacher or instructor in the C.S./I.T. discipline you kind of are at your student's only form of tech support whenever they have an issue with an assignment. Oh, did I mention that the majority of the students in that class aren't even in any STEM majors? That's important to keep in mind while reading this. So, there I was, it was a rainy summer day and I was coming in to class getting ready to teach the The class itself was a Microsoft applications course, specifically Access and Excel. We happened to be on the Excel portion of the course and this student was one of the ones who was super-confident because their family was a bunch of accountants who used Excel all the time! So, naturally they didn't show up never shows up for class because it was too easy. The due date for the assignment had just passed and I had spent the hour before time grading various assignments and getting caught up on some of the course-work. I hooked up my laptop and opened up my materials and started going about my business while others wandered in. During the lecture, my phone chimes and I take a quick peek to see a message from said student, who again is not in class. I ignore it and continue lecturing for at least an hour after that message came in and helping students out with the daily in-class tutorial. In fact, two more messages come in during that time, but the only indication is that my phone vibrates and I again ignore it. Class adjourns in the evening after a total of about 2 1/2 hours and I head home after having chatted with one or two others who had questions. I get in to stare at my phone and, of course, it's from a student who's not doing so hot. So the messages come in something like this: Student: (Message 1) WHY DID I GET A ZERO ON THE ASSIGNMENT?!?!?! I COMPLETED ALL THE STEPS AND I EVEN TURNED IT IN ON TIME?!?! long paragraph trying to justify why they should get full credit because they totally did the assignment Student: (Message 2) DID YOU EVEN OPEN THE FILE?!?! I KNOW I TURNED IT IN!! HERE'S THIS ASSIGNMENT ATTACHED! I get two excel files in the mail and more trying to justify it Now, my policy on this kind of stuff is that you're not supposed to turn things in via e-mail unless I specifically ask you to. This worked before and without issue up until this point. They didn't even ask if I would accept it if they turned it in this way. What's more, it's' written on the syllabus as such, but who the hell reads that, right? Me: So, I couldn't open your file which means I can't grade it so, that's an automatic zero. Normally, I don't accept files via e-mail so the fact that you sent it to me should mean that I don't accept it. If you want to turn it in via e-mail, I'll take it but it's going to have a late penalty. I hit send, take the file and get slapped with about 3 more messages worth of ranting about how it's not fair, he should get full credit, etc. etc. To make matters worse about their e-mail submission, I don't even know which file is which, so among all the ranting, I have to send another e-mail asking which is which, to which I get a surprisingly calm and not caps-ridden response. Just to humor them, I open the original submission and, sure enough Excel can't open the file. I open it the e-mail submission, compare it to what I'm expecting, post the grade and move on with my night. They must have been watching his e-mail for that notification and gone to check his grade, because within minutes of me posting it I get ANOTHER e-mail: Student: WHY DID I GET 50%, I TURNED IT IN TO YOU. more long ranting about how it's not fair, he's going to the Dean, etc. etc. I gave other students credit for turning it in via e-mail Student: another message saying he paid money to buy software to do the assignment, oh woe is me, etc. etc. Me: You turned it in yes, but I COULD NOT OPEN YOUR FILE How is it fair to everyone else who did it correctly and turned it in on time that you get full credit? And you should be happy I'm giving you ANY credit. Look, this is what I get when I try screenshot showing an error message from excel As for giving other students credit, I GAVE them permission to do that. Emphasis mine This is my final message of the night. I turn in after waiting 20 minutes for another message and getting no response. The next day at work, early in the morning, I get another chime on my phone.. It's them, UGH. Student: Makes one final attempt, saying it's not fair and that they asked some staff members and students and they agreed it was unfair of me, etc. etc. The message is pretty long and it asks me to explain myself Out of curiously, I go back to the submissions and just double check. I noticed one difference from all the others... So I check my computer and--wait a second I've seen this! I open an Excel file on MY computer and sure enough... I see what happened! I had hidden files and folders on as well as show extensions from troubleshooting my own problem a few days ago. So, I respond. I also bring up something they mentioned during the previous night's rant after reading through all the messages. Me: As I said last night, you turned it in, but it's incorrect so I cannot give you a grade as it's unfair to everyone else, but what you turned in is the file lock, which Excel can't open provide helpful screenshot pointing out the difference You may want to be more careful next time. Not only had they turned in the Excel file lock, but they did the work on a Mac, which for an Excel and Access course is probably ill-advised. We can see WHEN you log in and WHEN you turn things in. They turned it in right at the cusp of the deadline expiring. I can only speculate, but I imagine that there was some setting on showing hidden files that was on and in their rush they probably just turned it in without double-checking. Whoops! Maaaaybe you shouldn't have waited so long and maaaaybe you should've sent a message before turning it in, but I guess Excel is too easy, huh? Boy am I glad they don't work with me. EDIT: Fixed formatting. [link] [comments]  |
| If I Call Back, I'll Get A Different Answer Posted: 10 Aug 2019 05:59 AM PDT Hey all. I work as frontline tech support for a SaaS company in the midwest. We handle accounts all over the US and talk to everyone from business owners to "IT people" to actual IT support. We help guide these gentle souls through the hell that can be our software when it fucks up. Mostly. So yesterday was my first day back after a week off to get married. I knew I should have taken that extra day. Amid the usual "How do I do this?" and "Is chanting supposed to be coming out of the speakers when I log in?" came Bill (not his real name, I just don't like most Bills). Bill is a gearhead and not a PC guy, he assured me. A lot. Bill got an error when trying to load our software up. I remote in and see the error. The data folder that the software is using has been moved from the default place where it was supposed to be. It's a simple fix though. I rerun the setup software from the server where the data lives on the client and in five minutes I'm done and thinking about buying a sweet HP DeskPro for my work-from-home PC again. Slight hiccup. Bill doesn't know the Windows user name and password. Of course, no one in the shop knew them and the kid who set it up in the first place no longer works at the shop. I need that to get into the computer where everything lives and Bill can't help me. After explaining (slowly) to Bill what is needed from him, local IT, and the gods above, I send him on his way with "cust was g2g." 20 minutes later. I am on a call with a really sweet lady who wasn't able to merge a couple of work documents together when I get an message from another tech. While watching the sweet customer marvel at the fact that she can merge documents, I look at the message. To paraphrase: "Hey Nilmandir, I got bill on the line. Did you want me to follow your wording on this with the customer?" I looked at the ticket number and sure enough it was Bill. I told the tech what I told Bill, contact local IT or Microsoft for assistance and then call us back when you are able to get into the server with a valid UID and password. We can't do anything with our software until they can log in. Tech tanked me and went on his way. I can hope that 's the last we hear from Bill, but I doubt it. Side Note: He had called in the day before because of the same issue, but we couldn't remote in because he could not figure out how to set up the remote. It literally is open a browser, go to the website, enter the access key, run the software that automatically downloads, and you're done. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 09 Aug 2019 09:59 PM PDT I have been working tech support for about a year and a half now, but already I have stories. I work for a company that mainly does remote support for elderly people, so we get some weird/kind of annoying complaints and questions. And as a little bit of a backstory/info, the connection software we install when our customers first sign up with us tells us if the computer is on and connected to the internet and such. One day I get a help ticket saying something along the lines of I cant get on the internet, which when you are doing remote support by phone is the last thing you want to hear. I sigh and look her up in our system, oddly enough our system shows that shes online... ok. I give her a call and this is how the conversation went. Sorry if its a little long. Me(M): Hi is this (we will call her Betty)? Betty(B): Yes, who's this? M: This is jst_my_lck from such and such company, I understand you are having a problem with the internet, is that right? B: Yes, are you connected to my computer yet? M: Yes I can see your desktop. B: See, it doesn't work! At this point neither of us has clicked on anything. M: Um, this is your desktop, not the internet. B: Yeah and its not working! Me at this point very confused: Betty, if you want to open the internet you have to click on this right here that says (insert browser name). I then opened up the browser to its given homepage. B: See it doesn't work! M: Actually it is working, do you see here where it says search? B: Yeah. M: Well. type in what your looking for. B: What?!?! I never had to do that before! M: How did you used to get on things like your email or Facebook? B: It would just be there! M: You would just turn on your computer and whatever website you were looking for would just be there? B: YES!! I will skip a portion of the conversation where I determine she is not talking about bookmarks or anything like that. M: Betty that's not how the internet works. Look, lets try your email. Click right here and type (insert email service).com and then hit enter. she types it in and it immediately pulls up her email because she is already logged in. B: SEE, IT DOESN'T WORK!!!! M: Betty, this is your email, this is what your email has always looked like. (I know this is what her email has always looked like because I had helped her into it several times in the past when she has forgotten her password.) M: Lets try opening one of your emails, click on this one. she clicks on it, and again... B: SEE?!!? IT. IS. NOT. WORKING!!! M: Ok Betty. I'm not really sure why its not working, maybe your computer just needs a rest and it will go back to normal in a couple of days, sometimes updates cause problems but then they fix themselves. B: Really? So if I leave it alone you think it will go back to normal? M: yup, just give it a couple days, and if it doesn't go back to normal give us a call. B: oh, ok. thank you for helping me. M: Your welcome Betty, have a nice day. B: You too. *click Never heard back from her about it not working, but one of my co-workers did help her into her email about a month later because she forgot the password again. no problems with it "not working" whenever I think back to this phone call I always have this WTF moment. Like, what wasn't working? [link] [comments]  |
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