Just install the thing Tech Support |
- Just install the thing
- Do you have any tape I can use?
- You think I called you a what?
- The wireless isn't working.
| Posted: 29 Jun 2020 01:00 PM PDT dev: install the thing ...and this is why I make them give me the freaking email. [link] [comments]  |
| Do you have any tape I can use? Posted: 30 Jun 2020 03:50 AM PDT I was greeted with this error when opening the webinterface of a faulty labelprinter. 2 months had passed since my $Team had given this ticket to $DummieTeam to check the labelprinter locally. 2 entire months of time to walk to production, check what is going on and solve this issue. An entire epidemic had infected the globe in less, yet here we were still waiting for a fix. $DummieTeam had finally prepared a spare printer and had asked me to make sure the settings were up to standards before they would swap it out. I was not involved until now, but I always look further than what is being asked. Naturally I'd cast a glance at the ongoing issue myself before I would give my verdict.
I started reading the related ticket and mailchain to get to the bottom of this conundrum. 2 months of having to miss this printer had made quite an impact on that production line. They were pissed off; and rightfully so. Escalations had happened multiple times, managers and above were…displeased... certainly now that it had come to the point where they had to manually write their labels and an external inspection coming up in the following days. This issue was visible across the board and there would be repercussions, regardless of the outcome. Scrolling back in time through the ticket I see the person who went to see the printer himself.
I had dealt with $Brick before, and my verdict of him was already set in stone. $Brick had the troubleshooting talent and intelligence equivalent of a brick, hence the name. According to his analysis in the ticket, the labelprinter would still give the error, regardless of the position of the printhead. I rejected his observation without a second thought and said to $Dummieteam:
Off I went to the production area, hoisting myself into a sterile outfit and covering everything from my toes to the crown of my head to prevent contamination. I arrived at the scene and was met with less than friendly faces. They changed expressions however when I stated I was from $Team, not $DummieTeam, and came to check the printer. The culprit was located on top of an Electricity box. I am not a small man, but there was no way I could reach that high comfortably. I disconnected the printer and installed it on top of the only available surface: a barrel with unknown contents. I went to work on the patient while it was balancing on top of its temporary home. While crouching, to get on eye level with the culprit, the single use jumpsuit I was wearing tore from groin to knees. 3 hurrahs for quality control. I embraced my new AC hole with a shrug and started troubleshooting. After a while a thought popped in my head:
I hate to admit it, but the diagnosis of $Brick was correct. The printer would stall regardless of the position of the print head lever. I looked closer at the mechanism. In an ideal world the printhead in a locked position would push in a small button by means of a pin, signalling that everyone was good to go. I put the printhead in said locked position but it did not seem to register. I stated with a grin:
Hoping a split second later that the operators would not have heard. I applied pressure on the lever in a way that the pin would go in deeper, assuming that it would apply the pressure needed to the small button. My attempt paid off: the printer led lights turned green and 2 months worth of labels stuck in the queue started rolling out. I stood there for a solid 10 minutes, keeping pressure on the lever, afraid it would stop the moment I would loosen up. When the printer was released from it's 2-month constipation period it gave a happy beep. I cut that short by retracting my fingers; the printer led lights went back to red. I scrambled the nearest operator and asked in a serious tone:
He pointed me to a drawer further away and scurried off while giving me strange looks. ignoring his unspoken question I retrieved a roll of painter's tape from the drawer, walked back to the printer and taped the lever down in a way that it would keep applying pressure with its pin to the button. The led lights turned back green. I double checked all the settings and to my pleasure the web interface stated the printer was operational. Success! I drafted a mail later that day, addressed to all involved parties.
I hit the send button and waited for the inevitable "are you kidding me" responses. I wonder what $Brick will think when he sees my mail. [link] [comments]  |
| You think I called you a what? Posted: 29 Jun 2020 04:30 PM PDT Here's another one from my dial-up tech support days. This was probably 2004. User calls in for help getting things going, because our install CD didn't do the trick. (Note, I worked for a small rural ISP, not AOL). She was a nice enough older lady, and was doing a solid job following directions. We were still having a rough go of it, for whatever reason, and things just weren't working. Finally after about 45 minutes she says, "Well I've had enough of this", click. OK, she's frustrated, I get it. Maybe 20 minutes later she calls back to cancel her account, and was polite about it. No problem on my end, since I wasn't trained or asked to do any kind of customer retention. There were 3-4 local ISPs, and people moved around quite a bit. When she signed up, she prepaid a few months and was due a refund, which had to be run through our main office. (Again rural ISP, total staff of maybe 10 across both locations, and my location was usually just two of us.) Me: Customer Lady wants to cancel her account, and she needs a refund. Coworker: What did you say to her??? M: Huh? C: Ooh, she called here and said you were very rude and called her names. M: Hmmm...nope Alright, whatever.... but then shortly thereafter her husband calls. Husband: What did you say to my wife??? Me: Nothing sir, we were working through an issue and she hung up in the middle of the call. H: No! She said you called her a *ing **!!! M: Sir I assure you I did no such thing. H: You didn't say it to her, you were talking to someone else! M: Sir I'm working in this office by myself today. Who do you suggest I was talking to? Random customer walks in to pay their bill H: Well we're just talking right now, but if we were face to face it'd be different! M: Are you threatening me, sir? H: No, I'm just saying... M: ...OK. H: I'll get you fired for this! M: Sir I've worked here for four years and have a good relationship with my boss. I doubt that's going to happen. H: fheidfhrkejs)ne'er. Click. Random customer: What was that about? M: No idea... My boss asked me about it afterward of course, but nothing came of it. I still have no idea why she thought what she thought. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 29 Jun 2020 06:50 AM PDT So... I have not been in a desktop support job for many years now but I am still designated the family IT support guy. I don't mind and often I can tell my mother what the issue is quite quickly and what to tell her IT support staff when they need info.With the whole lockdown happening, my mother has been provided a laptop from her employer to work remotely. One or two issues, no softphone was installed and when it was it was looking for a USB headset that is not present, no VPN installed so she had no access to network drives. This was all fixed... and then she leaves me a message and I try and help her. Mom - I sat down this morning to work and wouldn't you know... wireless isn't working. What could be the problem? I tried getting hold of IT but I think it's too early for them. Me - Ok, well some laptops have a button that disables and enables the wireless card. Check to see if that laptop has one and check if pressing it makes a difference. Also check your other devices, phone, tablet, personal laptop. Is the wireless network working there? Mom - Yes that's all working. I can see the wireless network in the list on the other devices. I tried helping her for an hour or so, recommending different things. Looking in Windows for some information. I eventually tell her to move into the room with the router and connected the Ethernet cable to the laptop so that her IT team can remote in and have a look. I am not allowed to as well, it's company policy. I am out of ideas and leave her in the hands of her IT team. Hours pass. Mom - It's been five and a half hours and still nothing... until I called my boss and told her my problem. She asked me to send her a photo of the laptop and wouldn't you know it! She says she had the same laptop and there is a button above the top row of keys that turns the wireless off and on. I pressed it and poof! It works again. All that time wasted where I could have been working. Me - Mom... scroll up and look at the first message I sent you this morning. Literally the first thing I told you to check. Mom - Oh... My... God... I'm not sure if she shared that bit of information with her boss but she was so embarassed after she realised she had the solution the entire time. She chalked it up to not understanding what I meant about checking for a wireless button/switch. She had a good laugh afterwards at least. [link] [comments]  |
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