"What do you mean we told you to stop the backups??!" Tech Support |
- "What do you mean we told you to stop the backups??!"
- Bob, this is the 4th time this month!
- "I can't seem to connect this thing!"
- Some days customer service and tech support are one and the same
- Why Do People Always Leave Out Information?
- I don't want that MFA app to steal my data and memory!
- I use this password elsewhere, allow me to change it first
- Nighttime on Mars
- IT Karen - I WANT IT FIXED NOW!
| "What do you mean we told you to stop the backups??!" Posted: 25 Jan 2021 08:20 AM PST So a bit of background first. I used to be a shift team lead for a hosted outsourcing company that provided our own software on AS400 based systems to various financial institutions. Some of these companies were very small and only had a single box. Some were larger and had a pair of boxes (usually one serving as the live environment and one as the test environment). Others had more for different functions. Some did all their own development, others paid us to do their dev and bugfixing work for them. One of the most important things we handled in the NOC was physical backups. Each box had it's own backup schedule, where it would back up to IBM Ultrium tapes. Each morning, one of our tasks was to remove the tape from the previous night's backup, scan the barcode and send them offsite to our secure storage facility. Once that was done we'd make sure that the scratch tape for the next scheduled backup was loaded and ready to go. This one company we dealt with had both a live and test environment, and had their own in-house developers. Initially they were both backed up nightly but due to a cost limiting exercise, the IT manager on their side submitted a change request to limit the test system to one backup per week, to be carried out on a Friday night. No problem. Amend the backup schedules, and update the documentation to reflect the change. All sorted. I wasn't there when all of this happened but it was all included and documented on the shift handover report when our team took over, so we knew we didn't have to load tapes for this particular box until Friday. About 8 months later, we received a P1 ticket in the NOC from one of their developers, this happened on a Thursday afternoon (I'm sure you can see where this is going by now). "Help! Library ABC1234 on the test system was just accidentally deleted. Please can this be restored from last night's backup urgently?" My tech who received the ticket confirmed with me correctly that they were now on weekly backups on this particular box, and the most recent backup we had was almost a week old. My tech relays this back to the end user in an email. The user calls back immediately "No! That's not good enough, if that's the most recent backup you have that means we've lost almost a week's worth of critical work. I need to speak to your supervisor immediately!" I duly took over the call. "Your colleague has just informed me that you've stopped backing up this system daily! This is unacceptable." "As I heard my colleague explain, the backup schedules are decided by your company, and as this was a test system as opposed to a live environment, the decision was taken on your side to reduce the backup frequency from daily to weekly. You need to speak to your IT department for clarity on this." "I'll do that, you haven't heard the last of this!" About half an hour later, another one of my guys gets a call asking to be put straight through to me. "Yes, this is John Smith, the Systems Manager from Company XYZ. I've just had an interesting conversation with one of my developers stating that you've stopped doing our backups that we're paying you to perform. Just for your information this call is being recorded and I've got a conference call with our solicitors in 15 minutes whereby if this is not resolved satisfactorily by that time, we will be filing a lawsuit for the cost of our lost development work, and a recording of this call will be used as evidence." Wow, talk about aggressive. I explain to the guy that 8 months ago, someone at their company submitted a change request that we reduce the backup frequency on this system from daily to weekly, and this was carried out as requested. "Well that's just insane. Nobody here would have done that. I need the name of the person who submitted the request as well as the person on your side who actioned the request without verifying that the request was received from an authorised member of our CAB!" "OK, well I wasn't on-shift when that change was made but it will have all been documented on our ticketing system, bear with me a second. Ah, here we go. So the request was made on April 12th this year by a John Smith, Systems Manager. That's you, right?" "Uhm, that's not right, there must be another person here with that name." "You've got two John Smiths, both working as Systems Managers? Does that not get confusing?" "No, erm. I don't recall asking you to do this." "Well we have the email saved to the original ticket, along with several emails back and forth where we asked you to clarify a couple of points, and also a scanned copy of the signed change form where you've written your name and signature. Did you want me to forward these over for your solicitors? Although I suspect you might already have copies of them if you check your sent items folder.." "Erm, no that's fine thanks. I'll let the developers know that you can't recover the file." "That'd be great thanks, is there anything else I can help you with today Mr Smith?" *click. Printed off the ticket and dug out a copy of the call recording to forward around to the team, and I added this to my training guides for new hires as an example of why documenting everything is critical. Always remember rules 1 through 10 of tech support. Cover your arse and document everything! [link] [comments]  |
| Bob, this is the 4th time this month! Posted: 25 Jan 2021 08:18 PM PST Many years ago I worked at the help desk for an office with 600+ staff members. Once a week I got a call from "Bob" who was a director of a small, yet mission critical department. Bob was a frequent caller for various reasons, but recently he only called for one reason... "I forgot my password! Can you help me? I'm late for an important meeting!" Each of the first 3 times I reset his password to something silly like SnickersJan25 with an expiration of single use. I don't know what came over me, but the 4th time he showed up in person, but with the same sob story... well I lost my manners and professionalism. I told him that I would change it and I wrote down "IAmForg3tful!" on a sticky note and stuck it to the soda he had in his hand, turned my back and walked away. The next morning he was at my desk when I arrived. He apologized for being an absent minded idiot. His words, not mine. He also came bearing a Snickers bars for each reset I had done. He figured it was my favorite based on the previous temporary passwords. In the rest of his tenure with the employer, Bob never forgot his password again! Name of individual changed to protect the guilty. Name of candy changed because I don't want to give away all of my secrets. [link] [comments]  |
| "I can't seem to connect this thing!" Posted: 25 Jan 2021 02:40 PM PST Backstory: Client has data from old PC we wiped on an External HDD. We gave her a box of items to setup at home. A computer... A monitor.... Her old data.. I get a call from my boss: Client is unable to access her old data off the HDD, She says she can't connect it.. or something I call the client: She says that she has the HDD but can't connect it as it's "incompatible". Tells me the brand of HDD. Hohner. Hmmm Strange, I've never heard of this brand before. Quick Google search confirms my suspicions. Asked her to take a picture of it and text it to my phone to confirm. I get the picture and, yup, it's a harmonica. My client was trying to connect a harmonica to her computer to access her data. I asked her to look inside the box for anything else. She says there's one more item in there. A small black square item with a USB cable and it says Seagate on it. "Use that instead" Ticket resolved. [link] [comments]  |
| Some days customer service and tech support are one and the same Posted: 25 Jan 2021 09:14 AM PST Network cabling technician for a multinational. Currently scheduling work for field technicians to replace network switches as a refresh project headed by Network Operations for a large number of small branch offices. One such office: Network Operations: We've mailed the new switches to the branch office. Network Cabling, can you do the honors? Network Cabling (Me): Sure. Branch office Building Manager, we would like to request a security escort for our field technician to replace all the network switches in your office. We'd like this to be on Saturday so as not to disrupt your work. Building Manager: No can do. We're not in the office on Saturday. Can you do it during the week? Network Cabling: Sure, we can schedule it Friday after business hours. Building Manager: No, see, there won't be anybody to open the door for them. Are you sure you can't do this during business hours? Network Cabling: That's why we're requesting an escort off-hours; because we're specifically avoiding disrupting your work by disconnecting you from the network during business hours. Building Manager: That's okay, there's nobody in the office anyway. You can come in next Wednesday during the day since I'll be there. I'll let your technician in. Network Cabling: Oh, uh. Okay, that works. Building Manager: That's great! I'll just be working in the office while your technician does what he needs to do. Network Cabling: Uh, will you be using your phone and computer while in the office? Building Manager: Yes. Will that be an issue? Network Cabling: Yes, since we'll be disconnecting those from the network as part of this job. Building Manager: Oh. Well, can you work around me? Network Operations: Don't worry, we'll be doing one switch at a time, so the entire office will not be down. Building Manager: Great! So my phone and computer will not be down at all? Network Cabling: No, the whole office won't be down simultaneously. If you wanna play hot potato with your desk all day, that's your choice. Building Manager: Oh. That is really inconvenient. Network Cabling: YOU DON'T SAY. [link] [comments]  |
| Why Do People Always Leave Out Information? Posted: 25 Jan 2021 01:39 PM PST Hello all, I haven't really had a lot stories as of late that aren't too similar to what I've already posted but I thought this one was a little interesting so I thought I'd share. Cast are as follows;
I feel like they're fairly self-explanatory so no need to waste further time on them. Our story begins on a fairly slow Monday, which is really slow for my work, and as I'm perusing reddit on my cell phone I get a call.
The software the user called about is one that we don't support outside of creating a shortcut to the site from their desktop. I checked our knowledgebase and found the escalation path and returned to the call.
I proceeded to get the location he is seeing as well as the location he should be seeing, and asked him multiple times if that's all the relevant information. After he assured me it's not I proceeded through my normal script for escalations.
After that I ended the call, then I checked back on previous tickets and sure enough he's right, he has called about this before. Which begs the question, why didn't he think to bring up the thing with his son sooner? I could've ended the call so much quicker had he done that. Like I said a relatively short story, but one I found kind of interesting nonetheless. [link] [comments]  |
| I don't want that MFA app to steal my data and memory! Posted: 25 Jan 2021 01:37 PM PST First time post here! So a little background on my job. I work for a call center IT support that help out colleges and universities with Tier I support. Got a call a little while ago about a faculty/staff member who was unable to log into their account. They already had a case opened and he was trying to reach the person who sent the last update. He called the Tier One line and I look into his case which was stated as follows: Associate 1: "Faculty/Staff member does not want to set up MFA. Routed." Associate 2:"Caller set up for MFA walk through MFA app set up." Me: "Ok log into blank account." Caller:"Yeah it's asking me for a code." Me: "Right you need to download MFA app so you can be verified." Caller: "I don't want that MFA app on my phone stealing my data and memory." Me: speachless "Ok well the college has set it up like this so everyone has to do it." Caller: "Well I'm not doing it. This better be fix before my class tonight." Me: "Okay well I keep it route and they'll get back to you about a solution. Have a...." Caller disconnected. Now in the back of my head I am think he probably has a little bit of a point about stealing some sort of data but to think the rules don't apply to him I just don't get it. I have way too many calls like this and others that are even more entertaining. [link] [comments]  |
| I use this password elsewhere, allow me to change it first Posted: 25 Jan 2021 06:29 AM PST My company provides cPanel mail hosting as a part of websites, and we recently (finally) ended up being able to provide M365 as well. This is from one of the times the existing cPanel mail being migrated to M365. As the process goes, I ask for all the passwords—get 3/5 passwords. One of the other two plain doesn't know it (surprise!) and the other one knows it, but uses it for other services (even bigger surprise!), but to the second one's credit, she realised that it would probably be a good idea to change this pass, so I can use it without automatically getting access to her other stuff. We'll call this one PR (Password Re-user). As is my nature, I try to make things easier and more efficient for myself and everyone around me—even clients, despite their best efforts to thwart it. So, I finally looked into the cPanel capability of subaccount self-service password resets that's been around for some time, made some tests, came up with observations... success, I know what I need to do for it to work! Thinking—should I just give PR instructions on resetting it through webmail, or through the shiny new reset feature? No matter, asked for an alternative address and gave PR the webmail address, so she can do what she will (log in and change, or use Reset Password), the result will be the same. Next morning I see an e-mail from the recovery address with a screenshot of an additional SMTP account in Gmail and a complaint that PR can't send. I knew she uses it through Gmail and my instructions reflected it. Paraphrase of the e-mail conversation goes like this: Me: <I see the port is wrong> "Change the port to 465, fill the pass and proceed." PR: "Still not working." Me: <I go check the exim logs and see '...Incorrect authentication data…'; the screenshot username was fine> "The log suggests the password is wrong." PR: "Should it be the one I changed it to? That's definitely the one I'm trying to use." Me: "Send me the password, I'll try and will need it anyway for the migration." PR: "Yes, I think it should be blahdy-blah-pass." At this point, I see that PR switched from "That's definitely…" to "I think it should be…" and the password I get is not only a password that is built from PR's first name and half of the e-mail domain, but also… I'm sure you've guessed... incorrect. At this point, I'm sticking with it—I could reset it to what I was given, but I'm not going to, because that gives me time to work on migration of another client's mail to M365, and let's be honest the problem wasn't the password reset, but using the password again just seconds/minutes after the reset, with the 'Reset Password' button not disappearing after one use, like it was some kind of consumable. So I basically told her "It's not the right password, I tried it where you reset it, please try again." to which she replied with the same password, except with all letters having their case inverted and that she hasn't got new e-mails in her gmail for the business address... What that implies I leave up to you. Bah! At least I finally got the PR's password, now just to get the other one... [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Jan 2021 02:04 AM PST Wish this was my story, but I'll relay what happened to a friend of mine. Back in the 90s, my friend was a tech for an ISP working second shift. Tech support ended at 10 PM, but if you were already on a call before 10, you had to help the customer. One night, as his shift was about to end, the phone rang. He looked at the clock - 9:58. Crap, gotta take it. Customer: Hey, I'm trying to load the Mars Pathfinder website, but it's giving me a black screen. Tech friend walks him through checking this setting, that setting, everything he can think of. Nothing is fixing the problem. Finally, my friend discovered the solution to the call. Friend: Sir, I'm sorry, I just realized it's just after 10:00. It's nighttime on Mars. Try again in the morning, and you may have better luck. Customer: Oh, you're right! Thanks for your help! click [link] [comments]  |
| IT Karen - I WANT IT FIXED NOW! Posted: 24 Jan 2021 10:05 PM PST Finally. After months of casually perusing this subreddit, feeling large amounts of sympathy towards fellow IT Support technicians, I finally had the chance to face to off with a Karen of the IT world. TL;DR – IT Karen argued against my recommendation as she was entitled and wanted it done NOW, spent so much time complaining that the computer did exactly as I said it would and shut her up. Now, some back story, although I am a relatively "big" guy, 196cm or 6'5" (for international friends) I really do not like confrontation, even when arguing over the phone about something that I have spend 5 years studying for and know how things work. It made me very mad, but I tried to stay as professional as possible, but I tell ya if we were in public I would have gone off on her more. Me: Karen…jks, me obviously. K=Karen. Frank: Colleague initially helping her Me: (Company name), me speaking, how may I help? K: Is Frank available, he was dealing with something earlier but has not fixed my issue? Me: No sorry, he's on another call. Could I help with anything? K: My emails aren't working, I haven't received anything since September 2020! Me: (Never taking what clients say as gospel until I see it with my own eyes) oh that's not good. Let me jump on and see. *I check her Outlook on the computer and notice that one (of the 6 accounts she has added) has, in fact, not received an email since September 2020. I can also see that Outlook is performing an sync/update that was brought on by cache changes Frank had made.* Me: Yes, I can see that now. Let me check your online account and see if it is also happening there. *Checks O365 online and sure enough last email came through 20 minutes prior to the call. Classic desktop Outlook being funny. Back to the call to explain what to do next* Me: Okay, so looks like the email address is receiving with no issues but.." get cut off immediately K: Well it's not, can you not see it hasn't received anything since September?! Me: Yes I can see the Outlook installed is having issues, what we will do is wait until the sync/update completes as I can see that it is currently updating this mailbox now as we speak. It might just be prioritising different addresses or folders before getting to the Inbox of this one. *She wasn't having that.. Cue full Karen-Mode* K: NO, YOU WILL FIX THIS NOW! I WILL NOT BE CALLING BACK A 4TH TIME TO GET THIS RESOVLED, YOU NEED TO DO IT NOW!! Me: (little caught off guard) unfortunately we will have to wait for the sync to complete so I can confirm if the issue is related to Outlook program or your profile setup on the program as they take two different approaches to resolve. K: LISTEN HERE. ARE YOU SAYING THAT YOU NEED NO TECHNICAL INTELLIGENCE TO TROUBLESHOOT THIS AND IF I SPOKE WITH FRANK WOULD HE ALSO SAY WE HAVE TO WAIT FOR THIS?? NO!!! I NEED THIS DONE NOW! Me: (getting worked up and frustrated at this point) You don't seem to be understanding, listening to what I am saying. WE. NEED. TO. WAIT. Nothing else I can do at this point. *Yes, technically there is other stuff I could do. Repair Outlook, remove and add profile back, but all would mean more time syncing anyway?? Plus…. Fuck her right?* Me: (trying to explain reasoning) Outlook online is working fine, Outlook program seems to be the one with the issue, so…. *cut off again* K: I KNOW IT IS!! I CAN FUCKING SEE IT ISN'T WOKRING!!! Blah blah blah blah *I stop listening to her, because at this point we have been going in circles for about 15 minutes, and I notice Outlook has finished the sync. I take control of the mouse and open the mailbox in question, she is still rambling about she doesn't notice the screen or that Outlook has indeed completed and all the missing emails downloading from the server as I said they would. Me: (pissed off and worked up at this point) CAN YOU SEE OUTLOOK ON THE SCREEN!? K: EXCUSE ME??! I…. *my turn to cut her off* Me: YES OR NO? CAN YOU SEE OUTLOOK OPEN? K: Yes? Me: READ THE TIME AND DATE ON THE FIRST EMAIL YOU SEE ON THE TOP! K: (strangely quieter now) 25th JAN 2021 (her view showed the date and time) 12:06pm…. Me: SO, as you can see Outlook has downloaded the emails after the sync/update was completed. EXACTLY AS I SAID IT WOULD DO! Anything else? K: ummm… no… that'- Me: BYE *hangs up, and throws headset down* Sorry if that was a bit too long, or for any formatting mistakes but FUCK ME, how dare I recommend a solution to you, a client that is calling for MY SUPPORT! Next time sort it out yourself if you think you know best. [link] [comments]  |
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