Current Events > ''Hello i'm having issues with my computer''

(+) Yeah! (+)

"Sure, what's the issue"
"It's an issue with the login screen"

"What's the issue"

"I've been having this pain in my knee"

"When did it start?"

"A while ago"

"How long ago?"

"A long time"

When

Well, what was the issue?

I don't envy the IT guys at my job. Front desk is always hassling them with the most mundane shit without being able to even explain the issues properly lol

KlownArt posted...

Well, what was the issue?

with the login screen

KlownArt posted...

Well, what was the issue?

he forgot his password and is blaming the computer.

Ving_Rhames posted...

I don't envy the IT guys at my job. Front desk is always hassling them with the most mundane shit without being able to even explain the issues properly lol

Yeah, I'd never want to be help desk. I'm glad I was able to bypass that position in my IT career. At least I only have to deal with end-users that pretty much know their stuff in the database niche.

"I'm having trouble with my scanner."

"It's the tibanna gas, calibrate to Seven Mark Nine"

Moving up from L1 service desk into a much better IT role was the best thing to ever happen to me.

I genuinely hated every single caller I'd get in a day, by the end. Even the nice ones. Fuckin breaks your soul, man.

MixedRaceBaby posted...

he forgot his password and is blaming the computer.

Ok but I'm still having an issue with my login screen

i told him he just need to reset his password but he still wants to meet in person.

how the fuck do these people even breathe

MixedRaceBaby posted...

i told him he just need to reset his password but he still wants to meet in person.

how the fuck do these people even breathe

Lmfao why

MixedRaceBaby posted...

i told him he just need to reset his password but he still wants to meet in person.

how the fuck do these people even breathe

Worse yet, they drive.

"I'm not a computer person" my ass. LEARN, ya twits. It's 2022, you've had 40+ years to get on board with the "future." You don't get to go behind the wheel of a car, not knowing what the steering wheel is, how to put it in gear, what the turn signals are, and handwave it away with "It's OK, I'm not really a "car" person, I just need it to drive to work and back."

MixedRaceBaby posted...

i told him he just need to reset his password but he still wants to meet in person.

how the fuck do these people even breathe

Meet in person? He's a serial killer.

Tote_All_ posted...

Lmfao why

im tempted to cancel on him and tell him to put in a ticket, and then when that ticket gets sent my way

just tell him to reset his password.

DarkBuster22904 posted...

Worse yet, they drive.

"I'm not a computer person" my ass. LEARN, ya twits. It's 2022, you've had 40+ years to get on board with the "future." You don't get to go behind the wheel of a car, not knowing what the steering wheel is, how to put it in gear, what the turn signals are, and handwave it away with "It's OK, I'm not really a "car" person, I just need it to drive to work and back."

Truth be told, I know how to drive but that doesn't mean I'm a certified mechanic.

HylianFox posted...

Truth be told, I know how to drive but that doesn't mean I'm a certified mechanic.

And at help desk, more often than not, we aren't asking for "certified mechanic" levels of knowledge. They don't need to know what RAM is, what any of the performance charts in the task manager mean, or any sort of advanced or even beginner-intermediate troubleshooting techniques.

But the number of people who call I'm asking whether it's OK to click the "done" button on a "download complete" menu, or how to open these start menu, how to reset their password, or even how to turn on the damn computer is startling. To say nothing of the people who use the Recycle bin as their primary file storage folder, and call in all baffled and confused when everything gets deleted. Yes, this happens, and happens a lot. That's not certified mechanic level. That's "basic job capability" level.

We don't say "did you try turning it off and on again" for our health.

DarkBuster22904 posted...

Yes, this happens, and happens a lot. That's not certified mechanic level. That's "basic job capability" level.

lmao seriously.

last year i had a guy hired as a teacher here (i do it for a school). he needs to set up 2fa for his accounts so you need to download an account.

except, his phone is too old. he was running like an iphone 4 or some shit. wouldn't work.
so we let him do sms verification, even though we dont like that.

EXCEPT

IT DOESN'T WORK

BECAUSE HE DOESNT HAVE A US NUMBER. he lived in mexico for many years and just kept it

MixedRaceBaby posted...

lmao seriously.

last year i had a guy hired as a teacher here (i do it for a school). he needs to set up 2fa for his accounts so you need to download an account.

except, his phone is too old. he was running like an iphone 4 or some shit. wouldn't work.
so we let him do sms verification, even though we dont like that.

EXCEPT

IT DOESN'T WORK

BECAUSE HE DOESNT HAVE A US NUMBER. he lived in mexico for many years and just kept it

Lady calls in, reports a basic problem, the kind we fix a dozen times a day As I'm getting ready to help:

"So before I called you guys, I talked to my manager and they said that people have fixed this before by shutting down their computer. So I did that, and now the screen is all dark, and I can't do anything? What happened?"

Actual call from an actual person. In a reasonably high up role, no less. Young enough to know better.

But it's OK. Twenty minutes later(after three tries at getting her to the the computer on, because the was afraid of all the lights that came on on the "little box" when she hit the power button), I got a different call where I had to spend 30 minutes explaining what a file was, and how to save and open a document. I wasn't even mad, just impressed; the company only took online apps, so I was amazed she and I were even talking, more than anything.

This is why IT people are assholes. Wh get bombarded with shit like this day in and day out, then get reamed by customers, managers, execs, and everyone else because apparently we're the ones who don't know what we're doing.

(Note: not an absolvement or dismissal of IT folks who genuinely DONT know or care about what theyre doing. Trust me, I have plenty of stories about those, too)

I work IT at a law firm, and get this all the time. Also get lawyers answering my list of questions I have bulletpointed to make it easier with Yes. ALL THE GOD DAMN TIME.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p85xwZ_OLX0

Fuck fax machines

DarkBuster22904 posted...

This is why IT people are assholes. Wh get bombarded with shit like this day in and day out, then get reamed by customers, managers, execs, and everyone else because apparently we're the ones who don't know what we're doing.

yup yup. i try to be nice but sometimes my facial expressions can't hide how utterly disgusted i am with someone.

luckily my bosses all understand and have our backs. for now at least <_<

The biggest nightmare I've had was trying to explain to a client that camel-case domains are impossible.

"I entered 'DumbWebSite.com' into my browser, and it became 'dumbwebsite.com' - I need you to fix that."
"That's technically impossible, given the way the internet just works. Here's a bunch of links to specs and documentation explaining why."
"Marketing says we have to have this completed by end of business day, for branding reasons. They sent out the direct-mail flyers Tuesday!"
"I just told you that can't happen, here's the exact DNS/http specification about that."
"So, can we expect this to be completed by Friday, then?"

MixedRaceBaby posted...

im tempted to cancel on him and tell him to put in a ticket, and then when that ticket gets sent my way

Here's your problem. You're working an issue without making the person open a ticket. No ticket, no work. I can't tell you how many times people have called/emailed/messaged/stopped me in the hallway about basic issues and when I tell them to open a ticket, they never do. I'll randomly see them a week later and ask about it. They'll say oh I figured it out.

It's easier for them to bother you directly than to fix it themselves but it's easier for them to fix it themselves than open a ticket. It's odd but works.

BlazinBlue88 posted...

It's easier for them to bother you directly than to fix it themselves but it's easier for them to fix it themselves than open a ticket. It's odd but works.

Ticket implies a "queue". Annoying you in the hallway or over the phone presumes you're going to fuckin' fix it right-damn-now, practical or not.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Ticket implies a "queue". Annoying you in the hallway or over the phone presumes you're going to fuckin' fix it right-damn-now, practical or not.

Not like these people care about the queues anyway. 30% of the time some call center goober will put in a ticket, report it to their manager, then that manager calls the Help Desk manager demanding the help desk drop whatever they're doing to fix this random call center goober's password issue. Or unmute their volume for their headset or whatever.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Ticket implies a "queue". Annoying you in the hallway or over the phone presumes you're going to fuckin' fix it right-damn-now, practical or not.

I wasn't arguing the practically of that. I was just telling TC he needs to get into the mindset of "No Ticket, No Work". There's several reasons why this is beneficial to an IT person. The example I used was that often times from my experience, users would rather figure out their own basic issue than have to open a ticket.

BlazinBlue88 posted...

Here's your problem. You're working an issue without making the person open a ticket. No ticket, no work. I can't tell you how many times people have called/emailed/messaged/stopped me in the hallway about basic issues and when I tell them to open a ticket, they never do. I'll randomly see them a week later and ask about it. They'll say oh I figured it out.

It's easier for them to bother you directly than to fix it themselves but it's easier for them to fix it themselves than open a ticket. It's odd but works.

yeah. our org isn't to pushy about opening tickets. big projects yeah we say open a ticket, but resetting a password, even im like uh really lol.

my old IT job wanted a ticket for E V E R Y T H I N G. if someone called, first thing we had to ask for, before asking what the problem is, is their ID number. then we open a ticket and put it in. Wrong number? make a ticket with their ID and say it was a wrong number. my boss once called me and said "hey, i see theres 10 calls that came in today but only 2 tickets. what happened"

MixedRaceBaby posted...

yeah. our org isn't to pushy about opening tickets. big projects yeah we say open a ticket, but resetting a password, even im like uh really lol.

my old IT job wanted a ticket for E V E R Y T H I N G. if someone called, first thing we had to ask for, before asking what the problem is, is their ID number. then we open a ticket and put it in. Wrong number? make a ticket with their ID and say it was a wrong number. my boss once called me and said "hey, i see theres 10 calls that came in today but only 2 tickets. what happened"

Yeah opening a ticket for every call even if it didn't result in actual work is dumb. There's a middle ground between what your current company is doing and what your old company is doing.

Let's take your example of resetting a password. You think it barely qualifies as a ticket event. Say your department wants to purchase some software that allows you to setup a self service password reset site for users. Wouldn't you love it if you didn't spend a couple hours everyday working with users to reset their passwords? You need a business justification to convince the execs to spend the money on that. Presenting the ticket metrics to them as "In our department, we work 25 password reset tickets a day which takes up x amount of time. This equals out to the company paying us x amount of money every year just to reset passwords. This software only costs x amount in licenses every year which is less than the cost of our time."

Boom. Your department has now spoken to the execs in the only language they understand. Money.
They see the numbers and grant you the money for the software. Now you free up part of your day cause you never have to reset passwords again.

A history of repeating ticket issues lead to process improvement projects. If you don't track your work, your team won't be able to see this reoccurring history. Also tracking all your work in tickets is a CYA for when your boss asks you why you haven't done whatever other task they've asked you to do. "If you look at my tickets, you can see I haven't had time to work on the project." Sounds a lot better than, I've been too busy to work on the project.

ah yeah thats true! good point

Have you tried forcing an unexpected reboot?

See. the driver hooks the function by patching the system call table, so it's not safe to unload it unless another thread's about to jump in and do its stuff, and you don't want to end up in the middle of invalid memory... Hello?

Ivany2008 posted...

Have you tried forcing an unexpected reboot?

See. the driver hooks the function by patching the system call table, so it's not safe to unload it unless another thread's about to jump in and do its stuff, and you don't want to end up in the middle of invalid memory... Hello?

lmao.

Did you see that ludicrous display last night?

MixedRaceBaby posted...

ah yeah thats true! good point

I also added a paragraph at the end in case you missed it.

I've been in that tech support role man. I know how easy it is to get swamped with break/fix stuff and project work. If you don't put up some barriers for yourself like no ticket, no work, you'll burn out. It's really tempting to go the extra mile with the coworkers you like and let them contact you directly but it will hurt you in the long run. Draw your lines in the sand and make everyone follow those rules for your own sanity.

Not to harp too much on the no ticket, no work but at my last job, I led a project to roll out an improved ticketing system with the ability to email an address and it auto open a ticket for users. I sent out a company wide email informing everyone of this new email and that they would not be guaranteed assistance if they emailed an IT tech directly. I made sure my manager was aware of this and backed me.

Course most people don't read emails from IT so I had condition everyone. When they would email me directly with issues, I would only respond with "Please open a ticket at this email" Repeat offenders would simply be ignored. I had someone email me while I was on PTO, ignore my auto out of office response, then storm into my boss' office demanding to know why I haven't fixed their issue. All he said was, "what's your ticket number?" lmao