The Boy Who Cried Wolf

Good morning A-------,

This morning you placed a call to our help-desk ostensibly claiming that you could not log-in and you were in the middle of an exam.When we responded we found your class working away watching YouTube videos on the net. The problem seemed to be that you were unable to log-in to your web based e-mail account. That service seems to be under some type of Denial of Service Attack today and the whole world is having trouble getting to their site.

If this was the case, I question your ability to diagnose computing problems. Perhaps, you should undertake some training? If you knowingly misdirected us, may I remind you of the parable about the boy who cried wolf. Our future responses could be long enough to ensure we will only find the bones.

Please, in the future, call us when you have a problem but don't inflate the urgency.

Help, My CD is stuck

This was about 10 years ago, when we still had some 486 computers without CD-ROM drives in a few of out labs.

A young lady asked for some help getting her CD out of the computer. No problem I think as I grab a handy-dandy CD removal tool, commonly called an unbent paperclip.

I ask her where she was working, she directs me to the lab with the oldest computers, those 486 machines without any CD-ROM drives i mentioned earlier.

I'm a bit confused, but I soldier on and ask her to direct me to the problematic computer.

This is going to be interesting I think to myself; The paperclip is NOT going to help.

She had managed to put the CD into the 5¼ inch disk drive.

HUH?!?!

I asked what she had done, she was just following her teacher's instructions.

When I asked why she didn't use one of the labs with the newer computers with the CD-ROM drives she told me that she had never used a computer before and didn't know any better. Why she didn't ask for help before is beyond me, but there are people like that.

I did my best to explain that we would have to dismantle the computer to get her CD out, and that it may not be usable once retrieved. She was upset and the prospect of losing her disk,

Well, not only did we have to remove the drive from the computer, a desktop case, we had to destroy the drive in the process.

She got her CD back, fortunately for her, it wasn't too damaged and worked properly in a computer with a CD-ROM drive.

Now we have a stack of CDs that people have forgotten in the labs

I need it full screen

I received a call from one of my clients. He has lost the menu in his web browser, and can't print something. It takes me a second, I realize that he is in full-screen mode, I tell him to hit the "F11" key to restore the menu and tool bar.

Problem solved.....NOT!!

I'm told that he knows about the "F11" trick, but that's not really his problem, why did I know that?

He tells me he needs it in full screen because he wants the picture displayed to print big.

Biting my tongue, I offer to go to his office to help him print a picture of his grand daughter; that story is for another time.

Reset, Please!

Getting a call about a frozen system, suggesting the caller reboot by pushing the reset button.

Me: Press the reset button
Them: I can do that?
Me: Yes you can, that is the first thing I would do if I were to go to your office
Them:Where is the reset button
Me: on the front of your computer, the smaller of the 2 buttons
Them: OK.....I don't have a reset button.....
Me: do you see the 2 buttons on the front of the case; the large and small one?
Them: Yes
Me: Push the smaller one.
Them: OK, but there is no reset button.....
Me: ARRRRRRRRGGGGG (to myself)

Me: I'll be there in a few minutes (to push the reset button)

The computer, not the monitor

Asking a user to reboot their computer, only to find out later that they were "rebooting" their monitor...and not understanding why nothing was changing?!?!?!

A simple fix becomes an office visit...to reboot a computer.

My side of the counter

This is a look from the other side of a computer service counter from a very large Jr. or community college.

I support the faculty, staff and some students, helping them when they get themselves into trouble or need help using their computer. I usually respond to a help ticket sometimes following up by phone or by going to their office. There are days that no amount of help will fix the problem. Sometimes my "clients" are no smarter than a stick.

That being said, I love where I'm working, I love what I'm doing and the people I work with a a great bunch; with a wide range of technical and "customer" service skills.

Please note, the names have been changed to protect the guilty.