• zxqwas@lemmy.world
    20·
    14 hours ago

    I billed 6 hours for troubleshooting something that was broken because the cable was not plugged in despite them saying it was.

    I got him to recheck the cable by telling him to pull it out and clean the contact surfaces.

    • luciferofastora@feddit.org
      21·
      3 hours ago

      I’ve heard variations of that as well, things like “could you check if the contacts are bent?” or “plug it out, wait ten seconds for any static to drain, then plug it back in firmly”.

      If it works, just shrug it off as “sometimes cables are fiddly” so the user doesn’t feel like you’re blaming them for anything. Odds are they’ll realise it’s not seated properly and be glad they got away with their error.

  • binarytobis@lemmy.world
    36·
    16 hours ago

    I was pushed into a university IT call center with no training in actual computer skills and felt like this. But after fumbling through some calls it was 40% getting people to reboot, 40% getting people to reboot despite their lies that they already did, 15% problems I actually happened to know the answer to from home PC use, and 5% “Let me ask the specialist”.

    • 14th_cylon@lemmy.zip
      28·
      15 hours ago

      40% getting people to reboot despite their lies that they already did

      and that is how we know you are not lying and actually suffered through that job 😂

  • MachineFab812@discuss.tchncs.de
    36·
    17 hours ago

    I HATED how often this worked. I want to know what actually went wrong. I usually have some idea … but no, finding that out is rarely the job.

    • palordrolap@fedia.io
      172·
      17 hours ago

      Back in the 1960s there was a kind of car called a Bubble Car. They had a front-opening door, that is, the door and windscreen were one, and it opened up, out and to the left. The cars also had no reverse gear.

      It was thus possible to get into a state where you’d driven right up to the back wall of a garage and were then completely unable to get out.

      The car wasn’t broken and otherwise worked normally. If there’d been a radio in there, that would have still worked. The seat didn’t suddenly become uncomfortable, etc. Nonetheless, the user was stuck.

      What’s the point of this anecdote? Well, a computer that can be fixed by rebooting was in a state like that bubble car stuck against the back wall of the garage.

      Unfortunately, with the car, there was no equivalent reset to get back outside the garage again, and usually resulted in the user screaming for help.

    • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      14·
      17 hours ago

      One thing I think about is that we make servers with ECC RAM because normal RAM has cosmic rays cause random corruption IIRC once every 100 days on average.

      It’s overkill for desktops because you don’t care about 3 bit flips every year if you only have 1 machine as opposed to managing thousands in a datacenter, and you regularly restart your stuff anyway.

      And then you have people who have to deal with hundreds of people who never restart their stuff.

      And companies ship stuff with memory leaks all the time on top of this. US nuclear guidance systems have them, but they are not expected to have to be on constantly for weeks on end like the laptop of Joan from Marketing.

  • thisbenzingring@lemmy.todayEnglish
    611·
    19 hours ago

    it do be like this sometimes

    it’s also stressful and funny when somebody is trying to tell you their computer problems and it seems like it’s really bad. then you go and look around and you can’t find anything wrong. and their all

    hey you fixed it!

      • audaxdreik@pawb.socialEnglish
        32·
        19 hours ago

        As someone who formerly worked phone support, let me assure you we love the dumb, easy ones. Everyone wants an easy win and bonus when it kicks you to the back of the call queue.

        • baines@piefed.socialEnglish
          8·
          18 hours ago

          unless it’s so dumb it’s not obvious

          i learned no question is too stupid

          and yes it must be plugged in to work

          • thejml@sh.itjust.works
            8·
            18 hours ago

            My favorite question to ask callers when I worked phone support: “What happens when you push the power button”

            I got so many “wait, theres a power button?!” replies. And a few <click, whurrrr> “Uhh, i’ll call you back if i have anything else”.

    • purplemonkeymad@programming.dev
      5·
      18 hours ago

      Sometimes I know I need to zone out a bit as the story is completely unrelated to the problem. The trick is making sure you start paying attention again at the right time.

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
    5·
    17 hours ago

    My favorite tech support solution: you must completely destroy everything you’re trying to save in order to solve the problem you’re having.

  • stupidcasey@lemmy.world
    12·
    15 hours ago

    It’s simple, you obviously need a new computer

    …

    Software issue? What? No drivers are obviously hardware

    …

    Oh, you know that drives aren’t hardware? Well duh, it is firmware.

    …

    No it still can’t be fixed over the phone, we have to replace the entire thing.