you know the computer thing is it plugged in?
I once had to drive 3 hours to basically reseat a power cable of a tv. Also once I had to troubleshoot the private printer of the boss of the company at one of his apartments because his mistress couldn't print anymore. It was set to letter size, the fix took 10 seconds.
About a decade ago I had to fly across the country to peel a piece of tape off a sensor. At least I got crab cakes
I had a site that was going down multiple days a week for a hour or two. Turns out a employee was unplugging the small rack surge strip to plug in their coffee maker. They also happened to be the person complaining the loudest about how incompetent IT was. For some reason what she did was understandable and not worthy of a write up. But me telling her not to touch anything connected to server rack was going over the line. She was gone within the year having finally made someone with more suction mad.
"my computer won't turn on!!"
"is it plugged in?"
"hold on let me check...it's hard to tell, the power's out"
"..."
I once helped my parents with a few minor things on one of their computers. Two weeks later I get a call... They have no internet on any of their devices. Obviously since I was the last one to work on their stuff I was the cause of the internet issue. While on the phone I hear my dad's weather radio go off and my phone dings with a severe weather warning for their area.
I ask if they are currently experiencing any bad weather... And they confirm that they have a very nasty thunderstorm and a confirmed tornado on the ground a few miles outside of the town... And they have no power.
I just hung up...
I spent over an hour on a support call trying to walk an asshole lady through fixing her Adobe Illustrator, for her to stop mid-instructions to say she couldn’t tell me what the status was because her power was out due to a fucking hurricane in her area! 🤦♂️
Side note: that was one of the two times my bosses didn’t get upset at me for telling off a customer.
I am constantly surprised at how many people in the tech industry have never seen this show.
They have to reboot their router to see it.
I once replaced an entire power strip because the user said that it would turn off at random. So I took it back to the IT room and plugged in all the things and watched it, thinking it would short out or blow a circuit breaker or something.
Then the user called me again saying the new strip was doing the same thing and I should replace it. So I schlepped up to their office and replaced it with a third one.
Then they called me again saying it keeps happening. So finally I looked at where they had put it and it was right where they'd put it when they pushed to back their chair up from the desk.
And they didn't realize it.
It amazes me that people don't make even a small effort to debug stuff themselves before calling for help. There is a youtube channel for clips from car mechanics and people bring in cars for things like "There is a knocking sound coming from the back seat" and there is a gallon jug of liquid rolling on the floor back there.
We'll stop being dicks when they stop being so dumb.
I've found that being a dick is a great way to make their calls take longer and complain to your boss, which wastes time. Being nice to the idiots means less work for me.
A coworker sent me a pic of a user trying to charge a wired mouse with a surge protector. The user is a doctor. A surgeon.
I also see health care professionals break HIPAA rules CONSTANTLY despite everyone in my office telling them they're breaking rules.
Idk, trying to charge a wired mouse sounds more like sleep deprivation than incompetence. Especially if it happened in a hospital.
"Are you sure all the wires are connected, USB and power?" (Relating to a scanner.)
"Yes, I've checked several times."
get there, USB is firmly connected but the power connector was hanging like 2cm belown the desk, clearly visible when you looked at the back of the scanner.
At that same trip dropped in to check a complaint about a broken DVD-drive. Turns out it didn't read DVDs because it was a CD-drive.
I drove 5 hours across two states to unplug a fax machine and plug in the signage. They assured me they hadn't touched the phone line before I even left. I could only bill for the time I was there and the pay per mile was abysmal.
10 hours of my life I'll never get back.
don't worry, I took my crimping tool and shattered their tip of the line for the fax machine. The company I worked for only supported the signage. when they called to complain that I broke it I simply said, "It was like that when I got there. someone must have stepped on it."
fuck lying shit-ass users. don't fuck with IT.
I could only bill for the time I was there and the pay per mile was abysmal.
This is one of the best changes going from IT to the trades. My billable hours now start the moment I get in my work van at home and end the moment I get out of my van at home. Our time is billed the same regardless of if it's drive time or time on site. If a customer hundreds of miles away wants me on their site at 1AM to fix their screwup then I am more than happy spending hours just driving, listening to podcasts, and making double time after hours pay the whole way.
I recently had a job where I had to drive 3 hours to a customer site and the only work I wound up having to do there was make a phonecall to their building automation person which the customer could have done on their own.
Customers who can't follow basic instructions went from being the bane of my existance to being the most lucrative and relaxing part of my job.
You can be as much of a dick as you want, so long as you are right, and can get shit done.
If you are the kind of IT supergenius that responds to a "my laptop won't connect to the company network" ticket with "ok I'll just remote into your laptop real quick", you better the friendliest guy around.
Users don’t want help. They want reassurance. They want you to be on their side until all their problems are solved. If you can fake that until they believe you they’ll do whatever you want to solve the problem. Especially if you tell them it’s a super secret IT guy thing.
I’ve met a total of three users who didn’t respond well to you treating them like someone picked from the audience to help a magician.
I once spent 10 hours travelling from Toronto to Iowa (and back to Toronto) to flip a switch on a printer that multiple people had failed to figure out how to flip.
He ain't wrong. I've literally powered down, and back up, a server that solved the issue.
