Funny Real World Tech Support Stories

Introduction

i've worked for greater than a decade in it tech guide on everything from save ground information management software to cad software to sharepoint. i have labored in software program testing, software documentation, software program schooling, first stage and 2nd level tech help. here are a few actual international tech support memories that stimulated my ie in it weblog with the iise, after these reviews validated that procedure development turned into an obvious necessity in it.

The incorrect professional

i was managing an surprising mistakes and requested one of the gadget administrators for recommendation. he said, “pass ask that massive brain within the sky for a solution, now not me.” i referred to the leader gadget guru’s name. “no, now not him, google. pass google it.”

Prove you are you to get aid

While editing someone’s permissions on a key system, it become essential to verify the character’s identity. at some point, i obtained a smartphone name from an surprising cellphone range, claiming to be a consumer and asking for extra privileges. i said i’d confirm. i called the user’s listed cellphone wide variety and didn’t get hold of a response. i called her supervisor, and she said the user have to be at her desk sometime later today.

The unusual variety known as again. “you have to up my authority and reset my credentials, too, due to the fact i'm having issues logging in.”

“Excuse me whilst i studies this.”

I known as the person’s boss who said she turned into possibly in the office, and coworkers said she become working nowadays. the purchaser hadn’t spoke back to my voicemail, however the smartphone quantity where the caller claimed to be her wasn’t her work smartphone, cellular cellphone or even non-public telephone variety.

this became a traditional instance of phishing, in which someone known as in to a help table claiming to be an worker and asked credentials so they may then log in as the worker. i hung up, known as the worker and left a voicemail to tell her of the problem, knowledgeable her boss and closed the price tag i’d created for the matter with a observe for security.

MY boss known as me into his workplace. “why haven’t you helped x?”

“a person from an unknown variety is claiming to be her, soliciting for reset credentials and extra privileges. in keeping with security protocols, i left the locked account locked and notified each person.”

“she become at a consumer website and wanted additional privileges for an indication. she then locked the account because of tries to log in with an admin account and failing.”

“I’ll inform x. then he’ll have the quickest closure of a protection incident this week.”

user authentication techniques and it security techniques try and affirm which you are you earlier than supplying you with get right of entry to.
consumer authentication techniques and it safety processes try to confirm that you are you before supplying you with get admission to source
what does it take to make it paintings?
the controls inside the sound sales space at church where my husband works as the av director did now not seem to be working effectively. the man seeking to get the proper mixture then exclaimed in frustration to my husband, "what does it take for this aspect to paintings?"
"an act of god," my husband responded.

Proactive administrative assistance

one among my responsibilities working on the help table was tracking structures for unusual hobby and reviewing reports for repeated login screw ups. customers had been frequently amazed that i’d name them for a couple of repeated logins, asking in the event that they wished help resetting a password.

every so often they admitted fat-fingering it or saving an vintage password that then didn't paintings when they reset their very own password. in different cases, they have been happy for the assist. on more than one occasion, i referred to as different administrators to remind them that the admin passwords had changed and that’s why they couldn’t get in. howdy, it’s a legitimate issue that counted closer to the ticket remember, too.

A gap inside the manner

“why are you creating a ticket for necessary changes to the person documentation?”

“i'm able to’t locate some other manner to will let you realize it wishes to be changed, and you’re the one who does all the updates besides.”

after that, we evolved a clearer manner to collect cautioned edits from users to the documentation.

So that is why it isn't working

my kids found out early that mommy fixes computers. when picking up the kids from daycare, one of the team of workers requested if i’d observe the laptop within the preschool room. it were appearing up, and now it wouldn’t arise at all. the display and keyboard regarded first-class, that's incredible given how plenty harm 3 to five 12 months olds could do. then i opened the protecting box that surrounded the hard drive - and discovered it empty. “i think i figured out why the pc won’t switch on.”

I understand in which you are going

i periodically wrote first level helpdesk scripts for diverse engineering software program programs. these ended up being utilized by the institution that took over the first degree tech guide calls routed to our group if it had to be escalated. on more than one occasion, i would name in an problem and listen the person start the script.

at this point, i would say some thing like, “visit round step 15 and you’ll see that you want to course this price ticket to queue abc. it will go to so and to be able to be resolved. however when you consider that i can't input this price tag for that institution, i’m calling you.”

after a second of confusion, the front line tech help character asked, “how do you know that?”

“i wrote the script.”

nicely, that works, too
“with that type of errors, you’re going to want to refresh –“
“adequate, i hit the reboot button.”

“i supposed refresh the browser consultation, but so as to paintings, too. it simply takes longer.”

Translation blunders

while i used to be working as a software tester on a gadget interface between two gear, i found out that the language barrier had resulted in an mistakes. and no one else thought it was really worth the fee to restore when we’re seeking to get records imports and reports to paintings efficiently. however on every occasion i did a records import, it positioned up the bright notification box “pooling statistics”.

Incentives and their impact

the drawback of measuring the productiveness of software program testers and developers by way of the wide variety of defects they file is how regularly they’ll file documentation errors, corrections and recommendation as software defects. those have been hardly ever “screen shot on step eight of system is now out of date” however “grammar error on first sentence of step 10” or “i suppose this wording might be greater clear”.

while customer service for issues creates new ones
in my attempt to help customers who pronounced troubles to me that weren’t my activity, i would frequently input ticket for them to the best organization. one of the downsides of trying to enter tickets for users who known as me whilst we outsourced first level tech assist to any other business enterprise was the sheer wide variety of errors they made because of misunderstandings. every so often, they misunderstood and listed me because the person with the hassle instead of the purchaser because i was the person “reporting” it. in other instances, they tried to assign the ticket i’d had created for the person to the consumer, which in itself generated full-size confusion.

the file turned into having 5 tickets assigned to me that i had input for different humans in in the future. “you don’t apprehend, i’m now not the one with the account problem. you have five one of a kind users with this problem, and none of them is me.”

my personal document become both submitting the maximum tickets to at least one specific aid team and final the maximum in my branch inside the same month, and no, closed issues weren’t all of the ones that i despatched to the other group. then they eventually decided to train their people higher to reduce the misrouted and incorrectly assigned calls.

Out of contact

i had to input a ticket with the software seller and ran into a double bind. their website was down. i tracked down a customer service telephone range, and the number took you to a recording directing human beings to the website. i eventually tracked down a sales branch smartphone quantity and reached a human. i tried to explain the hassle.

“ma’am, we’re in sales. i'm able to’t help you with tech help. have you ever tried –?”

“i tried your cellphone quantity and it says go to the website. i attempted the website and it's far down.”

“that’s still a technical be counted.”

“your employer has no running way to attain help for a guide difficulty – the cause i attempted those other avenues in the first vicinity. at this factor, i consider it a customer service failure.” she documented the issue and despatched an inner electronic mail to one in every of their technical help team of workers.