The call that made my night

[xrockravenx.livejournal.com]

Brief intro.

I work for Spencer Gifts as POS tech support. All their registers are actual DELL PCs.

Clueless: Hi, our register 1 is in screensaver mode and on the screen it says press any key...but...I'm pressing any key and it's not doing anything.

Me: Um...well...did you try moving the mouse?

Clueless: Why, no.. OHHHH HAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAH THANKS!! LOL!!!111111.5



That really made me LOL too.

That was one wasted minute of my life. Clearly, some of these folks do not own a damn computer. Also, it seems like we get a lot of STOOOPPPIIIIDDD calls from Cali. Must be too much sun.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I don't really see the stupidity here. The user actually *read and followed* the instructions on the screen. This is unfortunately quite rare among users. Sure, trying out other possible solutions to the problem at hand without calling the tech support can be a desirable behaviour sometimes (like this time), but remember that poking around randomly tends to break things more often than fixing them, and therefore users are often instructed not to do it. So what the user in question did was exactly the right thing, IMHO.

[xrockravenx.livejournal.com]

I am fully aware that these users SHOULD call for assistance over anything and it is encouraged. It's a very obvious thing to know actually. It is stupid in a sense that they apparently have NO clue about screen savers. To me, it almost seems like common knowledge. Your computer was left on for some time, it went into screen saver mode, so move the mouse or something. However, I really am not sure why it said press any key on the screen while IN screensaver mode but that is besides the point. Is it possible that this user has never encountered screensavers?

It just seems quite trivial, IMHO.

[kait-the-great.livejournal.com]

Professor comes running into the helpdesk (which is luckily in the same building as the room that he's teaching in - we actually service 4 buildings. "The projector stopped working and I have a class RIGHT NOW!"

I've learned not to try troubleshooting verbally when this happens, but to run to the room and fix it myself, and if it's a short instruction, give it as I run out. Profs do not like their class time wasted.

So I run to the lab with him in tow, jiggle the mouse, and - wow. It works!

"Um, sir, it was working, and then the screen went black?"
"Yeah..."
".... just jiggle the mouse. It's the screensaver on the computer."

[tallguy.livejournal.com]

It could be worse. They could have asked "Where's the Any key?"

BTW, I also support POS software (acually manage all retail store operations) being run on Dell PCs. What retail software package does Spencer Gifts use?

[xrockravenx.livejournal.com]

haha@the Any Key

Spencer Gifts and Spirit Halloween use Trovato as their retail software package :)