First Post

[ethereal-dusk.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I found this group the other day, it is fun to read while I sit here at work. :) I work at a help desk for the largest intranet in the States (government), and we pretty much cover it all. A client just called, saying they were unable to boot their computer. I asked her what it was doing and she said that it would start in the "safe mode options screen", and then start "applying personal settings" and suddenly "go black" and then go back to the "safe mode options screen" and would just do this no matter what. Okay, I says.

She asks if they will send her a new computer (uh, let me think about this... no), and I told her I would see if it was under warranty or if I would have to send Field IT out to look at it. So I looked the SN up in the warranty db and I accidentally laughed into the phone. Client asks me what's so funny... and I told her "Your warranty expired yesterday."

What are the chances of that...

Comments

[darkblade1.livejournal.com]

I can see the slogan now...

"Insert company name here: Designed to fail after your warranty expires."

And welcome to the community.

[ethereal-dusk.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I think the slogan for us may be more "Invent... more ways to get more of your money." :)

[jecook]

Welcome aboard! Enjoy the insanity and coping.

[ethereal-dusk.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It makes the day go easier when you realize you aren't the only one at work being driven insane by people who when you ask them to give you the sn off of the tower, and they say oh you mean the CPU? No, I mean the tower....

[jahbulon.livejournal.com]

"... by design"

[ethereal-dusk.livejournal.com]

Quite strange that you mention this... I have noticed quite often that things do fail within a month of the warranty expiring. Just never seen the day after for such a large problem. I honestly think that somehow the software actually tells the hardware to fail... conspiracy theories abound.

[jahbulon.livejournal.com]

I've seen it happen many many times. Happened to me with my PS2

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Was it close enough for government work? :)

[jokergirl.livejournal.com]

Question: Is it so bad to ask for your computer to be exchanged? I know some companies have backup laptops for people to work on while their computers are being fixed. (Mine doesn't. I was a coder without a computer to code on for a week before they finally decided, that yes, I didn't lie to them and the HD was indeed broken, and exchanged it, then took another 3 days to actually install anything on it.)

Of course, I realize she might just have asked the completely wrong person and should have asked her supervisor or local tech support about that.

;)