As if the dimensions were not bad enough

[calriddia.livejournal.com]

I posted a bit ago about a guy giving me a hard time about the dimensions for a video he wanted me to put on his site. Well, it gets worse.


Originally the guy sent me a DVD which I can do nothing with since we do not convert files on site. And I have told this guy numerous times that we need the video in wmv, avi or mpeg format. Once I actually GET the video from him (which was a link from yousendit.com) it was in mp4 format. Figuring it might work, I held onto the video.

So, I go to upload it to our software it says that it cannot recognize it. I sigh and start to cry a bit, but I walk over to a developer and talk to him about it. He then, out of the kindness of his heart, converts it for me to avi. I upload the file and due to a lack of codex on my computer the video part doesn't work, but the sound does. I send the guy the temporary link to his site only to receive an email 10 minutes later that said something along the lines of the video not working, that it needs to work so that EVERYONE can see and that I said I could do flash so do it flash. His demeaning mentality through it all has been awesome.

I stare at my computer screens wanting to punch this guy in face. I take a long drawn out sigh and explain everything to my supervisor. He tells me to email the guy and tell him we need him to convert it to flash (which in all actuality I should have) or else we can't do anything. I panic and say no that we have to be able to do something on our end. Mainly because he was already treating me like a 3 year old and being yelled at AGAIN by this guy was not high on my to do list.

Once again I speak to the developer who nicely enough makes a simple flash player, converts the file to flash and then we up load both. Oh and we have to wait about 3 minutes with each upload because well, the file is 29 MBs since the video is 8 minutes long. /cry After some fumbling with code we get it to work. I am delighted and have a new hero. Developer guy is getting cookies for the next 6 years.

Today I come in and find an email from the guy saying...

'I cannot fathom how it happened, but you got the wrong video. Here's the new link.'

I again stared at my computer and cried a little bit on the inside. Well, our developers and designers that day took and afternoon outing and never came back. And since my week ends on Thursday and this guy just HAD to have his site published before he went on vacation, I went out of my way to bug my co workers to help me covert the file from mp4 to flash. I got the file uploaded and working.

Just another day at the office. /headtodesk



My head hurts...

Comments

[catmmo.livejournal.com]

OMG. I remember your first post on this guy - thought that was bad. Sheesh. I feel for you.

[phrogg.livejournal.com]

Ouch. I would be sorely tempted to send him an email something along these lines:

"Dear sir,
Please note that you are kindly requested to exit the gene pool and not return. The amount of defecation you have spread into the waters will require too much bleach to allow this to happen again. If you have any questions regarding this manner, please feel free to fuck off and die."

[calriddia.livejournal.com]

I so want to do that!

[mouser.livejournal.com]

You probably can't get away with it for the first one, but push to get the SECOND conversion billed.

[snarl817.livejournal.com]

And THAT is why you should never perform unsupported tasks for a customer. They will expect it later.


When I was doing phone support, there was one tech who would tell customers how to do unsupported things ALL the time. We all hated him for it, because the customers would call back and want whoever they got a hold of to support their UNSUPPORTED configurations. Then they would get pissed off when we informed them that what they wanted was unsupported. Managers would be called, and all hell would break loose.

My FAVORITE was the time I got a call from a customer that wanted to make his kerberos (v4) admin ticket non-expiring. There IS a way to do so...it involves exporting the principal to a service ticket file and then putting k4init in a cron job. But it's UNSUPPORTED. And I told him so.
Customer calls his account rep, who searches through the database and finds a ticket that was worked on by the aforementioned irritating tech.
Customer calls back and bitches ME out because, "Well, you guys OBVIOUSLY support it, as $OTHER_TECH helped someone with this same problem! I followed those directions, but it doesn't work. Fix it NOW!"

After bringing management on the line to deal with the customer, they then told me to tell him how to fix it, but explained to him that since what he wanted to do was unsupported, it may not work.

So I gave him the wrong parameters. On purpose. Because he was an ass.

Long story short, what he wanted to do would NEVER work using the commands I gave him. The way I see it, is that if a customer wants to do something unsupported, they should at least understand what the hell they are dealing with well enough to figure it out on their own. This customer didn't understand kerberos, therefore he's not allowed to do unsupported things. :D

[jecook]

DING DING DING DING DING!!!!!!!

[lihan161051.livejournal.com]

"You *can* do that, but if I tell you how to do it and you don't do it *absolutely* right, and break something, it will cost *me* *my* job. That may be OK with you, but it's not OK with me. Oh, and did $other_tech give you his name? Thanks, I'm going to have his manager address that with him."

I wish I could say that was *theoretical* positioning. Alas, I've used it often enough to know that it works well ..

[geekgrrl-ca.livejournal.com]

I wish I could tell the customer that so and so would be flogged for their behaviour.... both for supporting unsupported stuff and doing stupid stuff.

[wibbble]

Oh gods, yes.

There's one guy at work who will spend an hour on the phone talking people through Outlook configuration and how to change settings on their wireless LAN routers and all sorts of shit.

I work for a mobile phone company. We don't help people with anything other than the phone, and the PC software the company makes.

When those people call back and I can't help them - because I know fuck all about Outlook, since I'm a Mac user and it's not covered in my training because we don't support it - they go mental.

It's really fucking annoying. I've stabbed that guy in the face in my mind so many times.

[calriddia.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHAAHAHAH! So awesome!

The only reason I did the conversion on my side was I didn't want to here him bitching and I didn't need him to go to he upper management. I wouldn't gt in trouble, but it is a waste of mine, upper managements and his time. Plus I was not in the mood to tell him because I knew I was going to get a back lash of words on the phone. More so it was avoiding getting yelled at by a customer who is too stupid to understand.

[naggy.livejournal.com]

Find out the tech's cell # and give it to users who want unsupported support. "This is the number to our unsupported help desk."

[ximinez]

No good deed goes unpunished.

[calriddia.livejournal.com]

*sigh*.... yeah

[wherdafux-d-cat.livejournal.com]

Truth.

[lihan161051.livejournal.com]

I seem to remember from your first post that the guy pushed you into doing what you had told him repeatedly was outside your scope, and what I remember from that was that he was one of those "it's OK as long as I say it in a pleasant tone of voice and am superficially polite about it" people who basically find pleasant ways to tell you exactly what they're going to keep demanding that you do until you give in and do it for them.

And now after pulling out all the stops for him and dropping everything to get this video to work for him, *then* he turns around and drops the bomb on you that he made you do all that work for nothing, and does he apologize? No, he makes you start all over from the beginning and do it all AGAIN. And if he's like the people like this I've dealt with, probably has that politely patronizing tone that just screams "I'm a powerful and important person and you have to dance to my tune, little tech-serf."

There's a special level of hell reserved for such people. All I can say about that level is that there are 8 bit machines and BASIC involved ..

[canray.livejournal.com]

Really? I had a nightmare about that place.

Punchcard machines that used Human Souls as Punch Cards.

There were a lot of jams.

[hiroe.livejournal.com]

I can imagine their screaming in my head. It's a beautiful sound.

[canray.livejournal.com]

Oh. It is.

IT IS!

>:-)

[calriddia.livejournal.com]

In the end once I got the video up and running, I never got a thank you! Plus this is maintenance now on his site, and he only got 30 minutes. Technically, I SHOULD charge him $100.

[japester.livejournal.com]

hmmmm special hells.

full of paedophiles and people who talk in cinemas

[calriddia.livejournal.com]

I know the reference but I am having a serious malfunction. Where is it from? Also, cool icon!

[japester.livejournal.com]

Shepherd Book in Firefly.
In the episode Mrs Reynolds.
Referring to the 'child' who is manipulating everyone's emotions.

[calriddia.livejournal.com]

OMG! I should have totally known that. haha! Thanks! haha! Nice icon again by the way!

[valiskeogh.livejournal.com]

DOOD, seriously, send him this link:

http://www.youtube.com

[calriddia.livejournal.com]

I did. I even suggested doing it as a download or any way OTHER than it appearing on a page on his site. But he insisted. I explained everything to him, but he was like, 'No I want it on my site'. So he got it. All 8 minutes and 28 MB of it.l Should be entertaining. He even asked me to resize it. I'm not that nice. In fact, I told the developer to make it smaller. :P It's the little things.

[hiroe.livejournal.com]

What's the bandwidth limitation for his hosting package?

[calriddia.livejournal.com]

1GB if I remember correctly. So yeah, he is going to suck through that REAL quick. haha!

[hiroe.livejournal.com]

I wonder about the possibility of helping him advertise. He himself commented that he wants *everyone* to see it; so why not give him that?

[calriddia.livejournal.com]

Well, what's funny about him wanting EVERYONE to see the video is the video is hidden behind a form the consumer HAS to fill out before getting to the video. It's awesome.

And I can make this worse. I checked my work email only to discover that he can't see it in Flash and now wants it in Quicktime. My line is drawn, I am done!

[azurelunatic]

Jesus.

[calriddia.livejournal.com]

Yeah and to make matters worse... he can't see it (god only knowns why... no flash installed probably), but now he wants it in Quicktime.

[azurelunatic]

*facepalm* Ow. Ow, ow, ow.