Stupid Managers With Big Mouths.

[rose-welch.livejournal.com]

Arggggggghhhhhhh! Okay, I feel better now. So I work in a jewelry store, among other things. (Mainly I build web sites, but that's easier.) In this store, a manager named Mandy is the de facto 'tech support' despite the fact that she's an idiot. So I get to dance around and try to fix the things that she's screwed up. (Keep in mind that I'm not *really* tech support. I'm the web admin, and I do some sales and inventory management.) So I tell the boss-man we need more RAM. Our computers are running with the minimum suggested RAM for the POS/Customer Database software that we use, and it's slow. Holidays we need fast, not slow. So he tells Mandy and she tells him that she'd love to but it will have to wait until after Christmas because once you install the RAM, you then have to tell the computer what info to save to what stick of RAM and it's a really complicated and lengthy process... IDIOT! I said, look, I know she's your daughter-in-law, but she's wrong. You get the RAM, you slide it in the slot, you restart the computer. That's it, you're done. It'll take like, 8 minutes per computer. (We have three.)

Then there's the time that my boss wants an Internet Explorer icon on his desktop. Okay, fine. Except I can't find it anywhere. I can pull up a folder and use the bar to type my URL in it, and I can use the find feature to run a search and pull up a browser window from there, but that's it. No .exe file in the program file or anything. So I look some more. That's when I find out the idiot disabled the component, believing that we wouldn't be able to get on the Internet and *play*. (Despite the fact that we're supposed to check the store's e-mail every day.) STUPID!

Then there was the time that she spent way too much for very small thumb drives and decided that we have to keep all of the paperwork that we keep copies of, and all of the inventory graphics that we use for advertising, and all of the software programs that we use on these very small thumb drives... BECAUSE WE'RE USING UP TOO MUCH MEMORY AND THAT'S WHAT MADE THE COMPUTERS SLOW. (The computers with 256k RAM and 5 FULL folders of HER crap on the desktop because she refuses to move them to My Documents and just put shortcuts on the desktop.) I don't think she has any idea that there is more than one kind of memory on a computer...

Next time I might rant about the idiot things she does with our software program... Sorry, I know this wasn't very funny. Try harder next time...

Comments

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

As for the crap all over the desktop, well, it just makes boot times slow. It shouldn't have an impact on day to day operations. Personally, I'd move the stuff, leave the shortcuts and see if she notices.

Tell the boss you'll do the RAM install, and if it takes more than 1/2 an hour total, you'll buy everyone coffees for the rest of the week.

Um, as for the software, running that off a USB? WTF? I can imagine using them for auxiliary storage... but I have a feeling I don't want to ask about quaint things like backups.

[lux-aeturna.livejournal.com]

256k RAM???

[kizayaen.livejournal.com]

Doesn't have to be funny. Funny's great for the rest of us, but when it all comes down to it, the purpose of this community is to let us rant and blow off steam in a venue that won't get us fired...

[jill-idle.livejournal.com]

I can't get over the ram thing. Isn't that about the most ignorant thing ever uttered by an apparent tech support person?

I'd make the bet a little more direct. I'd bet *her* that you can do all the machines in less than half an hour. You win, you buy lunch, you lose, she buys.

[vxo.livejournal.com]

Ever seen what happens when someone puts RAM in the slot backwards?

I'm afraid they might manage it.

Yes, it is keyed, and won't seat fully... but dumbasses will not notice this and will apply power anyway, causing Magic Smoke to get out of nearly every motherboard component in addition to the RAM itself.

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

Not necessarily; I've done this half-dozen times during the DDR era, and rather than smoke I always got a computer that refused to power on until I put the RAM in the right way and carried on.

[jimbojones.livejournal.com]

Ditto. Truth be told I don't think there's enough juice going to the DIMMs to produce any magic smoke.

[lihan161051.livejournal.com]

Or not bother to turn the power off when they take it out. I've seen that. Yes, it voids the warranty. No, we didn't tell you not to do it because we honestly didn't think anyone needed to be told not to do that. Now that we know .. DON'T DO THAT. Still not covered in warranty. :D

(I've also taken calls from service techs who found evidence of this particular screwup on the logic board of a computer someone brought in for them to fix .. someone who swore up and down that she didn't try to pull out a stick of RAM with the power on. Kind of hard to ignore the burnt contacts on the RAM slot.)

RAM

[rose-welch.livejournal.com]

That's true but in this case I've done it before (Yay!) after my hubby (who is *real* tech support, services large to medium business in our area) showed me how... Like I said, I'm not *real* tech support, but I at least know when to back away slowly and call someone else, lol. :)

This woman and I go round and round. Like when she installed spyware thinking it was anti-spyware, when any Google search could have told her that the spybot address she used was for the fake one. She didn't even bother to check any reviews! Someone told her spybot and she typed it in and boom! got our business some spyware...

Re: RAM

[rose-welch.livejournal.com]

Oops, I was responding to the putting it in backwards not while the machine is ON. God. That's one I haven't heard before. These people are the reason that coffe cups have 'HOT' labels and blow-dryers have implicit instructions on not taking it into the bath.

Re: RAM

[110billion.livejournal.com]

Two words: Natural selection.

Re: RAM

[argonel.livejournal.com]

You actually meant explicit instructions. I wish they would leave them as implicit instuctions. Then the morons that think it's a good idea to play with electrical equipment in the bath would stop stealing our oxygen. Each one would be an individual tragedy, but they need to do it for the good of the species.

[lihan161051.livejournal.com]

How about people who ask, more than once, if they need to back up their data before they upgrade their RAM?

(Never mind the ones who, when asked how much RAM is in the computer, answer with the processor speed .. had that one today .. *headdesk*)

[lihan161051.livejournal.com]

Then there's the time that my boss wants an Internet Explorer icon on his desktop. Okay, fine. Except I can't find it anywhere. I can pull up a folder and use the bar to type my URL in it, and I can use the find feature to run a search and pull up a browser window from there, but that's it. No .exe file in the program file or anything. So I look some more. That's when I find out the idiot disabled the component, believing that we wouldn't be able to get on the Internet and *play*. (Despite the fact that we're supposed to check the store's e-mail every day.) STUPID!

Absolutely. That's what custom ipfw rules are for. Oh, she doesn't know how to block outbound port 80 to anything other than an approved IP address? So sorry .. :D

(Sometimes it's a good thing the people making these decisions are stupid .. I've seen what happens when they actually have a clue. It's really ugly.)

[ptstech.livejournal.com]

"So he tells Mandy and she tells him that she'd love to but it will have to wait until after Christmas because once you install the RAM, you then have to tell the computer what info to save to what stick of RAM and it's a really complicated and lengthy process..."


Sounds like a Judy Patch (http://www.angelfire.com/rings/judy_patch/) moment..

[geekgrrl-ca.livejournal.com]

i hope this site is a joke. please please let it be a joke.

[agmlego.livejournal.com]

Please, please, please be a joke!

[ptstech.livejournal.com]

Consensus among my peers is evenly split between those who think it is a spoof and those who think the heir to the throne of King Of The ID10Ts actually shared their tech "knowledge" with the rest of the internets...