Push the button!

[scubaian.livejournal.com]

Call Centre tech support here!

Agent raises a fault, every time she logs into her handset it logs her straight back out again. It's a common thing, if the agent is on autoanswer the system won't let you log in without the headset activated to ensure you are ready to take calls. I fire up the IM client.

Me : Is your headset button on?

Agent : Yes

[I've been here before so just check again]

Me : So the light next to the button marked headset is lit?

Agent : Yes it is

So I get off my big fat arse and go and see the agent. The headset button is off and the light isn't on.

Me : The light isn't on

Agent : Yes it is

Me : !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I've had pretty the same thing happen a number of times but I've never had a agent claim a light is on when it clearly isn't when I'm actually standing there. I honestly didn't know what to say, so I pressed the button, and she looked at me as if I was stupid.

Just WTF

Comments

[anonymissity.livejournal.com]

logic: how does it work?

[vampireborg.livejournal.com]

Oh my.

My usual problem is I can never remember how our VoIP system handles logging into a different station and the answer is totally not logical. Instead of picking remote number or remote workstation, you log on as the station you're AT with your UID and PW. So it's kinda like we're using VoIP, only not. -_- The phones shouldn't care WHERE you are.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Agent : Yes it is

At this point, I get John Cleese in my head saying "Explain how you came to that conclusion!" in a tone which indicates slapstick violence is not far off.

[lunatic59.livejournal.com]

There are FIVE lights!

[hiroe.livejournal.com]

[jjjiii]

And three girls?

[hiroe.livejournal.com]

.....no.

[the-reda.livejournal.com]

I can't decide if I hate or love you :P

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

Clearly someone was in a different alternate reality...

[gholam.livejournal.com]

Uh... I would understand if this was the type of device where a bunch of LEDs are arranged in a row, and every one lights up its neighbors, but I'm fairly certain this was not the case here.

[hiroe.livejournal.com]

I've always hated equipment design that allows for such light leakage.

[lihan161051.livejournal.com]

You've never had someone look right at something and not see what you know for a fact is there?

(I've had people swear to me the thing I know is in front of them -- the thing I'm trying to have them use as a landmark -- isn't there, until I make them read me exactly what they see and hear them read out the exact words I'm trying to get them to find. I can't even count the number of times that's happened.)

Not impressed with phone agents who do that, however. I've long since stopped being amazed by what end users can be totally blind to, but you'd think a phone agent would be a bit smarter than that. (Or would have a strong incentive to if they're subscribed to this community..)

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

It seems to be a caching problem. If people have the idea that X is in state Y (on/off, existing/not existing), they will tend to stick to it even when their eyes are telling them something different. You have to find a way to force them to flush their cache and read the data in again.

An often successful method is to request sufficient amounts of data that the cache cannot hold it or is unlikely to have recorded it, forcing the flush and re-read.

Often, asking for additional data about X in some way will do the trick. This can be a little difficult if X only has two possible states, but it's possible to bypass this limitation by doing a serial block read ("Can you read out to me the status/names/labels of all of the items of which X is one, starting from the top/left?")

The well-known DUMMY MODE has, amongst its excellent qualities, a temporarily disabled mental cache. It can backfire a little when the result is the user reading out everything in their immediate vicinity, but it's better than the alternative.

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

You should take a picture of the thing in the off and the on states, and then very patronisingly label the appropriate parts OFF and ON, print it out in full colour and place it at her workstation to help "save confusion".

And yes, I have done something similar with a staff member, who got the point (which was WAKE UP).