It's going to sink us.

[bastardbybirth.livejournal.com]

Hi just joined this community for reasons concerning the new program that my company wants to implement. I'm a Support Analyst (Glorified tech support) and have only been with the company for about 9 months and even I an see that this is going to cause major battles between us and our sites.

After hearing about and bearing witness to all the issues and bugs with our new software I have made this comparison.

THIS IS SWISS CHEESE:



THIS IS MY COMPANIES NEW PROGRAM:



Notice anything. I'm dreading the day when the sites that have already bought this program go live, which is not very far off.

"I'm not a computer expert."

[lihan161051.livejournal.com]

I've learned to cringe when I hear those words, because they mean the person saying them is about to wash his/her hands of any responsibility for participating in solving the problem they're going to dump on me.

I'm in a second tier tech support group, so one of my specialties is going at least an extra mile to help people who are overwhelmed or in information overload from dealing with something they find particularly frustrating. My full time *job* is being the "computer expert" so they don't have to bring anything more to the table than average or even below average computer literacy.

But it seems, more and more often, that people have learned to abuse that term in order to resist learning even one thing that might help them not need to talk to someone like me again, and too much of the time now, I hear a kind of pride in their voice when they proclaim to me that they are too pure to be sullied with technical knowledge and they expect things to be fixed purely by magic. And I've learned to get a sinking feeling when I hear those words spoken in that tone, because I can already predict virtually every turn of the battle of wills that's coming next.

Just pay attention, listen to me, trust that I know what I'm doing, and be my eyes, ears, and hands, OK? I know you're not a "computer expert", Mr/Mrs Entitlement Brat. That's why I'm here.

Slash Facepalm

[amynnah.livejournal.com]

First time poster, long time reader.

I work 1st level Support (Hell-desk to some, Help(less)desk to others), but my knowledge is fairly extensive, due to using a computer since I was about five years old. That's 23 years of experience. Anyway...

I was just asked by one of my coworkers, same tier I am, who's been here much longer than I, what an "ID-10t" error is. It was used in a diary by one of our Support guys (and if you're reading this, HI! I owe you guys cookies!). After I was done laughing, I explained the meaning of it, as well as PEBKAC and PICNIC.

I told him to chalk it up to n00bness and call it a day.

(no subject)

[hiroe.livejournal.com]

Begad, we finally know what causes them zombies. (Brimstone falls from sky, crashes in Peru, now some 600 lubbers be cursed.)

They say dead men tell no tales; but when those dead men get back up, wantin to bite ye? Well, that's gotta be the work of the Devil, sez i. Clearly cursed, they are. And be warned: they give no quarter. They bite ye, you'll be cursed too, lads. Slashin at 'em with your blade does naught; although removin' the head seems to stop 'em alright.

Blimey. I should be mindin' the ship, but them cursed has me spooked.

Easiest Track It Ticket ever!

[azleaneo.livejournal.com]

I don't know where the brain disconnect was for this user, but man.

Ticket

User can not log into [Training] Database. User is using [username] [Network password]

Resolution

User needs to use [Database password]


What bothers me about this so much is that the application is something he logs into all the time to go to [Normal] database. You have to select [Training] from the drop down from the same logon dialog box that he sees every day to log into, where did he get the idea to use a different password? It's the same password whether you go to [Training] [Normal] or [Reporting] databases! Same happy little box you type in for all of them!

Easiest ticket ever, but I don't think I've ever facepalmed this much.

I need a squishy user to kill.

[vampireborg.livejournal.com]

I don't know if I should laugh, sob, or find a gun. I had someone ask today if their password was stars. As in *********.

I THOUGHT THAT CALL WAS AN URBAN LEGEND PEOPLE USED TO SCARE AWAY PIMPLY-FACED YOUTHS FROM HELL DESKS. But no. Ok, wow. This was after trying to explain to someone how to copy and paste and the ESOL person who was especially SOL.

"I want you to type my.pcc.edu."
"BUT I KEEP GETTING DELL!"
"OK, I want you to type MY dot PCC dot EDU."
"I STILL GET DELL!!!!!!!"
"OK, in the place where the address is? I need you to type EM WHY DOT PEE SEE SEE DOT EEE DEE YOU, ok?"
"........... OH, I wasn't typing that!"

Save me from teh Stupids...

[asbrand.livejournal.com]

Copy of the body of e-mail we got today (I am a Network Engineer for a large ISP here in Atlanta):

NOC,

Our Customer, *****, has called in stating we are not advertising the following route, 192.168.110.0/24.  I have verified we are receiving the route from the customer and are advertising this upstream to ROUTER01(x.x.x.17) and ROUTER02(x.x.x.21).  I have checked several looking glass servers and do not see a path thru this connection.  Can you please take a look?

....can anybody here see the flaw in what they are requesting?

*sigh*

Goobers...



-Az

Classes of User

[edling.livejournal.com]

Firstly, ello. Recently stumbled across this community while looking for something else and been enjoying reading through everyone having the same sort of day-to-day traumas as I have. I'm a sysadmin/ tech support/ anything else I.T.ish for a medium-sized company in the U.K.

Anyway, by way of a first post: lihan161051's last post got me thinking about types of users I've known and I think I've got them sorted into four main classes. Apologies if I'm just rehashing something someone else has already done to death, but here goes:
( Classes of User, A Spotters Guide )

Phew- that was longer than I thought. Hopefully you'll recognise some of the types of people we all know and love or it'll provide some guidance to a young support tech just starting out somewhere- are there any types of user I've forgotten?