I think I broke a tech...

[alexanderc.livejournal.com]

Ok, I'll ask first before I post, but is there any objection to posting the tale of a tech support call gone semi-wrong (when I'm actually the user)?

I think I broke a tech but I do believe it was a script reading tech. Now, she did her best to try and understand (this was done by chat window) and no harassment was done on my part. I did my best to explain the problems including supporting documentation but I'm certain the problem was way outside of her script. She even escalated it at the end without my asking. But this is just one of these things that I wonder why she didn't just save herself frustration and escalate it quickly.

---EDIT---

Ok, seems like it'll be ok with posting this so here's the summary.

( The story, cut for your safety )

Ouch. She tried, but oof. The real exchange (I cut a lot out) lasted about 45 minutes from salutation to signoff.

Nacho Job Tuesday - The 'Fish Strike Back!

[ptstech.livejournal.com]

 (Last time, we discussed a series of things people try to take on as part of their jobs that they shouldn't - hence, "Nacho Job")...

• It's nacho job to speculate loudly to everyone in cubicle-land that "there's something wrong with the server" simply because you're trying to access a file that a) wasn't on the server in the first place and b) you deleted.
• It's nacho job to fix a laser pinter jam by RRRRIIIPPPPPPPING the paper out of the thing, then pronouncing that that was how you used to handle the typewriters "back in the day."  Also, never use the phrase "back in the day" again.  Seriously.
• It's nacho job to email the director FOR THE ENTIRE ENTERPRISE to ask about bypassing out-of-office protocols that SHE IMPLEMENTED IN THE FIRST PLACE.  But hey, enjoy the barbecue.
• It's nacho job to attempt to "add" your work laptop to your "home" domain simply because "I don't like the company stuff on my machine."  May your statement turn out to be half right...

The stupid - it burns like lava!

Maybe you could use your brain sometime, too?

[heinous_bitca.livejournal.com]

Dear Luser:

I really should forgive you, because it was Monday Tuesday morning and maybe you had a long weekend full of crap. But I just can't.

Your email to me this morning asking "Just one quick question, which one is the smaller printer?" had me boggling. Maybe I didn't have enough tea in me, maybe I misread, maybe who knows?

Because, you see, if you got up from your desk and LOOKED, you'd see that one printer is bigger than the other one. One is smaller than its companion.

ONE IS LABELED WITH THE WORD "SMALL" IN THE NAME OF THE PRINTER.

No love. It was too damned early this morning.

Bitca

(yes, our two printers on the second floor are named "Second Floor" and 2nd Floor Small" in order to distinguish between the HP 8150 and the HP 4250.)

There's something in the air today.

[lihan161051.livejournal.com]

And its symptoms apparently include minimal to zero attention span and inability to handle basic verbal handshaking.

Not sure why, but I've gotten an unusually large number of people today who don't listen, ask questions and then keep on talking when I try to answer, blather continuously for minutes at a stretch on totally tangential and irrelevant information, and generally make it head-poundingly frustrating to try to communicate with them at all. ::headdesk::

And apparently I'm not showing enough "empathy". (This from the management, who apparently have noticed that I'm not the touchy-feely type and are trying to use pressure tactics for behavior modification.) Seems the goal is to make customers happy no matter how insanely unreasonable their expectations might be, or how incoherently they attempt to describe the problem they want solved. (One so far has just about driven me to punching through the wall of my cube with his nonstop spoonerisms piled on top of each other.)

Maybe it's just me .. ? WTF ever.