A long evening...from the user side

[tragnon.livejournal.com]

Conversation I had a couple nights ago with tech support at a major manufacturer...

( The transcript and the resolution )

The end of it?  I replaced the suspected router with my backup unit...Print server was recognized immediately!  Tech support like this gives the field a bad name!

Finally!

[gholam.livejournal.com]

The last NetWare 4.11 server I had to support has been retired - not a day too soon, if I say so myself. Replaced by a shiny new Dell PE SC440 running Windows Server 2003 R2. 100% Windows now, with exception of 4 big ESX boxes - running Windows VMs anyway. No more mucking around with pcAnywhere over analog modem into a Win98 box to run rconsole to make some trivial adjustment...

time zones: there's more than one

[heinousbitca.livejournal.com]

i'm in the office 9 to 5. i take support calls from 10 to 5. i live and work in Seattle, Washington, i.e. in the Pacific Time Zone. this is in the help/about file, this is on our webpage, this is printed on our documentation.

now, i've lived in more time zones than anyone really should, so maybe i'm just "special". you know, like i was "special" in primary school. maybe i have a gift for adding and subtracting, or something, who knows...which is funny because i suck at math.

it says on our message, which i have hacked so you cannot skip it, that "we're here 10am to 5pm Pacific, which is 1pm to 8pm Eastern, and 1700 to 0000 GMT." when you call us you're calling a 206 (Seattle) or 604 (Vancouver) phone number. there are plenty of clues here.

the proper way to deal with this is of course to leave a voicemail or send an email to the email address repeated twice in the message.

of course what ends up happening at least once a week is a festival of whining, bellowing, guilt, and insanity. WHY AREN'T YOU PICKING UP THE PHONE? being this morning's. why? because it's 4:30 in the bloody morning and i am asleep and the phone is turned off so i won't get woken up. leaving me seven messages before 8am Pacific, that's really classy. usually there's some suggestion as to our laziness or disregard, which is pretty precious. did i get an email? of course not. when i go to call back, i get the "I'm in the office but I presently am unable to take calls." message which then in turn doesn't let me leave a message.

he then calls the main number and literally screams at my sales person. good work, buttmunch. what was his question? something from page 2 of the 6-page manual. of course he lectures me for three minutes about how "you people need to be there regardless of bull**it time zones."

lemme call congress, i think they have control over time zones, right?

(no subject)

[kyidyl.livejournal.com]

Dear...Everyone,

Please stop trying to work from files on a share if you're using a microsoft program. This especially means you, Mr. "I swear we have Access installed on a share and all of our users use it at the same time THIS WORKED BEFORE THE REFRESH!" I don't know if that's even possible, and I suspect it might be somewhat illigal to have one liscenced copy and bunches of users using it. I don't know much about setting up/admining/running actual software off shares, but it seems to violate the basic computer law of "one file cannot do two things that involve edits or being used by different users at the same time".

More the one user cannot edit them at the same time. I promise.

Also, I think something about the new image/policy files is hosing up your access to things. I don't know this for sure, because I'm not an image engineer and moreover, I don't have access to the policy files to even know what the new local policies ARE. So if you could just...stop...and work locally then upload w/ changes for a little while till the image guys get the kinks worked out, that'd be lovely.

Thanks,

Me

(PS- I know it's not an unreasonable request of them to want to work off shares and stuff. I'm more just expressing frustration at the 8 zillionth "ZOMG! New Policy files/image! CAN'T GET TO ACCESS!!" ticket.)

Eff hardware refreshes and new images. Eff them in the A.

An Anonomous entry on a company Ticketing system

[bitterfun.livejournal.com]

An Anonomous entry on a company Ticketing system:

A customer called in and wanted to report that our towers were being used to do Satan's work. above each tower is the image of a human body, and it directs a beam of light to the exact location on a map where the person is located. the map is visible beneath the tower. in the beam of light, the customers social security #, credit card #'s and cell phone number are all being displayed. Satan's hearty little worker's are using this technology to find members of his family, and kill them. he knows, because he has a 40 foot tower that opens up out of his head, and he can tell where they are. this enables him to see the images. he doesn't understand why we do not take him seriously.

I wept with laughter when I read that.

And people wonder why I drink

[harry-whodunnit.livejournal.com]

You know the weird thing is, the company has a computer skills test as part of the hiring process.

( Cut for lots of reasons )