Disgruntled Tech (Ya, THERE'S a first)

[k8mnstr.livejournal.com]

Customer called in because he was having problems sending e-mail. I ask him if he was running any anti-virus software, he said yes, Norton. I asked him to please disable it completely for troubleshooting purposes as it is a known issue that Norton's e-mail scanning will throw an e-mail client into a loop when sending/receiving. He refuses thinking that I am blaming the AV Software. I advise him that I just want to do it as a troubleshooting step due to the fact that I have verified the server is running correctly. He still refuses, then I ask him to test from another terminal. He begins to boot up his 386 running Windows 95. I asked him if he had any slightly faster machines, he said no, that all of his machines ran Windows 95. Okay, a FUCING DECADE ago, it MIGHT have been okay. But this 2004 - LET WINDOWS 95 go.

The only way to deal with this guy was to treat him like a Zombie from Resident Evil. That is with a Shotgun blast to the upper-torso. I tell him to disable NAV, retest, and call us back before sternly disconnecting the call.

Comments

[cmdrproteus.livejournal.com]

Ummm...I wouldn't worry about the fact that he's running Windows 95, I would focus on the fact that he's running it on a 386 :) Well, so he says anyway; I've had people swear up and down that they've managed to boot into Windows 98 on an NTFS partition, or some weird crap.

(On another note, is it even POSSIBLE to run Windows 95 on a 386?? I mean, I had a 486 with Windows 3.1 and it had it's lagging moments.)

Don't you hate it when people don't want to follow instructions? It's rather annoying.

[kalidor.livejournal.com]

I can attest to this one. I love poking around massochistic configurations ... so long as I don't have to actually use them actively. And yes. Win95 will boot on a 386, with low ram. It will just take about 20-25 minutes to get to the login screen.

[cmdrproteus.livejournal.com]

And to think that I thought trying to resurrect my 486/33 (sans Co-Processor) to run linux was massochistic. Well maybe it is, but it certainly didn't take more than 5 minutes to bring up a login :)

[tjernobyl.livejournal.com]

I installed it once on a 386/16 for use as a terminal server.

It took three days.

[cmdrproteus.livejournal.com]

Maybe my wording was wrong, what I really wanted to say was "You would have to be masochistic to even consider installing, let alone running Windows 95 on a 386!" :P

[c0c0c0.livejournal.com]

The moment they start refusing to troubleshoot, I close the call. If they don't want to disable something, remove their router, power cycle the modem, that is it. I am done. I notate the account that the sub refuses to troubleshoot and get them off the phone.

[k8mnstr.livejournal.com]

I'm with you - I let them know that I am here to fix they're PEBKAC issue and if they won't even help, then fuck it. Although tonight seems to be the night from hell - I got another one that I had to deal with and it's just insane. Argh. I will have NO hair left by the time I leave tech support.

[dmsalem00.livejournal.com]

What is it with end-users and refusing to troubleshoot?

They think they can call in and get a technician sent out when their "modem" doesn't work? (I say modem in parenthises b/c that's one of the many words i've heard the actual computer case called.)

Read your effing service contract =/

[hoffman-log.livejournal.com]

????

Are you sure it wasn't my father you had on the line???

_MaH