Do you ever wonder about fellow IT folk?

[http://users.livejournal.com/shiara_/]

Do you ever wonder about your coworkers in IT and their listening skills?

I'm a SME in my department. The closest equivalent of my job description would be "User Acceptance Tester". Usually that means that in addition to my actual job, I get to deal with most simple computer questions like, "How do I delete a file?" and "Why can't I print this report?". If you have some semblence of 'tech', you're the designate in the department. By no means am I a "tech" person. I just user-test the various apps we have within the specs of my department.

Every time they change the printers at work, I lose the ability to print in DOS. Normally this isn't a biggie - I call up my help desk, tell the person I can't print from DOS, they write up a ticket to send a tech and within a day or two, a tech comes, sets up my DOS lpt1 or lpt2 and I get to print from DOS again.

We usually only print this report from DOS once a month, so it's not like it's the FIRST thing I remember when someone's resetting my printer in Windows. I forgot to ask the tech when he was at my desk 2 weeks ago when they'd flipped us from one server to another.

Today, I was asked by a coworker to print said report. She'd apparently generated it from VB and it was in the folder.

I got to said folder. Nope. Not there. Okay, no problem. I'll run the VB app and get the report in the folder. Go into said folder and print from DOS. Problem solved.

I try to print the document and get an error message about not finding the network connection for lpt1. I slap my head: when the tech was here last week, I forgot about the damn report and he changed my printer but didn't do the DOS prompt part.

So I phone the help desk, tell the IT person my employee number and what my problem is, specifically that I can't print from DOS. That's right: DOS. Not Windows. I can print from Windows just fine. I can't print from DOS. The CMD screen is open on my desktop because, oh, that's what I was doing when I realized I couldn't print from DOS.

She remotes into my computer, sees the CMD.exe screen that shows exactly what I was trying to do.... the screen looked something like this:

dir *. /w
(list of directories ensued)
cd report99
dir *.* /w
(lists of files ensued)
copy Mar06.05 lpt1
(get error message about being unable to find network connection for lpt1)

... and she goes to the Start menu and opens up the Printers folder. Clicks on one of the printers, checks the settings on the printer and then prints a test page.

Um, what part of "I can't print from DOS" did she not hear? Last I checked, DOS /= Windows. If I had a problem printing from Windows, I would say "I can't print from Windows." and, frankly, I'd be more upset because I *need* to print from the Windows-based apps more than the DOS prompt.

I'm sitting on the other end going, "I can print from Windows just fine. I need to have my lpt1 or lpt2 from DOS set up to print."

I'm then put on hold and when she finally comes back, she goes, "I'm going to get a tech to go to your desk. What's your location number?" I give this to her, she sets up a help desk ticket, and I get off the phone.

I got off the phone scratching my head.... if she'd listened to me in the first place, I would not have wasted my time watching her check the printer settings for Windows and would not been on hold for a good 10 minutes while she conferred with someone.

Am I off my rocker for thinking listening skills are lacking here, or did I miss something?

Comments

[tjernobyl.livejournal.com]

The trouble is that some users ruin it for everyone. For everyone that knows what they're talking about, you get ten that throw random words in to try to pretend they do. After weeks of hearing people tell you they want to "download their microsoft to the interweb", ye start to think of anyone actually using such terms in a logical way as just dumb luck.

[http://users.livejournal.com/shiara_/]

I can understand this. The thing that boggles me is that when she remoted into my pc, she could see the cmd.exe screen open on my pc complete with the DOS prompts and its error message.

I guess anything logical is out of the question then?

I must be a logical user - if I encounter an error, I screen print the sucker so I have it for future. Or I just stop and, in this case, phone the help desk so they can see what I'm talking about. A rare breed?

[jecook]

a very rare breed. I've run into one user like you, and they rarely had problems.

[http://users.livejournal.com/shiara_/]

The only constant problem that I have is with Outlook. I think it hates me.

I have 4 personal folders, 3 are on my d: drive and 1 on my h: drive (network drive). I have a ton of rules set up so that any email filters in my personal folders on my lil' piece of network drive (my H: drive as it's called). Outlook decides to explode on itself from time to time and kills my access to my personal folder. I admit it's a HUGE file, but even now, I'm working on killing the size of the sucker so that email moves better and Outlook doesn't crash.

The last time I called the help desk about Outlook, the guy disconnected my personal folder, put it on my d: drive, then disconnected it again, and reconnected the one from my h: drive. Worked fine after that.

My response? "What on earth did you do?"
tech: sometimes Outlook gets confused and needs to be told where the file is.
me: so it's like a defrag for Outlook when you do what you did?
tech: not quite, but close enough.

I laughed at that. First time I'd ever heard that Outlook needed to be defragged.

[twitchfetish.livejournal.com]

quite the opposite. Outlook needs to be FRAGGED!

good and proper.

with an RPG.

Twice.

:)

IV

[jecook]

Yeah. outlook and networked PST files don't like each other.

and outlook in general has a hissy fit if you feed it a PST file larger then 2 GB.

[http://users.livejournal.com/shiara_/]

I've noticed that if my networked pst file is anything bigger than 1 GB, it goes haywire.

Thus the 4 personal folders .... 3 'old' and 1 'current'.

[bekscilla.livejournal.com]

Outlook up to 2002 had major hissy fits larger than 2gb, 2003 can handle a lot bigger (I think it's 20gb, but can't remember right now), but I still tell people they're stupid to store more than a gig in a .pst file.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

download their microsoft to the interweb

Gold. XD

[fnordx.livejournal.com]

I had someone call and ask me how they could upload their publisher file to their database so they could view it as their web site.

And they wonder why I've broken two mice in the last year...

[mcity.livejournal.com]

Technically, Publisher does do web pages. But they suck worse than Word's, which suck worse than FrontPage's, which suck worse than a turd in the gutter.

[xforge.livejournal.com]

Hear hear. "Can't access Internet" turns out to mean "Hasn't been configured for email." Ooooooo-kay.

[taleya.livejournal.com]

or "computer won't boot"

'cos, y'know, that's all comp-yoooters are used for. them internets

[hisamishness.livejournal.com]

or the "I can't print this from Excel" meaning that their system is so spywared up they can't export to excel from their web based internal app... or even get to said app...

[jahbulon.livejournal.com]

Might I suggest the next time the tech turns up to fix this constantly recurring problem, that you ask him to show you how to do it?

[http://users.livejournal.com/shiara_/]

Quite honestly, I usually ask the tech to write out how to connect to the printer so I can go and do it myself. Then I go to the other users who print from DOS and do it there.

Because they've renamed the printers and the like, I figured this time would be a good one to get the tech to do it for me, while I write out the command and tape it to my monitor or something like that so I have it as quick reference for the next time.

[prozacnation.livejournal.com]

I start to wonder about my co-workers tech skills. :o
Actually one in particular.

We find him blowing off customers to keep his talk time low. Only to have someone else receive one of his blow offs and actually fix the problem. (we work Ecare/chat support so it's easy to see who keeps coming back in one night)

I started working days so I don't see much of his rejects anymore. But the other day, I happened to get a few yet again.

Here is my example:

Co-worker (who is pompous)> Thank you for contacting ISP's High Speed Online Internet Support. Please describe how I may assist you while I look into your account information and contact history.

Customer> Tech's Name can you see what I said to the last 2 guys?

Co-worker (who is pompous)> One moment, please.

Customer> Ok

{at this point, the previous references had to do with personal webspace which is free - all references stated she had trouble making up an index.html page and uploading it. A simple solution that I got after he blew her off} I will admit, she was pretty dumb with webspace but she should've had correct instructions from him.

Co-worker (who is pompous)> http://www.isp.com/folder/products/Webspace_Options.cfm
You can request changes to your Personal Web Hosting service.
Personal Web Hosting Sign Up
Change Web Account Details
Change Web Account Password
Web Account Password Retrieval
HTML Editors and FTP Clients

Co-worker (who is pompous)> My teammates in web hosting support can help you.
Please go to this site:
http://www.ISP.net/x.php?u=http://www.ISP.net/files/ISP/redirect.php?to=http://www.ISP.com/folder/products/index.cfm
click on the "click here" option To chat with support about commercial web hosting.
or
Please call ISP Web Hosting support 1-800-xxx-xxxx

We do not have Teammates in webhosting. That option for our customers is given to an actual web hosting company in Texas. He doesn't know who works there.

Co-worker (who is pompous)> You're using Microsoft Web publishing wizard, let me see what I have.

Co-worker (who is pompous)> I don't have information on that, you might check with Microsoft support. Our web support people may be able to help you.

Co-worker (who is pompous)> Is there anything else that is ISP High-Speed Internet-related that I can take care of for you today?

Customer> Do I click on the link

Co-worker (who is pompous)> You can do that.

Co-worker (who is pompous)> Take care and have a nice day.

Co-worker (who is pompous)> Thank you for chatting with ISP's High Speed Online Internet Support....

All his chats are like this - never addresses the problem. Never reads the previous reference numbers, gives the customer the wrong answers and thinks he's working harder than ANYONE in the department.

Notice that he NEVER gives the customer time to answer his questions or even ask a question or even say, "No there is nothing else."

I wish someone would catch this. My other co-workers and I, when I used to work during his shift, could catch at least 10-15 a night. And those were just the ones that came into our sessions.

::head desk::

[prozacnation.livejournal.com]

Oh I need to add, we google a lot here.

He should've googled the program she was using. I just found it in one second:

Microsoft Web Publishing Wizard (http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGGL,GGGL:2005-09,GGGL:en&q=Microsoft+Web+publishing+wizard%2C).

He didn't have it because he never looked for it.

[xforge.livejournal.com]

Well, that's pretty much like the dudes from ahem, my own team who used to go into the Macintosh area (when I was off that day) and sit down in front of a Mac and say, and I quote, "Where's 'My Computer?'"

To which our smartass Mac ops would say "Uhh... on 'Your Desk?'"

[ace-brickman.livejournal.com]

classic! I'd be one of those "smartass" Mac guys chiming in how the entire screen is Yer Computer

[goose-entity.livejournal.com]

having dealt with users in this very situation, I amy be able to give you a more permanent fix.

If you email me at the address on my userinfo I will pass on my carefully guarded knowledge ;)

[http://users.livejournal.com/shiara_/]

Thanks for the offer, but the tech that came to my desk today was actually proactive and wrote me a little .bat file. He told me how to change the printer in the .bat file and it'll work its magic every time from now on.

Appreciate it, though..... :-)

[harry-whodunnit.livejournal.com]

I'm occasionally guilty of the same thing. In my defense, it's usually a case of 'run through a few of the basic procedures to keep the user entertained while I get my brain out of power-saving mode'.