Common Sense Support

[ebtb.livejournal.com]

Do you ever feel that you are more "Common Sense" support than "Tech" Support?  Exempli gratia:

Luser:  It says here in the instructions that I need to uninstall Zone Alarm before installing your firewall.
Me:  Yes, that's correct.
Luser:  Well, wouldn't that leave my computer vulnerable to hackers during this process?
Me: You mean during the 10 minutes it takes to do this? Uh.. theoretically, yes. But...
Luser: Well, I don't want my computer to get hacked, that's the point of having a firewall - what am I supposed to do?!
Me: If you're really that concerned about being hacked, why don't you just disconnect yourself from the internet during this process?
Luser: OH! Yes! That makes sense! Thank you! I will do that!
Me: No problem, sir. You have a nice day.

Comments

[major-error.livejournal.com]

All that's missing is the "Here's your sign... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Engvall)"

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Good grief, you suggested something logical and the caller immediately recognised that it made sense?

[ebtb.livejournal.com]

as unbelievable as that seems, yes. the stars and planets must be aligned....

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

Yes, I can definitely sympathize!

Like the guy that called me from (a place where the US government is currently enmeshed in rather a lot of intrigue and that could seriously explode at any point), who wanted a password reset. The system would only take six-character passwords, and then ask for an immediate reset upon first login. I noticed the guy who called had a six-letter last name.

ME: OK, I have reset the password to your last name.
HIM: And how do you spell that?

[piepants.livejournal.com]

well how do you spell that? I don't know

[piepants.livejournal.com]

I jest I jest

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

I believe the whole of my response to him was "Are you serious?"

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah - people get an idea of "how things are" or "how things should be" in their head and it just kind'a sticks there... sometimes way beyond it's useful lifespan.

[harry-whodunnit.livejournal.com]

Ten minutes ago:

Me: "Helpdesk, this is Harry."
Her: "Hi, this is Harry." (pause) "I mean, it's [caller]."

[jecook]

I wondered why we had snow and ice skaters this morning...

(I live in Arizona, AKA Hell)

[kayfox.livejournal.com]

Firewall software is the bane of my existance...

Why? Most of the annoying firewalls immediately block all traffic going over Cingular CM connections... and the users I get are usually too stupid to fix that.

Oh, and theres also BlackBerry users who are addicted to their steady flow of email... and then go to India.