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Geek Culture / Share your tech support stories

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Phaelax
DBPro Master
22
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Joined: 16th Apr 2003
Location: Metropia
Posted: 24th Sep 2009 05:11
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I'm sure many of you here have done some kind of tech support in your life. Right now I'm contracted as a tier 2 agent and have a good laugh a few times a week at the tier 1 tickets I receive.

Here's the most recent one I about died laughing.

issue: duplicate name found on network.
solution: cleared user's cache/cookies, escalated to tier 2.

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Herakles
16
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Joined: 6th Mar 2009
Location: Lost in my own head
Posted: 24th Sep 2009 05:36
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I showed my grandmother how to close a window. "You click the red X. No, you click the left mouse button, not the right one. That wasn't the X, that was the minimize button. No, that's maximize. No, you have to click the mouse button when the cursor is over the red X."

Swordfight! My cheesy little first game!
http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=147808&b=36
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Agent Dink
21
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Joined: 30th Mar 2004
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Posted: 24th Sep 2009 07:08
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I tried to install a toner cartridge in a user's printer today and she yelled at me because I was just there last week, which I was, but she didn't need the black cartridge at that point. Just some other colors. She wouldn't believe me that I hadn't replaced her black cartridge last week. I had to print out a supply page and show her. She was still griping even after that until I left.

Funniest thing is... The toner cartridges and printer support are totally free to her. That's right. She was mad because she was getting something for free. She chewed me out the week before because (as if I can do anything about it, and if it it were even true) it costs her department a lot more money to have all this tech support on her printer than it would if she just had her own personal printer and supplied all her own ink.

I believe the lease on those devices including 100% free service, warrantied parts (its a brand new device, so thats parts for 2 years), and free toner for <$200 a month for her department in the hospital. Very cheap and pays for itself quickly in this particular scenario...

So I've learned people will never be satisfied.

MISoft Studios - Silver-Dawn Gorilda is lost!

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Jeku
Moderator
21
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Joined: 4th Jul 2003
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Posted: 24th Sep 2009 17:49 Edited at: 24th Sep 2009 17:50
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I've probably told these stories on here before, as I used to do phone support for HP laptops:

- One woman was sobbing and crying as I was instructing her on how to uninstall software. She kept saying she can't go on, and that I had to coach her through every click, and she would continuously have to stop to take a break. She was insane!

- One guy told me his new laptop would play Flight of the Bumblebee really loud, every night at 12am, even when it was OFF. We went through a few diagnostic steps and I thought that *maybe* there was a virus in the BIOS, but told him the only thing we can do is have him call the support centre at roughly 11:45pm and the agent would stay on the line and listen. He never called back.

For some reason I enjoyed when people were angry at me. It was much more interesting


Senior Web Developer - Nokia
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Grog Grueslayer
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20
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Joined: 30th May 2005
Playing: Green Hell
Posted: 24th Sep 2009 23:48 Edited at: 24th Sep 2009 23:48
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I've been fixing computers since the 90's and the funniest call I got from a guy I sold a computer to a few months before his frantic call. He said "I have nude volleyball on my background and I need it off before my wife comes home! If she sees it she'll divorce me!". It didn't take long for him to thank me for saving his marriage.

I always found it funny too when helping people to install programs because they insist on telling you word for word what's on the screen without thinking about what they actually want to do. A typical phone conversation was like this:

Customer: Ok I want to install such-n-such.
Me: Ok, you have the CD... put it in the drive.
Customer: Ok, it brought up a window.
Me: What does it say?
Customer: Do you wish to install such-n-such? And it has a Yes and No button. What do I do?
Me: Do you want to install it?
Customer: Yes.
Me: Then hit Yes.

I was even cruel sometimes if I saw the person had never had a computer before and was nervous even touching it. I would have them run a program and tell them "Hit ESC". Usually if their nervous they'd reconfirm what I told them "This button?" (points to ESC)... "Yeah push it.". When they pushed it I would yell out "Not that button!!!". They would usually jump out of their seat then I would tell them you're not going to break it by pressing buttons so don't worry. That always caused them to not be afraid of the computer anymore. I've done that about 8 times to people new to computers.

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zeroSlave
15
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Joined: 13th Jun 2009
Location: Springfield
Posted: 25th Sep 2009 00:39
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I used to do phone support for an ISP, and one night, I had an older gentleman call and sign up for a dial up account. After I got his info and made an account for him, I then started to walk him through the connection setup process:

Me: "First thing, click on the 'Start' button with your mouse."
Customer: "Okay."
M: "Now I need you to click on 'Run'"
C: "Where's that?"
M: "It should be in the list that popped up."
C: "No list popped up."
M: "Well, what did happen when you clicked on the 'Start' button?"
C: "It lit up."
M: "Okay... Try clicking on it again."
C: "It's kinda hard to get it right on it... Okay, it went dark."
M: "..."
C: "I clicked it again and it was green for a second, then turned orange."
M: "Ohhhh... Is your computer on?"
C: "Well, I just bought it from the store and plugged in the TV."

Anyways, he had just bought the computer and was physically turning the monitor on and off with his mouse. He didn't have anything hooked up and only had the monitor plugged in. I explained he needed to take everything out of the box and follow the instructions included to put it together in order for it to work and call back. He was pretty upset with me when he got off the phone, but after about an hour, he called back and said he was ready to 'download the internet.' It took about 30 minutes to get through 'inetwiz' and direct him to internet explorer. But... Success!

Then he called back and canceled a couple hours later when the internet was broken and wouldn't work on his new computer.

There's something in this room that makes you can't speak well.
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Phaelax
DBPro Master
22
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Joined: 16th Apr 2003
Location: Metropia
Posted: 25th Sep 2009 00:59
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Quote: "I explained he needed to take everything out of the box "

Wrong answer. You were suppose to tell him to leave everything in the box and return it to the store.

I don't understand some people. You buy a vcr you know it has to be hooked up, you might not know how but you're aware some kind of cable has to be plugged into it and the tv and it needs a power cord. Why oh why do people not grasp that concept as soon as you say "computer".

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zeroSlave
15
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Joined: 13th Jun 2009
Location: Springfield
Posted: 25th Sep 2009 04:39
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Quote: "Wrong answer. You were suppose to tell him to leave everything in the box and return it to the store."


True... but then he wouldn't have his handy-dandy built-in cup-holder!

There's something in this room that makes you can't speak well.
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Agent Dink
21
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Joined: 30th Mar 2004
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Posted: 25th Sep 2009 05:54
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Quote: "For some reason I enjoyed when people were angry at me. It was much more interesting "


It helps break up the monotony and makes for great stories. Just like this whole thread!

MISoft Studios - Silver-Dawn Gorilda is lost!

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Venge
18
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Joined: 13th Sep 2006
Location: Iowa
Posted: 25th Sep 2009 06:19 Edited at: 25th Sep 2009 06:20
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There are a ton of (slightly dated) stories like this on RinkWorks. Kept me entertained for a while.

The average smoker spends $1500 per year on cigarettes. That amount of money could feed 16 impoverished third-world children for an entire year.

Enjoy your cancer.
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