I once replaced an entire power strip because the user said that it would turn off at random. So I took it back to the IT room and plugged in all the things and watched it, thinking it would short out or blow a circuit breaker or something.
Then the user called me again saying the new strip was doing the same thing and I should replace it. So I schlepped up to their office and replaced it with a third one.
Then they called me again saying it keeps happening. So finally I looked at where they had put it and it was right where they’d put it when they pushed to back their chair up from the desk.
I’ve found that being a dick is a great way to make their calls take longer and complain to your boss, which wastes time. Being nice to the idiots means less work for me.
It amazes me that people don’t make even a small effort to debug stuff themselves before calling for help. There is a youtube channel for clips from car mechanics and people bring in cars for things like “There is a knocking sound coming from the back seat” and there is a gallon jug of liquid rolling on the floor back there.
I had a label printer that was failing to work. I have spent most of the week with IT remoting into my desktop trying to figure out the issue with our cobbled together system. I finally realized after 5 days of this that the software causing the issue was on my co-worker’s computer. Pointing this out to the IT guy got the problem fixed in minutes.
Sometimes the user has no idea what is and is not signifcant. I had no idea that this was significant only that an icon with similar looks was on my co-workers cluttered desktop.
I once replaced an entire power strip because the user said that it would turn off at random. So I took it back to the IT room and plugged in all the things and watched it, thinking it would short out or blow a circuit breaker or something.
Then the user called me again saying the new strip was doing the same thing and I should replace it. So I schlepped up to their office and replaced it with a third one.
Then they called me again saying it keeps happening. So finally I looked at where they had put it and it was right where they’d put it when they pushed to back their chair up from the desk.
And they didn’t realize it.
We’ll stop being dicks when they stop being so dumb.
I’ve found that being a dick is a great way to make their calls take longer and complain to your boss, which wastes time. Being nice to the idiots means less work for me.
For sure. For many of us “being a dick” means “punishing my liver.” It’s a calculated risk decision.
You’re the saint I could never be. That’s why I got into security for a bit – I can be as big a dick as I need to be that day! ;-)
That’s why I’m a sales engineer :)
I don’t think it’s a race to the bottom for fun. lol
Oh man I was expecting it to have been plugged into a switched outlet or something
It amazes me that people don’t make even a small effort to debug stuff themselves before calling for help. There is a youtube channel for clips from car mechanics and people bring in cars for things like “There is a knocking sound coming from the back seat” and there is a gallon jug of liquid rolling on the floor back there.
I had a label printer that was failing to work. I have spent most of the week with IT remoting into my desktop trying to figure out the issue with our cobbled together system. I finally realized after 5 days of this that the software causing the issue was on my co-worker’s computer. Pointing this out to the IT guy got the problem fixed in minutes.
Sometimes the user has no idea what is and is not signifcant. I had no idea that this was significant only that an icon with similar looks was on my co-workers cluttered desktop.
I’ve been the PEBCAK enough times to not give users a hard time about it.
Ah yes the old PEBCAK/1D-10T combo.
Shudder