Oh users, you never cease to amaze me....

[XavierMace]

So I get a panicked voicemail last night from a branch manager for one of my employers clients that their location is hard down. Why? They thought their old off-white Compaq server rack was ugly so they literally unplugged every single cable to move everything into a new rack. But they didn't map/note anything so they don't know where to plug anything back in. They just have a mountain of cables on the floor. They want to know how soon we can be out there to help them plug it back in.

*sigh*

 

[Herr Kutz]

They need you there ASAP to plug in cables? Your job must be very fulfilling.

 

[TwiceOver]

LOL. Pics please...

 

[disappoint]

LOL. Pics please...

 

[BW86]

Yep, sounds like a typical user

 

[child of wonder]

Haven't talked to a user in 6 years. It's amazing.

 

[Exterous]

Haven't talked to a user in 6 years. It's amazing.

I rarely do anymore but other techs can be just as bad because they should know better. I had something earlier this week that tier 2 escalated to me that I de-escalated to tier 1 to take care of. There have also been plenty of issues like 'How do I use diskpart?' that a 0.5 second Google search would help. (Sure that was a Mac tech filling in for someone but still...)

 

[MarkXIX]

Why do so many people fail to use that camera on their phone these days? I take pics of everything I need or want to remember. Receipts, serial numbers, cable layouts, etc. Then, when they upload to OneDrive, I get the search them by whatever words are recognized in the photos.

 

[Harrod]

Some days I would like to be a CO tech, I have no idea how some of the people that work for the company are able to keep jobs. I can't tell you how many times I've had to talk to a tech in the field for simple wiring issues, because they didn't think the issue was in their cabling. That and the constant belief that power cycling unprovisioned equipment would fix a data issue.

 

[disappoint]

Just answer "HALP I need help with these cables!"

with:

"Have you tried rebooting it yet?"

or

"Robbaz here with my army of shildren..."

Problem solved.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0cyWTihEC8

 

[sdifox]

So I get a panicked voicemail last night from a branch manager for one of my employers clients that their location is hard down. Why? They thought their old off-white Compaq server rack was ugly so they literally unplugged every single cable to move everything into a new rack. But they didn't map/note anything so they don't know where to plug anything back in. They just have a mountain of cables on the floor. They want to know how soon we can be out there to help them plug it back in.

*sigh*

Ahahhahahaha

 

[sdifox]

Why do so many people fail to use that camera on their phone these days? I take pics of everything I need or want to remember. Receipts, serial numbers, cable layouts, etc. Then, when they upload to OneDrive, I get the search them by whatever words are recognized in the photos.

Lulz picture of a bunch of cables is hardly useful.

 

[IronWing]

Tell the customer to just keep plugging in cables until all the lights turn green.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Some days I would like to be a CO tech, I have no idea how some of the people that work for the company are able to keep jobs. I can't tell you how many times I've had to talk to a tech in the field for simple wiring issues, because they didn't think the issue was in their cabling. That and the constant belief that power cycling unprovisioned equipment would fix a data issue.

Them: "Help my computer won't launch this program"
Me: "Restart it"

Them: "Help my printer won't print"
Me: "Restart it"

Them: "Help my mouse won't move"
Me: "Restart it"

Me: "I'm busy, SAN is down and rebuilding array"
Them: "Did you try restarting it?"

Don't miss those days.

 

[destrekor]

Some days I would like to be a CO tech, I have no idea how some of the people that work for the company are able to keep jobs. I can't tell you how many times I've had to talk to a tech in the field for simple wiring issues, because they didn't think the issue was in their cabling. That and the constant belief that power cycling unprovisioned equipment would fix a data issue.

Them: "Help my computer won't launch this program"
Me: "Restart it"

Them: "Help my printer won't print"
Me: "Restart it"

Them: "Help my mouse won't move"
Me: "Restart it"

Me: "I'm busy, SAN is down and rebuilding array"
Them: "Did you try restarting it?"

Don't miss those days.

To be fair, in plenty of situations involving equipment that isn't directly serviced by a provider, power cycling is indeed often the answer. Consumer hardware sucks a big one when it comes to stability - anything with RAM will need a reboot from time to time.

 

[Imp]

Why do so many people fail to use that camera on their phone these days? I take pics of everything I need or want to remember. Receipts, serial numbers, cable layouts, etc. Then, when they upload to OneDrive, I get the search them by whatever words are recognized in the photos.

Gotta be careful doing that in stores. I did that once with a jacket a store didn't have in my size, some salesperson saw me and gave an omfg type reaction on his face.

Apparently, stores employ spies to spy on competition and then rip things off.

 

[Captante]

Pebkac?

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

I deal with the same kind of thing, just it's in medical laboratories. They get greenhorn techs in every so often that are just learning to operate the instruments and will do some pretty dumb stuff.

CSB: I got a panicked call on a weekend because apparently over the night, the janitorial staff took it upon themselves to physically relocate these two huge analyzers so that they could clean the floors underneath them. Here's a photo for a size perspective. It's a stock photo but it's the same instrument:

Of course, the reason the floors under them were so dirty is that they literally had not moved from those spots in probably 10 years or more. The janitors decided they could do it that night, though.

Anyway, none of it was covered under the service contract so the two days of two engineers getting them placed back and correctly aligned was all billable. Ouch.

 

[CA19100]

Them: "Help my computer won't launch this program"
Me: "Restart it"

Them: "Help my printer won't print"
Me: "Restart it"

Them: "Help my mouse won't move"
Me: "Restart it"

Me: "I'm busy, SAN is down and rebuilding array"
Them: "Did you try restarting it?"

Don't miss those days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn2FB1P_Mn8