True story from a Novell NetWire SysOp:
Caller: “Hello, is this Tech Support?”
Tech: “Yes, it is. How may I help you?”
Caller: “The cup holder on my PC is broken and I am within my warranty period. How do I go about getting that fixed?”
Tech: “I’m sorry, but did you say a cup holder?”
Caller: “Yes, it’s attached to the front of my computer.”
Tech: “Please excuse me if I seem a bit stumped, it’s because I am. Did you receive this as part of a promotion, at a trade show?”
Caller: “It came with my computer. I don’t know anything about a promotional. It just has ’4X’ on it.”
At this point the Tech Rep had to mute the caller, because he couldn’t stand it. He was laughing too hard. The caller had been using the load drawer of the CD-ROM drive as a cup holder, and snapped it off the drive!
Tech Support: ‘What type of computer do you have?’
Customer: ‘A white one.’
Once I was walking a gentleman through the steps to do something I don’t even remember what — and when we finished, a dialog box appeared. It offered to do what we wanted it to and had a single button — the OK button. He sat there for a minute and hen, frustrated, asked me what he had to do next. ‘Tell the computer ‘OK,”I said.
He leaned forward and said in a loud but clear voice, ‘OK’
Customer: ‘I can’t get into the database.’ I check the usual stuff, but it’s all fine.
Tech Support: ‘Can you go and check if the server is working?’
Customer: ‘No.’
Tech Support: ‘What do you mean, ‘no’?’
Customer: ‘No, I can’t do that.’
Tech Support: ‘Why not?’
Customer: ‘Well, it’s not there.’
Tech Support: ‘It’s WHAT?’
Customer: ‘They took it away to be upgraded.’
User’s PC hard drive is damaged, but support tech manages to recover the files in key directories and copies them to a new drive. Still, user is furious: “Where the @#$%! are all my files?” “Where were the files that are missing now?” technician asks. “I used to save them in that cute can. I use those files a lot, and that icon says ‘Recycle,’ so I thought it was a good place to put the files that I reuse often.”
Systems Admin is browsing among the digital cameras at a big discount store when he overhears another customer complaining about the cost of the digital film for her camera. “She said it was too expensive to keep buying memory cards because she filled them up so quickly.” He explains to her that she can copy her pictures from the cards onto a computer, then erase the cards and reuse them. The customer is delighted for a moment, then she frowns and asks, “Now what am I going to do with those 25 extra cards?”
New employee complains to help desk that there’s something wrong with her password. No, it’s not CAPS lock. “The problem is that whenever I type the password, it just shows stars,” says user. Those asterisks are to protect you, tech explains, so if someone were standing behind you, they wouldn’t be able to read your password. “Yeah,” user says, “but they show up even when there is no one standing behind me.”
Customer: “Hi, good afternoon, this is Martha, I can’t print. Every time I try, it says, ‘Can’t find printer’. I’ve even lifted the printer and placed it in front of the monitor, but the computer still says it can’t find it.”
Customer: “I have a huge problem. A friend has put a screensaver on my computer, but every time I move the mouse, it disappears!”
New computer room is state of the art, beautifully laid out and stuffed with useful tools for systems management. “But the feature we’re all proudest of is the fact that the card-key reader to get in is located much lower on the wall than in the old room,” says Systems Administrator who works there. “Nothing to do with accessibility requirements – the sys admins were around when the electricians were hooking it up, and we requested it that way. You just bang your butt up against it, with the access key still in your back pocket, and it clicks. A great time-saver.”
User tells support tech that she knocked a key off her laptop. She replaced it, but now it won’t work. Tech asks, “is the key loose?” “Not now,” user replies. “It was loose, but I fixed it. I used super glue.”
Customer: “Where is the Any key?”
Tech Support: “What does the screen say now..” Person: “It says, ‘Hit ENTER when ready’.” Tech Support: “Well?” Person: “How do I know when it’s ready?”
1st Person: “Do you know anything about this fax machine?” 2nd Person: “A little. What’s wrong?” 1st Person: “Well, I sent a fax, and the recipient called back to say all she received was a cover sheet and a blank page. I tried it again, and the same thing happened.” 2nd Person: “How did you load the sheet?” 1st Person: “It’s a pretty sensitive memo, and I didn’t want anyone else to read it by accident, so I folded it so only the recipient would open it and read it.”
Helpdesk: What’s on your monitor now ma’am?
Customer: A teddy bear my boyfriend bought for me in the supermarket.
Helpdesk: How may I help you?
Customer: I’m writing my first e-mail.
Helpdesk: OK, and, what seems to be the problem?
Customer: Well, I have the letter ‘a’ in the address, but how do I get the circle around it?
Customer: My mouse isn’t working and all I did was clean it.
Helpdesk: How did you clean it?
Customer: I let it soak in a bucket of bleach overnight.
About a year ago, a customer from Roswell, NM, called in to place an order. To break the ice, I jokingly asked if he or any of his neighbors had seen any aliens lately. The guy laughed and proceeded to tell me all about the crazies (his word, not mine) that not only live in Roswell but who come on vacation there in hopes of seeing a UFO themselves. As he talked, I processed the order, and the last bit of information I needed to complete it was the guy’s email address for marketing purposes.
Customer: “Email! I won’t have anything to do with that Internet or modems of any sort! You should be careful about those. Don’t you know that once you install a modem, the government can look into your computer and watch everything you do? That’s why every night before I go to bed, I turn the monitor to the wall.”
At the end of the eighties I was working for a company that made software for doctor’s offices. I frequently gave demonstrations to small groups of physicians. One of the main concerns was safety. There was so much talk about hackers. Would their patient records be safe from intruders? I explained to them that one could only get into a computer from outside the office if the modem was on, and the computer was running a communication program and acting as a host. At that time, this was a rare situation in private practice. But even the most powerful argument I could think of, “You can’t break into a computer that’s turned off,” did not have the impact I had hoped for. One way or the other they were convinced that a clever hacker would not be stopped by such a trivial problem!
A customer called saying he was getting an error in Windows 95. He told me what the error was, and I recognized this as a typical error that occurs after installing MS Office 97.
Tech Support: “Sir, did you just install Office 97?”
Customer: “YOU’RE IN MY COMPUTER, AREN’T YOU?????” (click)
The second day I worked doing phone tech support, I was called by an elderly woman who was sobbing and panicked. After spending twenty minutes getting her calmed down, I finally found out what her problem was. She had been on the Internet and recieved the ever-popular message “This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down.” Immediately afterward, she had heard police sirens down the road and thought, “They’re coming to lock me up!”
At 3:37 a.m. on a Sunday, I had just looked at the clock to determine my annoyance level, when I received a frantic phone call from a new user of a Macintosh Plus. She had gotten her entire family out of the house and was calling from her neighbor’s. She had just received her first system error and interpreted the picture of the bomb on the screen as a warning that the computer was going to blow up.
I’m in fifth grade, and I’ve recently started using LimeWire. My friend’s cousin (who’s in second grade) heard about it and wanted to use it, too.
The next day, he told me it wasn’t working. He proceeded to explain how he got a copper wire, dipped it in lime juice, and tried to attach it to his computer.
I couldn’t stop giggling the rest of the day.
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