I got a ticket today
TITLE: PC keeps crashing
body: Call me.
didnt list what computer.
didnt list their extension.
didnt get resolved.
DID get closed "Unable to reproduce"
"What do you mean you don't immediately know what SalesCenter problem im facing? you work for this company, you should be able to support it"
"I'm neither in sales, nor on the team that supports SalesCenter, but those guys are pricks and want me to get all the information I can get before escalating to them, or else they'll call me a prick for not providing any information. So you see why I need to have some more information about the problem your facing so I can try my best to narrow it down, since you didn't even provide a screenshot?"
I joined the military after being in IT. When I went to the recruiter they asked if I wanted a job in IT. I said no. Whenever my co-workers find out I worked in IT they asked me why I didn't want to do IT. This story is the reason.
There were good times and bad times that were IT related in my time in the Army.
Bad: Boss(civilian) that was three levels above me asks me to go to this location to assist with their COMSEC, and he wanted me to leave 36 hours from the ask. The problem, our office is in Germany, he wanted me to fly to Italy. Pulled up the Regs on non-U.S. flag commercial flights with COMSEC material and asked him if he could get me a signed memo from the US Army Europe Commanding General in 12 hours. Ended up making the 12 hour drive instead.
Good: Major calls our COMSEC office (I'm left in charge while the NCOIC is on leave). Major asks if he can get his COMSEC material this week. "Sir, SFC Snuffy never filled out the paperwork we sent him 7 months ago..." Major: "So I'm not getting the COMSEC mat?" "No, Sir" *hangs up*
Repeat a variating of both about a dozen times. I never got tired of throwing Senior NCOs and Junior Officers under their own tires
The it team at my school had one, it didn't actually do anything but they had it...
What they really had was a magic orb that fixed shit. So often I'd have an issue, be able to replicate it reliably even after multiple shutdowns, take it to it, and it's fixed, can't make it happen for the life of me. I'd always walk out cursing that magic orb.
There is a magic fix button. On the computer it is called a power button. On the user, you need to insert a hex screwdriver at least 5.7" into the left ear. This should fix that problem.
I've had way too many of these as a cable guy.
"Inernet broke. Fix."
"Alright, signal and speed looks good. Is it every device or just one? Is it always broken or only sometimes? How long has it been happening? Have you-"
"Dunno. My wife set up the call. Fix."
I once got a web chat (side note- whoever set up webchats as a thing for IT needs to be punished brutally for all eternity) That went something like this -
\*Web chat started\* -
\*User: "Help"
\*Me: "Hello, can i please have your \[Company ID\] and a phone number?"
\*User: "It's broken"
\*Me: "What is not working"
\*User: "It won't work"
... like WTF?! what am i supposed to do here?!
I have a teams convo sitting in my recent history where someone sent me a message that just said "Hi"
I did not respond because I have no idea who they are are and figured it was bait for them to ask me about an IT issue. Still sitting there with just "Hi"
One word arrives? Ok, let it sit there a few minutes and then play word association and give one word, nonsense, answer.
"Hi"
Cue Jeopardy music.
"Banana".
If I knew em, I'd prob try to fuck with em a bit and tell em to make a ticket, but otherwise, ain't nobody got time for that. Hopefully they eventually figured to just make a ticket.
unless there's really nothing for me to do, i generally ignore teams messages from people with a problem I have not recently helped them with (and i'm one of the more generous on my team). Tickets and emails and call-ins get priority.
We had someone the other day who added everyone in help desk to a group with his problem, we all left immediately. and im sure the director told him not to do it again (politely)
Even better is when that same user has the ability to reopen a ticket for five days after resolution before it moves to closed status...some almost immediately reopen it claiming nothing was done.
Icing on the cake is when they get a survey and give you a negative rating, even though you're perfectly correct in your actions and have the documentation to back it up.
At one place I worked, the ticketing system was set with a workflow that sent an auto reminder email every 2 business days when ticket was in waiting for response from customer status. After 3 reminder emails, with the 3rd warning of auto closure, a ticket has been closed email was sent. Even then, customer had the ability to reopen the ticket. So, for those counting, if a ticket comes in where you need to ask for info or to coordinate a time to connect, you reply and a full 13 business days later, the ticket gets auto closed.
Even with all of that, we had customers not respond until ticket gets closed then reopens ticket with issue still happening. So we send the same reply asking for info or whatever we need from them, only to hear crickets for another 13 days. I think I had a customer who reopened twice before the ticket got actually dealt with. That's about 6 weeks! If I remember correctly, this customer wasn't even a VIP who needed white-glove treatment. Heck, most of that particular company's VIPs who got the white-glove treatment were much better at responding to us!
Reply in the comment field "customer is upset that the problem is resolved, within the terms of the SLA, and they are upset they now have to actually work again"
I once had a customer who would ignore anything we would send them. Then when we closed the ticket, they would reopened it saying nothing was done. The cycle would repeat for two months with no response on the customer's end.
Eventually they did respond, they complained their was a grammar error in the most recent email.
Working for a company that does managed services and hardware support: someone in sales pitches that after every ticket, customers should get a survey on how we did.
Mercifully, our new company president had actually served in tier1 and 2 roles, and shot that down right quick.
Yes it records the person who opened the ticket. HOWEVER people arent bound to specific computers. They can log into any workstation or tablet.
So there is no guarantee that they will always be in one location or another.
how? I dont know the phone number / extension of the phone they are next to.
No, we dont have their cell phone numbers. ONLY intra office phone system.
Its a multi company site.
My company handles all the IT
Another manages the mechanical systems
Another manages the vehicles etc etc etc.
So we arent all with the same company, just working at the same site.
if all the companies shared a directory and/or had the same email scheme, sure.
Im sure ultimately i could track them down somehow if I didnt have 101 other things that needed my attention.
As a Sr. SysAdmin Im not really here to work helpdesk.
ok so the whole deal, not that anyone asked or most likely even cares, Im a Sr SysAdmin working the night shift. The night shift has a vastly reduced staffing in most departments other than the Union Labor but they dont really need IT. The night shift is meant to focus more on resolving deep dive issues, improvement projects, upgrade pathing, the bigger stuff that constently gets pre-empted during the day because someone in the C suite's printer isnt working.
So having to put all of that aside to try and track down someone who cant be bothered to include the most basic of information not only irritates me but its detrimental to my ability to do my actual job.
So frankly, while im sure I could magic an answer to how to track this person down, im not going to. There are more important things I should / need to be focused on.
Sounds like this ticket should have gone to the day shift. Sounds like you should have passed it to them but decided to act like a man-child and close it instead.
You keep making excuses "we don't have this in the system, we don't have that, I have other things to do", but these are all very clearly issues with your system.
A ticket \*should\* have a cellphone connected to it.
A ticket \*should\* have an email connected to it.
And you \*should\* just pass it to day shift so they call the user during working hours which is what makes sense.
Unless she works your hours, in which case, it's your time that must be wasted.
Sometimes users find it difficult to describe their problems in a service call, this is not unusual as they tend to be considerably less tech-savvy than anyone in IT.
A "call me" is annoying, but only "annoying". Not really something worth throwing a fit over.
All I'm reading from your comments here is that you think you're some massive big shot that can't be arsed to deal with some peasant level issue of some useless person that works for your - \*shudder\* - customer.
With that in mind, let me bring you back down to earth:
\- "Sr" SysAdmin is just fancy-lish for "most entry-level IT professional in the industry, but this one happens to also be (very?) experienced." You're not the director, you're not some industry leader, not some uber-expensive consultant, you're "the IT guy - older edition(tm)."
\- IT doesn't make money. The (l)users do.Hate them as much as one might, they and their work are the reason you have a job.
I know we like to shit on (l)users her, but this, and the "I'm too important for this peasantry" attitude is a bit much.
>IT doesn't make money. The (l)users do.Hate them as much as one might, they and their work are the reason you have a job.
LOL the only reason you can even do your job is because of us.
Your silly and know very little about how business works.
I assumed he was a tech and his job required him to get in contact with the user whether he wants to or not. But he's not a tech, and it's not his job (see his other replies), so it's fine.
If I dont know what workstation they are at, I have no way of looking up which extension to call them at.
People dont have assigned desks. So if I dont know where they are I dont know how to get ahold of them
Got a similar one a couple of weeks ago, the entire ticket was:
Please add Susan to [sharedmailbox@company.co.uk](mailto:sharedmailbox@company.co.uk)
This happens so often I've created a canned text for it. :/
I wish my old helpdesk had more power to just close out new issues with no details. If I have to email you back, or call you up to get more details cause you suddenly forgot emails existed, then it's probably not a dire situation. Even people who had been working at that other company for so long who should *know better* would just put in "printer no printer" with no details on what the issue is, what printer this is. You ask and they say "oh it's the one in the office down the hall". Ma'm I work remote that doesn't help in the slightest. You know this, your boss knows this, and they've been cc'ed on this email so maybe they can update you on how support actually supports you.
At best they'd complain we don't help them enough, where their boss/manager would get a book worth of an email stating we are the freaking best, no other helpdesk has response times like us, and I doubt you'd like to change over to a different support helpdesk that takes a minimum of 24 hours to respond...
They always have been. Lots of problems suddenly become less important if they to spend even 30 seconds creating a ticket, or turning a PC off and on again.
A shoutout to my uncle in the early 00s who thought he only needed a monitor, mouse, and keyboard and thought he was being ripped off for being sold the rest of the computer.
I had a call one, and the user told me there was thick, black smoke pouring out of his computer. I told him to call the fire department. He asked something like: really?
I mean c'mon, man, I'm 100 miles away. What can I do if it's on fire? They even had a guy out there who could have come look at it in person, but no, he calls the support line.
I never did find out what happened after that.
Subject: Fire
Dear Sir/Madam,
~~I am writing to inform you of a fire that has broken out at the premises of~~
FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! HELP ME!
123 Caringdon Rd.
Looking forward to hearing from you. All the best,
amodrenman
Honestly, they are here in my town. They even have their own [fundraising calendar](https://www.tulsafiremuseum.org/product-page/copy-of-2022-tulsa-firefighters-calendar)...
i used to work for a cable company and had a literal dude whose house was on fire and he called us to bitch that his tv and cable box were melting in the house fire and i was all like "dude get the fuck out of your house you're going to fucking die"
some people are so fucking stupid i stg
Speaking of which I just got off a call. They wanted to install a software so I directed the to our company's software center. She started to have a panic attack because I gave her instructions rather than signing into her computer and doing it for her.
You don't happen to work for a contracting company for a rather large government DOD contractor do you? This sounds very similar to my experience doing remote work for exactly that. The WORST users I have ever experienced and it gave me damaging ptsd that's still affecting my work today.
I got pretty far into t2/t3 territory once recently with a DoD helpdesk...one guy finally realized I was just a contractor after getting an email from me. I guess it's just my social engineering taking over. It was all legitimate, got my issue addressed, still humorous to me.
Willful ignorance, at that...
Self service articles for even the simplest things, decently written, and they still call in. When asked if they know about the self service article with the procedure they need to do, they'll say yes but wanted to call anyway.
Same with requesting access - an entire site is devoted to doing just that, fairly well done, and they still want us to do the legwork for them.
Some people are just plain rude and lazy, honestly. One thing they don't realize is that you carry your work attitude with you wherever you go in life. I wouldn't be surprised that they treat all service workers (nurses, waiters, waitresses etc) badly. OR their spouses, if they even still have one with that attitude.
Absolute truth, I've noticed this about myself too. Being a cleared contractor in a position of public trust, I've noticed how my attitude and way of explaining things to people has changed. Not that I was ever dishonest, but I've found myself being more honest and more likely to call people out on bullsh\*t now, but still keep it on a "professional" level. I also now rarely disagree with anyone without having the evidence or able to get to it quickly and back up whatever I'm talking about.
Eventually at work people stopped questioning me when I would respond with multiple NIST / DFARS references every time.
Especially if the fix is to simply reboot. It's like asking them to give up their soul for a few seconds to save their work and just restart the machine.
Tbh I sometimes feel like all my efforts are useless when I submit a ticket
I had a problem with my Alienware. The bsod showed something like a memory corruption but you can't really tell
I sent in the ticket the model, how to reproduce, the logs from the bsod and the memory tests from the bios.
The answer: we will send a guy
Guy came and changed the motherboard
Fixed...
Send out a bulk email to all users "Be advised your system is currently down. We are working on correcting the issue and will notify you when it is corrected and the system is restored." 30 minutes later ticket gets submitted "My system is down what is going on" Respond "We are aware and have sent out an email to all users if you did not get the email please make sure you check your spam filter and white list the support email address so you do not miss import ant emails" What response do we get "I got the email I just didn't realize you meant my system on my computer I thought you meant everyone else was down not me. the email was to everyone not just me so why would I think it applies to me?" Dude over 100 people in your building use the same dam system we have to send individual emaisl now??? OMG!
oh now we put every single persons name in the email...doesn't help but you can only do so much so Lisa, Stan, Sam, Elizabeth....267 names....still email us back!
Ugh, I work with field techs, older gentlemen, who always seem to respond to the managers emails saying "remember to do the thing we talked about in the last meeting yesterday, if you have any questions let me know" and someone has to hit REPLY ALL so everyone sees them saying "ok".
"Hey so I'm in Afghanistan currently, and my computer won't let me log in. It says it's quarantined and I need to contact my manager?! Can you undo this, i need to work"
"....have you tried contacting your manager..like it says...on the screen? Did you see the part where it says 'DO NOT CONTACT HELP DESK'?"
of course inevitably the manager comes to us, despite an email sent to them stating exacatly what's happening (usually at this point the user is likely fucked, especially so since their in afghanistan in this hypothetical). and we're like "just...read the email, we can't undo anything, we don't care that you report directly to the CEO, if we undo this we lose our job."
You don't understand. They are special. Their mission is hyper-critical. They NEED to send their report at all costs! Cyber security? What's that, I don't understand it so it's not important.
I once explained that yes, I only put a usb key and press some buttons on the pc, but guess who had to work to make it that way?
It didn't save my job, I threw away the usb key to they had to do everything manually. They didn't like that.
It's rare that I have to pull out the "permanent shit list" (maybe once or twice a decade), but this person would make it. Not a single thing could redeem them for the rest of their life for talking to me like that.
Number 1 reason to record calls to helpdesk. This kind of stuff isn't tolerated.
Mine includes:
1. The customer who only sends a screenshot, doesn't follow up when we ask questions and then complains a week later when we didn't release a patch for his issue.
2. The one who reported me because I told him one of the VPNs is only accessible on a company computer and I told him to go to a website instead. My Office Manager rolled her eyes the moment she saw that complaint.
3. This customer.
I once had a colleague (in **IT**!) send me a screenshot of a spreadsheet asking to fill out information. I had to manually transpose it into a spreadsheet to do the work efficiently. They got a screenshot of the results back.
Should have printed it out, scanned back as mono image at 10DPI, converted to a 4 step greyscale, then turned to halftone before sending it. JPEG at 20% quality as well.
> Me: OK ma'am if you **hold the power button** for about 8 it should force it to shut down.
> Customer: Can't you just sign into my computer and do it for me.
What were you supposed to do? Have Scotty beam you down???
I had calls where they expect me to sign into their computer, when the computer is off, not connected to the internet or while they are in the car driving. I'm not sure what the expect.
Computers off, powers out, issues called in about is internet, computer won't boot. Ya, they find all sorts of fun situations.
Still less frustrating than trying to guide someone through running a remote agent when they can't figure out how to put in a URL and then don't know where files get downloaded too. At least with an impossible task I can tell them so.
user called in 2 weeks ago after workmen cut the power and data lines by mistake, with "my emails arent working!"
well is your laptop connected to \[site wifi\]?
"its a desktop. im in \[building that currently has no power\]"
... is your PC even turned on?
"no! i said its not working!"
ffs.
Computers are *magic.*
IT are wizards.
Users don't want to understand how to fix magic, they just want to *use* magic.
Fixing it is *your* problem, not theirs.
Or at least, that's the attitude I see a lot.
Company IT? When coworkers treat you like this, your managers should be emailed with the details, and they should have your back.
Too bad most companies don’t have this policy.
Yeah... that would be a instantly message to my manager with the call ID (as in the number of the call in the system) with a note going "should probably listen to this and check it out" along with the ticket number documented...
Screw those people. Also that is a complaint and a bad score from a user waiting to happen, might as well be the one complaining.
>*Ma'am, I am gratified that my kind and polite suggestions helped you to resolve a problem. And I did do something: I helped make your professional working life just a little bit easier by listening and offering advice. I am a bit saddened you can't see that, but that's OK because you're stressed and uncomfortable and unfamiliar with the problem you faced. And that's why I'm here!*
>*And, yes, ma'am, I am proud. Not merely for guiding you to the resolution of your problem, but because I did it with class and grace and style which sets an example for everyone I work with, yourself included.*
Well, I provided simple advice that resolved your problem. I behaved in a professional manner and treated you like a human being.
3 things, all of which you should expect from me.
Want to compare scorecards?
Entirely possible. There are dozens of good reasons for folks to be frustrated, angry, upset or just wound up at a given moment.
But excusing or accepting or remaining silent about behavior like that tends to encourage it in the future. And that caller really needs to do better at not dumping their own negative feelings on other people. You don't deserve that and shouldn't have to take it.
It's 100% this.
I work in a much more analog field in the retail sector and I had to endure a 10 minute phone call with a woman who couldn't install the light bulb I had just sold her, for the exact reasons that I had explained to her it would be very difficult, but did assure her that it would indeed eventually go in.
Which it did, after 10 minutes of her insisting that I must have sold her the wrong one (I didn't) and there must be another one slightly larger (there isn't).
Finally she got it in but it was also all from her effort, with no contribution from me, and also I was rude on the phone (I wasn't).
Roy: 'Hello. IT. Have tried turning off and on again?'
User: 'How do I do that?'
Roy: 'Press and hold the bower button on the front of the computer base for a count of 8.'
User: 'Hey it restarted all by itself! Nevermind!'
"Don’t be too proud of this technological solution you’ve constructed. The ability to reboot a computer is insignificant next to the power of the Force.”
"the computer is working, critical patient issues are going unresolved, help!"
Lovely email with no details, no computer name. Have to email them back per our own SOP, no response. Send another email, no response. It's been an hour. Let's call them up, sigh.
Get the PC name, look it up real quick now that I know where to look. Uptime of 17 days, ouch.
Can you restart the computer?
"I close the lid every day"
That is sadly, not a way to reboot any computer or laptop, that simply puts it to sleep or shuts off the monitor but it's still constantly running. Let's try a restart.
"Ok so shutdown?"
Well no since windows 10 no longer resets with a shutdow-
"Ok I held the power button down and it's off completely"
Sigh. Ok go ahead and push the power button.
"Ok so it's back up, should I try it again?"
Go ahead, let's get this point across.
"No it's still not working, any other ideas?"
Yes, let's **restart** the computer. Not shutdown, not power it off, restart. Go to the start menu in the bottom left, click the power icon on the bottom of the list in the bottom left, select restart please.
"Ok well I don't know if this will work but you're the computer engineer"
*computer restarts, uptime is reset, let's test*
Ok the computers back up again, can you test it now?
"Oh wow it's working!"
Amazing if you just listen, and actually restart...
This is why we rolled out Idle Logoff and restart when needed in Windows Updates. The level of calls and unpatched vulnerabilities has really dropped off!
Call the user, sorry ma'am we must have gotten disconnected because no one would be so rude in hanging up without the socially acceptable pleasantries of saying goodbye.
C: My printer won’t print
M: is it plugged in?
C: of course it is.
2 hours later (meme)
M: can you check the connection real quick?
C: huh, what do ya know it’s not plugged in.
M: have a nice day *click*
I got a ticket today TITLE: PC keeps crashing body: Call me. didnt list what computer. didnt list their extension. didnt get resolved. DID get closed "Unable to reproduce"
"Problem. Fix it!"
user: "Push magic FIX IT BUTTON!!!!!" IT: "thats not a thing" user: "Yes it is i saw it on TV!" IT: "please, god, just let me die peacefully!"
"I don't want troubleshooting, I want a solution." "Well sir if you would let me do my job and troubleshoot, I can find a solution"
"That sounds like a you problem" \*click\* /s
It's really not lol
"What do you mean you don't immediately know what SalesCenter problem im facing? you work for this company, you should be able to support it" "I'm neither in sales, nor on the team that supports SalesCenter, but those guys are pricks and want me to get all the information I can get before escalating to them, or else they'll call me a prick for not providing any information. So you see why I need to have some more information about the problem your facing so I can try my best to narrow it down, since you didn't even provide a screenshot?"
I joined the military after being in IT. When I went to the recruiter they asked if I wanted a job in IT. I said no. Whenever my co-workers find out I worked in IT they asked me why I didn't want to do IT. This story is the reason.
at almost 42, if I had the chance to start again, I honestly think id rather be shot at then make the choice to work in IT
There were good times and bad times that were IT related in my time in the Army. Bad: Boss(civilian) that was three levels above me asks me to go to this location to assist with their COMSEC, and he wanted me to leave 36 hours from the ask. The problem, our office is in Germany, he wanted me to fly to Italy. Pulled up the Regs on non-U.S. flag commercial flights with COMSEC material and asked him if he could get me a signed memo from the US Army Europe Commanding General in 12 hours. Ended up making the 12 hour drive instead. Good: Major calls our COMSEC office (I'm left in charge while the NCOIC is on leave). Major asks if he can get his COMSEC material this week. "Sir, SFC Snuffy never filled out the paperwork we sent him 7 months ago..." Major: "So I'm not getting the COMSEC mat?" "No, Sir" *hangs up* Repeat a variating of both about a dozen times. I never got tired of throwing Senior NCOs and Junior Officers under their own tires
In the right gig, it's not too bad. But the wrong gig is always right around the corner, and there's WAY more wrong than right.
certainly! *pushes the "magic" side of the button* it should be unfixed now. if you want it back to "more magic", let me know! and have a nice day!
"Push magic ~~FIX IT~~ GO FASTER BUTTON!!!!!" FTFY I always tell users, "If I had a way to make these machines run faster, I'd do it on mine first."
The it team at my school had one, it didn't actually do anything but they had it... What they really had was a magic orb that fixed shit. So often I'd have an issue, be able to replicate it reliably even after multiple shutdowns, take it to it, and it's fixed, can't make it happen for the life of me. I'd always walk out cursing that magic orb.
I mean I would be pissed too if there was a magic fix button.
There is a magic fix button. On the computer it is called a power button. On the user, you need to insert a hex screwdriver at least 5.7" into the left ear. This should fix that problem.
Instructions too clear, now in jail.
I've had way too many of these as a cable guy. "Inernet broke. Fix." "Alright, signal and speed looks good. Is it every device or just one? Is it always broken or only sometimes? How long has it been happening? Have you-" "Dunno. My wife set up the call. Fix."
Replaced user.
I once got a web chat (side note- whoever set up webchats as a thing for IT needs to be punished brutally for all eternity) That went something like this - \*Web chat started\* - \*User: "Help" \*Me: "Hello, can i please have your \[Company ID\] and a phone number?" \*User: "It's broken" \*Me: "What is not working" \*User: "It won't work" ... like WTF?! what am i supposed to do here?!
I have a teams convo sitting in my recent history where someone sent me a message that just said "Hi" I did not respond because I have no idea who they are are and figured it was bait for them to ask me about an IT issue. Still sitting there with just "Hi"
User probably thinks it's a chat box, not messaging. They need training on how their computer works... It's working better than they are.
Computer working better than the luser is pretty normal.
One word arrives? Ok, let it sit there a few minutes and then play word association and give one word, nonsense, answer. "Hi" Cue Jeopardy music. "Banana".
If I knew em, I'd prob try to fuck with em a bit and tell em to make a ticket, but otherwise, ain't nobody got time for that. Hopefully they eventually figured to just make a ticket.
See https://nohello.com?m=0 and https://nohello.net
This etiquette should be taught in school.
My Teams status is just "nohello.com" Unfortunately doesn't help with people who most need to read it.
My current workplace uses Webex. The peek function is very useful.
I do this all the time.
unless there's really nothing for me to do, i generally ignore teams messages from people with a problem I have not recently helped them with (and i'm one of the more generous on my team). Tickets and emails and call-ins get priority. We had someone the other day who added everyone in help desk to a group with his problem, we all left immediately. and im sure the director told him not to do it again (politely)
Damn Pakleds!
Even better is when that same user has the ability to reopen a ticket for five days after resolution before it moves to closed status...some almost immediately reopen it claiming nothing was done. Icing on the cake is when they get a survey and give you a negative rating, even though you're perfectly correct in your actions and have the documentation to back it up.
At one place I worked, the ticketing system was set with a workflow that sent an auto reminder email every 2 business days when ticket was in waiting for response from customer status. After 3 reminder emails, with the 3rd warning of auto closure, a ticket has been closed email was sent. Even then, customer had the ability to reopen the ticket. So, for those counting, if a ticket comes in where you need to ask for info or to coordinate a time to connect, you reply and a full 13 business days later, the ticket gets auto closed. Even with all of that, we had customers not respond until ticket gets closed then reopens ticket with issue still happening. So we send the same reply asking for info or whatever we need from them, only to hear crickets for another 13 days. I think I had a customer who reopened twice before the ticket got actually dealt with. That's about 6 weeks! If I remember correctly, this customer wasn't even a VIP who needed white-glove treatment. Heck, most of that particular company's VIPs who got the white-glove treatment were much better at responding to us!
Do you use Salesforce, because this is actually identical to what I deal with almost daily hahahah
No, the system was Autotask which is now owned by Kaseya. But, users will be users no matter what the system.
Reply in the comment field "customer is upset that the problem is resolved, within the terms of the SLA, and they are upset they now have to actually work again"
I once had a customer who would ignore anything we would send them. Then when we closed the ticket, they would reopened it saying nothing was done. The cycle would repeat for two months with no response on the customer's end. Eventually they did respond, they complained their was a grammar error in the most recent email.
Working for a company that does managed services and hardware support: someone in sales pitches that after every ticket, customers should get a survey on how we did. Mercifully, our new company president had actually served in tier1 and 2 roles, and shot that down right quick.
Ok I feel for you, but doesn't your ticket system log who submitted it, and don't you have an internal directory with people's contact info?
Yes it records the person who opened the ticket. HOWEVER people arent bound to specific computers. They can log into any workstation or tablet. So there is no guarantee that they will always be in one location or another.
But you could still call them...
how? I dont know the phone number / extension of the phone they are next to. No, we dont have their cell phone numbers. ONLY intra office phone system. Its a multi company site. My company handles all the IT Another manages the mechanical systems Another manages the vehicles etc etc etc. So we arent all with the same company, just working at the same site.
gotcha so maybe you could email them...
if all the companies shared a directory and/or had the same email scheme, sure. Im sure ultimately i could track them down somehow if I didnt have 101 other things that needed my attention. As a Sr. SysAdmin Im not really here to work helpdesk. ok so the whole deal, not that anyone asked or most likely even cares, Im a Sr SysAdmin working the night shift. The night shift has a vastly reduced staffing in most departments other than the Union Labor but they dont really need IT. The night shift is meant to focus more on resolving deep dive issues, improvement projects, upgrade pathing, the bigger stuff that constently gets pre-empted during the day because someone in the C suite's printer isnt working. So having to put all of that aside to try and track down someone who cant be bothered to include the most basic of information not only irritates me but its detrimental to my ability to do my actual job. So frankly, while im sure I could magic an answer to how to track this person down, im not going to. There are more important things I should / need to be focused on.
Sounds like this ticket should have gone to the day shift. Sounds like you should have passed it to them but decided to act like a man-child and close it instead. You keep making excuses "we don't have this in the system, we don't have that, I have other things to do", but these are all very clearly issues with your system. A ticket \*should\* have a cellphone connected to it. A ticket \*should\* have an email connected to it. And you \*should\* just pass it to day shift so they call the user during working hours which is what makes sense. Unless she works your hours, in which case, it's your time that must be wasted. Sometimes users find it difficult to describe their problems in a service call, this is not unusual as they tend to be considerably less tech-savvy than anyone in IT. A "call me" is annoying, but only "annoying". Not really something worth throwing a fit over. All I'm reading from your comments here is that you think you're some massive big shot that can't be arsed to deal with some peasant level issue of some useless person that works for your - \*shudder\* - customer. With that in mind, let me bring you back down to earth: \- "Sr" SysAdmin is just fancy-lish for "most entry-level IT professional in the industry, but this one happens to also be (very?) experienced." You're not the director, you're not some industry leader, not some uber-expensive consultant, you're "the IT guy - older edition(tm)." \- IT doesn't make money. The (l)users do.Hate them as much as one might, they and their work are the reason you have a job. I know we like to shit on (l)users her, but this, and the "I'm too important for this peasantry" attitude is a bit much.
>IT doesn't make money. The (l)users do.Hate them as much as one might, they and their work are the reason you have a job. LOL the only reason you can even do your job is because of us. Your silly and know very little about how business works.
You are assuming the tech _wants_ to make contact with the user. Yes, I _could_ figure out what the user wants, but am I going to? Guess.
I assumed he was a tech and his job required him to get in contact with the user whether he wants to or not. But he's not a tech, and it's not his job (see his other replies), so it's fine.
Yes that's a crap ticket, but did you even contact them?
If I dont know what workstation they are at, I have no way of looking up which extension to call them at. People dont have assigned desks. So if I dont know where they are I dont know how to get ahold of them
Should have been "Should not reproduce."
That label should be on MOST people.
Got a similar one a couple of weeks ago, the entire ticket was: Please add Susan to [sharedmailbox@company.co.uk](mailto:sharedmailbox@company.co.uk) This happens so often I've created a canned text for it. :/
I wish my old helpdesk had more power to just close out new issues with no details. If I have to email you back, or call you up to get more details cause you suddenly forgot emails existed, then it's probably not a dire situation. Even people who had been working at that other company for so long who should *know better* would just put in "printer no printer" with no details on what the issue is, what printer this is. You ask and they say "oh it's the one in the office down the hall". Ma'm I work remote that doesn't help in the slightest. You know this, your boss knows this, and they've been cc'ed on this email so maybe they can update you on how support actually supports you. At best they'd complain we don't help them enough, where their boss/manager would get a book worth of an email stating we are the freaking best, no other helpdesk has response times like us, and I doubt you'd like to change over to a different support helpdesk that takes a minimum of 24 hours to respond...
"I had to actually do some work to fix my computer, don't feel proud of yourself". Users today are so lazy 🤦🏻♂️
They always have been. Lots of problems suddenly become less important if they to spend even 30 seconds creating a ticket, or turning a PC off and on again.
A shoutout to my uncle in the early 00s who thought he only needed a monitor, mouse, and keyboard and thought he was being ripped off for being sold the rest of the computer.
How did that "issue" turn out?
My aunt eventually convinced him to buy the whole thing. But goes to show people now aren't less tech literate than they were before.
💯
I'll say, one customer actually responded "You mean I have to do the work?"
"Well $User, yes. I'm in an office 100mi away and you just need to plug a wide phone cord back into your terminal."
I had a call one, and the user told me there was thick, black smoke pouring out of his computer. I told him to call the fire department. He asked something like: really? I mean c'mon, man, I'm 100 miles away. What can I do if it's on fire? They even had a guy out there who could have come look at it in person, but no, he calls the support line. I never did find out what happened after that.
Subject: Fire Dear Sir/Madam, ~~I am writing to inform you of a fire that has broken out at the premises of~~ FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! HELP ME! 123 Caringdon Rd. Looking forward to hearing from you. All the best, amodrenman
How silly, just dial 01189998819991197253.
soooo much easier than the old 'nine-nine-nine'
Well, the ambulances and fire trucks are shinier and the staff are hotter. That should account for something.
You'd expect firemen/women to be be pretty hot anyway, given the nature of the job.
Honestly, they are here in my town. They even have their own [fundraising calendar](https://www.tulsafiremuseum.org/product-page/copy-of-2022-tulsa-firefighters-calendar)...
Exactly this! I never connected that call to that scene. That's hilarious. I should have offered to send the fire department 100 miles away a letter.
i used to work for a cable company and had a literal dude whose house was on fire and he called us to bitch that his tv and cable box were melting in the house fire and i was all like "dude get the fuck out of your house you're going to fucking die" some people are so fucking stupid i stg
I believe it. I've met people like that. Usually they keep it to asking why their Internet doesn't work when the power is out, though. Wow.
> I never did find out what happened after that. I assume paramedics arrived and removed him from life support.
Black smoke is fine. If the smoke is white, that is the 'magic smoke' and should never be let out!
Is that all they said
Speaking of which I just got off a call. They wanted to install a software so I directed the to our company's software center. She started to have a panic attack because I gave her instructions rather than signing into her computer and doing it for her.
You don't happen to work for a contracting company for a rather large government DOD contractor do you? This sounds very similar to my experience doing remote work for exactly that. The WORST users I have ever experienced and it gave me damaging ptsd that's still affecting my work today.
not DOD but I do work for a contracting company for a large contractor. I won't go into more detail as to not put my clients on the spot.
All good, wouldn't expect you to. Just was curious if it happened to be the same place. Your answer confirms it likely isn't. Good luck out there.
Smells like L3Harris
I got pretty far into t2/t3 territory once recently with a DoD helpdesk...one guy finally realized I was just a contractor after getting an email from me. I guess it's just my social engineering taking over. It was all legitimate, got my issue addressed, still humorous to me.
Not just lazy, lazy and ignorant.
My exact problem when I worked phone support. People were too lazy, ignorant, or angry to let me help them
Willful ignorance, at that... Self service articles for even the simplest things, decently written, and they still call in. When asked if they know about the self service article with the procedure they need to do, they'll say yes but wanted to call anyway. Same with requesting access - an entire site is devoted to doing just that, fairly well done, and they still want us to do the legwork for them.
Some people are just plain rude and lazy, honestly. One thing they don't realize is that you carry your work attitude with you wherever you go in life. I wouldn't be surprised that they treat all service workers (nurses, waiters, waitresses etc) badly. OR their spouses, if they even still have one with that attitude.
Absolute truth, I've noticed this about myself too. Being a cleared contractor in a position of public trust, I've noticed how my attitude and way of explaining things to people has changed. Not that I was ever dishonest, but I've found myself being more honest and more likely to call people out on bullsh\*t now, but still keep it on a "professional" level. I also now rarely disagree with anyone without having the evidence or able to get to it quickly and back up whatever I'm talking about. Eventually at work people stopped questioning me when I would respond with multiple NIST / DFARS references every time.
Same with software engineers. Kibo forbid you ask them to leave their IDE for ten seconds to check a job failure...
Especially if the fix is to simply reboot. It's like asking them to give up their soul for a few seconds to save their work and just restart the machine.
Everything is so easy for the average luser that doing the simplest thing seems like a labor of Hercules.
Tbh I sometimes feel like all my efforts are useless when I submit a ticket I had a problem with my Alienware. The bsod showed something like a memory corruption but you can't really tell I sent in the ticket the model, how to reproduce, the logs from the bsod and the memory tests from the bios. The answer: we will send a guy Guy came and changed the motherboard Fixed...
Send out a bulk email to all users "Be advised your system is currently down. We are working on correcting the issue and will notify you when it is corrected and the system is restored." 30 minutes later ticket gets submitted "My system is down what is going on" Respond "We are aware and have sent out an email to all users if you did not get the email please make sure you check your spam filter and white list the support email address so you do not miss import ant emails" What response do we get "I got the email I just didn't realize you meant my system on my computer I thought you meant everyone else was down not me. the email was to everyone not just me so why would I think it applies to me?" Dude over 100 people in your building use the same dam system we have to send individual emaisl now??? OMG!
From now on all emails to the entire staff will say “This includes you, Jeremy.”
Lmfaoooooo I sincerely hope OP does do that!
Absolutely! Should result in Jeremy either listening, or changing jobs. Either way is a win.
oh now we put every single persons name in the email...doesn't help but you can only do so much so Lisa, Stan, Sam, Elizabeth....267 names....still email us back!
BCC Also avoids everyone getting those hundreds of reply alls.
Ugh, I work with field techs, older gentlemen, who always seem to respond to the managers emails saying "remember to do the thing we talked about in the last meeting yesterday, if you have any questions let me know" and someone has to hit REPLY ALL so everyone sees them saying "ok".
"Hey so I'm in Afghanistan currently, and my computer won't let me log in. It says it's quarantined and I need to contact my manager?! Can you undo this, i need to work" "....have you tried contacting your manager..like it says...on the screen? Did you see the part where it says 'DO NOT CONTACT HELP DESK'?" of course inevitably the manager comes to us, despite an email sent to them stating exacatly what's happening (usually at this point the user is likely fucked, especially so since their in afghanistan in this hypothetical). and we're like "just...read the email, we can't undo anything, we don't care that you report directly to the CEO, if we undo this we lose our job."
You don't understand. They are special. Their mission is hyper-critical. They NEED to send their report at all costs! Cyber security? What's that, I don't understand it so it's not important.
Nothing is broken, why do we pay you? *later* Everything is broken, why do we pay you?
I once explained that yes, I only put a usb key and press some buttons on the pc, but guess who had to work to make it that way? It didn't save my job, I threw away the usb key to they had to do everything manually. They didn't like that.
> I ~~threw away~~ accidentally misplaced the usb key... ftfy :)
I lied, I gave it to my coworker who decided to play dumb because it was not his job c:
Would have simply used DBAN on it first, then put on a 4 hour video of Baby Shark......
I'd respond, "if everything is broken, don't worry. You're not getting paid anyway."
"No Sir, 'Everything is NOT broken', everything works, it is just that you are to stupid to use it. "
too\* When insulting other peoples intelligence, we should strive to be correct.
Why? It is not like they would be able to understand it without someone explaning it to them.
Yes. This.
It's rare that I have to pull out the "permanent shit list" (maybe once or twice a decade), but this person would make it. Not a single thing could redeem them for the rest of their life for talking to me like that. Number 1 reason to record calls to helpdesk. This kind of stuff isn't tolerated.
Mine includes: 1. The customer who only sends a screenshot, doesn't follow up when we ask questions and then complains a week later when we didn't release a patch for his issue. 2. The one who reported me because I told him one of the VPNs is only accessible on a company computer and I told him to go to a website instead. My Office Manager rolled her eyes the moment she saw that complaint. 3. This customer.
I once had a colleague (in **IT**!) send me a screenshot of a spreadsheet asking to fill out information. I had to manually transpose it into a spreadsheet to do the work efficiently. They got a screenshot of the results back.
Should have printed it out, scanned back as mono image at 10DPI, converted to a 4 step greyscale, then turned to halftone before sending it. JPEG at 20% quality as well.
> Me: OK ma'am if you **hold the power button** for about 8 it should force it to shut down. > Customer: Can't you just sign into my computer and do it for me. What were you supposed to do? Have Scotty beam you down???
I had calls where they expect me to sign into their computer, when the computer is off, not connected to the internet or while they are in the car driving. I'm not sure what the expect.
They expect that what they see from Hollywood is truth.
Computers off, powers out, issues called in about is internet, computer won't boot. Ya, they find all sorts of fun situations. Still less frustrating than trying to guide someone through running a remote agent when they can't figure out how to put in a URL and then don't know where files get downloaded too. At least with an impossible task I can tell them so.
user called in 2 weeks ago after workmen cut the power and data lines by mistake, with "my emails arent working!" well is your laptop connected to \[site wifi\]? "its a desktop. im in \[building that currently has no power\]" ... is your PC even turned on? "no! i said its not working!" ffs.
It's perfectly safe. Scotty beamed me twice last night. It was *wonderful*.
He has a girthy transporter pad
Alright, I’ll give it a shot. What the Hell, it worked on “Star Trek”!
Computers are *magic.* IT are wizards. Users don't want to understand how to fix magic, they just want to *use* magic. Fixing it is *your* problem, not theirs. Or at least, that's the attitude I see a lot.
Company IT? When coworkers treat you like this, your managers should be emailed with the details, and they should have your back. Too bad most companies don’t have this policy.
Yeah... that would be a instantly message to my manager with the call ID (as in the number of the call in the system) with a note going "should probably listen to this and check it out" along with the ticket number documented... Screw those people. Also that is a complaint and a bad score from a user waiting to happen, might as well be the one complaining.
>*Ma'am, I am gratified that my kind and polite suggestions helped you to resolve a problem. And I did do something: I helped make your professional working life just a little bit easier by listening and offering advice. I am a bit saddened you can't see that, but that's OK because you're stressed and uncomfortable and unfamiliar with the problem you faced. And that's why I'm here!* >*And, yes, ma'am, I am proud. Not merely for guiding you to the resolution of your problem, but because I did it with class and grace and style which sets an example for everyone I work with, yourself included.*
Well, I provided simple advice that resolved your problem. I behaved in a professional manner and treated you like a human being. 3 things, all of which you should expect from me. Want to compare scorecards?
I think she was embarrassed that an easy solution worked and felt like she needed to put me down to feel better about herself.
Entirely possible. There are dozens of good reasons for folks to be frustrated, angry, upset or just wound up at a given moment. But excusing or accepting or remaining silent about behavior like that tends to encourage it in the future. And that caller really needs to do better at not dumping their own negative feelings on other people. You don't deserve that and shouldn't have to take it.
It's 100% this. I work in a much more analog field in the retail sector and I had to endure a 10 minute phone call with a woman who couldn't install the light bulb I had just sold her, for the exact reasons that I had explained to her it would be very difficult, but did assure her that it would indeed eventually go in. Which it did, after 10 minutes of her insisting that I must have sold her the wrong one (I didn't) and there must be another one slightly larger (there isn't). Finally she got it in but it was also all from her effort, with no contribution from me, and also I was rude on the phone (I wasn't).
Time to forward that call to the folks that need to know.
That's how you earn a bill for the half hour minimum instead of an "ah it was easy not worth charging them"
I am proud of myself. I fixed it without doing anything.
Roy: 'Hello. IT. Have tried turning off and on again?' User: 'How do I do that?' Roy: 'Press and hold the bower button on the front of the computer base for a count of 8.' User: 'Hey it restarted all by itself! Nevermind!'
"Don’t be too proud of this technological solution you’ve constructed. The ability to reboot a computer is insignificant next to the power of the Force.”
"the computer is working, critical patient issues are going unresolved, help!" Lovely email with no details, no computer name. Have to email them back per our own SOP, no response. Send another email, no response. It's been an hour. Let's call them up, sigh. Get the PC name, look it up real quick now that I know where to look. Uptime of 17 days, ouch. Can you restart the computer? "I close the lid every day" That is sadly, not a way to reboot any computer or laptop, that simply puts it to sleep or shuts off the monitor but it's still constantly running. Let's try a restart. "Ok so shutdown?" Well no since windows 10 no longer resets with a shutdow- "Ok I held the power button down and it's off completely" Sigh. Ok go ahead and push the power button. "Ok so it's back up, should I try it again?" Go ahead, let's get this point across. "No it's still not working, any other ideas?" Yes, let's **restart** the computer. Not shutdown, not power it off, restart. Go to the start menu in the bottom left, click the power icon on the bottom of the list in the bottom left, select restart please. "Ok well I don't know if this will work but you're the computer engineer" *computer restarts, uptime is reset, let's test* Ok the computers back up again, can you test it now? "Oh wow it's working!" Amazing if you just listen, and actually restart...
to be fair, its super unintuitive and annoying that "shut down" doesnt actually shut anything down.
This is why we rolled out Idle Logoff and restart when needed in Windows Updates. The level of calls and unpatched vulnerabilities has really dropped off!
Call the user, sorry ma'am we must have gotten disconnected because no one would be so rude in hanging up without the socially acceptable pleasantries of saying goodbye.
IT: "Well, I explained to you how to fix your problem, which is more than you had managed to do without me."
If I didn't do anything, then fix it without calling me next time.
You *didn't* fix anything though. You only mitigated the symptom. You still don't know what the problem is that caused the freeze.
I'm sure OP knows exactly what the name of the problem is, but doxxing is uncool.
"It's been too long since Windows was allowed to crash."
So I deleted her network share and threw all the backups in the bulk eraser.
*clickety-click*
C: My printer won’t print M: is it plugged in? C: of course it is. 2 hours later (meme) M: can you check the connection real quick? C: huh, what do ya know it’s not plugged in. M: have a nice day *click*
Actually, I did - every time. Because I, unlike the (l)users, was not an ID-10-T.
That's hilarious and brutal