Exchanges with People that Make Your Brain Hurt

[Midnight Kitty]

It made my brain hurt when we first got computers at work.  I didn't have one at home and rarely used one in my previous jobs.  There was a problem with the computer.  I called our new computer tech (CT) over for help. 

CT: Did you reboot?
MK: Reboot?
CT: Turn it off and on again.
MK: Why would turning it off help?
CT: It usually does.
MK: How would that change anything?
CT: Try rebooting first.  Then call me if that doesn't help.
MK: I don't understand: How can turning it off fix the problem?
CT: Just try it.

OK, her brain probably hurt, too.  I don't think she had an answer as to how rebooting fixes problems, only that it usually works.

[VorFemme]

I have been working with computers since....1993 or so...granted, I didn't get into fixing them myself, upgrading them, and the like until the last couple of years (it's fun for me - I have been told by family members that it is NOT fun for most people....just like working crossword puzzles isn't fun for everyone). 

I have had the "tech support" person on the phone (or chat room) tell me to reboot the computer while I have repeatedly told them that I have tried that and NOTHING happens (the HP laptop needed new motherboard under warranty and the eMachine desktop needed new power supply & hard drive under warranty - possibly an optical drive, too - I no longer have the repair slip). 

I have also been told how to clear the RAM to make sure that a previous glitch is not influencing the current attempt to reboot (remove all power sources - batteries, power cords, backup power supplies, etc. - then press & hold the power button for a few seconds - reconnect the power cord and try rebooting).  Sometimes THAT works where just clicking the restart button on the operating system screen or the physical switch on the computer doesn't.......

But sometimes you start to wonder about "tech support" that is so focused on keeping to their script that they can't understand "nothing happens when I do that" or "I tried that several times already and rebooting doesn't help/work".

Trying to get bumped up to the next level of tech support seems to require reading off a message from your screen that is *recognized* as something in the script as "send them to the next level if they say that they are getting THIS MESSAGE - otherwise, keep telling them to reboot until a message comes up on the screen".  Or possibly you get a black screen with a blinking white cursor, indicating hard drive failure........while it is under warranty......

I really strongly dislike having to call in for warranty repairs - because I know that if I don't do it - it will not get done and we will be out the funds to get it fixed or replaced once the warranty expires (laptop with overpowered graphics card burned out one monitor, I replaced it, it started to burn white vertical lines in the second monitor - so we hooked it up to an external monitor and used it as if it were a desktop - since it was out of warranty by the time I found out about the white lines in the original monitor - which were covering the middle 1/4 or more of the screen by then).

Sometimes - you just have to keep insisting that you need to talk to someone else until you get someone else on the line - then don't get off the phone with them until the situation is resolved (the second tier sent me a file over the internet to a second computer that I burned to a CD and then ran through the desktop - when it still didn't respond, it got set up for warranty repair while he was still on the phone....even though it took twenty minutes and probably KILLED his statistics for the day).

[Seven Ate Nine]

That reminds me of when my electronic bathroom scale stopped working.  "Did you try changing the battery?".  GEE NO THAT NEVER OCCURRED TO ME.   

That's like when I have to deal with IT people...and even though I give them a history of the problem and the efforts I have made to rectify it, they'll ask, 'Have you tried rebooting?' or something basic like that, which I have already told them I tried! It's not just that they assume I don't know anything, but that they assume that whatever I have to say is so irrelevant that they don't bother to listen.
Someday I'm going to say, 'I was trouble-shooting my computer back when you were still in diapers. Please listen.'

I work IT for a mid-sized company (so we know our users, we are not Dell tech support or anything).  We were having some problems with one of the servers, and one of the users sent in a ticket (despite the fact that the server problems were widely posted, but that's another story).  Coworker tells user to reboot machine.  User responds with "I already did that!" Coworker asks if she's rebooted within the last two minutes.  She tells him of course not, and that's a stupid question.  Entire IT department does a collective headdesk.  While I'm aware that this does not apply to the above story (nor to VorFemme's story) I just had to share

[snowfire]

I had one a few years ago.  I had just purchased a new DSL modem.  Plugged it in, hooked up laptop to the modem & got it configured.....and nothing happened.  No connection.  I tried the various troubleshooting stuff in the instructions & I knew that I did have working internet service.  I finally called the number for the help desk to get a return authorization since it was brand new.  Two hours later, I still didn't have a return authorization.  The goofball on the other end of the phone couldn't or wouldn't get past his script and kept insisting that if I had the modem go to a certain site and download the upgraded firmware that everything would be just peachy keen.  He couldn't seem to wrap his head around the fact that if I could go to that site, we wouldn't have been on the phone for the past few hours.  The problem was the modem wouldn't do diddly squat.  He also refused to escalate to a supervisor. 

I never got a RA number.  I finally got so mad that I just hung up after telling the guy that he had been absolutely no help.  I went to the store and bought a different brand of modem. 

I don't know if the guy was just clueless and didn't understand what "completely dead" meant, or if he was trained to never give a RA just so you would have to buy a new modem instead of them having to provide one under warranty. 

[Minmom3]

A few years ago, I changed my name from "FlyingPastramiMouse" to "FlyingBaconMouse." Several months ago, I got a voter registration form for "Flying P. Mouse" at my current house, an address where I have never lived under that name.

Clearly some parts of my state's voter database are more awesome than others. 

I think  that there is an Uber Data Base, SOMEWHERE, and it's mangled all to hell.  18 months after moving into our current house, we still get mail for several prior tenants.  Court documents, medical stuff, AT&T - all of it is faithfully returned marked "Moved, Left No Forwarding Address!"  While I don't get the same envelopes back again, I certainly get envelopes from the same senders, over and over again.  At one of our previous addresses, we started getting mail for several people who were not us, who shared a street NUMBER (but lived on a nearby street), a street NAME (but a different number), or a partial NAME (with entirely separate addresses), and it was medical stuff for a Doctor, professional bills, somebody's mortgage payment came to us - and it went on for weeks!  I finally gathered up a week of this ridiculousness and tromped into the the main postoffice and told them I had TRIED to mark it all to be delivered properly, and gotten much of it back a second time, and what on God's Green Earth was it going to take to get the mail properly sorted and delivered?!?!?!?  The counter person was horrified, got a supervisor who was horrified, and it did actually stop that day.  At our last apartment, we got mail for my FIL - who was a) dead, b) never lived in that apartment, c) never lived in that city.

I know the Post Office mostly does a great job, but it sure is frustrating when they flub badly!

[jpcher]

I sent someone a .pdf document via e-mail yesterday while I was at work.

He e-mailed me back and said the document was printing in black & white, not color.

Right away I thought it was his printer settings, but I printed out the document on my end just to make sure there wasn't anything screwy with the document itself. It printed just fine.

I sent him an e-mail saying the document prints in color on this end, and suggested that he check his printer settings.

He e-mailed back saying "Nope. Still printing B/W" and asked that I send him the color print out.

I called him.

Me: I thought you needed the color print for your meeting today?

Him: Yes, I do. The meeting is in a couple of hours, so if you could fed-ex it or something?

Me (laughing): Fed-ex doesn't work that quickly! (He's several states away from me)

Him: Oh. I guess you're right. I wouldn't get it until tomorrow. That won't work.

Me: Maybe check your printer settings, I can walk you through it.

Him (not really listening to me): I know! Fax it to me!

Me (suspiciously): Do you have a color fax machine?*

Him (interrupting me before I could, yet again, suggest the printer settings): Yeah, yeah, yeah. We get color fax's all the time. Gotta go. (hangs up)


So I fax it to him. I look all over our fax machine looking for a color setting, thinking all the while that this is not going to work.

Sure enough he calls me back.

Him: What's wrong with your document!

Me: There's nothing wrong with the document. Let me walk you . . .

Him: Yes there is! The fax came out B/W! I need color!

Me (trying to calm him): I understand your need for color. Let me help you. If you open up the .pdf that I sent you . . . (I walked him through the steps to the little check box that says print color or b/w, but he couldn't find that check box)

Him: I don't have time for this. (Hangs up.)

Me: 



To his credit, he e-mailed me back a few hours later sheepishly apologizing for the trouble that he put me through. He admitted the mistake was his. Apparently the printer he was trying to print to was not a color printer. B/W only. He needed to change the "which printer" option from the B/W printer to the color printer in the printer settings.



*Honest question, because I really don't know of any color fax machines, but with technology lately? I really wasn't sure. Do color fax machines exist?

[greencat]

Yes, you can definitely fax in color, if you know the recipient has a color machine as well.  It takes aeons to fax a color document though - and really, the technology came through a little late, as basically the fax machines that can do it are usually all-in-one machines that can scan to a computer so you can send an e-mail much, much faster.

[Jocelyn]

That reminds me of when my electronic bathroom scale stopped working.  "Did you try changing the battery?".  GEE NO THAT NEVER OCCURRED TO ME.   

That's like when I have to deal with IT people...and even though I give them a history of the problem and the efforts I have made to rectify it, they'll ask, 'Have you tried rebooting?' or something basic like that, which I have already told them I tried! It's not just that they assume I don't know anything, but that they assume that whatever I have to say is so irrelevant that they don't bother to listen.
Someday I'm going to say, 'I was trouble-shooting my computer back when you were still in diapers. Please listen.'

I work IT for a mid-sized company (so we know our users, we are not Dell tech support or anything).  We were having some problems with one of the servers, and one of the users sent in a ticket (despite the fact that the server problems were widely posted, but that's another story).  Coworker tells user to reboot machine.  User responds with "I already did that!" Coworker asks if she's rebooted within the last two minutes.  She tells him of course not, and that's a stupid question.  Entire IT department does a collective headdesk.  While I'm aware that this does not apply to the above story (nor to VorFemme's story) I just had to share

If IT said, 'Have you rebooted in the past 2 minutes?' that would be a horse of a different color.
I used to work for a company that had its own IT department. The director learned fairly quickly who knew anything about computers, so he'd tailor his advice to the user. It was SO nice to get asked things like 'when you rebooted, what happened?'
My last IT call (at work to our own IT people), the person seemed stunned that I knew what a DOS prompt looked like. 

[Jocelyn]

A few years ago, I changed my name from "FlyingPastramiMouse" to "FlyingBaconMouse." Several months ago, I got a voter registration form for "Flying P. Mouse" at my current house, an address where I have never lived under that name.

Clearly some parts of my state's voter database are more awesome than others. 

I think  that there is an Uber Data Base, SOMEWHERE, and it's mangled all to hell.  18 months after moving into our current house, we still get mail for several prior tenants.  Court documents, medical stuff, AT&T - all of it is faithfully returned marked "Moved, Left No Forwarding Address!" 

Had this happen to me- I started returning the envelopes, after writing on the back of them something along the lines of 'This is the third time I've returned mail to your office- please stop sending mail for Mr. Jones to my address!' Finally, someone seemed to get the idea that sending their bills to Mr. Jones at my address wasn't going to get them paid.

[HorseFreak]

Speaking of mail issues...

I belong to a national organization and as such get membership mailings and a magazine from them. I gave them my address correctly when I moved a year ago, but somewhere along the line they decided to change it. It does have a weird format similar to:

1234 Very Long Road Apt 11-93 or the also acceptable 1234 Very Long Road Building 11 Apt 93

This organization has decided I live at either:

1234 Very Long Road Building 11 or 1234 Very Long Road Apt 1193

This has upset my mail carrier to no end. I haven't a clue why they changed it, but this is the second time in six months I've had to call! It's like they just decided they don't like my address and thus they'll give me a new one.

[LB]

Ooh, I thought of a couple from my DH.

First, we were going through some storage boxes hoping to find some things we could get rid of. DH came across a small box of some framed pictures. He pulled out a picture of me. In a long white dress. Wearing a veil. Holding a bouquet of flowers. His comment?

"This is pretty. What's it from?"
I stood there staring at him, for what must have been a full minute. I was sure he was joking. Nope.
"Um. That's me in my wedding dress. The one I was wearing when we got married, you know?"

Turns out he was confused because it was a bridal portrait done a couple of weeks before our actual wedding. So, he hadn't seen me pose for it while we were doing pictures after the wedding. And the plain black background also confused him, because we didn't have it in our wedding day pictures.

But his phrasing "What's it from?" really threw me off.

Then one day, I was singing a song to DS that we had heard and that made him laugh. I was trying to distract him while cutting his nails.

Me (singing): One, two, buckle my stinky shoe!"
DH: What's a stinky shoe?
Me:...It's a shoe that's stinky?
 

[Mental Magpie]

Ooh, I thought of a couple from my DH.

First, we were going through some storage boxes hoping to find some things we could get rid of. DH came across a small box of some framed pictures. He pulled out a picture of me. In a long white dress. Wearing a veil. Holding a bouquet of flowers. His comment?

"This is pretty. What's it from?"
I stood there staring at him, for what must have been a full minute. I was sure he was joking. Nope.
"Um. That's me in my wedding dress. The one I was wearing when we got married, you know?"

Turns out he was confused because it was a bridal portrait done a couple of weeks before our actual wedding. So, he hadn't seen me pose for it while we were doing pictures after the wedding. And the plain black background also confused him, because we didn't have it in our wedding day pictures.

But his phrasing "What's it from?" really threw me off.

Then one day, I was singing a song to DS that we had heard and that made him laugh. I was trying to distract him while cutting his nails.

Me (singing): One, two, buckle my stinky shoe!"
DH: What's a stinky shoe?
Me:...It's a shoe that's stinky?
 

Mental Boyfriend bought me a dress last year; I wear it about Onve every two months or so. It is 1 of about 5 I own. I wore it maybe a month ago and he asked me, "When did you get that? I've never seen you wear it before." The deadpan look I gave him must have done the trick because he then said, "I'm supposed to know the answer to that, aren't I?"

[Elfmama]

Oh, lord and lady, husbands and their denseness!

From time to time, DH will ask "Where do we keep ________?" or when we empty the dishwasher "I don't know where the ________ goes." I could understand his confusion when he was on active duty and we moved every 2 or 3 years, but we have lived in the current house since 1989.  After 23 years, how can he NOT know where the bread pans live?

Along a similar line, "Why don't you ever buy _________ anymore?"  Because they haven't made it in 20-25 years, dearest.  Which is exactly the same answer that I gave you the LAST time you asked about _______.

[snowdragon]

Oh, lord and lady, husbands and their denseness!

From time to time, DH will ask "Where do we keep ________?" or when we empty the dishwasher "I don't know where the ________ goes." I could understand his confusion when he was on active duty and we moved every 2 or 3 years, but we have lived in the current house since 1989.  After 23 years, how can he NOT know where the bread pans live?

Along a similar line, "Why don't you ever buy _________ anymore?"  Because they haven't made it in 20-25 years, dearest.  Which is exactly the same answer that I gave you the LAST time you asked about _______.

because he does not see them often enough.  That is the answer I gave my mother when she asked how I did not know where something went - we've lived here since 1974

[Slartibartfast]

I can't complain about DH being dense - this time was me    We were talking about the election, and he mentioned that Wisconsin elected the first openly gay senator.  My first reaction was a joking "Wow - did they know she was gay?"

DH had to point out to me that's what "openly" meant