Dear Users... (A thread for Sysadmin, Technical Support, and Help Desk people)

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arthwollipot said:
Tell that to the person who is convinced that every computer problem is the fault of Russian hackers.

It used to be viruses. I still get the occasional call from someone who says "I can't get into Outlook. Have I got a virus?"

* arthwollipot;12511537 goes into Task Manager, ends the stray process, restarts Outlook.

"No, you don't have a virus. First, viruses don't do this. Second, we're protected against them by multiple layers of security. This was just a crash."
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The classic is the "I've got a virus, there are squiggly red lines under my wordz...."
 
Norman Alexander said:
Seems all these apps/programs have one thing in common... ;)
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Yeah, they run on Windows.

Honestly, we have some 8000 users across something like 14 government agencies. I am one of twelve to fifteen agents (depending on the day), and I get a call like this maybe once a day at most. On average, that's not too bad.

Sucks when it happens to you, though.
 
Me: Do the thing, and it will produce this result.

Them: But what if it doesn't?

Me: It will.

Them: But what if it doesn't?

Me: IT WILL.

Them: ...

Me: ...

Them: But what if it doesn't?
 
arthwollipot said:
Me: Do the thing, and it will produce this result.

Them: But what if it doesn't?

Me: It will.

Them: But what if it doesn't?

Me: IT WILL.

Them: ...

Me: ...

Them: But what if it doesn't?
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This strikes me as a bit weird.

Your customer is asking a perfectly legitimate question IMO and you're just refusing to answer it. Have you never been wrong?

To me that just does not look like the behaviour of a competent helpdesk operator. I think I would get angry if you did that to me.
 
TheGnome said:
This strikes me as a bit weird.

Your customer is asking a perfectly legitimate question IMO and you're just refusing to answer it. Have you never been wrong?

To me that just does not look like the behaviour of a competent helpdesk operator. I think I would get angry if you did that to me.
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I agree, at my organization it gets you retraining on the proper way to do customer service. An example response we would give in training is, "It has always worked before but if it does not work this time we will work out something else to try".
 
arthwollipot said:
Me: Do the thing, and it will produce this result.

Them: But what if it doesn't?

Me: It will.

Them: But what if it doesn't?

Me: IT WILL.

Them: ...

Me: ...

Them: But what if it doesn't?
Click to expand...

TheGnome said:
This strikes me as a bit weird.

Your customer is asking a perfectly legitimate question IMO and you're just refusing to answer it. Have you never been wrong?

To me that just does not look like the behaviour of a competent helpdesk operator. I think I would get angry if you did that to me.
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paulhutch said:
I agree, at my organization it gets you retraining on the proper way to do customer service. An example response we would give in training is, "It has always worked before but if it does not work this time we will work out something else to try".
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If I'm the customer, I think I would try what the helpdesk person recommended and see if it works, rather than worry about, "What if it doesn't work?". Unless of course, I had good reason to believe that the recommended action would be harmful. Once I do it, it either works or it doesn't, and I don't need to worry about "what ifs".
 
I hope Arthwollipot is exaggerating for effect, the standard answer is 'then we can see what can be done to fix it".

However I do know the feeling as a help desk person, part of the experience is in helping people cope with an anxious situation, even if the anxiety is unwarranted. I have in remote sessions spent 15 minutes watching some one demonstrate to their satisfaction that the issue is resolved. Even after the evidence of the first minute would indicate that the issue is resolved, they have wanted me to stay on the line while they repeat steps that continue to confirm that the issue was resolved.
 
The problem is people are just... well scared of computers in a way they aren't of cars or their washing machines or whatnot.

Imagine being a mechanic and have a car owner nervously stand over you asking over and over if you're sure, I mean 100% sure that changing your radio presets won't make the gas tank explode and you're in the ballpark.

"I demand you fix this problem I'm having without touching or doing anything because I'm afraid if this one Window is closed it will never come back ever" is a thing we have to deal with.
 
CORed said:
If I'm the customer, I think I would try what the helpdesk person recommended and see if it works, rather than worry about, "What if it doesn't work?". Unless of course, I had good reason to believe that the recommended action would be harmful. Once I do it, it either works or it doesn't, and I don't need to worry about "what ifs".
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The thinking I'm assuming is that they've probably had to wait for this suggestion, and if they try this action and it doesn't work, they're back at the end of the queue again; they want to know how to deal with any failure of the action plan immediately.

I've been in the middle of this situation many times; an action plan from the lab team which assumes the fix will work, while the customer (or often a field engineer) has experience that suggests it may well not, and they don't want to wait the couple of days or more to know what to do next. Often we're talking about a remote site with significant travel time, so any delay is a real pain.

This probably doesn't fit what arthwollipot is talking about, but it is a real concern in some cases.
 
Dancing David said:
I hope Arthwollipot is exaggerating for effect, the standard answer is 'then we can see what can be done to fix it".
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Yes, I was, but the thing I was referring to was receiving an autoreply when sending email to the Service Desk. It's a purely mechanical response that happens automatically. It just doesn't not work. If you don't get an autoreply, you've sent your email to the wrong address.
 
Here's one that annoys me. We receive an email - which is already not a good idea for urgent jobs - saying that they have a particular problem. I have a fix, which they can perform themself, and I also know that I (or another agent) will need to remote access the workstation if it doesn't work. So I send them an email reply saying "Please do [blah], and if you're still having a problem after doing this, phone the service desk on the following number". Almost immediately another email arrives saying "Yes, I've already done that."

So now my question becomes - do I send another email saying "Please phone the service desk on the following number"? I really want to. I really really want to.

But I won't. I'll phone them. Because of course I will.
 
JoeMorgue said:
The problem is people are just... well scared of computers in a way they aren't of cars or their washing machines or whatnot.

Imagine being a mechanic and have a car owner nervously stand over you asking over and over if you're sure, I mean 100% sure that changing your radio presets won't make the gas tank explode and you're in the ballpark.

"I demand you fix this problem I'm having without touching or doing anything because I'm afraid if this one Window is closed it will never come back ever" is a thing we have to deal with.
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I suspect that a lot of people aren't scared of computers, really. They just *think* they are.

And we now have a generation of grown-ass people who have had computers for more of their lives than not, who still profess an absurd degree of computer incompetence.
 
theprestige said:
I suspect that a lot of people aren't scared of computers, really. They just *think* they are.

And we now have a generation of grown-ass people who have had computers for more of their lives than not, who still profess an absurd degree of computer incompetence.
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I think you're correct. We've let the "Oh I'm just not a computer person" become a sort of self sustaining meme / self fulfilling prophecy.
 
arthwollipot said:
So now my question becomes - do I send another email saying "Please phone the service desk on the following number"? I really want to. I really really want to.

But I won't. I'll phone them. Because of course I will.
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No, you reply to their email by asking "Did [blah] work?




EDIT: If they say it did work, you then use the Darat manoeuvre:

Question answered, thread closed.​
 
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xterra said:
No, you reply to their email by asking "Did [blah] work?




EDIT: If they say it did work, you then use the Darat manoeuvre:

Question answered, thread closed.​
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Yes, I often use that manoeuvre.

I called. They weren't there, so I left a message. I assume they called back and someone helped them because the job isn't in the Pending queue.
 
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