Nu-hu! I'm sure I remember my password. Your system must have changed it!
Seriously the number of times I get accused of "changing" or having a system that just randomly changes passwords in an average week is a bit high.
Dear Users... (A thread for Sysadmin, Technical Support, and Help Desk people)
- Thread starter JoeMorgue
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Nu-hu! I'm sure I remember my password. Your system must have changed it!
Seriously the number of times I get accused of "changing" or having a system that just randomly changes passwords in an average week is a bit high.
On the other hand, the IT folk at my last-but-one employer would routinely ask for our NT passwords if they needed access to our laptops for some reason, despite this being explicitly against the IT guidelines (not to mention common sense). I would always refuse, but I suspect most people gave theirs.
I'm the exact opposite. I have to all but literally fight off users trying to give me their password because, as started this whole thread, most of my trouble calls aren't about anything being broken but the users not knowing how to accomplish a specific task and putting it on me.
75% of my trouble calls are users wanting me to do something for them, not fix an issue. And that means they have to give me their password since doing their job for them means doing it under their account.
75% of my trouble calls are users wanting me to do something for them, not fix an issue. And that means they have to give me their password since doing their job for them means doing it under their account.
alfaniner
Penultimate Amazing
My sister sent me a text saying she had set a bag down on one of the TV remotes and now there's only sound but no picture.
Previous experience told me to wait a couple hours before replying.
Previous experience told me to wait a couple hours before replying.
arthwollipot
Limerick Purist Pronouns: He/Him
I had someone once put their handbag down on the power cable.
arthwollipot
Limerick Purist Pronouns: He/Him
Do you separate Service Requests from Break Fixes? There could be some statistical reporting you could do.
arthwollipot
Limerick Purist Pronouns: He/Him
Here's a good one. Client sent us an email asking a particular question. We responded, saying that they will need to contact a different area for assistance, and closed the ticket. Then client forwarded another copy of the same email to us, advising us that she had logged the first ticket.
Actually come to think of it, it might not have been in that order. It might have been that she logged the first ticket, our automatic reply gave her the job number, then she forwarded us the second copy (of course generating a second ticket) giving us the job number, then we responded to and closed the first ticket, then I linked the second ticket to the first and closed it. But why would she forward us a second copy of the email? It was not a reply to our automated reply, she actually went to her sent items and re-forwarded the original email. I don't understand why someone would do that.
Ah well, never mind. It wasn't our jurisdiction in the first place. It was just unnecessary extra work.
Actually come to think of it, it might not have been in that order. It might have been that she logged the first ticket, our automatic reply gave her the job number, then she forwarded us the second copy (of course generating a second ticket) giving us the job number, then we responded to and closed the first ticket, then I linked the second ticket to the first and closed it. But why would she forward us a second copy of the email? It was not a reply to our automated reply, she actually went to her sent items and re-forwarded the original email. I don't understand why someone would do that.
Ah well, never mind. It wasn't our jurisdiction in the first place. It was just unnecessary extra work.
Norman Alexander
Penultimate Amazing
Did you send her an email telling her you had closed the ticket? We sometimes get people responding to that with Reply All saying "Thank you.". But that triggers a "DO NOT REPLY" to the user from the call-logging system...which they duly send to us as a new job ticket asking why they got that email. And so it goes...
arthwollipot
Limerick Purist Pronouns: He/Him
Yes, our system automatically emails them when a ticket is closed, unless we select the "stop notification" checkbox when we close the ticket. If they reply to that, it re-opens the original ticket and we have to close it again, selecting the checkbox, with the comment "NFAR" (no further action required).
arthwollipot
Limerick Purist Pronouns: He/Him
Actually it's a bit more complicated than that. We don't close tickets. We "resolve" them. That sends the email, and for the next three days it can be reactivated. After three days it is automatically moved to "closed" and we can no longer reactivate it. If they reply after that time it creates a new ticket.
Theoretically yes but we have (essentially) a single client and everything is handled under the same SLA so... functionally no. And with our customer base making no distinction between "My computer is broken" and "I don't know how to (or even just don't want) use it" it's even more meaningless.
Wudang
BOFH
This ITIL wiki isn't bad.
https://wiki.en.it-processmaps.com/index.php/Service_Desk_and_Incident_Management
I failed one paper on the ITIL v2 Service Manager exam (by 1 lousy point) as it was handwritten and with my damaged thumbs I ended up in too much pain to write
https://wiki.en.it-processmaps.com/index.php/Service_Desk_and_Incident_Management
I failed one paper on the ITIL v2 Service Manager exam (by 1 lousy point) as it was handwritten and with my damaged thumbs I ended up in too much pain to write
Throughout this thread I've used the driver/mechanic metaphor.
Imagine you have a person who drives to work everyday and that's all they know when it comes to cars. They only know the absolute, bare minimum steps that will allow to drive to work under perfect conditions with nothing wrong.
They know to put the put the key in the ignition, turn it and the car starts. They know to move the gear lever to "R" and the car changes to moving backwards. They then know to back out of their driveway. They then know to move the gear lever back to "D." They then know to drive 3.9 miles on Mainstreet and then turn the steering wheel left and that then the car turns left on Highway 1. They know to drive 10 miles on Highway 1 and to turn the wheel right and they then take the off ramp to Work Blvd and to then drive 1.2 miles on Work Blvd and then to turn the wheel left and the car will turn into a parking space in front of work. They then know to move the gear lever to "P" and turn the ignition the other way and then the car will turn off.
Now I worded that very specifically because noticed I didn't phrase it as "Turn the ignition to make the car turn on" or "Turn the wheel to make the car turn." This is not a person who has been taught to "drive" in any real sense of the term but to perform a series of route, one after another, "check in the box" tasking after the next to complete one specific series of events with zero concept of why anything is happening or what step actually causes another.
Now imagine if any change is made to that exact routine, they shut down and become completely unable to function. If one night their son borrows the car and when it returns it he backs it into the driveway into pulling straight in... that breaks the chain. They will sit in the car paralyzed because they get to the "Put the car in reverse" step but can't move on to the next step because the house is behind them and not the road and that don't have any conceptual framework of "Putting the car in reverse when you need it to go backwards" they just know their memorized checklist and "Put car in reverse before leaving the driveway" is on it.
One of the stop signs on Main Street gets replaced with a traffic signal? Complete shut down. Detour on the road so they have to go to the next exit down to get on the highway? Complete shut down.
And that's simple stuff. Borrowing another person's car where the layout of the knobs and switches isn't 100% identical to yours? Complete shutdown hell that's a full on existential "Scream into the void" crisis. Car manufacturer updated a certain feature so it looks different but operates exactly the same? Complete shutdown. Someone borrowed the car and adjusted the seats and mirrors? Complete shutdown.
And their response to everything is the same. Complete shutdown and call an all in one mechanic/driver out to drive you to work.
This is not a person anyone would claim with intellectual honest was a "good driver" or "had excellent car skills" or should take a job that requires them to drive a car all day without further training.
But that's the level of about.... 80% of my customer base, literally. They were never taught to "use" a computer or what any of the programs they work on actually does in any real sense of the term. They got the job, they sat down with someone (who also didn't know anything about what they were doing beyond "Do this, then do this, then do this") for a week or so and watched them go "Okay you press this button, then this button, this this menu will pop up, so you select this option, then press this button, the this screen will pop up, so you select this button, then this menu option, and then finally this button." and that's the entire limit and scope of what they know how to do.
And whenever that doesn't happen in the exact same order in the exact same way and produce the exact same results... like I said they shut down. I've had users shut down, I mean just literally sit at their desk and play on their phones for hours waiting for one of the "Computer guys" to show up because a menu option they never used changed.
Combine this with the passive aggressive "Oh I'm just not a computer person" excuse, the idea that it's perfectly valid for a person to get a job that is literally 100% done on a computer and know nothing about them, and the idea that IT Support pointing any of this out makes us "rude" or "unprofessional" and it doesn't always make for the most rewarding career.
Imagine you have a person who drives to work everyday and that's all they know when it comes to cars. They only know the absolute, bare minimum steps that will allow to drive to work under perfect conditions with nothing wrong.
They know to put the put the key in the ignition, turn it and the car starts. They know to move the gear lever to "R" and the car changes to moving backwards. They then know to back out of their driveway. They then know to move the gear lever back to "D." They then know to drive 3.9 miles on Mainstreet and then turn the steering wheel left and that then the car turns left on Highway 1. They know to drive 10 miles on Highway 1 and to turn the wheel right and they then take the off ramp to Work Blvd and to then drive 1.2 miles on Work Blvd and then to turn the wheel left and the car will turn into a parking space in front of work. They then know to move the gear lever to "P" and turn the ignition the other way and then the car will turn off.
Now I worded that very specifically because noticed I didn't phrase it as "Turn the ignition to make the car turn on" or "Turn the wheel to make the car turn." This is not a person who has been taught to "drive" in any real sense of the term but to perform a series of route, one after another, "check in the box" tasking after the next to complete one specific series of events with zero concept of why anything is happening or what step actually causes another.
Now imagine if any change is made to that exact routine, they shut down and become completely unable to function. If one night their son borrows the car and when it returns it he backs it into the driveway into pulling straight in... that breaks the chain. They will sit in the car paralyzed because they get to the "Put the car in reverse" step but can't move on to the next step because the house is behind them and not the road and that don't have any conceptual framework of "Putting the car in reverse when you need it to go backwards" they just know their memorized checklist and "Put car in reverse before leaving the driveway" is on it.
One of the stop signs on Main Street gets replaced with a traffic signal? Complete shut down. Detour on the road so they have to go to the next exit down to get on the highway? Complete shut down.
And that's simple stuff. Borrowing another person's car where the layout of the knobs and switches isn't 100% identical to yours? Complete shutdown hell that's a full on existential "Scream into the void" crisis. Car manufacturer updated a certain feature so it looks different but operates exactly the same? Complete shutdown. Someone borrowed the car and adjusted the seats and mirrors? Complete shutdown.
And their response to everything is the same. Complete shutdown and call an all in one mechanic/driver out to drive you to work.
This is not a person anyone would claim with intellectual honest was a "good driver" or "had excellent car skills" or should take a job that requires them to drive a car all day without further training.
But that's the level of about.... 80% of my customer base, literally. They were never taught to "use" a computer or what any of the programs they work on actually does in any real sense of the term. They got the job, they sat down with someone (who also didn't know anything about what they were doing beyond "Do this, then do this, then do this") for a week or so and watched them go "Okay you press this button, then this button, this this menu will pop up, so you select this option, then press this button, the this screen will pop up, so you select this button, then this menu option, and then finally this button." and that's the entire limit and scope of what they know how to do.
And whenever that doesn't happen in the exact same order in the exact same way and produce the exact same results... like I said they shut down. I've had users shut down, I mean just literally sit at their desk and play on their phones for hours waiting for one of the "Computer guys" to show up because a menu option they never used changed.
Combine this with the passive aggressive "Oh I'm just not a computer person" excuse, the idea that it's perfectly valid for a person to get a job that is literally 100% done on a computer and know nothing about them, and the idea that IT Support pointing any of this out makes us "rude" or "unprofessional" and it doesn't always make for the most rewarding career.
Dancing David
Penultimate Amazing
Dear Email administrator:
How can you say I read and open an email when I didn't?
(This goes down so many rabbit holes)
-iPhones and other devices doing wonky things
-Gmail 'Conversation' view mucking up the filed
-filters wrenching emails to other places
How can you say I read and open an email when I didn't?
(This goes down so many rabbit holes)
-iPhones and other devices doing wonky things
-Gmail 'Conversation' view mucking up the filed
-filters wrenching emails to other places
Preview pane. Preview pane + "Read Receipt" is one of the banes of my existence.
I can tell you, within a more than reasonable margin of error, if someone had an e-mail open. I have no possible way of telling you if they read it, comprehended it, or are going to respond to it.
P.J. Denyer
Penultimate Amazing
I had an issue a couple of years ago where emails, apparently at random, sent to me would vanish into the aether with no Delivery Failure Notification. It started after my domain host of the time upgraded their servers and seemed to be related to problems with (iirc) my virtual domain hosts not being updated correctly. After missing an unknown amount of mail, orders and losing a customer due to lost mail, and spending enough time arguing with their technical support to establish that they didn't understand the difference between incoming and outgoing mail, I just gave up and changed domain hosts. Much better.
arthwollipot
Limerick Purist Pronouns: He/Him
A weird thing I've noticed that is not anything to do with a caller's IT knowledge. A surprisingly large number of callers appear to be incapable of hanging up the phone properly.
We have a standard VoIP handset across all our clients. As far as I know the process of returning the handpiece to the cradle isn't particularly complicated or difficult, but many people seem to be unable to do it. Every day I'll end a call, I'll hear the caller fumble at the cradle, then go off and have a conversation with someone else that I can still hear because they haven't hung up the phone properly.
We have a standard VoIP handset across all our clients. As far as I know the process of returning the handpiece to the cradle isn't particularly complicated or difficult, but many people seem to be unable to do it. Every day I'll end a call, I'll hear the caller fumble at the cradle, then go off and have a conversation with someone else that I can still hear because they haven't hung up the phone properly.
paulhutch
Master Poster
Speaking with my consumer electronics design engineer hat on. Assuming "large number" means more than 0.5% then almost certainly that is either do to poor design of the phone hang up switch system or faulty hangup switches. I've thrown away or returned for credit many of phones over the last 40 years for those two reasons.
arthwollipot
Limerick Purist Pronouns: He/Him
I suspect the former, rather than the latter. But I've got the same model (Cisco IP Phone 7941 if you are familiar), and though I use a headset, I honestly can't see why there should be an issue. The handpiece sits in the cradle neatly and snugly and doesn't fail to make a firm connection with the hangup switch. I don't understand how so many people can fail.
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