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Admin
WOOT FIST!!!!
Admin
The first one you can almost give to the poor old woman who likely had no idea how the discs worked.
But seriously, WTF at a "wireless" DOCKING station.
Admin
"Consider yourself fortunate if you've never had experiences like these."
Were I to ever work tech support, I would PRAY for a day full of seemingly agreeable callers with trivial issues.
Admin
This comment is at home, but it should reach you because I have wireless internet there!
Admin
Well, DUH they shouldn't tell people it's wireless and can "work anywhere" if you it doesn't work when you leave it at home.
Admin
I usually don't play the "that's not a real wtf"-game, But I just have to disagree with the classification of this batch as worse than failure. WTF is a total failure by someone who should have known better That was in the 80's? Lots of people in the 80's though computers had a lot of flashing lights and could talk. I know of a case where a man thought a computer reads the text on the disk label.
The real WTF is this article.
Admin
My laptop is wireless. It worked for about 4 hours and then just stopped. Won't even turned on. I bought a new one and it did the same thing.
Admin
I hope Ed actually tried the disk before giving the old lady the bad news. I would think that there would be a small area in each corner of a floppy disk that one could safely put a staple through without causing serious damage, assuming the staple were removed before anyone tried to use the disk again. Most people staple things in the upper left corner anyway, so a staple through a floppy shouldn't automatically be a death sentence.
Admin
I had something similar to the last one.
At my last job, one morning about 11am I get a call from a guy who recently got a new laptop.
"My laptop has crashed. It's been fine all morning, but now it won't switch on. I've tried everything. I need my old one back ASAP."
I duly investigated and discovered that our man - who didn't trust docking stations - had neglected to plug his AC in and of course the battery had discharged.
Naturally, I was very sympathetic.
Admin
It doesn't matter of the disk was broken or not because of the staple: it was broken already and he was going to replace it ... The staple isn't the wtf: the padded bag is.
Admin
I used to think that Comic Book Guy was just a lame and unfair stereotype, but reading the comments on this site and other tech sites, it's eerie just how true-to-life the character seems.
Admin
Ahahaha... yes, you're right, too many Comic Book Guys around on the Internet, specially here... now, where's my abigo?
Admin
Admin
Yep. :) Oh well, you just explain with a friendly face what's going on and that's that.
The wireless thing kind of reminds me of one client who came in saying that his Internet wasn't working at home. Says that his son set up wireless for him and now it won't work. I then asked who he gets his Internet with, the answer being that he didn't know. Then I asked if he paid any bills for it, and the answer was, "no, wireless is free." Sure enough, his son setting up wireless meant connecting him to his neighbour's network. I then explained that his neighbours now have security and that he had been stealing their signal all this time. I told him that he'd need to get his own service or permission from his neighbour to use their signal since he needed a wireless key. He then proceeded to ask me what the key was. At this point I gave him the contact info for our local ISPs and he went on his way.
Admin
There is a reason I don't do tech support. I don't like people. Really though I just get frustrated when I can't communicate to them what I want. Sure it's their fault for not spending year accumulating the computer knowledge I have. I'm Just saying Grandma, learn something about computers before calling me!!
Admin
I was working at the helpdesk at my university back in 2000. My favorite call was the time I got a call from a professor because he wanted to "get rid of the black lines around his screen." It took me 5 minutes to get him to press the buttons on the bottom of his monitor instead of trying to click on something.
Admin
Worst... comment... ever.
Admin
Admin
Without hesitation, Susan insisted, "But I'm clueless!"
Admin
I think this section should be renamed 'Susan, where is your laptop?'
Admin
I have a brother-in-law who's a doctor, which is great for quick calls, but if he says "Stop bothering me, take your kid in to your PCP" I'm not going to be offended.
Admin
Were I to ever work tech support, I would PRAY for an early death.
Admin
wireless huh?... yep!
Admin
I worked on a help desk for a major bank over a decade ago. Two calls stand out:
The first was from a security guard who had inherited a XT PC from a customer service rep who had moved on. He kept on calling and yelling at us that the PC didn't work, and would rattle off an obscure brand name if we tried to get any information from him. Finally, I got him to press the On button on the CPU after he pressed the On button on the monitor. His next words were, "Well, I'll be . . ."
The next call that I remember is from a lady who was very cooperative and easy to work with. At one point, though, she said, "Oh, no, my screen's gone blank, and all I can see on it is a cursing flasher!"
Admin
I think I already heard all these stories from so different people they might not be true.
Admin
I think the stapling one might actually be a good policy when sending in defective media. If the disk was already bad, there's the perfect way to make sure they actually send you a new one back.
Admin
exec: can you fix my computer? it's completely broken. tech guy: sure! where is it? exec: don't change the subject! just fix it!!
Admin
I still wonder if I'll ever get a call as bad as the lady who needed to be spoon-fed the concept and process of cut-copy-paste. And this is the same person who had supposedly been using a computer for ten years...for university administration purposes.
Admin
As I'm sure most if not all of the readers on here have used 5.25" floppies, all should know that there's plenty of room for a staple in each corner which would not affect the actual media. You'd have to remove the staple before inserting it. I know I saw at least one disk with that done in the early 80s
Admin
We had users whose pc's worked first thing in the morning, but got flakier as the day went on, and died by lunch. Turning them off, went to lunch, turn them back on, they worked again.
Turns out they were standing the pc's on their side to have more desk space and in effect covered the air vents.
...thought I would share...
Admin
HAHA!
ITS WIRELESS!!!!!
Priceless
Admin
i dunno, in my opinion the one with the discs is a bigger wtf because whatever you may think about them you should realize that stapling them could destroy them. on the other hand the wireless thing is somewhat excusable because some devices work at large distances and non-IT people might get confused. if there was no keyboard and mouse at the docking station then it is a big wtf.
Admin
Here, how about an anecdotal email from a non-technical person upstairs from yesterday. I never dealt with the issue in the first place. The assumptions I had to make given this is mind boggling. (Besides, there was no first step, so how could there be a next step. Notice the FW.):
From: Mr. Baldy To: me Subject: FW: Poore/Dunnett
Dunnett Packaging (problems without feed belts slowing to half speed. Still having the same problem. Looking for the next step.
Mr. Baldy
Fancy Signature Prints To An Entire Page Please Think of the Trees
[Cue Useless 'Intended Recipient' Legalese Disclaimer in Bright Red because the bottom looks naked without it]
Admin
I remember working once with a lady who told me her password wasn't working. I went to her office, watched her type it in, checked for caps-lock, etc. but sure enough, she couldn't get in. I was just just dialing the phone to talk to our domain administrator when she said "But look! If I type the word 'password' in, it lets me in!"
It took me several more minutes to convince her that her password WAS the word password.....
Admin
I actually liked working at the tech support. I was on the second line though, and people tended to trust me instead of insulting. That wireless laptop is actually a tech support curse. I remember one lady who went mad on one of my colleagues who couldn't help her use the new printer that she just got and asked for a supervisor. "Is it on?" - I started for fun. "Of course it is!" - she replied instantly. We could move on to harder questions. "Do you see the blinkenlights?" - I continued calmly. "They're not blinking, but they're lit alright" - I was surprised by the precision of the reply. It was time to actually do some action. "Can you please remove the cable between the computer and the printer and plug it back in again?" - I proposed in order to hear the "tee-doo" - "too-dee" sound sequence. "What cable?" - she asked. "Ma'am, you should have two cables hanging from the back of your printer. One goes to the wall, and the other to the computer." "There's no cable that goes to the computer" - she replied proudly. "I have a wireless laptop now".
Admin
heh sorta related, client was furious after discovering that he was unable to connect to the wireless we had installed in his officer from his home, over 5 miles away.
Admin
On the systems I administer I have frequently, after a dumb if-only-they'd-paid-attention-in-the-training question, wished I could not only remove their account, but also delete all data they've ever entered with a "MWUAHAHAH! You're too stoopid to use the system! DELETED!"
But alas. Not so kosher for a change control system :(
Admin
Agree with the poster who "prays for callers with trivial issues". I run a tech support group for an enterprise level platform with 3rd-party users. One of our primary tasks is to work with these often non-technical folks on properly crafting XML submission feeds.
I would take a laptop-missing-from-dock ticket any day...
Admin
The last one is a typical case of women and computers.
Admin
Admin
Seems to me like the wtf is making a frequent customer bother to mail in a broken disk, when all you're going to do is throw it away and mail back a new one. Why not just show some good customer service and send out a replacement, saving both of you some time and effort?
Admin
Had a woman who bought a laptop only to return a few hours later because it had turned off and wouldn't turn back on.
"Do you have the power adapter with you?"
She looks at me like I have nine heads and after a second replies "It's Wireless"
Took several minutes to explain the concept of batteries and chargers, and even then she regarded the whole concept with suspicion.
Admin
Wow, nice report of a what, about 10 year old, email?
Admin
It's a pretty large area on a 5 1/4 inch disk, as you'll see if you inscribe a circle in a square 5 1/4 inches on a side. 1 1/2 square inches of free space, more or less, in each corner. (Note the sleeve is slightly larger than the disk itself; if they were the same size, there'd be about 1.48 square inches.)
I've seen 5 1/4 disks survive all sorts of abuse. Computer magazines sometimes shipped disks with sample software bound in. You'd tear them free from the binding, run the edges over a table edge to crease them straight, and pop it in the drive. I don't recall ever seeing one failing.
On the other hand, the only specific software I remember from a disk of this sort was a "preview" of the first version of Micrsoft Word for DOS, which certainly constitutes a failure in itself.
Admin
If he was going to replace the disk anyway, the staple's no big deal. As a bonus it should prevent him from accidentally sending it to someone elese.
Admin
That's so 90s. The printer I just bought has Irda, Bluetooth, Wired Lan and USB. No rs232 or centronics though.
Admin
I just want to know when this madness will end? Perhaps when the Boomers finally retire?
Just today, in 2008, I dealt with a lame issue where the user entered N/A in a free form text field instead of just leaving it blank as the system expected. Mind you, this is a custom field added to a fancy-pants $$$, modern ERP system. I think the problem is with so many tech managers or PMs coming from a COBOL background where free form is all they understand.
Admin
In a very early version of our company's website, which provided secure access to about 50 applications, the designers had provided a link on each page which emailed the webmaster, to be used for reporting problems. All the guys on the webdev team received a copy of webmaster emails, which is how I came to see this one. The message, in its entirety, said:
app is not working
Admin
Your clock is wrong. Either you think it's 4/1 and this was a joke, or you think it's the 50's.
Admin
I used to work for a multi-branch library system. One particular 'problem' librarian called in from a remote branch. Thankfully my boss took the call. He spent 20 minutes on the phone trying to diagnose a mouse that wasn't working. Of course it started with the "the computer's broken". It took five minutes just to find out that what didn't work was that the mouse pointer didn't move. He finally gave up and drove out to the branch.
He walked in, and the librarian pointed him to the problem machine. He picked up the mouse, and it was wrapped in packing tape. He turned it over. The tape was wrapped over the bottom of the mouse, covering the mouse ball. He stared at it dumbfounded. The librarian spoke up: "Do you think the tape could be the problem? I put that there to keep the kids from stealing the ball out of the mouse."
The librarian hadn't thought to mention the tape during the phone conversation. And for some reason my boss hadn't bothered to ask if she'd happened to wrap tape around the mouse.
Another time a co-worker wanted to make sure the computer was actually plugged in. "Is the power cable plugged in?" "Which one is the power cable?" "The one going into the wall!" "There are two going in to the wall, a big black one and a little blue one, which one do you mean?"