I worked a IT job for a Year and 90% of the calls are "hey my TV wont turn on" so I would say "is it plugged in?" They would always say "No, it says its Wireless" ...........
I worked in IT for a mobile company. People would call us all the time because their internet didn't work. So one of the first questions I usually ask people is whether their 'mobile data' is turned on (cause you know, lots of phones turn it off for updates or people accidentally toggle it off). 91.5% of the people will instantly tell me it is, to which we are told to ask them to turn it off and on again on the spot.. so we can see what sort of connection their phone makes. You will NOT believe how many people don't know where to find their mobile data settings. Like, how can you tell me it's turned on if you don't know where the settings are???? (it's the only reason we ask them to turn it off and on, we can't see any data input, but there's just so many people bullshitting you cause their internet doesn't work so surely it has to be the connection instead of simple settings -.-)
Jarid Gaming Or... Do you know the story that is about a customer that wants a new wifi Cable? And explains, "yeah, you know... Cats can see things that we can't, so I think mine, ruin the wifi Cable, so I need a new one" and he still doesn't get it...
PleunBeijns My scope was, smart TVs, cellphones, computers, tablets, etc... Everything that had to be about Internet. OMG. BUUUT I Iooooove Technology sooooo MUCH 🤤🤤🤤😅😋
2000s... Motorola phones say “Hello Moto” when turned on. Caller called says hers was broken. I asked why she thought so. She said, “It says HELLO MOTO and my name is not MOTO.”
I'm working in IT for almost two years now. Oh, the things I've seen! "My screen isn't showing anything!" The computer was turned off. "My computer is not turning on!" "Is it pluged in?" "Of course! I'm not stupid!" It wasn't. The cable was pluged into the computer but not into an outlet. This one is not mine: This lady calls and says she can't print a document. We've been on the phone for thirty minutes before I asked her if the printer is even pluged in. Her response? "What printer? I don't have a printer." There are a lot more where these came from.
My favorite one at the place I used to work was when some nut poured coffee into the power strip after plugging it into itself and then complain all the computers wouldn't work
@@kuroyukiart I once heard of a poor tech support guy that was being yelled at by a customer because the printed GIFs wouldn't animate. When informed that this was technically not possible, the customer got even more angry and barked "What are you getting paid for? You don't know your job! Of course this is possible! Haven't you seen the newspapers in Harry Potter?"
@@@boombaby1769 After reading about the yelling customer with animated GIFs, and "not knowing how to do your job because they animate in Harry Potter", I, I just. I. ........ My gosh I just.... I don't.... I don't ev...... uh... ah.... what?! _What?_ Why do people think stuff like this is possible!! It's so dang stupid!!!! *Lusers, amirite?*
I worked Amazon customer service. Guys... We can't personally go find your packages if they get lost. The amount of people who have asked me to do that is unreal.
Amazon in my experience has pretty good customer service. Only had to transfer once, but for the life of me I could not figure out what the rep was saying he bad a thick accent from jersey or something. Only other 'problem' i had was this lady's voice was in a tone i had trouble hearing she unfortunately had a natural 'nagging' voice, but was very polite and helpful.
Oh man, I don't envy you. I work tech support for customers of a large cable/internet company annnnnnd.... Ugh. One of the most frustrating calls I had was a man who called because his tv screen was black. It didn't take long for me to figure out that the tv just wasn't even plugged in, so I told him "You're going to need to plug your tv in to the outlet, otherwise, it won't turn on." It took. OVER AN HOUR. For him to understand this. He kept arguing with me that he never had to do that before, and was upset that the new cable box he had "didn't have an outlet for him to plug his tv into" and that "there are already too many cords" Buddy. Listen. Any tech that doesn't have a battery in it and still turns on to do things needs to be plugged in to get it to work. This is the way it's always been. Your tv isn't special, you just need to plug it into the wall like you would ANY other appliance. I was eventually saved by this guy's wife who physically handed him the cord for the tv and told him to plug the damn thing in. An hour later. Told him that he owes his wife a very nice dinner.
Your bringing back horrible nightmares of just hours of dumb people who you ask to do something, and rather than do it, tell you why they think that wont work. Why the fuck are you calling me if you know what to do and dont do?!? Even if you dont think it will work, just fucking do it anyways so we can get the simple solutions out of the way before we get into the complicated shit. Ugghh
I have a friend who did tech support for routers. They had this older person call in about their unit overheating. She had placed it on the "squiggly shelf". Turns out, the "squiggly shelf" was a radiant heater that they had covered in a blanket. Not only was the router melted beyond repair, but the fire hazard from that thing in the dead of winter was astronomically stupid.
...Squiggly shelf?! I'm sorry, ma'am, are you 5? Also, how do you not know what your heater looks like? And WHY would you put a blanket on it? And WHY would you put your technology on it?! Oh god, I...I just can't with some people... And I too work customer service and often have to do tech support as well, I absolutely have come across such crazy customers.
@@anujavyas3027 Amish people are a group of religious followers who typically live in Pennsylvania but these days can be find in New York State, Ohio, etc. They tend to be quite traditional, not wanting to use any sort of machine, electric device. An example of this is when traveling or going out, (most people in America use cars), they tend to go by horse-drawn carts. So anyway the joke: "Is she Amish" is basically referring to the lack of technological use/knowledge that the woman in the story had :)
RELATABLE AF! That used to be my work life on a daily basis. One time user called and said " My computer is smoking" ... What?! I am not a native English speaker and I was working on an English Help Support Line, so I figured that this was some kind of slang that I didn't understand. Well.. it wasn't. This guy's computer was on fire and he decided that it's better to call IT support that is located in different country, about 2000 km from his office, instead of calling Firefighters. I mean, how to log a ticket from a call like this...?
I'm not in tech support but talking on the phone at my job is the worst thing ever. As soon I hear it ring I give it a long death glare deciding if I should even pick it up.
As a former Geek Squad employee, I share your pain. Although having someone refuse to go away because the help they are asking for is neither free and is almost LITERALLY impossible in the first place. Like, bringing in their computer monitor and asking you to set up their dial-up internet ON THE MONITOR. Which in case you might be wondering, has no RJ45 Ethernet or RJ11 Phone line ports in the first place.
I worked for a community college call center and I completely understand. I had to play IT all the time because our actual IT would hang up on stupid people. I had a guy call about not getting FAFSA money in time, spoke to him about an hour because he didn't know his student ID number and nothing was working. In the end it turns out, not only did he NOT apply for FAFSA, but homeboy didn't even admit to our school. He enrolled at a sister college in the spring and decided the classes at our school were closer to his job- so naturally he could just SHOW UP AT A NEW SCHOOL and everything would be okay because "we should know". It still makes me mad to this day. *Also, tossing shade to all the college kids who don't know how to read analog clocks and used their fingers to read in English 102*
I'm pressing F for your pain but I'm also laughing 😂 I'm a customer service rep as well, been doing it at various jobs for nearly a decade so I know the frustration. Not IT related but one of my worst customers was at my last job. We handled online chat for a coffee company that starts off as a trial for 14 days, then it's a subscription. I already knew this woman was going to be a bitch by the way she started the conversation. Her issue was with signing into the online account and upset, she wanted to just cancel the service. I initially offered to help her sign into the account to show I cared and to not just toss the customer aside, but she didn't want that. Alrightie, fine. I asked her then if she still wanted the coffee as it hadn't shipped yet. To cancel the account, this will cancel the shipment (which hadn't been billed yet, it doesn't bill until it's been shipped). Or, she could wait the three days when she got the $1 bag of coffee and then call and cancel. For some damn reason, she decided this was the worst company policy in the world, I was the worst representative ever, and she wanted to speak to my manager. She bitched about how I was holding her up from going to work and going to make her late, but she kept adding things to the conversation, making it take longer. This chat had slipped in minutes before my quitting time (as they always do), and before things had gotten to these escalated levels, my supervisor had IM'd me goodnight and her status was offline (we were working from home due to the virus). I told her that no supervisor was available. I worked 8PM to 5AM and a new sup wouldn't be in for an hour. I offered a callback for her and after finally getting her to understand nobody was in at the moment and I wasn't even in the office, she finally accepted. She still wanted my name, the sup's name, employee ID, all that crap. Once done, 40 minutes after we started, I did send an email to my sup explaining what had happened and probably threw in a swear word as well. My sup was amazing though, she knew I was a good rep. My sup never even responded back to my email and I doubt she ever saw it, nor did I bring it up to her either. Honestly, fuck that customer, calling my attempts to assist the worst customer service ever. I had co-workers who were flat-out rude (we mainly took calls and the chats were less frequent) and have seen people fired for yelling at customers and smacking their teeth and just being horrid representatives. I would often get the call soon after the rep hung up on them and could see the customer had just spoken with a co-worker by the bare-bones notes on the account and would have to be the one to assuage their anger and make them happy again. Their issue usually wasn't even that difficult, I just have bad co-workers sometimes. I have always had top scores for professionalism from our QA team no matter what job I worked so I don't appreciate someone telling me otherwise. Her issue was that she's pissy that when she says "jump", the world doesn't ask "how high?" She was the pure embodiment of a "Karen" (and maybe a bit offensive, but by her name, I could tell she was black, which I am as well, but she was one of those black women who wanted to act like snobby rich old white women, like that's the only way to get respect. Sweetie, just no 😑)
I don't even get your snarkiness. Ppl counting dashes on clock taught in elementary level is used for reading, what? Who even says analog? Is analog something u "read" on a screen? If that's context w/ your 102, well yay for u. W/ ur new word no one uses. Anyways, thing is most humans have poor communication. Let alone branches, dpts, levels, wever it is. Thing is the campus should at least have some kind of record of their previous students. I just went to 1 but just to use it. I had almost forgot I was a student there some Few yrs back. U would've thought that'd help me. I asked if I could use another branches (w/ Their colleges logo, but w/ my personal) id. The "head quarters" said yeah. Not only did they not have a record of me, they couldn't even put in fractions of personal info to pull me up. Not only that, they didn't even have right equipment for me to use. At least according to them... Took forever for their staff to just give me a run around wasting even more time I didn't have w/ no direction to begin with...🙄.. Even got a call back message from my professor & she didn't even take me anywhere. I meant she voice mailed them w/ an "answer." Not me. I've spent more time fn around w/ gadgets & other complete bs then it's gonna take for me to even take the test
I was technical support for a telecompany and internet service provider. One of my craziest moments, was when an elderly man called in, and his internet didn't work. That's usually why people call, and that's their reality, they don't for one moment wonder what the cause could be, but that's alright.. that's what I'm paid to figure out anyways, although I have very little time to do so. Anyway, I'm the expert and I've got experience, so I go through the normal routine of pinpointing the issue. Everything on my side looks fine, the router looks fine (according to the man's description) so it must be the computer. Alright, what happens when you open the browser? (yes I had to explain what a browser is, that's very common)... Nothing, it's all black? Hmm, what can you see on the screen? Also nothing, it's all black?... wait, did you turn on the computer?.... NO!?!?!?!? His internet was fine, he just had to find the power-button on his computer -_- Oh and I took it with the greatest patience and assured him, that it was easy to run into such problems and that it could happen to all of us.
Mikkel Lund I look forward to the day when those raised in the 80's and 90's and were born with computers all around us are the dominate ones left...IT will always be needed but it won't be some newfangled thing that we're utterly clueless about. Even as new tech comes out, we'll be ready because we'll have gotten used to other pieces of tech as a precursor. Imagine having been raised in the 50's where at the most you turned on a TV and now you have to connect WIFI to your computer. I can imagine it's overwhelming. But the man in your story lacks a bit of common sense, lol. And as one who has had to do customer service over the phone (which invariably also means doing IT at times, too), I too have had to laugh and smile and say, "Don't worry, I've done that too!" for the dumbest things even though, no, I can at least power my device ON before I declare something is broken :/
I hope you're right. Yeah, he of course did not have my understanding of things, and what seemed simple to me, might not be simple to him. That point of view is part of why I can keep calm when helping people ^^
My mom is this kind of trouble maker. Every little bit of technical issues could be solved in seconds. She has a computer for years now but she called me for a really dumb reason. I kid you not, she wanted to post a comment through skype but it wouldn't work. All she had to do to was click with her mouse on the text field to make that blinking black line show up and press enter. She.Had.A.Computer.for.8.years...... let that sink in. I believe that tech support will always be a thing and people will always have work for that because people like my mom legit don't feel like they want to learn something on their own when they know that they can call someone that knows whats up.
I've been in the computer and support business for over 16 years now and I've got a good one for you. Client phones complaining that his PC is not working. After a few questions only 2 options remain 1. No power 2. PC's dead. Asked client to check the cables and the power switch and client responds with... CAN'T SEE, POWER'S OFF. Power outages are a common problem in South Africa :)
I used to do IT for this bank and the program was in DOS, the easiest thing you can imagine with all common everyday task listed for the employees on the bottom. Still they would get confused or worry they might make a mistake so we would sometimes walk them through a process if they were doing it for the first (or 100th) time. I literally had this conversation for like 10 minutes Employee: it's telling to press F3 what do I do? me: Press F3 Employee: ok, now it tells me press P to print, C to cancel or E to edit Me: do you need to edit anything? Employee: No, I'm done I wanna print Me:... Employee: What do I do? Me: Press P. Employee: ok, now there this box and it's written "make sure printer is loaded with A4 Paper". What now? THIS! FOR LONG LONG MINUTES!
asdfghjkkjhgfdsa So basically, tech support with DOS systems: "Okay, it's instructing me to do something." "Do the thing." "Now it's telling me to do one of TWO things!" (Repeat)
This is why I always make friends with IT at work. And why I generally start every question I ask them with: “I’m so sorry, I’m definitely dumb, but please help me.” Snacks also. Treats and snacks and telling them they’re the best also helps!
Oh yes! I can relate. I worked as technical support for Apple and believe me it's a hell. Not only customers are dumb and sometimes extremely rude, but also apple's policies are like ridiculous... it's like for each bad feedback you receive, you have to get 10 good ones to compensate and prove your skills with customer service. And is just ridiculous because out of like 30 calls or 50 calls maybe only 10 people will receive a survey, and it's random. One may have 40 calls good, and then 1 or 2 gone bad, and if the survey falls on the one it went bad, your entire month is ruined. I would receive average 13 surveys per month to 15 so if I would have two bad reviews I was done, because I would have to have 21 good surveys. Ridiculous!
In all fairness Apple as a company makes some shitty products in terms of build quality and their on site support is horrendous so I do get why people are pissed already when calling in. Still that system is so insane. It's no big secret that people who are dissatisfied are much more likely to take the survey in the first place. So I would argue something like 50/50 still probably means you are a genuine help to most of your customers. Another issue with this system is that it means many will probably advocate for taking the survey on the good calls as a means of self preservation. I hate that. I called for help not a multiple choice exam :p
A friend who also works in tech support once had a woman call him and she said „the cup holder on my computer is broken“ he‘s like „uhmm.. what cup holder?“ „well the one where you put your drinks of course“ She was talking about the cd drive -.-
You'd be surprised how many people think that the CD drive was a cup holder... I had several of them call when I was also working at a tech support call center -_-
I worked at a toys store one time and this lady asked if tje GOT edition of monopoly was the smaller version. Even her son was like "mum..we had the travel version"
Have you MET the general public!? I have and most of the people I run across do not come equipped with even middling intelligence or even common sense. But hey... it keeps me in business! :)
This one time I called customer support because my computer wasn't downloading the Microsoft office suite even though I paid for it etc. It took me a couple hours of crying, emotional eating and frustration trying to figure out wtf was happening lol took IT support about 5 minutes before they're like, you already have MOS it's on your desktop screen. I'M SORRY IT SUPPORT PEOPLE 😭
Don't forget the part when we set up our parent's computer and suddenly we're computer whiz for them and they keep calling us everytime they have computer problems
I can relate so much! Had a user told the software was not accepting her uploads, so I asked her to tell me the steps she took before the issue occurred then she said her screen is blank. So asked if she got an error or any message on her screen before it went blank. She said, " I don't know how to turn on the screen." Turns out that the computer was not even on...
I personally feel that there is a limit to excuse occasional stupid actions. That customer you had, does not qualify for having an excuse. Unless she's never even seen a computer in her entire life before.
Matthew Jarrett haha first thing that came to my mind 😂 also, I just realised I typed "on and off again" 🤦♂️ Thank Gawdd for the editing comments feature 😂
I have never heard Computer Jusus before, my users seem to think I am some form or Sorcerer or Warlock. Wouldn't surprise me if some of them think I have made a pact with some form or demon called "Linux" to perform my "Magic".
Alex, I know how you feel . I also work in IT and I had one lady, who said her mouse did not work. I tried everything I could over the phone but nothing worked, so after a while I went to her departement and to my amazment she was waving the mouse around in the air. I was so baffled I didn't even know what to say. The only thing that came out of my mouth was, "Ma'am you have to put the mouse on the table." But I must say it is as you say an interesting experience.
My sister and I worked a crisis/suicide hotline and my sis got the worst calls. A lady called once and was crying and said "I don't want to break anymore backs!" And when my sister asked to explain further the lady whispered into the phone "Voooooodoooooo....!" Almost made my sister quit on the spot and no it was not a prank call.
Why does the manager even have a computer? I would think that if she can't use emails she can't use something like google either, not to talk about whatever program she would be using in her job position.
Jutland Angel happens a lot in my country sadly older people carrying basic qualifications and never having met computer in their lives. they can Facebook but cant even make a basic power point presentation
Playing tech support to your father who did tech support twenty years ago but hadn't bothered keeping up to date with the new standards... I've lost count of the times I've heard something like "Well that's stupid! We didn't do it that way!" Yet I made it work dad...
Seriously, tech support, customer support, retail, ANYWHERE YOU HAVE TO DEAL WITH PEOPLE OF STUPID PROPORTIONS, is just mind blowingly soul draining. As someone who has worked in customer and tech support, I feel you.
dealing with the public is just awful lol. I work at Toys R Us and a few weeks ago we had a couple who insisted on buying their five year old a dirt bike meant for children 14+ And they still bought it, and this wasn't a small purchase. The dirt bike was like $500 or something around that amount and we had all warned them how awful of an idea it was and how their kid could get really hurt, but nope they didn't listen and insisted that they'd buy it.
Do what I'm doing. If your company has a Networking department, get the CCNA Cert and transfer over. It's better pay, more opportunities for advancement both inside and outside the company, and you don't have to talk to people...hate those fucking guys...at least for the next few weeks.
My dad is a 50 years old It guy, I showed him this video and now he's histerically laughing. Plus, This made me want to watch The It Crowd again, so thank you for this awesome video!
I work in a bakery. You wouldn't believe the stupidity of some costumers. One day I had a customer who walked in and then stopped in front of me while the oven is behind me. I was preparing the bread doughs (fiy you have to let them settle a bit because they go in the fridge as to stay fresh when the oven is at maximum capacity and they have to accumulate to the temperature of the room). This guy asks me for some bread right out of the oven. Nothing unusual. I told him: "sure thing! It will take another 15 minutes though, please have a seat." "Oh, no you can give me the bread now."... I was confused and asked him if he wanted some bread that has already finished and was sitting on the counter for costumers to buy it. So I asked, "Which one would you like?" He fucking replied: "Are you stupid? The one in the oven obviously!", I replied "Sure thing! Sit down I will make it ready for you once it is fully baked.", "What are you stupid? Just give me the bread right now!" "Sir, it is not finished if I open the oven now the other bread doughs will be fucked and you can't even eat it or use it because IT IS NOT FUCKING BAKED!", "Wow, you really are a shit service around here. I have to haggle for everything here. But fine I will take the Roggenschmaus." (I live in Germany btw.) I said "Ok, do you want it cut in slices or do you want it whole?", "Why would I want a slice of bread?! I want to bake it at home!" " THEN WHY DON'T YOU BAKE YOUR OWN FUCKING BREAD AT HOME INSTEAD OF TRYING TO STEAL THE UNFINISHED DOUGHS FROM US?! THIS IS A FUCKING BAKERY YOU DENSE MOFO!" An old lady kicked him out because he was holding up the line while he insulted me in every possible way that came to his head. Even called me a dough ironically. The old lady gave me 5 euros tips from which I bought some bread for her as a sign of my gratitude towards her. Working in service is just shitty if you are working alone or in a bad part of town.
What is really funny(and sad) is that his request didn't even make sense within his own crazy logic. If he wanted to bake it himself he should of asked for the dough not something from out of the oven.
This was probably the most relatable rant i've ever seen. I work on a call center and it literarlly made me become the most insensitive creature. And the amount of people thet said they're gonna sue me because I couldn't fix there issue is unbelievable
Oh my God. I work as a social media manager and you wouldn't believe what people think Facebook actually is. I've had people message me their entire checking account information demanding products we never sold. It's amazing. All ages, all types of people too. This spoke to my soul 😂
Think that's bad, I worked as an Advanced Repair Agent in good ol' Geek Squad for about two years and boy o boy, nothing like ending the day with death threats, lawsuits, and finding child pornography on some 80 year old's hard drive. So I feel you man, those trenches are a violent place.
Jeff Pearson you have to by law. I worked as a security agent/log me in. If I logged in someone's PC and saw that we were supposed to act natural, then open a call for the police.
N00b 2100omg This. In a store location, we were supposed to take it into the back under the veil of some excuse like "I noticed a virus on the computer, I'm gonna have one of our techs look at it."
I worked as a debt collector for about 4 years. I called a woman once who legitimately thought a credit line was something you got for being a good person and was appalled that you had to pay back money that you borrowed. Bless her soul, she must have a hard life.
i had one person called us come fix a computer problem. We asked them several question to see if we could figure out the problem over the phone cause. in the Company i worked for. Its free for over the phone help, $600 just to send us over and fix the problem. The problem was that it won't turn on. I asked "have you checked to see if its plugged in?" There response was "The plug is NOT the problem!". So after several more back & forth questioning & Answering. I've came to conclusion that they forgot to plug it in for some reason. And I asked "are you sure its plugged in?" They insist Its not the plug its the computer and wanted us to come by and fix it. Tried to convince this person that it would cost them a lot of money on a small problem. Got an angry response and told that I'm on my way. arrived, plugged the computer in, computer turn on just fine and said "Thanks for the $600 bucks, your welcome." and waved to the Electrical Engineer student goodbye as i left.
The tip I have heard from r/talesfromtechsupport is to ask them to move it to a different plug. They often check only one side of the plug and see that it is plugged in. When they go to move the cable to the other plug, it forces them to check the other side.
Mr. Some Gamer Dude wut? They are totally IT. Maybe not CS guys but still IT. And for the record, I bet most support departments do a lot of engineering and sysadmin that people just "think" works. And quite a bit of coding on automation issues.
When anything stops working anywhere, IT is the ones to blame. I love how one of the important guys in our company told an electrician boss who was working at our new building that we, as IT, would drag a cable between two buildings (between the room where TAE* socket was in the old building to our network room in the new one). Like in the ground. Sure hell no. *TAE is a phone socket, pretty sure it's only used in Germany and some parts of Austria and/or Switzerland, so you, who read this, might not have heard of it.
Way back in the day, I get a call requesting help with a password. I reset it and tell the user to setup a new one. He tells me that its not taking it. I tell him the password requirements. Only for him to ask me: "what is a Capital letter?" Took me a minute to figure out how to explain it to him. "you know when you hold shift and press any letter...?!"
Oh my gosh, this reminds me of when I used to work at a call center for an Oxygen Supply company. Which meant most of our customers/patients were grumpy, hard of hearing old people. I think my worst experience was when I had to spend over 2 hours! on a standard supply call because this old man was so hard of hearing, and demanded that I hold my entire part of the conversation...in NATO phonetic alphabet speak. Which I mean, I did it. I completed the call, got his supplies ordered, and he was actually quite happy by the end of the call, he started out very angry, and I got a standing ovation from the rest of the call center. Because everyone, managers included, had all started paying attention to my phone call. HOLY CRAP lol.
I've worked tech support for VoIP, internet, help desk, cell service, and now mobile devices. There are good things about the field, but yeah, it can be soul crushing. Like getting another network admin calling in because the internet is down, and you try a few things that doesn't work, so you tell them to replace the phone cable between the modem and the wall (it's DSL), and they are like, "I've been working 20+ years in IT. I've never seen that fail." And I'm like, "I've been working this job for about a year and I see this happen at least 6 times a day." Then they reluctantly do it and are surprised it works. Network admins aren't always all that's cracked up to be. Which is weird because I'm going to college for network security, and I can say, they learn much of what I'm learning and cables is a part of IT work that you should know. Anyway, a few years down the road, I'm in another position that isn't so much tech support, but having that knowledge helps. I get an escalation where this customer's entire network goes down. She was willing to work with us... until her IT company says "don't cooperate with them! It's their issue!" We spent 6 months trying to resolve this issue. They blamed our equipment. The customer's IT group sent out their own tech and the tech spoke with us and was like "yeah, I don't know what the hell they were thinking. This network is messed up. They have this router looping into your guy's switch." Found out after we brought that up as that is an obvious point of failure, the guy was let go. Now the IT guy I was working with said the usual, "I've been in IT for 30+ years." Now I'm professional and I really wanted to say "and apparently you know nothing", but I didn't. We bent over backwards. They weren't willing to test with us, so we had to find clever ways of doing what we needed to do, which was write scripts and put them on their switch and router that we provided. Know what we found? Yeah, it's their router that's looping is the problem, causing a broadcast storm that's freezing up the switch and bringing the whole network down. The IT guy didn't believe it, even with sending all of the logs. Even with our tier 3 basically calling him a moron. We've replaced all of our equipment (about $5000-$6000 total). Eventually because they weren't willing to take apart their network I had to have an interesting conversation that got me raising my voice to the customer and got the managers on the same floor picking up their phone to listen in. The customer refused to do anything and I had to say, "because you aren't willing to troubleshoot further, we've proven what the issue is and we're willing to work with you to isolate the network. But since you refuse there's nothing more we can do. We have to go with what information we have which shows the issue is on your end." He responded with, "want me to call up your partner and you can explain to them why you refuse to fix this problem?" Me, "You know what? Yes I would love to explain this. Get them on the phone and I will explain everything." He hung up. I emailed our partner who he was their customer. I literally sent everything, and cc'd the VP of my company on the email. The partner responded with "Yeah, we're about to fire him as our customer because we've had this issue with them in the past. You guys have done everything. We'll take it from here, thank you." That was the last case I closed out before I left to return to college. As soul crushing it can be, most people may not be smart about computers, cell phones, or regular phones, but when you fix their issues, they can be more often than not, genuinely thankful. You are their savior, and that's a wonderful feeling. And that makes the job so worth it.
As a former IT supporter, all of this is painfully relatable. I mean, if people are completely oblivious when it comes to computers, THAT'S OKAY, that was why I was there - but it all really depends on their attitude. I was sitting out in the front desk, so I had to deal with users face to face, and JESUS CHRIST, some shit I had to put up with at times.
I've worked tech support but for tax software, everywhere its sold in the u.s., not just in the same building like your story, so I could go to the actual computer in question. I'd get calls about networks being down and their office "i.t. guy" was just some guy in their office that knew the most about computer "stuff" (and when I say he knew the most, I say that in the loosest term lol) I've had a lot of horror stories but my favorite was when the caller said their cupholder (cd rom) was broken and got coffee in the keyboard and so certain letters wouldnt type. Why he felt calling tech support for his tax software when this was far from my problem, I dont know. But that still didnt stop him from taking 45 mins to finally get him to explain that to me. And HE was frustrated with ME that it took ME 45 mins to figure out something because he made it sound like a software issue that, I kid you not, he said multiple people in the office had the same issue so it must be the software. Just let all that sink in. Who the hell is running that tax preparation office??? Damn cupholders...
I have a similar story. I was an intern in an IT department. One of the big wigs refused to learn how to use e-mail, so he had someone else read his email inbox, sort the important ones out and then print them. That "someone else" wasn't even his secretary, it was someone from the IT department.
I hate these people. Had a similar situation where an entire AS400 system that nobody knew how to use was effectively kept alive because a high ranking manager liked it's reporting interface and knew how to write new reports for it. He still demanded that the IT department maintained the system. Granted it's not as bad as a full fledged secretary, but it's not like the support agreements on these systems are cheap either.
When i worked in techsupport in 2016 i got a call from a guy that had problems connecting his router to the internet socket on the wall, since i have experience with this kind of problem before i know that companies dont uninstall old sockets from apartments sometimes. so i asked him how many internet sockets does he see in the house and he said "14", i was confused because i dont think that a company would put so many outdate sockets. so we go ahead and test each and everyone of them without any luck, in the end he said there is only one socket we havent tested yet. so i asked him where it was and he said its in the bathroom. i told him that it is not logical for a internet company to install one there and he insisted on it he even said "look i can even connect my shaver to it and my electric toothbrush... i then realised that this idiot did not know the diffrence between an internet socket and an electric socket.
And I thought that people confusing ethernet and ADSL is bad... People are like "you lied to me! You gave me a bad router! Replace it right now!" And I'm like... Uhhh, you're connecting ethernet to ADSL. Try the port with the phone drawing on it, do as I say, and see that it'll fit. And that's over the phone, I can't actually see what they're doing
IT field almost 10 years here... #1 most common issue is "My Computer is slow" This is just.... as Alex Meyers so elequently put it... "Soul-Crushing" Literally can mean...... *ANYTHING*
An advisor at my university actually prints out emails because it helps her "remember to answer them" but she just ends up with a giant stack of paper emails
I used to work at a phone company where I provided soft tech support which was mainly checking all info was correct in the system such as SIM card number and the phone's ID number (IMEI) or if they were connected to the tower, which it hit fixed by turning the cellphone off and then back on. So 90% of the time people called with the issue that they didn't have service and I advised them to turn off the cellphone off and then back on, but they were usually calling from the phone they had problems with so IN the call took the battery of the phone and then plop the call dropped (of course)
One crazy thing happened to my brother in high school once. His teacher asked for his help because the HDMI cable was connected but it didn't work. You will probably not believe it, but the lady had managed to press the HDMI cable into her Macbook up... side... down.
lol! this speaks to me XDD I'm working as a technical support engineer for a broadcast retailer. So if any broadcast/ radio/ internet/ etc. wants to build a new site/ upgrade or whatever usually they come to us. You'd think they know what they do... no, some of them has no idea what's going on and they're managers. A friend of mine is a broadcast field engineer. One of his THEFAQ story was that he got called out to the site that the signal isn't being transmitted. It was because the company bought and installed the wrong type of cable.
I once had a call from a woman whose desktop computer (which she bought used from Goodwill) could not connect to WiFi, and Ethernet was not an option. After some checking, I concluded that the computer did not have a WiFi adapter. She then asked, "Can I download it?"
You definitely need to do more IT stories. I've been in call centers Tech support for Vz fixing phones and for hulu and I relate to this video 100%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've heard all of these before. I'm literally watching this at work while waiting for a call hahaha
And I thought me having to constantly teach people how to use a debit machine was bad... "why isn't it working?" "we don't have tap sir. You have to insert the card into the machine" "oh..." *proceeds to then just stare at the machine without doing anything* "is it done?"
DPWFG My favorite is the people who keep jamming their debit/credit card into the slot as hard as they can over and over again then complain that the machine isn't working. Also the people who pull their card out when the pinpad clearly says "PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE YOUR CARD" and get upset when I tell them they have to start all over again.
thirteenfury I go through that with AT LEAST 90% of my customers... And a lot if the time, it's repeat customers... Like we've been through this four times in the last month... How do you not know how to use a debit card by now? You're like 23.
DPWFG Pfft. Yeah, it really gets me when it's regular customers. But 23? Try 53. I dunno how anyone can make it through five decades of a lifetime independently and not remember basic skills like hit the button that says Enter or sign your name on the line that says Sign Here. Sometimes I feel like Tech Support Lite when I have to show someone how to enter $0 as the amount when they accidentally ask for cash back on their purchase. But it happens with other cashiers too. I dunno if anyone besides me and a couple others know how to endorse a credit card by hand when the pinpad can't read a card, let alone know to ask the manager for a credit slip.
THAT puts 'My coffee cup holder is broken' to SHAME!! Took me forever to work out she was on about the old CD tray that she happily used to hold her coffee cup, it's so much fun working with idiots, now, excuse me while I sink my face in my fishtank and scream!
Maaaaan, this is so relatable. I worked as a tech support for a telecom giant and you're not exaggerating when you say some of them doesn't have any idea how to describe and what anything is as long as you fix the problem. I listened to a call by of my mentor, and it was gold! Customer was angry that her modem/router wasn't working and will throw it out the window if nothing is done to fix it and my mentor, ever so polite, told the lady to make sure to open the window because that's more expensive than the device. lol
I.T. Story time: My colleague got a phone call from a lady. She had some problem with her computer. My colleague went to her room to check her computer, but she was not there. (Probably went to the bathroom or whatever) So he went to her screen, saw the problem, fixed it, and because she didn't arrive, just left. After he came back to our office, he got an other phone call from the same lady. She said: "I saw you didn't come, but you don't have to anymore, because I fixed it!" Or when an other lady was screaming in the phone to "put the area into her computer" and acted like an enraged sauron, we realised she wanted to type in the superscript. I feel exactly what you said, and mostly everything the user says is a logical puzzle, what could it mean? Have to go full detective mode and solve the problem. (Like when she said her phone is broken [but she called us using that phone lol], but she only had to turn the ringtone's volume up, but she just had no idea about anything)
Worked for HP and had a guy email me and this is verbatim: "HP fucked up. They forget to include the wireless cable with my printer" I sent the email to my boss because I couldn't respond to it not condescendingly
I work in IT Support and I have never found anything more relatable! I LOVE when I ask someone to just open the program and they say “ok” and unplug the whole system :)
Dude, I felt this in my spirit, as I worked in low level IT for one of the biggest companies in the US in the early 2000s for almost 2 years (I don't know HOW in the hell you made it 6) and it has scarred me for the rest of my days 🤣 after this job, my attitude was like, "throw most of humanity away!"
That sounds like hell but is exactly how it goes whenever my mom has computer problems. she asked for my help once because she "couldn't get the internet to work". The actual problem was her browser wouldn't open. The reason for that was she didn't have a browser to open!
all the stuff you named is everything that's good about doing tech support! it's empowering because you get to help people who otherwise wouldn't know how to communicate their problems or troubleshoot themselves learn how to use tools that are growing more and nore necessary for everyday life. and ease with tech is related to politics and identity a lot too
I wouldn't use the word "empowering".... I get your overall premise, but it still doesn't take away the soul crushing part of it. I did phone tech support during the pandemic for a school district. It was atrocious. I don't mind helping people with their tech problems. I don't know about you, but when you have an angry parent on the phone for 10+ minutes complaining about how we suck because their kid can't get on their online class it gets very frustrating. Sometimes we would have irate parents come in to our help desk or call in because their kid couldn't get online. There was no problem with the device or their internet and the kid just didn't want to do the work so the made up some BS story about how their Chromebook doesn't work. We get the short end of the stick with that....
Best story from where I used to work is when some nut had a problem she didn'T even explain to us, then attempted to "fix" it herself and ended up plugging the power strip into itself before pouring coffee in it. My entire department was completely dumbstruck
I worked IT help desk for two years and that helped me a lot in talking to people and dealing with them. I used to be so panicked to respond to the calls but after couple months it was whatever lol
OMG!!! I have been in AL of these situations...... BEST ones are, ME:what browser are you using..... Customer: Whats a browser? Seriously the thing you just went to our website on and started a LIVE CHAT!!! ME: Can you copy and paste the link and send it to me..... Customer: How do I copy and Paste...... GGGRRAAAAAAHHHHHH ME:What is the browser you are using...... Customer: Microsoft Windows........ ME................. "pulls the burbon out of the desk drawer takes BIG pull" ME: That is your Operating system. What is the browser you are in. Is it an E does it look like a Simon says game or a Fox in a circle Customer: What is an Operating system? ME. Boss I am done for the day see you tomorrow after my therapy session. BTW. Serious calls above from my last job working Customer Support.
i dont work in IT... but in a sushi bar, we had a woman call in and complain over the phone that her delivered sushi was cold.... she went on and rant to me for about 10 minutes when i tried to explain her that sushi is supposed to be cold.... she told me i was wrong, i was done with her shit so just hung up. 30 minutes later this furious woman storms into the restaurant demanding a refund for her cold sushi... i stood there with a dry-ass face untill my boss came over and just told her to leave... i love my job sometimes!
Never worked in IT or took phone calls, but I have certainly listened to a few incredible calls from some of the agents. The stories I could tell... Like the customer that called tech support because they thought the company I work for "killed their phone girlfriend." Long story short, they thought Siri was their personal assistant. Or another one where someone called in with a "virus" on their phone. Even with the phone off, there was physical pink dots/bumps on her screen. Long story short, it was paint from when they were painting a nursery that spilled dots on the screen.
More than twenty years in various support roles in various industries... I’m the rare IT person who loves their job and users. I am apparently a unicorn in my field. 🤷🏻♂️
Of course. Switching to an animation channel feeds channels subs for some reason. In awhile people are actually gonna ask for a face reveal. Which I will laugh at.
Whenever I report problems to companies I always be super polite and informative yet to the point to the tech support peeps, cause I can't imagine how many times they deal with the "what do you mean I gotta plug it in" people.
