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One woman's plight in technical support.

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Friday, April 27, 2007

Shortcuts to Doom

Today's advice is: Don't take shortcuts.

Follow the instructions even though they don't make full sense. If you have to know why they are how they are, then ask. Then follow the instructions.



I had a young woman contact me today about registering her product. The process involved knowing enough about her network to be able to get past her proxy/firewall for the registration. Short of being able to do that, she needed to be able to type a long command prompt-style string to bypass the proxy/firewall.

I sent her a copy of it so she could literally copy/paste most of it, but there were a few places where she'd need to fill in the appropriate information. Unfortunately for her, it required full path information to the files she was trying to use.

Every time she got to one of those variables instead of typing the full path:

c:\example folder\example.exe

She would attempt to use a system variable:

%drive%:\example folder\%filename%

Or some such nonsense.



Now, that may be ok in some circumstances, but the instructions clearly stated that she need the fully qualified path.

In the end, the process failed. Even after I tried time and time again to get her to put in the correct information.

She could have saved herself alot of time and aggravation by just filling in the correct information the first time instead of trying to buck the system. Those instructions are there for a reason. If you knew how to do it your way then why are you calling for help??? Because you don't know how.


So, the moral of the story is:

Capitalize on someone else's experience and do it the tried and true way. Don't try to be a hero.

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If you have tech horror stories you'd like to share I'd love to hear them! If I really really like it, I'll even blog about it. So let's hear it, what do your dumb customers do?

posted by Reine at 12:15 PM | 0 people who've shared.

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Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Guilt Trip

So, I understand, my program doesn't do exactly what you want it to because your environment is screwy. Your car wouldn't be happy if you drove it on roads made of nails or tacks or broken glass. Why does it bother you then if other things don't work with every situation?

Just because you have to be different. Just because my program works with 90% of other people and it doesn't work for you. Or in this case, it doesn't work easily with your broken glass road. You make me feel guilty, you say "your program won't to this." "Your program won't do that..."


I'm sorry that the whole world doesn't revolve around you. If you don't like it, buy something else and stop threatening to, as if I can change your program. If you want to leave feedback with the company; if you take 5 little minutes out of your day to tell someone who can do something, then maybe it might happen for you. Telling the technician won't do you any damn good. Stop trying to make me feel guilty for your bad purchase.

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If you have tech horror stories you'd like to share I'd love to hear them! If I really really like it, I'll even blog about it. So let's hear it, what do your dumb customers do?

posted by Reine at 6:22 AM | 0 people who've shared.

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Friday, April 06, 2007

The Drive-Thru is OPEN

Hi Welcome to tech support. Can I take your order?

Ok, so I work with mail security software, and yesterday a gentleman called me to ask for help setting it up to send the filtered spam to the end-users. Now that in-and-of itself is fine. I walked him through this process and also explained how it works. The end of which is that the email goes to the end-users' JunkMail folder which is natively created with Exchange 2003/Outlook 2003.

The problem came in when he asked me why he didn't have a JunkMail folder. I explained to him very carefully that I support the mail software, not his Outlook or Exchange. That goes through Microsoft. I recommended that he give them a call to get that information.

He subsequently asked to speak to my supervisor because I couldn't help him with this 3rd party issue. He stated that Microsoft charges for support, and because our software interacts with his Email system, we should know how to do this simple thing.


This whole situation is akin to someone going through the drive-through at TacoHell and asking for a Whopper because their local BK doesn't have a drive-through.


I understand that it may be more difficult to go through that other restaurant to get your burger, because you have to get out of your car and all that, but I don't serve Whoppers here. Just because I make fast food doesn't mean I can make you a Whopper. Comprende Muchacho?




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If you have tech horror stories you'd like to share I'd love to hear them! If I really really like it, I'll even blog about it. So let's hear it, what do your dumb customers do?

posted by Reine at 12:11 PM | 0 people who've shared.

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Tuesday, April 03, 2007

What color are your underwear?

Breathers. I hate breathers. Darnit. If you just ran a marathon, don't call me. I don't want to hear you huff and puff in my ear. It creeps me out. It's like when I was 9 and creepy people used to call the house and ask me what color underwear I had on. I'm glad I only experienced it once or twice, but c'mon?!? Do I have to get reminded of it daily when someone puts their mic too close to their face after a nice long afternoon jog???
Move the mic away, and breath. Get some good breaths in, then call support. Is that really so much to ask?

- out.






Photo borrowed from JonBrant-PartyEasyCarolina Message Board

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If you have tech horror stories you'd like to share I'd love to hear them! If I really really like it, I'll even blog about it. So let's hear it, what do your dumb customers do?

posted by Reine at 11:15 AM | 0 people who've shared.

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