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One woman's plight in technical support.

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Thursday, August 26, 2010

Whoa there buddy!

Don't click that!

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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 8:31 AM | 0 people who've shared.

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Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Stating the Obvious

I thought I'd run out of things to talk about here.  So I haven't been posting much.  Today I got a case via email that said this:

Customer:
Today I received the following message from my server:

'This products content license on server ServersName will soon expire.
You will need to renew your license to continue using the product."
Please contact your sales rep, or visit: http://site.that.helps.you.buy.a.license.com to renew your license.'
Please advise me as to how to remedy this.

Thank you,
J

Now I'm thinking... Really? You actually don't know what to do with this so you EMAIL me?? It tells you what to do. It tells you you need to renew your license, and gives you a link to go to to get that done. Now c'mon. Use your brain. You get paid twice as much as I do to do your job, the least you can do is read. Really. I mean... jeez.

Then on top of it all, you took the time to email me, which is FAR more difficult than clicking the link that was provided in the email you copy/pasted to me.

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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 10:27 AM | 0 people who've shared.

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Friday, April 09, 2010

Repeating myself again.

In an effort to be fresh and not talk about the same thing twice I have led myself into a corner of not being able to talk at all. It seems that customers are full of crap, but their idiosyncrasies are pretty common. One customer or ten, they're all the same. Since I pretty much only use analogies, the stories are interchangeable and apply to multiple customers all at once, cause, I'm cool like that. lol

Anyway, so that's why I've been putting off writing on this blog. Maybe I'll get back into the groove. If not, then at least you can enjoy what I've already written. :)

Have a good one!

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 9:02 AM | 0 people who've shared.

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Monday, January 19, 2009

How to: IIS (restarting)

Well, here's another in my small series on how to do things an admin needs to know how to do.
This one relates to IIS (Internet Information Services) which is the service, or rather series of services, that hosts connections to your server. This is also what holds up OWA and your web portal if you are self hosting.
Sample from a blog article I wrote:

One thing alot of admins don't know, is that you should never EVER restart the actual IIS service from the Services console. It's not because this sort of restart can cause harm, it's really because when you stop the IIS service several other services are stopped at the same time.

These services are dependent on IIS to run correctly. When IIS is restarted incorrectly, it doesn't usually come up with a list of services that were stopped during that time. Unless you have all these services memorized, it's best to not do an IIS restart this way.

Instead, it would be preferable to restart IIS with the methods I've outlined for you below. These will restart most of the services that IIS pulls down and will allow your system to resume regular operation the soonest.


Pre-note: The instructions below are for IIS 6.x and higher. In IIS 5 the instructions should be similar, but without the "All Tasks" portion.

My favorite method of restarting IIS is from the actual IIS console:

1. Click Start and go to Programs > Administrative Tools > Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager

2. In IIS, right-click and go to All Tasks > Restart IIS

3. In the window that pops up for confirmation click OK

You will then see a status window to let you know of your progress. It generally takes 2-4 minutes for the process to complete. You may be tempted to hit the End Now button, but typically I like to let this process flow naturally.

Note: If this takes longer than a few minutes to restart, or if it hangs, this may be an indication that there is a problem with your IIS. You may want to consider checking out Microsoft's website for more information, or instructions on how to reinstall IIS.


This is another method to restart from a console, this time from the Windows management console:

1. Right-click My Computer and go to Manage

2. Expand Services and Applications

3. Right-click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager and go to All Tasks > Restart IIS



And lastly, from the command prompt:

1. From the Start menu, click Run.

2. In the Open box, type cmd, and click OK.

3. At the command prompt, type iisreset /noforce , and press ENTER.
(Note: You can also just type iisreset in most cases this will do the same thing.)

4. IIS attempts to stop all services before restarting.

The IISReset command-line utility waits up to one minute for all services to stop. If the services cannot be stopped within one minute, all IIS services are terminated, and IIS restarts.


Ok, so that's it. I have a MS article linked below for you to look at too, if you need it. :) Enjoy!!

Here's a Microsoft TechNet article with more detailed information about IIS.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/WindowsServer2003/Library/IIS/003ed2fe-6339-4919-b577-6aa965994a9b.mspx?mfr=true

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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 7:33 AM | 0 people who've shared.

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Wednesday, January 07, 2009

I recommend that you hang up now.

Everyday I get someone who asks me to make a recommendation on what they should do with their software. They don't like making their own choices. Basically they want the program to do everything they need it to do out of the box or they want to call up and have us tell them exactly what to click.

This is a lot like going to a store and expecting the cashier to tell you what you should buy. Especially after all you've told them is that you have a three-bedroom house and a car. So, ok, the cashier figures you should buy some wool carpets, and maybe a couch? So you the customer dutifully go off and put those things in your cart and take them home.

... when you get home you realize that you already have a couch! And upon carrying in the rug you find that you are allergic to wool and now you're itching all over.

Now, you are an unhappy customer and you go back to the store and complain to the cashier's manager that you bought these things, one you didn't need and the other that caused you problems, and it's the cashier's fault for telling you to buy these things.

Yeah, right.

Don't get me wrong. I have no problem guiding someone in how to use the program. I also am happy to tell them how to do a specific action they want, when they don't know how. Using my previous example, in which I am the cashier...

Customer: I want to be able to put drinks and my tv remote on something in my living room.
Me: Ok, the purchase you need to make for what you are asking for would typically be a coffee table. Do you have room for a coffee table?
Customer: I think I do.
Me: Ok, you go to department 5 to get the coffee table. When you get it home, make sure you set it on it's legs.
Customer: Thanks, that's all I needed.

See? See how easy that is? The customer told me what he wanted and I told him how to get it!

The things you as a customer need to know before you ask me these kinds of questions:

1. What is my environment like? (In the case of computers this means... how much RAM do I have? What kind of CPU do I have? Do I have other software running on this machine?)
2. What do I want this software to do?
3. Am I prepared to work? (Meaning, at the computer and without other distractions)

So, Mr. Admin, call support! But don't ask them to make up your policies for you or do all your work! That's what you get paid for!!

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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 7:19 AM | 0 people who've shared.

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Wednesday, November 19, 2008

No Troubleshoot - No Complaint.

I got feedback today, for a customer I'd talked to that took issue with my answer to her question.

She originally called, saying that she'd recently installed some new MS patches, and since then she'd been having trouble with her system. Things were flowing slowly.

She had stopped our services, and suddenly the problem went away - but let's get this straight - she recently installed a ton of new patches.

I had asked her what patches she installed, but mentioned that this was most likely something she'd have to ask MS about. She didn't know what patches she'd gotten. There were too many of them. I told her that I would be happy to see if there were any issues with our software and her patches, but I needed to know what they were. She just didn't know.

I said, ok, well maybe something we're dependent on was changed while we were installed. A big no-no with our software. I offered up a couple things that would have made my program go haywire and do weird stuff.

She pin pointed one and said that she had indeed done an update to it. So I suggested that she reinstall our product so that we could reassociate with the latest changes.

I offered some other things we could do to troubleshoot, but she said that she couldn't do them right now, as she needed permission to do them.

So, uh, no troubleshooting? You're saying you called and expected me to press the magic button?? Lady, I can't pull an answer out of my butt with the information you gave me. You gave me nothing!

So I have her go off and do the uninstall/reinstall and suggested that if that doesn't work, she can get back in touch with me via email.

...

A few days pass and she calls back in, and gets the next guy in line. She lets him troubleshoot. They go back and forth a bit till he figures out what's wrong.

...

She then emailed a supervisor here, and said that she'd called MS and they charged her $500 bucks and it's all my fault because I was not listening to her.

...

No lady, I don't have the magic button. It's not my fault that I gave you that answer, seeing as you gave me the information I used to give you that answer. You don't want to troubleshoot? Then don't complain when I give you a lame answer and your issue is not resolved.

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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 12:58 PM | 0 people who've shared.

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Thursday, October 09, 2008

Bomp!

Something funny and cute to keep you going until I have new stuff for you!





I found this on: http://www.japanator.com/

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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 1:56 PM | 0 people who've shared.

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