Or perhaps you're just a people person that is also extremely good at solving IT network configuration issues. But even for a Mother Teresa of tech, there’s that one call or helpdesk ticket that can finally push you over the edge and make you wish you’d joined the Peace Corps after all. Welcome to “Tales From IT Helpdesk Hell” as told by IT Helpdesk techs themselves.
Client: the app is down.
Me: Alright let me check our CMS and iTunes....everything seems to be working.
Client: it's definitely down, do you know how unprofessional it is for your product to stop working?
Me: I apologize sir, can you describe the problem?
Client: Nothing loads!
Me: How is your service in the area?
Client: I don't have service. It's on my iPad.
Me: Ah...well how's your wifi connection?
Client: I don't have wifi here, why isn't the app working?!
Me: Again I apologize for the inconvenience sir, but you need to have some sort of data connection for the app to be able to pull data from our servers.
Client: Oh, well that's stupid, how was I supposed to know that?"
Caller: I'm getting an error message.
Me: What is the error?
Caller: The message says to do %something%.
Me: Did you do %something%?
Caller: No. I didn't know what it would do.
Me: Well, humor me and do %something%, and let me know what happens.
Caller: Oh, that fixed it. You're so smart.
"Had a lady at my company that would submit a ticket every few weeks because her files were disappearing(!) from her recycling bin. She would literally delete her files instead of organizing them and when she needed them she would restore from the recycling bin.”
Me: "Have you tried putting them in a folder somewhere"
Her: "That's not the point, its always worked for me before."
Me: Sighs... Shuts up and sits down to fix the recycling bin...
1 "I was walking through an office one day, and a user said to me, 'At last! It’s taken you long enough. I pressed F1 (help button) over 2 hours ago!'"
2 "Once upon a time I had a user receive an email that our anti-virus software promptly quarantined. The user was frantic, 'I must have that email!' I said, 'I’m sorry, it has a virus. You’ll have to contact the guy who sent it, have him clean his computer of viruses, and resend.' He replied, 'Can’t you just turn off anti-virus long enough for me to get this email?'"
We would love to hear your best stories to publish them in our next newsletter. Submit your best IT Helpdesk Hell Tales anonymously to Yeti@SherpaDesk.com. If your story gets selected, we’ll send you a nifty Sherpa hat, said to provide the user with Zen and understanding during the most challenging IT Helpdesk Hell calls!