What really grinds my gears... IT qualms

In IT we all have qualms. I didn't see another topic like this so I thought I would post one.

What in your job grinds your gears? What do you hate seeing or hearing the most?

I work help desk, so a gear grinder for me is:

Tech: "We can't dispatch a field tech for that. It is an issue with your equipment, not ours". If we send out a tech and the problem is not with our services or equipment, there will be a field service charge. (Example, wireless showing up.. Customer owned router)
Customer: "I pay my bill on time every month. I deserve to have someone come out to check my stuff. If you can't send someone out I will just cancel my service. Why should I have to pay just for someone to come look?"

What I want to say: "Paying on time is what you are suppose to do. You give us money, we give you internet. You don't earn anything extra because you have paid your bill. You are doing what you are suppose to do. We are providing you with a service and you are paying us for it. It costs us money to truck roll, we are not going to waste money for the tech to come out when there is nothing for him to check."

I am sure some of the guys who have been in IT a while will have some doozies.

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Comments

tstrip007

I always tell it like it is. I don't make people feel like an idiot but if you lie and throw me under the bus like ^^^. I take a firm stance to make sure that BS doesnt happen again.

JoJoCal19

Just love it when the businesses think they can work directly with a vendor to upgrade/change their software without consulting security.

Bokeh

An old when when I was in the Air Force doing DT support. User calls and says he has a virus, that only erases data on weekends. Ok, thats a new one, so I go out there on Fri to see what the issue is. They backup their data to floppy (yes, thats how long ago it was). I take the disc, scan it, and no viruses found. He says ok, and I leave.

Mon morning he calls up all livid, the virus is back! I lost all my data! Now, my boss can hear him screaming through the phone. We tell him we both will be back on Fri to see if we can again find this so called virus.

Fri afternoon, we are back. Scan the computer, scan the floppy, nothing. User says he doesn't understand, but will give it one more time before pushing it further up the chain of command. As we go to leave .... we see his so called virus in action. Customer uses a MAGNET to hold his floppy to his part ion wall, since putting it in a drawer will make him forget where he put it!!!

Luckily, he worked in supply and wasn't one to get paid to drop nukes!

--chris--

tstrip007 wrote: »

I always tell it like it is. I don't make people feel like an idiot but if you lie and throw me under the bus like ^^^. I take a firm stance to make sure that BS doesnt happen again.

This happens quite a bit, but usually not that dramatic lol. Company policy > my policy. Of course I would love to take a firm stance with them!

--chris--

Bokeh wrote: »

An old when when I was in the Air Force doing DT support. User calls and says he has a virus, that only erases data on weekends. Ok, thats a new one, so I go out there on Fri to see what the issue is. They backup their data to floppy (yes, thats how long ago it was). I take the disc, scan it, and no viruses found. He says ok, and I leave.

Mon morning he calls up all livid, the virus is back! I lost all my data! Now, my boss can hear him screaming through the phone. We tell him we both will be back on Fri to see if we can again find this so called virus.

Fri afternoon, we are back. Scan the computer, scan the floppy, nothing. User says he doesn't understand, but will give it one more time before pushing it further up the chain of command. As we go to leave .... we see his so called virus in action. Customer uses a MAGNET to hold his floppy to his part ion wall, since putting it in a drawer will make him forget where he put it!!!

Luckily, he worked in supply and wasn't one to get paid to drop nukes!

I had one similiar, user is complaining about getting a flashing white prompt & PC wont "turn on".

I get there, and sure enough it looks like its XP that cant find its MBR. Just a blinking cursor. So I let the user know we are getting a new workstation and blah blah blah...while disconnecting everything I see she was using magnets to stick pictures of her family to the side of the tower. I asked how long this has been here (the magnet), she said "oh I did that last night"..."I just love my kid".

kurosaki00

Too many things...

Engineers giving us (the noc) crap because they gave us bad instructions. We actually began recording every, single call. They stopped doing it after a few instances we just pulled the call for them. They were ahh.. I meant to say...
Sure buddy, sure.

There was a help desk department, which was supposed to do initial troubleshooting and if it was something affecting the network, they would FW it to us.
SD: NOC here's a ticket, user cant connect to internet
NOC: ... I dont see any troubleshooting. What are the details?
SD: User at #*# Building cant....
NOC: yes, I got that but what troubleshooting steps were taken? Are other users in that room able to access the internet?
SD: Yes
NOC: So only that person is having issues?
SD: Yes
NOC: How is that a network problem?

NOC: Hello, We see the circuit to XYZ Building as down, do you guys have power issues or any maintenance or work going on?
Customer: Yes we have power, nothing going on. Please help, internet is down!
NOC: Can you please confirm the equipment has power?
Customer: Yes we got power
NOC: We'll do some testing and see if we need to send a tech/ping fiber provider or wut.
*some time passes by*
NOC Tech: Hello NOC, went to site and found the breaker at the equipment room was tripped because someone was doing work in the building.
NOC: ....................................=\

Mutata

People who know enough to be dangerous. Also people who use terms that they have heard in conversation that they think make sense together.

"Ping the bandwidth"

*sigh*

RHEL

Them: "I was told you're on-call this weekend. We have a very important 10 hour long weekend change we need UNIX support on. Oh and sorry for the two days notice. Hope you didn't have any weekend plans."
Me: *cancels any and all plans*

Pupil

- dealing with end-users who are rude, arrogant and entitled
- not being valued for work you do and the skills you bring to the table
- FUD around IT news especially cyber security issues

Mooseboost

Customer: My internet is working.
Tech: I'm sorry to hear that! Let me check the equipment....
........
Tech: I was able to log into your router. Are you having issues accessing a particular web page?
Customer: Nothing will load! Every time I try to use the internet it freezing! It keeps tell me it is not responding. You better solve this NOW or I am going to CANCEL..
Tech: That is an issue with your PC, not with the internet. Have you tried rebooting your computer or running an anti-virus program?
Customer: I just bought this computer! IT IS NOT MY COMPUTER. RAWR RAWR RAWR.

My day would not be complete without one of these. The longer I work my job the more I wish there was a basic computer skill test you must pass to purchase any windows 8 machine. Or before we sell you internet access.

Or the better one..

Customer: My tv isn't working.
Tech: I am sorry to hear that. Bear with me for one moment while I access your account.
..........
Tech: I do not see that you have our TV services, only our internet. You will need to check with your video service provider to troubleshoot your connection.
Customer: I PAY YOU EVERY MONTH WHAT DO YOU MEAN!?

Customer was not aware that his DirectTV service was not part of us. We went on for 10 minutes after he demanded to speak to a supervisor and not so me lowly tech who obviously didn't understand how to read his account. Customer got upset with us and ended up getting disconnected due to non-pay because he refused to pay his bill until we send a tech out to fix his TV.

The craziest thing I have ever heard of at work was a customer who called in to complain their wifi wasn't working... at the beach... 300 miles away from their house. They told us if we couldn't provide them wifi on their laptop then they would cancel their services. We tried 100x ways to explain to the customer how wifi works but they refused to believe anything we said.

nascar_paul

Mutata wrote: »

People who know enough to be dangerous. Also people who use terms that they have heard in conversation that they think make sense together.

"Ping the bandwidth"

*sigh*

"Open up a command prompt to and charge the flux capacitor to one point twenty-one jigowatts!"

olaHalo

nascar_paul wrote: »

"Open up a command prompt to and charge the flux capacitor to one point twenty-one jigowatts!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkDD03yeLnU

bpenn

Mooseboost wrote: »

Customer: My internet is working.
Tech: I'm sorry to hear that! Let me check the equipment....
........
Tech: I was able to log into your router. Are you having issues accessing a particular web page?
Customer: Nothing will load! Every time I try to use the internet it freezing! It keeps tell me it is not responding. You better solve this NOW or I am going to CANCEL..
Tech: That is an issue with your PC, not with the internet. Have you tried rebooting your computer or running an anti-virus program?
Customer: I just bought this computer! IT IS NOT MY COMPUTER. RAWR RAWR RAWR.

My day would not be complete without one of these. The longer I work my job the more I wish there was a basic computer skill test you must pass to purchase any windows 8 machine. Or before we sell you internet access.

Or the better one..

Customer: My tv isn't working.
Tech: I am sorry to hear that. Bear with me for one moment while I access your account.
..........
Tech: I do not see that you have our TV services, only our internet. You will need to check with your video service provider to troubleshoot your connection.
Customer: I PAY YOU EVERY MONTH WHAT DO YOU MEAN!?

Customer was not aware that his DirectTV service was not part of us. We went on for 10 minutes after he demanded to speak to a supervisor and not so me lowly tech who obviously didn't understand how to read his account. Customer got upset with us and ended up getting disconnected due to non-pay because he refused to pay his bill until we send a tech out to fix his TV.

The craziest thing I have ever heard of at work was a customer who called in to complain their wifi wasn't working... at the beach... 300 miles away from their house. They told us if we couldn't provide them wifi on their laptop then they would cancel their services. We tried 100x ways to explain to the customer how wifi works but they refused to believe anything we said.

Moose, simply reading this made my blood boil. I have dealt with people like this and the ignorance knows no bounds.

Mooseboost

bpenn wrote: »

Moose, simply reading this made my blood boil. I have dealt with people like this and the ignorance knows no bounds.

The biggest thing I have learned at a high volume help desk is that you have to let things go or you will get an ulcer.

Fulcrum45

I'm a fan of the "I haven't been able to work all day due to XYZ..." trouble ticket that their boss somehow gets CCed on. I don't think they realize how a manager with even a surface level IQ will see right through that excuse.

Usually its a simple fix they KNOW how to do. I tell my users that their PC is like their car. I don't even expect them to change the oil but I do expect them to know where the turn signal is located.

markulous

Fulcrum45 wrote: »

I'm a fan of the "I haven't been able to work all day due to XYZ..." trouble ticket that their boss somehow gets CCed on. I don't think they realize how a manager with even a surface level IQ will see right through that excuse.

Usually its a simple fix they KNOW how to do. I tell my users that their PC is like their car. I don't even expect them to change the oil but I do expect them to know where the turn signal is located.

That reminds me of a client we work with that we give IT support to. They had tons of users from a particular call center as well as remote users in that area that would come up with some BS excuse to why they can't work. E.g. IE is performing slow, Outlook froze up on me one time (working fine after), etc. It got so bad that now they have to go directly to their manager any time they have the smallest IT issue before they actually go to IT. Seemed to work fine until their managers are giving them bad IT advice and trying to play technician.

Repo Man

networker050184 wrote: »

My biggest is people who can not follow standards. If you are going to do something more than once do it that same way every time. Don't go off doing your own thing if there is a standard set. If there isn't yet let's make one. Some people think small things like interface descriptions etc. are trivial and don't matter, but it does. You can't automate and audit if there are not standards followed. It's also much easier to jump in and troubleshoot an issue if everything is consistent. The problems start jumping out at you at that point.

Can't even count how many times I asked upper management if something should be allowed and the response is 'Who is asking for it'.

I generally don't have issues with users. They are the reason most of us have jobs. I have more issues with internal IT (know it all engineers, people not following prootocol, people being lazy) than any other department.

Kai123

Account Managers selling EFM.

crimsonavenger

Mooseboost wrote: »

The craziest thing I have ever heard of at work was a customer who called in to complain their wifi wasn't working... at the beach... 300 miles away from their house. They told us if we couldn't provide them wifi on their laptop then they would cancel their services. We tried 100x ways to explain to the customer how wifi works but they refused to believe anything we said.

That's golden.

Priston

When I was in community college there was one student that wasted 10-15 mins out every class because he didn't know the difference between right click and left click. After a few weeks I think he was asked to stop attending.

alias454

One thing that grinds my gears are askholes. Askholes are the people who butter you up telling you how much they value your opinion and expertise, only to ignore your opinion and expertise, when it doesn't validate their own.

kohr-ah

What grinds my gears: Recent college grads who work our help desk.

Dont get me wrong. I get along with them and they aren't bad people. But I work and study hard to perfect the knowledge I have as a network engineer and to have them consistently inform one of the 5000 users I support wrong because they took a "Cisco course in college" grinds my IT gears.

kohr-ah

Priston wrote: »

When I was in community college there was one student that wasted 10-15 mins out every class because he didn't know the difference between right click and left click. After a few weeks I think he was asked to stop attending.

out of curiosity did they only use a mac book which had the single mouse button his/her whole life?

gadav478

I just don't like working with complainers. I don't see how you can complain about nearly every aspect of your job and still put up with being there. You signed up for this!!! ::END RANT::

I've working with teams where actual grown men (I'm only 25 so I can get away with saying that lol) complain all the time, about home, about work, about nothing. It just drains the life out of me sometimes because they are/were often employees in a much better situation than myself (full time employee vs being contractor, benefits, more pay, etc). It's true what they say, do what you love or at least like because no matter how good the job/benefits are, they can't make you happy. At least that's my experience.

jtoast

gadav478 wrote: »

I just don't like working with complainers. I don't see how you can complain about nearly every aspect of your job and still put up with being there. You signed up for this!!! ::END RANT::

Speaking as an older IT guy, we generally just like to B*tch. It makes the day go by faster. Don't take it seriously. If we really hated the job that much, most of us would quit.

Edificer

For the past several months our fiber underground was singlemode, and the patch cords from the ODF to the switches/core switches/routers were multimode, and the SFPs were multimode.

Some of the links worked by 'chance' and the server guys were happy with that. We made it uniform, and changed all fiber end to end point, SFPs singlemode, right now they are blaming us that we made this change so that the server is overloaded and does not work properly.

We thought we corrected their mistakes but right now they are blaming us that we created disaster. They say we changed the SFPs from multi to single that caused damage to the SFP ports on the Gigabit switches. The lights are blinking green. We have ping connectivity to all fiber points.

First we asked them did you make any changes in the server?
They respond, 'no, the only change is that you made to the SFPs'

When we checked the traffic, we found that the antivirus that they installed and deployed and pushed out to hundred of clients that caused massive congestion. After disabling the antivurs, the connection, shares, were working instantaneously.