ID10T Error!!!

TechGuy215

Ok, what's the biggest ID10T error you came accross while helping an end-user. Ready...Set...Go!

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MrAgent

"I dont see an any key"

TechZilla

My screen is black and pressing keys doesn't wake the computer?

"Press power button."

eansdad

Other than the fact that some people just shouldn't be allowed near technology?

Interviewer asked if you knew TCP/IP...She sounded it out like a word...

Asked "How do you get to the rest of the document"...Scroll down

The ever so famous ... User: "My machine doesn't turn on"
Tech: "Is it plugged in"
User: "Yes" ... Now I've had it go 2 different ways from this point ...
Tech: "Did you push the power button to turn it on"
User: "How do I do that?"
Also had
Tech: "I'll be right their"
Got to desk and find either A. power strip not on/not plugged in B. They never hit the power button C. They have a light switch that controls the power in the room.

User: "I can't log in"
Tech: Do you remember your password"
User: "Yes"
Tech: "Did you remember the capital letter and number"
User: "Nevermind, I got in"

they go on....

And remember these are the people teacher the youth of America!!!

eansdad

Almost forgot ...

User: "I can't get my laptop to project on the Smartboard"
Tech: "Press the FN key and F8"
User: "No need to curse at me"....DOH

tstrip007

"How do I get my Microsoft Word to convert these audio files to mp3?" ... wait ..what?

srabiee

I recently had one of our new employees call me and inform me that her mouse cursor was moving in the opposite direction than normal. (Moving the mouse upward caused the cursor to move downward on the screen)

I went to her station to investigate and found that she had her mouse flipped around so that her palm was resting on the mouse wheel and buttons. When I informed her that she had the mouse backwards, she was oblivious. And she was in her mid 20's.....

I discovered that she was terminated a few weeks later for incompetency.

TechGuy215

Mine...

It was my turn on the on-call rotation for the after hours support.

Phone rings at 2:30am...

User: "My computer won't boot, and I really have a lot of work I need to get done. I have a huge presentation tomorrow, I've been here all night and I really need to get this done."
Me: "Ok, can you do me a favor and make sure that the power cable didn't accidently disconnect from the outlet."
User: "I can't really tell, the lights are off in my office."
Me: "Can you please turn on your lights so we can have a look."
User: "The lights won't turn on because the power went out."
Me:

I've also had calls to unlock users AD accounts in the wee hours of the morning. Oh the joys of IT.

NetworkVeteran

TechGuy215 wrote: »

User: "My computer won't boot, and I really have a lot of work I need to get done. I have a huge presentation tomorrow, I've been here all night and I really need to get this done."
...
User: "The lights won't turn on because the power went out."
Me:

Poor guy. Were you able to save the day with a loaner laptop?

I can't recall any "idiot" end-user errors, except my own! Most are brilliant in some aspect of their career or life, perhaps more than one, but at the least those calling support showed they were smart enough to ask for help.

Big errors? 3 days of my work, and an outage, before learning the value of backups!

demonfurbie

rebooting the computer does not equal turning off the monitor and back on

Qord

I had one who reported that the internal sharepoint site was inaccessible. Turns out the problem was that he couldn't find the desktop because Outlook was maximized and in "reading" view so he was confused. After 20 minutes of going back and forth via email, I called the remote site and had a secretary pay him a visit to see what was going on. She called me back laughing, saying sharepoint was fine (which I knew) and that he just couldn't get to the browser shortcuts on the desktop. I guess he told her all about how not-helpful I was in fixing his computer problem.

Danielm7

Many years ago from my own mother after I showed her the CD tray on their first computer.... ohh, it comes with a coffee cup holder! I'll get this whole computer thing after all!

Anonymouse

When I worked in a call center I had users who would turn their monitors off/on when I asked them to reboot the PC. A lot of them would refer to their PC's as modems too. VPN problems were tricky because people would argue with me when I asked them if they were first connected to the internet at which point they would tell me I should probably change careers and that they can't get to the internet because they are not yet connected to VPN.

alan2308

User was leaving for lunch and needed someone to check out a printing issue. User left pop up clearly stating the lack of paper in the printer on their screen.

A colleague had to make a 40 minute round trip visit to another user who couldn't get their computer back on after a power outage. Monitor != computer. User didn't know what that "big black box over there" was.

Arod95

Had to install my company's software on a client workstation for a customer. Asked the user if they could check the version for me so I could tell what version they were licensed for. She said there wasn't a versions tab. She gave me remote control of the computer. She was checking the folder, and not the actual exe. And that's why I love help desk support!

Essendon

Years ago I did the graveyard shift at an ISP, user called up about 2am complaining his internet didnt work, despite the fact he had bought a brand new modem. Asked him what lights he could see on the it, he said the modem was still in its box. :facepalm:

srabiee

Essendon wrote: »

Years ago I did the graveyard shift at an ISP, user called up about 2am complaining his internet didnt work, despite the fact he had bought a brand new modem. Asked him what lights he could see on the it, he said the modem was still in its box. :facepalm:

I had that one many times when I worked for a DSL provider.

I once had an old woman call in stating that she had just purchased her first computer and needed help getting online. She didn't know what a "mouse" was. I described what the mouse looked like to her repeatedly because she couldn't physically locate it. She finally said "Oh, you mean the foot pedal!"

higherho

This week our test engineer asked me how to burn files to a disc in windows 7. Then shortly after asked me how to move a file to a file share (which the file share was open and visible on the screen. Scary thing is they call these people engineers.

gbdavidx

demonfurbie wrote: »

rebooting the computer does not equal turning off the monitor and back on

this, get so many of that!!!

once they give you the machine name you can ping it, then you know the customer is an idiot!!

I had one where the user (mexican), couldn't spell Welcome (password reset)

2URGSE

Oh, there are many many calls, but here a good one back from 2004:

Me: Click on START, and then click on My Computer. (Windows XP client)

End user: ok, I'm at the My Computer screen, what do I do now?

Me: Click on the C:\ drive

End user: Hmmm.....there is no C:\ drive here

Me: <silence for 5 seconds>

Me: Look again, it should be there......

End user: I see a

\ drive and it says CD-ROM

Me: Is there a C:\ drive anywhere near it?

End user: <after like 10 minutes> Oh ya!! It says C:\ drive right next it....

Me: <sigh.....WTF>

Anonymouse

Another weird thing that happened when I was at a call center was that I would direct people to folders on their desktops and they would actually search their physical desk. I probably should have dumbed it down and said look for a folder on your screen though.

vanquish23

"The Internet is down." Really, because if the power grids go down there are backup generators for at least 8+ hours.

xXErebuS

Had a lady report that something was wrong with her laptop (cursor jumping all over the place while she was typing); not my department but she was an important lady; turns out she was resting her palms on the touch pad while typing....

sleepingturtle

All of these issues are so familiar.
My favorite is the sales manager at one office I worked complained that her computer was running slow back in 97. She had a Win2K with the minimal ram to run office etc no powerhouse. Turned out she had installed every bit of eye candy possible. Moving wallpaper, mouse trail that left sparkles etc. Sigh.
The worst is in the same office, one of legal dept had a slow computer issue. It was lagging hard. Didn't see any untoward programs, etc so I flushed the cache using Crap Cleaner (now known as CCleaner) First and only time I have seen the program lock the system down while cleaning. The legal rep apparently loved to surf the net. Had a 40gb drive, over 15gb were internet cache files. Wow.

Scorch1

Some of this stuff is priceless!

Here's my contribution; when I first started in help desk we had an older user (maybe 40's or so) call in and leave a voice mail. In his voice mail he states that he was trying to troubleshoot a problem on our website so he was trying to clear temp. internet files, cookies, etc. and one of them gave him a popup stating "Parental controls blocked this setting". He then goes on to say that he called his mom and asked her about the controls.. naturally she laughed at him. We all did too.

MrAgent

Reminds me of this video
The Website Is Down - Sales Guy vs. Web Dude - YouTube

glenn_33

tstrip007 wrote: »

"How do I get my Microsoft Word to convert these audio files to mp3?" ... wait ..what?

bahahahahaha

redz

"My speakers are broken, I need you to take apart my computer and replace them so that I don't have to get external speakers."

It was muted.

PhoneJockey

My client runs citrix on their machines and often I will have doctors and practice managers call from out of town or at home wanting to do some work from personal machines. I guide them to download the newest citrix receiver and well they start clicking the pictures without realizing they are just instructions.

In my ISP support days I once had a lady going bat sheet crazy about emptying her recycle bin. She did not want to believe the file she needed was not recoverable through normal means. She kept asking over and over again where the files go after the bin is emptied and literally asked about 5 times in a row. At one point in time I just shook my head and said "The files go to recycle bin heaven" she abruptly got the point and disconnected the call.

Citrix.jpg

N2IT

Came from a friend of mine from Best Buy. A farmer (nothing against farmers) picked up a pc with software etc. Brought the computer back up to the store hooting and hollering. Said the computer wouldn't work. Said he installed the software inside the computer and it wasn't working. After a few roundabouts the customer service rep discovered the guy had physically opened up the computer and put the packaged software into the computer.

NetworkVeteran

PhoneJockey wrote: »

She kept asking over and over again where the files go after the bin is emptied and literally asked about 5 times in a row. At one point in time I just shook my head and said "The files go to recycle bin heaven" she abruptly got the point and disconnected the call.

How about, "They're actually in the same place, just sprayed with invisible paint. There's software that can detect invisible files and wash off the paint before it dries. However, if you wait and the paint dries, you'll never get it off."