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Some of the users at The Client are located in locations that the IT Service Desk cannot remote-access to assist. Explaining why would push the limits of obfuscation, suffice to say that some of the ways in which the ITSD can help these users are therefore limited. There is a separate support desk for these users, although their calls still sometimes come to ITSD. Particularly on weekends, like today.
This post deals with a single user that I had to deal with tonight. As I write this, I'm hoping she doesn't call back.
Call the First
Sucky User calls in with an issue with her mail client. She'd been getting an error message when trying to launch it. Typical ITSD procedure for mail client errors is to remote-access into their computer to assist. However, when I tried to look up her computer information, I was getting nothing. I couldn't figure out why this might be, and asked the user what the computer ID was. She said she'd logged out and rebooted it, and went off to go log back into it.
Yes, the phone from which she had to call ITSD wasn't located by the computer. This is not unusual. Not common, but not unusual.
This left me sitting waiting for her to come back. After five minutes of silence, I admit I disconnected the call, cancelling out the ticket I'd started filling in, but made sure to note why I'd cancelled it in the ticket.
Sucky User's tone wasn't exactly the most pleasant, I should note. She seemed annoyed that I couldn't immediately fix it.
Call the Second
About ten minutes after I hung up on the first call, Sucky User called back. She'd finished logging back into her computer, but my tools still weren't turning up any information about her computer ID. Fortunately, she did have her computer ID. Unfortunately, the ID started with a code that immediately told me that she was at one of those locations that ITSD is unable to remote-assist.
When I told her this, she wasn't too happy, but she seemed to get less sucky when I told her I could send a trouble ticket to the other support desk. So I typed up the ticket, sent it on to them, and even gave her a phone number I found on that other support desk, specifically the one that services her particular location. This seemed to satisfy her and she hung up.
Call the Third
This is where she turned suckier. She called back about twenty minutes later, noticeably angry that no one had contacted her yet, and a bit annoyed that she'd gotten me again. She wanted to know if there was anyone else at the ITSD that could assist her. I told her there wasn't, it was just me tonight. She didn't like the sound of that, and wanted to know why I couldn't help her.
I explained to her that ITSD doesn't have the ability to remote-assist users in her location. She called bullshit on that, claiming she'd gotten assistance from people at ITSD in the past. She then said that if I couldn't help her, could I at least give her something to try, herself, so she can try to get into her mail client.
So I started searching our database for possible fixes. Unfortunately, none of the fixes I was finding specified the error she was describing, and all the other fixes were so involved and complicated that it is highly recommended that a tech like me remote-assist or visit the user at their desk. I tried to explain this to her, but she told me to just give her the procedure anyway.
So I started reading off the instructions, which were quite involved, and involved going into various folders on the computer and network, deleting possibly corrupted files. She was following along, probably writing it down, or at least trying to keep it all clear in her head...
...but I was two-thirds of the way done when ... *click*
I stared at the phone, shrugged, and said, "Well, fuck you too."
Then I documented the call in the ticket, noted the procedures I'd been relating to her, and noted that she'd hung up before I finished.
This post deals with a single user that I had to deal with tonight. As I write this, I'm hoping she doesn't call back.
Call the First
Sucky User calls in with an issue with her mail client. She'd been getting an error message when trying to launch it. Typical ITSD procedure for mail client errors is to remote-access into their computer to assist. However, when I tried to look up her computer information, I was getting nothing. I couldn't figure out why this might be, and asked the user what the computer ID was. She said she'd logged out and rebooted it, and went off to go log back into it.
Yes, the phone from which she had to call ITSD wasn't located by the computer. This is not unusual. Not common, but not unusual.
This left me sitting waiting for her to come back. After five minutes of silence, I admit I disconnected the call, cancelling out the ticket I'd started filling in, but made sure to note why I'd cancelled it in the ticket.
Sucky User's tone wasn't exactly the most pleasant, I should note. She seemed annoyed that I couldn't immediately fix it.
Call the Second
About ten minutes after I hung up on the first call, Sucky User called back. She'd finished logging back into her computer, but my tools still weren't turning up any information about her computer ID. Fortunately, she did have her computer ID. Unfortunately, the ID started with a code that immediately told me that she was at one of those locations that ITSD is unable to remote-assist.
When I told her this, she wasn't too happy, but she seemed to get less sucky when I told her I could send a trouble ticket to the other support desk. So I typed up the ticket, sent it on to them, and even gave her a phone number I found on that other support desk, specifically the one that services her particular location. This seemed to satisfy her and she hung up.
Call the Third
This is where she turned suckier. She called back about twenty minutes later, noticeably angry that no one had contacted her yet, and a bit annoyed that she'd gotten me again. She wanted to know if there was anyone else at the ITSD that could assist her. I told her there wasn't, it was just me tonight. She didn't like the sound of that, and wanted to know why I couldn't help her.
I explained to her that ITSD doesn't have the ability to remote-assist users in her location. She called bullshit on that, claiming she'd gotten assistance from people at ITSD in the past. She then said that if I couldn't help her, could I at least give her something to try, herself, so she can try to get into her mail client.
So I started searching our database for possible fixes. Unfortunately, none of the fixes I was finding specified the error she was describing, and all the other fixes were so involved and complicated that it is highly recommended that a tech like me remote-assist or visit the user at their desk. I tried to explain this to her, but she told me to just give her the procedure anyway.
So I started reading off the instructions, which were quite involved, and involved going into various folders on the computer and network, deleting possibly corrupted files. She was following along, probably writing it down, or at least trying to keep it all clear in her head...
...but I was two-thirds of the way done when ... *click*
I stared at the phone, shrugged, and said, "Well, fuck you too."
Then I documented the call in the ticket, noted the procedures I'd been relating to her, and noted that she'd hung up before I finished.
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