I did that, it didn't work.

[Talonetc]

This is a good one from a few days back: guy came in with a Palm Treo that was powercycling (turning on and off at random).

CS = Customer
Me = Yea...

CS: "My phone is shutting itself on and off."
Me: "Okay, let me take a look."
*Confirms that the phone is power cycling.*
CS: "So are you going to give me the new model?"
Me: "No, do you have your data synced to your computer?"
CS: "You can do that for me."
Me: "Actually, I can't."
CS: "I have very important text messages."
Me: "Okay... well I need to do a hard reset on your phone - it will whipe everything out and reset it back to factory settings."
CS: "Well I don't know how to sync it."
Me: "I am extremely confident that a hard reset will solve this issue, you have a bunch of 3rd party applications that are probably just causing a software conflict."
CS: "I did a hard reset yesterday then hot sync'd it and it started doing it again."
Me: "I thought you didn't know how to sync it."
CS: "What? No, well I already did the reset it didn't work. Look I've been with ***** for 10 years..."
*Oh sweet Jesus...*
CS: "I pay for insurance, I think I should get the new Treo."
Me: "I can't do that without a hard reset, I can't approve an exchange without trying everything."
CS: "Well I don't have it backed up."
Me: *What the FUCK? YOU JUST SAID...?*
CS: "When I reset it and put my stuff back it did it again."
Me: "So when you erased everything it was fine, then you put all the applications back and it started doing it again?"
CS: "Yea, exactly."
Me: "Wouldn't that indicate to you that you are putting the problem right back in the phone after you reset it?"
CS: "Look, I can see that you don't care about my problem - let me talk to your manager."
Me: "Sure, I'll just let him know that you want to talk to him but won't let me help you. Wait here, just a few minutes ok?"
CS: "Thank you."

I was baffled. Just... baffled.

[Cyphr]

huh? I don't know what this guy was thinking but he musta been ons ome good stuff to say he did back it up then he didnt then he did...

[draggar]

Multiply that by about 10,000 and that was my typical day as a tech in the store. Yes, people, PDA phones reset. There's nothing you can do about it. A hard reset fixes it, for now.

I used to just ask them "If your computer reboots, do you get a new one? Nope, you're instructed to reinstall Windows.

[Phone Jockey]

People are just ignorant about their own mistakes. Total denial.

[Cyphr]

too true it makes the world a sad place... try getting blamed for a machine breaking your not even allowed to touch and you've never been in the room with...

[coldcupofjoe]

I've been blamed for breaking a car that I had never even seen before in my life.

But I did fix it though. Bad water pump.

[Imogene]

I'm not in tech services, and, in fact, didn't have a job when this one was laid on me, but an ex friend once told me he blamed me for the end of the world/universe, to which I turned to him, smiled, and said, "Hon, that's common knowledge at this point. I plan to overthrow democracy by 2050."

Of course, he is now an exfriend, due to his refusal to let me have my beliefs.

[Shabo]

I hate that phrase. "Did that, didn't work." Nine times out of ten, they didn't do it.

Case in point: Gentleman calls up because his monitor is giving him strange colors. I ask him to make sure both of the connections to the monitor are firmly plugged in. He says they are. I ask him to check anyway. Guess what? One of the plugs was loose! Score one for me.

*I'm sure there are many more instances of this in the time that I've been doing tech support, but darn if I can remember them right now!*

[Naaman]

yeah - the "tried that, didn't work" is always a giveaway, most people who know how to do any form of troubleshooting normally start "This isn't happening, here is what I've tried...".

As to checking loose cables, if it was the monitor or base unit, we used to find it far easier to get them to swap the leads than ask them to 'check the leads' as this far to often meant (to the SC anyway) a light wiggle of the plug.

[Shabo]

Hmmmm... excellent suggestion, Naaman...

*makes mental note*

[Naaman]

If it can make your job easier I'm happy to assist

[Imogene]

Couple of weeks ago, Dad had Mom call our ISP, as our DSL was crapping out at random times. Bro & I had both tried our damnedest to fix it, and nothing was working. Mom had gone so far as to buy a new router (not opened, at that point) on our suggestion. Mom called the ISP, and explained, while I did the manual stuff for Mom as she relayed it to me (not more than two feet from her, so she wasn't shouting or anything). ISP told mom to power-cycle, which we had all done a number of times by then. However, with ISP on the phone, the power-cycle worked.
For five seconds. Just long enough for Mom to end the conversation. So at least we knew it wasn't the router. So, I started fiddling again, and suddenly realized my comp was getting a signal, but Mom's comp wasn't. Um, okay...
I checked my settings, and realized it was no longer on a static IP, and that's what had fixed my connection. So, I hopped over to Mom's, set hers to the same, and haven't had difficulty since.