Email Address != Email Password

[clowninasack]

We usually only have one person working Saturday, and it rotates through all the employees. The person that was working Saturday is not ta technician so left us an email to expect an old couple bringing their machine in because the email wasn't working. The local ISP had been having trouble with their email server recently so we were pretty sure it was a simple fix, but that is not the sucky part. I just happen to be near the front desk when they stroll in with their computer. We'll call the husband Phil, the wife Jill, and the girl at the front desk Sally.

Jill: "We've got a computer to be looked at."
Sally: "What seems to be wrong with it?"
Jill: "WE WERE TOLD YOU WOULD BE EXPECTING US!!!!"
Sally: "OK, are you *picks a name of the LIST of people to expect today*?"
Jill: "Yes."
Sally: "OK, so you're having an email problem? Now *local ISP* was having some trouble with their mail server so it's probably just something to do with that. We will take a look and find out what exactly is going on. Now before you go can I get your email password please?"
Phil: "SuckyCustomer."
Sally: "Are there any other passwords on the computer?"
Jill: "Buffy"
Sally: "Is that what you use to log on?"
Jill & Phil: "Yes."
Sally: "OK, so you have 'SuckyCustomer' as your email password and you use 'buffy' to log on to the computer, right?"
Jill: "We don't use 'buffy' for anything."
Sally: "... So what do you use buffy for?"
Jill: "EMAIL!!!!!"
Sally: "Oh, so what is 'SuckyCustomer' for?"
Jill: "EMAIL!!!!!"
Sally: "It's your email address? Is that 'SuckyCustomer@*localisp*'?"
Jill: "YES!"
Sally: "Ok, clowninasack here will bring it upstairs and take a look."

Turns out they had been trying their email password over and over, but rather than deleting what was in the password box they had appended to it each time. i.e. 'SuckyCustomerSuckyCustomerSuckyCustomerSuckyCusto mer'. Since it was blanked out I don't know if they were using the right or wrong password too. I popped in the password they gave me and it worked right away. Almost all the email that came through was junkmail. They also complained that the computer was 'slow' all the time and that windows defender kept giving errors. The latter was true but the computer is not that slow. It's old, but there is barely anything running on it other than Norton (blegh). They have the 'lite' package (128k/128k) so that's probably it. I cringe explaining this to them.

[gunsage]

Email Address != Email Password

"Whut in da hael is thayat? E-mail address exclamation point equals e-mail password? Boy, you tryin' ta confuddle mah ass?"

Sadly, I understand how to program, but I'm not currently doing so. Of course, this is primarily because I'm getting various certifications completely paid for by my current company and I'm hoping to get myself diagonally transferred to MIS or some sort of databasing project within the company. Even if I think there's no hope of that, I have to fulfill an amount of time within the company after my certification funding ends per HR. After that, though, if they're not cooperative, you bet your ass I'll be somewhere better and QUICK.

Anyway, I told you that to reference this. Your initial statement got me thinking about it.

[IvorTangrean]

Anyway, I told you that to reference this. Your initial statement got me thinking about it.

Breathe

[clowninasack]

Hahaha, I've seen that quote before, and it is still funny .

[gunsage]

There was a situation once where I hadn't prepared at all for a programming exam. For one of the answers where I was totally clueless, I put my answer as...

I have discovered the meaning of life!

life = !dead.

[ArcticChicken]

So what did you get on the test?

[gunsage]

I got an F. It was all essay and I knew next to nothing about object oriented evil because I wasn't doing my assignments. Sure, I'm better now with degree in hand, but that doesn't mean I have actual job experience.