Grrr... Do they want me to make something up?

[sirwired]

SC has nasty-complicated issue for three weeks. Despite the fact that my job can be done entirely from my desk, my esteemed employer decides to fly me halfway across the country to hold their hands, and talk them through things a monkey could do.

I fly up there on Monday with a $85k piece of diagnostic equipment to figure out what the heck is going on. Upon my arrival, I am informed by the local sales drones that the problem disappeared on Friday, although the customer neglected to inform us until Monday morning, an hour before I arrive. Grrr...

Anyway, they still have some lingering issues, and we want to make sure we capture the problem if it returns, so I install the expensive test equipment (which takes two days for them to find time to do so), and then putz around until going home yesterday evening.

The big problem I was flown up there to work still hadn't come back.

SC gets on phone today and rants as to wanting to know why the problem they no longer have ever occurred. Yeah, too bad it went away before the tool that would have answered that question could be installed. Of course, in answer to the universal question of "what did you change?" is met with the classic response of "Nothing! It just broke/fixed itself!"

They rant that they won't get on any more conference calls until we can tell them what happened. I think to myself: "Is that a promise?

SirWired

[lordlundar]

Look at the bright side; paid trip and paid to effectively tap lights and smell the air!

[sirwired]

Yeah, it would have been nice if I was going to some pleasant part of the country... instead, I went from the sunny south, to the wet, cold, not-quite-spring-yet midwest. I also had other things I needed to be doing at the office that didn't involve these clowns...

SirWired

[crashhelmet]

I worked for a couple of companies that worked me like that. One in particular was just like this. The employee that I had to support like this was actually the employer. He was the CEO. Sometimes worked out of the corp office in Menlo Park, CA and sometimes worked from the corporate office of the company he came from after we bought them out. (Never understood why a company buys out another, only to have them run the show).

I got a phone call at 2 am one morning telling me I had a 6:30am flight out of San Francisco (I lived in San Jose) to Boston for a problem with the CEO's laptop. Thinking of the worst possible, I stopped at the office on the way (thankfully it wa son the way to the airport) and grabbed a laptop with fresh image of his HDD on it, and flew out.

After a 6 hour flight and a 30 minute cab ride, I find out what the "emergency" is.

He wanted his memory upgraded. No memory errors or inability to run programs. Just wanted his memory upgraded

No, it couldn't wait for him to come back to California. No, it couldn't be done by anyone on-site. it wa sno surprise to me when the company folded a few months later and got bought out.

CH

[Gurndigarn]

(Never understood why a company buys out another, only to have them run the show).

Company A has money. Company B has a clue. At least, that's the ideal situation. The worse situations, that happen far more often, are either:

Company A has money. Company B is the current hot up-and-coming compnay with a good product and an insanely smart management board. Company A wants those things, buys the company, then integrates them into the existing structure of Company A. In the process, they destroy the management board they wanted to get. Good employees find other work, bad employees stick around. The products that they get don't get upgraded on time and following the spirit of their predecessors (software), or get cheapened "for cost-effectiveness" (manufacturing), destroying the brand's reputation.

--OR--

Company A and Company B are competitors, usually in a service or banking industry. One buys another in a stock-for-stock deal so that they can combine their customer base. They gleefully announce that they're firing a whole bunch of staff. Customer service and production immediatly take a big hit, because less staff means less service for their customers and fewer people making products or deals. Customers get fed up with the lower quality service and goods, and leave. In the end, the new company ends up smaller than the two were before the deal-- decreased by a percentage roughly equal to the percentages of employees they fired.

[marasbaras]

"Nothing! It just broke/fixed itself!

Never true. NEVER.

[jerkface11]

Never true. NEVER.

HA! we have a drink machine in our drivethru that automatically makes the drinks people order. It randomly breaks and fixes itself (breaks when techs aren't around works perfectly when they show up)

[wolfie]

HA! we have a drink machine in our drivethru that automatically makes the drinks people order. It randomly breaks and fixes itself (breaks when techs aren't around works perfectly when they show up)

Sounds like you need to disable the Mechanic Proximity Sensor (usually located next to the Warranty Expiration Detector).

[Cyphr]

sometimes things randomly fix themselves. i have a logitech wireless mouse/keyboard combo so it has a single reciver - about 2 months ago the keyboard stopped working unless you had it ina specfic USB plug - mouse always worked the keyboard did't bout a month after that it fixed it self guess vista DL'd a new driver or something...

[Banthor the Unruly]

Hell, there are times when I can just touch something and get it work again. I wish I knew how I did it. I think Dilbert called "the Knack"

[Andara Bledin]

Machines like me. Things that won't work for anyone else will work when I use them.

^-.-^

[lordlundar]

Hell, there are times when I can just touch something and get it work again. I wish I knew how I did it. I think Dilbert called "the Knack"

I have the opposite effect with machines. When I touch one that's not working, it ends up completely wrecked.

Of course, maybe it's because my touching is similar to this: