Let’s try this one more time
A firm offers ways to contact IT for help. “I got a panicked call directly from one user who had tracked me down via a company receptionist who was aware of the emergency pager schedule,” reports a support pilot fish on the scene. “At the same time, I noticed a 911 emergency call had been placed from the same user’s office moments before. Upon investigation, he confessed that he had intentionally dialed 911 in an attempt to contact our emergency technical support line. Needless to say, it’s doubtful the local emergency dispatch centre had access to a service to assist this particular caller.”
Oops!
Pilot fish at this startup develops an online application that involves a file library download. “During testing, I use a small, fast-downloading stock image of a monkey for my test download file,” says fish. “When the application is working without errors, it gets handed off to marketing and quality control for peer testing, and then the executive VP of marketing gives the order to go live.” But the VP has neglected to supply the file library that’s actually supposed to be downloaded. And when the first customer downloads the “library,” the puzzled call to customer support is inevitable: “Is this what I get for $200? A picture of a monkey?”
Not IT’s problem
This user is on the road, it’s his assistant who relays a trouble report by e-mail to the help desk: “His screen is shaking on his laptop.” Pilot fish replies: “When will he be back in the office? This may not be one we can fix remotely.” Assistant’s e-mailed response: “Never mind. The building was shaking. The computer is OK.”
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