Aah
I see we have a few replies on the QOTW from IT Tekkies saying how they fake it most of the time while at work. I work for an IT company and even though the unofficial tekkie repair motto is "switch it off then switch it back on again" I have to say that the worst people for faking IT knowledge has to be the sales staff.

The sales guys will sit down with a client and promise them that the kit/ software they are about to buy will do a number of things to make the business better and then leave it to the tekkies to sort out the impossible:

Client: So if I buy this new software for accounts and install it onto my 10 year old server it will run faster?
Salesmonkey: Yes, and if you spend an extra £1,000 you can log in from anywhere in the world to check the accounts
Tekky: Um dont you think we should put it on a seperate server it is a pretty resource intense program, they dont even have anything for remote access to the server at the moment.
Salesmonkey: Silence you , we sell the kit ,you make it work and we blame you when it all goes tits up!
Client: Will this affect the DOS system we created ourselves to use for stock? We will probably still use it you see.
Salesmonkey: Oh no, that will be fine, wont it Tekkybloke
(Tekky walks away muttering about updating his CV)
(mon bison powered by magnets, Fri 11 Jul 2008, 11:06, 3 replies)

It does happen alot
Our sales team sell products regardless of OS or age of the comp; I've spoken to people trying to install wireless USB dongles on a 486 in the past, all due to sales promising the Earth. Thankfully I've got the option of sending the poor customer back to the Sales Manager and get the sales rep bastard crucified, which does help a bit.
( Jeccius Steam Borderlands 2 junkie, Fri 11 Jul 2008, 11:13, closed)

This isn't limited to IT
I have had to defuse the mess from ambitiously oversold multiroom installs ("yes of course it will send a 1080p full HD signal with HD soundtrack to 30 rooms over wireless") and my Dad has dealt with defence contractors promising the moon on a stick.

Sales types are sales types be they selling IT or anything else.
(Leonard Hatred briefly did some work on, Fri 11 Jul 2008, 11:19, closed)

True
its the clueless sales people that piss me off. I am a member of sales and if I have to prepare a quote I usually run it by someone in the know first so as little as possible can go wrong.

The trouble is that most people in sales only give a monkeys about their end of month bonus.
(mon bison powered by magnets, Fri 11 Jul 2008, 11:24, closed)