Everybody wins
Dickhead salesman comes in with a dead PC from home asking for a "favour". Quickly realise that death was caused by a shonky hard disk. Look up replacement price of disk (£500 at the time - 'twas a while ago) and tell salesman what it's going to cost. "fuck me that's expensive, anyway of getting it any cheaper". No problemo, old chap. I can get you a second-hand one for only £200. Bish-bosh, handshakes all around. Work late that night and go down to the secretarial area and swap the dud disk drive for the one out of the computer belonging to the biggest fucking cow that ever breathed air.

Saleman = happy.
me = £200 richer.
fucking cow = lost all her work, wasn't doing backups, gets the fucking sack.

That, my friends, is WIN, WIN, WIN.
( Linbox has a serious dunk habit, Fri 25 Sep 2009, 4:06, 14 replies)

Trusting your users
to take their own backups is a stupid, negligent policy. Your IT department should be ashamed of itself and so should you for the various breaches of trust you've demonstrated here.

I don't think you're cut out for IT support work. Then again, the story's probably bullshit anyway. Hardly fair to sack someone for what amounts to a hardware failure and a pisspoor IT team.
( chart cat has an itch, Fri 25 Sep 2009, 6:02, closed)

Hear hear.
I'm always amazed at how many IT support people don't seem to get the "support" bit of the job title. Yes, people may ask for stupid, illogical things because they don't know any better... that's why there are IT support jobs to be had.

(I'm a programmer, so know just enough to be dangerous!)
(Pie of Meat ___°¬¯O¯____\o/_____/\_,____Y¯¯Y, Fri 25 Sep 2009, 10:03, closed)

..
If the user is in the wrong I have no problem telling them, If the user does something monumentally stupid I have no problem making a fool out of them, but this is just cunty. And as chart cat says, trusting users to take their own backups................Nooooooooooo no no no no no way never.
(Obi wanker nobi Its not a bug, its an unexpected feature, Fri 25 Sep 2009, 12:07, closed)

Welcome to the 1980's
This was the late 1980's, about 1987, the idea of office networks of PC's was still a way off. So the idea of scheduled, remote backups was science fiction. Our users each had a 'bernoulli' box (an early kind of removable hard disk) connected to their PC and it was very much their responsibility to backup their own work each day and store the resulting disks in a fire-proof filing cabinet.

This particular user hadn't done a backup in months and it was already something she'd been given a disciplinary warning about, hence the P45. In fairness to me, I didn't know this and just expected to have to replace the hard disk and restore a backup for her - call it an unintended side effect rather than out-and-out cuntyness.
( Linbox has a serious dunk habit, Fri 25 Sep 2009, 15:42, closed)

Fair enough
It came across rather differently in the original post, hence my scathing reply. I'd just read through several posts displaying severe contempt for the notion of actually providing the service for which most IT people get paid, your apparent 'cuntyness' tipped me over the edge. I deal daily with the frustration of colleagues who seem to hate having to help their clients; I really don't understand why they stay in the profession, other than the decent salary. Looks like I tarred you with the same brush unfairly.

You're still a crafty tinker though :)
( chart cat has an itch, Fri 25 Sep 2009, 16:09, closed)

Still doesn't justify the 200 quid you stole.

(Seance Trumpet has got no beef with a man enjoying a croissant, Sun 27 Sep 2009, 22:30, closed)

No theft involved.
From whom did I steal the 200 quid?

The salesman gave me the cash to replace a dead hard disk which was out of warranty.

Which was then swapped for a new one, free of charge, because the work machine would have been covered by our hardware support contract.

My company would have lost nothing.

The support company would have made marginally less profit that year - but they can go fuck themselves.
( Linbox has a serious dunk habit, Thu 1 Oct 2009, 3:20, closed)

Ace.
I like it.
(SillyMoo, Fri 25 Sep 2009, 10:38, closed)

I like this.
Well, after seeing your explanation in replies, anyway.
(Scritty Bakerman., Sat 26 Sep 2009, 14:00, closed)

Horray
So you defrauded your company, got somebody fired for your fraud and then celebrated it at the time and think it good now.

There is a reason why IT guys have the reputation of being cunts and that reason is people like you. You cunt.
(johnson, Sat 26 Sep 2009, 16:39, closed)

See above.
I defrauded whichever "insurance company" had our hardware support contract that year.

My company lost nothing.
( Linbox has a serious dunk habit, Thu 1 Oct 2009, 3:24, closed)

knobhead

( rofl harris, Sat 26 Sep 2009, 21:53, closed)

fuck knuckle
.
( Linbox has a serious dunk habit, Thu 1 Oct 2009, 3:40, closed)

Theft is never win.

(Seance Trumpet has got no beef with a man enjoying a croissant, Sun 27 Sep 2009, 22:29, closed)