» Customers from Hell

Being in IT support can really get on your nerves
and for many reasons.

Fortunately, I'm a fairly nice chap, so my experience with irate "customers" (read users) is rather rare.

However, that's not to say I don't get my fair share of irritants. such as:

* You spend hours of time working on a single job, something horrendous usually involving all sorts of brain screwing madness. What thanks do you get? None (or next to none) however, the simple act of turning on a printer earns you more praise than Jesus got for the fish & bread thing.

* Somehow knowing which way up a CD goes in the drive makes me a Genius. I'd rather get a simple thanks than minutes of forced praise

* Just because I wrote the system DOES NOT mean I know what you're supposed to be putting into it... Yes I wrote the invoicing reports, No I do not know what we're charging XYZ company.

* A user not pressing the right button IS NOT a system error. It is human error. The system works just fine when you tell it what you actually want thanks.

* I don't mind explaining how to do something, or how something works. I don't even mind doing this 2 or 3 times. But phoning me each and every time you do it and asking for the 50th explanation gets a bit tiring after a while...

* Okay, your file went missing, because you deleted it... So why is that my fault? Why are you getting narky with me? I'll restore it from the backup if you're nice. If your not, I'll just get awkward.

* You don't work for my company. Why are you asking me for IT support? You have your own IT support in the same building as you. I only sent you your data export.

And my personal favourite is the numptys that can't use Winzip. As a brief explanation, the company i work for has call to send confidential information. The kind that could cause issues if it wound up in the worng place. Therefore we encrypt data (Are you listening HM Gov't?). The easiest method to encrypt data for our various different clients is to use winzip, and encrypt the zip file. To decrypt the file all you need is Winzip9 or greater, and to pay the dirt cheap registration price. Simple?

Well it seems not...

Windows doesn't read highly encrypted Winzip files. This causes problems for clients who only know how to use the built-in zip function in windows.

In fact a lot of clients use the windows zip tool, or some zip tool that doesn't support encryption... and it's somehow always our fault that they can't decrypt data that's required to be encrypted by law. My personal favourite being the client who demanded encrypted files, then phoned up two days later explaining that their IT department remove any encrypted attachments in their email... :-/ Joy

/Rant

(Am I supposed to apologise for length?)
(Thu 11th Sep 2008, 13:02, More)

» Food sabotage

I once lived with a guy
who took an intense dislike to another flatmate and would regularly stick the top of the poor guy's vinegar bottle inside his foreskin. (Aallegdly... I never witnessed the act)

I can't imagine how it must have burnt... His dislike must have been pretty intense to go through with it...
(Sun 21st Sep 2008, 22:58, More)