Can't be arsed to open a ticket for their "work stopping" issue

Posted by Automatic_Mulberry@reddit | talesfromtechsupport | View on Reddit | 71 comments

My team works from a ticketing queue, supporting a subset of the systems at my company. We don't accept work requests via phone call, email, IMs, walkups... if you need to engage us, you open a ticket, via any of a number of means which are unimportant for this story. Of course, we also have a group inbox, but again, no ticket, no work. Two days ago, we got an email to the group inbox: "Hey we can't save files. \[screenshot of access denied error message\] Can you please grant this list of IDs access." No mention of where these files are located, and my team isn't in the business of granting access to anything. But, if we did have a ticket with some info about where these files were, we could route it to the right people. So, in a slack moment, I reply: "You haven't included any information at all about the host or the path where these files are located, so I don't have any way to put you in touch with the right team. If you put that info in a ticket to my queue, I can put it in front of the right people, but as-is, I don't have enough information to help you at all." The client sends an email with the hostname and file share path, so I reply again: "Great, thank you. Now please put all that into a ticket, as I mentioned, and I'll assign it to the team that can help you." Crickets. What they want is deep into some other group's territory, and I would be stepping all over that group's toes and breaking all kinds of protocol if I did what they asked. It's possible (unlikely, but possible) that I could even lose my job if I did what they say the need. I know the group that can help. I asked, twice, for a ticket so I could help them. They just can't be arsed to spend two minutes creating a ticket. I'm convinced they just want to say "we asked, but nobody would help us."

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71 Comments

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RetiredBSN@reddit

Send copies of the email to your manager, their boss, and to the group that they want access to, along with a cover email pointing out that no ticket was ever created.

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Automatic_Mulberry@reddit (OP)

Oh, yeah, everyone is already on the mail chain. As soon as I got the hostname, I looked up the team that could help and copied them and their managers in, too. Given the volumes of email around here, though, there's a good change that neither my management nor theirs will have actually read it until the shitstorm starts and I produce the receipts. I kinda hope it happens today.

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Speciesunkn0wn@reddit

It's been 3 months. Anything juicy happen yet? :D

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dplafoll@reddit

Yep. I believe every word of this, having lived it myself. My favorite is when some random nurse calls our Help Desk at 3AM with some urgent issue and, even though it's 3AM and nobody's sitting at a phone waiting for you, they don't leave a message despite hearing a prompt that says "If you don't leave a message, we will not return your call, and we will be unable to assist you". Then they'll call a couple more times, still not leave a message, and then we get a complaint the next day how we were "unavailable" and they "couldn't get any help" or whatever.

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djshiva@reddit

The inability of humans to follow simple directions is real. I commonly ask people on tickets several questions to clarify issues. Even if I say "I need 3 things to help you" and then number the questions, they will inevitably only answer ONE of the questions. If people truly can't count to 3, we're in big trouble as a species.

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Speciesunkn0wn@reddit

We're all Valve this day?

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Vidya_Vachaspati@reddit

Count Dracula ... ... Count Dooku ... ... ... ... You are right. I can't count to 3. Big trouble.

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vaildin@reddit

Count Rugen would be your third.

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Vidya_Vachaspati@reddit

Thanks! Crisis averted.

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AStrandedSailor@reddit

All you need is Count Von Count. He will help you count the thing to help you. Ah-Ah-Ah-Ah-Ah. Sesame Street is probably the users comprehension level.

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Polenicus@reddit

I've seen something similar where i work (Support for CCTV systems) We have four different ways to reach us - Call Center, which is 24 hrs a day 5 days a week. Online chat which is 24 hrs a day 5 days a week, a web form which has an advertised turnaround time of 5 business days, and the old Email-to-case system which has a big caution on it that responses can take up to 30 days (It's basically 'We deal with these AFTER everything else, if we have time. Lowest possible priority). It's also made clear that we will respond via email only to these, we don't do outbound calls. Sure enough, we will have people send in Emails to the case system with 'URGENT!!11!! SERVER DOWN!!1!! CALL ME BACK!!'. No info about what is actually wrong, so these get left for lastr in the cherry picking. So 30 days later we send an email back, and they're absolutely *livid* because they've been down this whole time, and how dare we provide such wretched service, and yadda yadda yadda. Our wait time for live chat is less than 3 minutes on a BUSY day on average. We're very proud of that.

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SavvySillybug@reddit

I can't imagine choosing slow email over immediate chat. I'd pick either over phone call if I can get the results I want without making a phone call. But... email and chat are basically the same, one's just faster and easier. Who wouldn't do chat??

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MemnochTheRed@reddit

Depends. We have chat, but it is a bot that is essentially useless. Better to call or use the portal.

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Cliff_Pitts@reddit

Similar situation but our center is open 24/7 holidays included. You can call tech support and our help desk will create a ticket/troubleshoot/ and route the ticket if unable to resolve. Alternatively, you can submit a ticket yourself through the online portal - with one major disclaimer: IF THIS ISSUE IS AN EMERGENCY CALL IN. ALL TICKETS CREATED IN THE SELF SERVICE PORTAL WILL BE LOW PRIORITY. I can’t tell you how many self service tickets are put in with just the word URGENT! Or NEED RESOLVED ASAP I have to go through. As is protocol, we have to reach out to the submitter and basically start the ticket from scratch as if they had called in. I actually have a blast every time somebody tries to complain about how they put “URGENT” in the ticket, because I can take them directly to the screen and highlight the part where it says to call in. Sweet justice.

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djshiva@reddit

I sincerely wish we had a ticket portal so we could do this. Instead, I end up having to tell people and they're shocked...SHOCKED I TELL YOU that emailed-in tickets would be lower priority than calls.

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ickarous@reddit

My voicemail says "If you are in need of technical support, hang up and create a ticket"

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Neuro-Sysadmin@reddit

That’s awesome!

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Entarotupac@reddit

When you vote, do you go into a booth and fill out a form or do you poke your head in the door and shout your selections to someone who looks in charge? The process matters...

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Automatic_Mulberry@reddit (OP)

This team, I'd guess they just shout a candidate's name at a random passer-by. And when the passer-by says "Oh, the polling station is over that way," they go and get an ice cream.

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Asenath_Darque@reddit

Well hang on, ice cream? Maybe they're on to something with their method.

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Automatic_Mulberry@reddit (OP)

So what I am hearing is that we should incentivize ticket creation with ice cream?

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TwoEightRight@reddit

That reminds me of when India supposedly offered a bounty for dead cobras to reduce the population and it backfired spectacularly. But with ice cream instead of hordes of venomous snakes, which is probably an improvement.

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orion_aboy@reddit

instead of releasing the remaining ice cream, they will just eat them!

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glenndrives@reddit

Reduce the cobra population or human population?

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Weird1Intrepid@reddit

¿Porky no loss dose?

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TwoEightRight@reddit

[Cobra population.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perverse_incentive)

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glenndrives@reddit

Nice.

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flecktonesfan@reddit

That was my first question

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WokeBriton@reddit

If I'm gonna get ice cream for opening tickets, you better get ready for a LOT of tickets. I didn't get into such good shape by avoiding ice cream!

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TinyNiceWolf@reddit

Let's just get some ice cream. Whatever the problem is, it can wait till tomorrow. Or next week.

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JerseySommer@reddit

Ice cream socials need to make a comeback!

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Automatic_Mulberry@reddit (OP)

I like the way you think. You definitely have your focus on the important things.

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Embarrassed-Dot-1794@reddit

Oh totally... I would be one hundred percent behind this

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jezwel@reddit

There's an ice cream shop right across the road from where the booths are setup for any election in my area. It does a roaring business on election days.

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meitemark@reddit

"I have done a good thing. Lets go reward my mind."

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DoTheThingNow@reddit

They just took you and your team off the email chain and sent it to "someone that has fixed it before".

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SenorSwagDaddy@reddit

We auto generate tickets from an email

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pockypimp@reddit

That's why at my last job we had an automated response to the group email that said that the mailbox was not monitored and all requests needed to go to the Help Desk.

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CaptainZippi@reddit

Log a ticket on their behalf and send it on with a “needs governance to look at this before granting” You’ll have covered your behind, and probably routed the ticket into a tar pit from which it might never return.

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Uffda01@reddit

Never log a ticket on somebody else's behalf....that's how you end up having to log all the tickets as well as work on them.

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CaptainZippi@reddit

I acknowledge the risk, and I point to the benefit of having your ars-, uh reputation covered.

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Automatic_Mulberry@reddit (OP)

Hmmmmmm.... in a technical sense, I could raise this as a security violation...

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SeanBZA@reddit

Report to IT security as a possible phishing attempt, as they might have a malicious actor or software sending email pretending it was them. Let then sit under the light of that arc lamp for a while, and find out how to sweat.....

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XxShadowBoaxX@reddit

We have the same system at our place. If they don't log the ticket, then they dont get work. If they message me without a ticket being logged first, it is usually ignored, and the lack of ticket itself is evidence that you aren't ignoring your workload. They know the process, and if they ignore it, then it's on them. Same as our 3 strike rule, if they dont reply when we need further information, it will get closed (we do allow re-opens if it's reasonable - OOO or something) Don't let it annoy you. Revel in their despair once they realise that it's not being done.

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anonymouslosername@reddit

I feel you. I'm kind of intermediary, and KNOW there's an issue out there causing message failures (going on months) but don't have access to replicate it myself. Keep getting emailed about it, but I can't push for some action without them opening a ticket. Tell them yes we know there's an issue, but I need a ticket to elevate it. Nothing... 🤦‍♂️

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WokeBriton@reddit

Respond to the next email with "Per previous emails dated x, x, x, x, and x, I cannot do anything until you raise a ticket." After that, keep responding with the same, but add on each date. CYA with a large side order of throwing them under the bus when they eventually try to throw you under one.

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YankeeWalrus@reddit

Always take the Henry Jones Jr. approach when they don't have a ticket.

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ArenYashar@reddit

*tosses out the open window* No Ticket.

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rcp9ty@reddit

Look at an org chart, create the ticket but cc their manager so at the end you can have the IT manager talk to their manager about training on the ticketing system. Stop trying to be the ticket maid trying to give everyone a ticket. Instead use the proper organization channels of having management act like managers and make them enforce company policy as that is their job to do. If management won't get involved then it's a human resources job to enforce company policy. If HR won't do it then it's an employee relationship issue. If you're a MSP then it's a billing / accounting issue where you're just following procedures so people are paid for work. If someone says they don't have time its not your problem.

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threedubya@reddit

Because ita not their job. If the way to get pizza is buy calling and giving a name ,a type of pizza and credit card and address. Why would you throw a rock through the window that say pepperoni pizza .

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techieguyjames@reddit

Yes, cya. They must follow protocol to keep everything documented. Hold strong.

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dervish666@reddit

Or you get a ticket and it has no useful info in it. Got one the other day from a PA who knows how to use our meeting room system saying "Unable to book meeting rooms using outlook" priority 2, urgency high. As she is a PA I messaged her back on teams within an hour asking for more details. The next day she responds with exactly the same message, so I asked if this was happening with all meetings, crickets. Looked to ring her and she's in DND. Fine, I'll check later, see that she's available and ring her. No answer. Leave a message asking if she has a minute for a quick call. See that it's read about 10 minutes later but no response. Get to about half five and she messages back to ask if I'm free now. Nope I've gone home. It's also a friday and I've taken mon and tues off. Oh well.

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Geminii27@reddit

If it's a common occurrence, maybe a template response...?

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fencepost_ajm@reddit

So who should you be documenting this to with the question "Why is $person in $team trying to get under the table access to $resource without going through the proper process or responsible group?"

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ickarous@reddit

Yes, you will be CC'd in an email somewhere down the line where this person mentions that they tried to contact IT but no one was willing to help.

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Techn0ght@reddit

When I had users do this I'd redirect and then it goes into the bit bucket. When asked why I couldn't open the ticket for them I'd tell them various things: 1. I'm not your secretary 2. Obviously it's not important to you if you can't follow the minimal process required 3. I don't have the answers to follow-up questions nor can I confirm things working as required so I don't want the ticket in my name and have to chase you down for answers. See #1 above.

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PendragonDaGreat@reddit

IT rule 09: the only time you work without a ticket is when it's your manager coming in to say "the ticketing system is down and no one can submit tickets, can you X?" X can be any of the following (or combination) depending on exact systems in place: * Restart the VM/Server/whatever * Do basic troubleshooting * Contact the vendor * Man the phones while I <option from above>

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Primal_Thrak@reddit

I like to remind users that tickets in the queue are like tickets for riding the bus. No ticket, no service. Caller complains "This didn't get done!" Helpdesk: "OK I need your ticket number and I will see where the issue is at" Caller "I don't have a ticket number" Helpdesk: "Well then it appears you don't have a problem!"

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Newbosterone@reddit

That’s when you Cc their manager. When he calls your boss claiming you’re stopping them from working you get to point out they’re clueless.

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FinLandser@reddit

In my experience most people will not open a ticket so things go unfixed at most sites until it gets so bad they are forced to.

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PM_ME_YOUR_DIFF_EQS@reddit

I have long wanted to order a T shirt that just says, "It wasn't in the ticket."

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Scynthious@reddit

Our boilerplate response is "We don't work out of email, please submit a MACD". Also, if they submit a MACD with incomplete information, we give them 3 emails over the course of 5 days. If they can't update the ticket with the necessary information in that time frame, we close it with a "Please resubmit when you have all of the necessary information."

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iamsooldithurts@reddit

Sounds to me like they’re trying to get away with something they were already denied once.

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NewUserWhoDisAgain@reddit

>I'm convinced they just want to say "we asked, but nobody would help us." At best its a "Im too busy to do that." At worst it is as you say. This way they can just blame IT instead of having to do any actual work. Document, screenshot and I hope your boss and his boss and his boss back you up.

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K1yco@reddit

There's usually a ticket number as well, so if asked "really? do you have the ticket number you sent them?" it should fall apart, assuming whomever they are telling has more than one thought.

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KenseiSeraph@reddit

"I assumed that surely it was either an issue that they had resolved themselves, it wasn't an important issue, or that they had logged a ticket directly with the correct team. Sorry boss, I assumed basic competence and reading comprehension from them but clearly that was wrong. In future I will treat them as stupider than a 4th grader."

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KelemvorSparkyfox@reddit

Where I used to work, it wouldn't even come to that. As soon as my manager saw the email thread, he'd have been onto theirs. "Why isn't your team following procedure? Even if they didn't know (which I don't believe, because you wouldn't have forgotten to explain to them that all requests for help from the helpdesk require a helpdesk ticket), they were instructed on what was required and still refused."

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Automatic_Mulberry@reddit (OP)

Exactly.