People who think they know more than you
Posted by ThatRustyBust@reddit | talesfromtechsupport | View on Reddit | 66 comments
Not really IT, but the Discord server for a small open-source game’s community has a Discord server where we can help each other to install and run games, the mods, etc.
Most of the people looking for help are really friendly, but there was this one instance where the user kept insisting basically that he knew more than me about the issue that he was having.
Them: I’m running some spruce mod and it doesn’t work, but vanilla and X mod work just fine!
Moderator: What’s the error message?
Them: There’s no error, it just opens a window for a second then closes
Me: That means it’s crashing
Them: No it doesn’t, it’s opening a terminal window, not the game. It would open the game if it was crashing
Me: Check the log files, not sure where they’d be for “spruce mod” tho
Them: I said source not spruce, use your eyes
Me: Can you run it in the terminal just in case an error pops up?
Them: I’m not on my computer right now so I can’t
Me: Then we can’t assist you further until we have an error message
Them: There is no error, stop implying there is one.
Moderator: Please reconsider your approach to this conversation. An error is occurring, whether you see it or not is irrelevant; the terminal closes before the run script aborts
Them: I’m just going to not do anything, someone told me I would need to reinstall Python to fix it and I don’t want to lose data
Me: Reinstalling Python is only the solution to one of the causes of this problem, also it won’t affect your saves
Them: It will affect me being able to run other mods
Moderator: Then why aren’t you running the standalone version?
Them: The mod I’m using doesn’t have a standalone
The conversation ends here, I don’t know if the user eventually resolved his issue.
Honestly I really should've said this to them:
Whether or not you think you're right, you have to understand I'm trying to help you. If you keep insisting that there's no error, I can't help you.
bluegreenash@reddit
I had someone that reported that their computer wasn't working, but failed to mention that the power was out
ThatRustyBust@reddit (OP)
Yeah, I saw a post in this sub about someone's printer not turning on because the power was out
bluegreenash@reddit
I'm glad that there is no error.....That means it is working correctly, Have a great Day!....click
Ahielia@reddit
Way too many times I've had people ask for help as to why a thing doesn't work and I ask "what does the error say specifically?" only to be met with either a blank stare or "it didn't say anything!", then when they or I try it again it shows an error message with the exact thing they need to fix it, akin to "wrong passcode" or something equally simple.
ahazred8vt@reddit
There are a hundred million office workers who do not know what the words "PC LOAD LETTER" mean.
tamara0605@reddit
Sorry but there’s also times when the IT support people assume the user is stupid when we’re not. I once had an IT support person walking me through the basics. I finally said, “Listen Kevin, I understand you’re following a script, but I’m 5 pages ahead of you. I’m looking at the XYZ screen and need to know what number to put in the 3rd box. “😉
Bcwar@reddit
This is pretty standard stuff in tech support. Ask a user to restart their system ..... "ok done, still no work" proceed to spend troubleshooting until a tech is sent to or logs remotely only to find that said device has an uptime from some time in 1992
CreideikiVAX@reddit
The experience of 'when the tech doesn't know it's a VAXcluster':
"Restart the device."
"Alright."
*node
ALPHA::shuts down**cluster readjusts quorum, continues running*
*node
ALPHA::comes up**cluster readjusts quorum, continues running*
"Okay done; application still fails."
"What is the uptime?"
"Ten years, seven months, eight days, fourteen hours, forty-two minutes, and sixteen seconds."
menkoy@reddit
So many times a client would insist they do weekly restarts on their systems, but I look at the uptime and the machine has been running for months.
Bcwar@reddit
Ngl i was obviously exaggerating about 1992. But some of the scarier uptimes ive seen is just how????
menkoy@reddit
Right? I saw several uptimes over 300 days, my all time high was over 700 days. Not even sure how they kept the power from going out at least once over that time period.
aj4000@reddit
I'm field service tech, and one of the products I support is an always-on monitoring system that lives in a venue's comms room. They rarely get checked unless something is wrong. I recently saw one with an uptime of 1247 days. Yeah I'll just restart that real quick...
SecretlyCrayon@reddit
These are rookie numbers. Need to pump them numbers up.
Bcwar@reddit
Ikr? Lets not forget updates ... how they are avoiding them makes my head hurt
Solarwinds-123@reddit
Once in a while, I have seen uptimes of over a decade like that. Sometimes two decades, even. Usually on some obscure Unix server where almost nobody knows what it does except for one guy who probably retired five years ago, but everyone knows it is absolutely critical to keeping the company running.
When you see those, you absolutely do not reboot it. It probably won't come back online again. You just call for support, and if the technician they send looks young you banish them and tell them to go summon the Greybeards.
ttlanhil@reddit
To be fair - Windows' fast startup can sometimes be to blame, sometimes the user actually does try to do the right thing and bad software gets in the way
NotYourNanny@reddit
Shutdown in newer versions of Windows doesn't shut it down, it puts it into a weird hybrid sleep mode for fast startup. Laptops often will come back up within a couple of seconds after doing a shutdown.
Unfortunately, if it's in an unstable state, that weird hybrid mode will sometimes save the unstable state to preserve it for the restart.
Reboot, on the other hand, actually does do a proper shutdown and startup.
nymalous@reddit
I've got my devices set up to shut all the way down and not do a fast-start, for this very reason.
NotYourNanny@reddit
Me, too, but most places don't know better.
Ryokurin@reddit
It's pretty rare, however, especially compared to the amount of people who try to convince you that 5 seconds after they clicked shutdown it's back up.
ttlanhil@reddit
Oh, for sure - or people for whom closing and opening the laptop lid is restarting it :)
RcNorth@reddit
Restarting the system means turning the monitor off and back on.
If the user can’t see anything then the system must be off.
DysfnctionalbyChoice@reddit
No no no, you're terminology is wrong. The screen thing IS the computer.
The big box thing, that's just the hard drive. Don't they teach you tech support people anything?
/s (yes I made basically the same comment in a thread recently... its still at least one order of magnitude less times than Ive heard it 🙄)
creegro@reddit
It was that specific job I heard people call the pc itself all sorts of things. The box, the hard drive, the modem, the register, the Internet thingy, but rarely ever the PC
Stryker_One@reddit
Wait, I thought they all called it the modem.
Z4-Driver@reddit
Or on laptops it means closing the lid and opening it again.
CorpoTechBro@reddit
Reminds me of this one time at an old job I had to go on-site because the firewall wasn't working and the entire site was down. They said that they power cycled the firewall 5 or 6 times. I get there, try it once just to be sure, and it comes right up.
I'm still not exactly sure what they were trying. Maybe they pulled the ethernet cables and plugged them back in?
creegro@reddit
In 2013 I had a gal do this. I asked her to reboot the PC at work, she says ok. Comes back after 2 seconds and says "ok it's rebooted"
Like biiiiiitch there's no damn computer system in the damn world that reboot that fast, especially not one that your company uses for registers and computers. Did you just turn off the screen and turn it back on????
"Yea the display shows D-E-L-L on the front, is that not the PC?"
.....no, get down on your knees, looks for a dusty box and hold the power button.
"Ugh it's so dirty down there, can't you just send a technocian to fix it?"
I can, but if I send a field tech out there within 48 hours just so they can reseat a USB cable your manager is NOT going to like the bill.
Harry_Smutter@reddit
I had someone do this just last year 😂
action_lawyer_comics@reddit
User blinks
“Okay, it’s restarted!
katmndoo@reddit
I used to find … inventive ways to make sure.
I’d tell them to shut down..
Then me have them doublecheck the fit of the electrical cord and socket.
At both ends. Making them describe the sound the plug makes as it is inserted.
bdeimen@reddit
While working in tech support for my university I had a tech on the phone with a user going through troubleshooting steps, asking questions, getting answers, and after close to an hour of this the tech heard the caller's roommate say "Your computer isn't even plugged in. Why did you call them?"
So, yeah, completely standard.
Gadgetman_1@reddit
Loved it when we got the SHUTDOWN command in windows....
SHUTDOWN /M: \\usersshittycomputer /R /T:3
T:3 means the user gets 3 seconds warning. Default is 30. And using the /T also implies /F for 'force close applications'.
Didn't have to use that parameter very often, thankfully.
KelemvorSparkyfox@reddit
I used to use a similar command on the AS/400.
ENDJOB [USERNAME] *IMMEDWhen I tell you that you need to sign out, you need to sign out. Or I will do it for you.Corgilicious@reddit
I will never understand why people that come to someone else for help then lie to them about what they’ve done.
At my company we have a simple tool that allows us to see what hardware a user is logged into, what time that device was last restarted, etc.
I can’t tell you the number of times that I would guide to User to restart their machine, and they would assure me oh no I restart my machine every morning. I’d look at my little bit of data and say oh that’s strange because I see that that piece of hardware hasn’t been restarted since ( date ). They go silent for a second and then be like, oh, you can see that?
Yes.
Only one time did I ask someone that I knew and had a good relationship, “why did you lie to me?“ They said oh well that seems to take a lot of time, and I just don’t have time to do it. I said well, call me back when you have time to actually work on resolving your problem.
althoradeem@reddit
big tip for this is " i nees you to go to start and press restart not shit down".
windows and quick boot on shut down is a bitch
paishocajun@reddit
User: "no error, only fix!" (Thinking of that comic with the dog going "no give, only throw)
Optimal-Condition803@reddit
No take. Very appropriate! https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/no-take-only-throw
commentsrnice2@reddit
I like the no wage only spend variant
althoradeem@reddit
it: whats the error say :
user: how would i know i dont forgot how to read as soon as i pressed the power button.
NotYourNanny@reddit
I have had a store manager tell me he couldn't read a (plain English) error message on the screen in front of him because "that's computer stuff, and I don't know anything about computers."
androshalforc1@reddit
I had a conversation with a customer back in my retail days. They were looking for an item. I asked them what item and they said, before i tell you that can you tell me if you have any?
KelemvorSparkyfox@reddit
Simple answer: "No."
Either you don't have it, in which case you're saving time. Or you do have it, but they don't get to buy any because they're being Unhelpful.
CarcajouIS@reddit
We have any but we don't have unknown
Terrible_Shirt6018@reddit
"You asked for help, which I'm voluntarily providing. Accept it and do what you're asked or we're done."
Or just "Ok. Good bye. NEXT!"
TheTechJones@reddit
Are you getting paid to provide support or signed a contract to do so? i'd have noped my way right out of that conversation at "use your eyes" - possibly even with enough self restraint to do so silently and just ghost the thread.
ThatRustyBust@reddit (OP)
Nope, I just happened to be on the Discord when the user asked for help.
gijsyo@reddit
Super annoying behaviour. I wouldn't spend any time on them unless they cooperated.
When I was on the help desk professionally this was usually my go to: either you cooperate or I will end this call because there is a waiting line. I wasn't allowed to end calls on my end but they didn't know that ;)
NotYourNanny@reddit
That's not a problem user, that's problem management.
gijsyo@reddit
It was actually a very well ran desk that was fun to work for, and this rarely happened.
PapaPancake8@reddit
Sometimes people who help on discord are absolute tools for no reason.
NotYourNanny@reddit
And sometimes they're tools for very good reasons.
PapaPancake8@reddit
Whats their reason, though? Because someone asked a stupid question?
NotYourNanny@reddit
There are no stupid questions, but there are certainly stupid users.
Especially the ones who, as noted above, lie.
jamoche_2@reddit
Got a report from our QA team once: "Expected window is not visible on screen." With a screenshot showing nothing but desktop. OK, geniuses, which window were you expecting?
resonantfate@reddit
I mean, sorta good work proving that the window wasn't visible on the screen. Obvious fail not documenting WHICH window was missing.
jamoche_2@reddit
They had a full suite of tests to run, it's not like they were actually interacting with the app. I bounced it back for more details and never saw it again.
NotYourNanny@reddit
"If you know more than I do, why are you asking me for help?"
But it's easier to deal with people who believe they know more than I do than it is people who believe they know than they do.
K1yco@reddit
Right here is where I could tell he's going to do anything he could to try avoid making things his fault, because he seems to have forgotten everyone can read the text.
androshalforc1@reddit
I remember having an argument with a mod author.
There was an action you could take in the game that you were supposed to only be able to do once a night. But the reset timer was set to midnight.
It caused some confusion because if you did it too late the night before it would mean you couldn’t do it early the next night. Or you could do it early one night and then repeat it later the same night.
The mod author insisted that the reset timer was set to mid day specifically to avoid the issues above. And yet using the latest version of the mod playing only vanilla this mod and it’s requirements the issue was still ( and is still to this day) easily reproducible.
MushishiFI@reddit
This reminds me when i was doing technical support for a network manufacture, and i had a customer call in because he was not able to access the internet over our router.
He started to tell me after the greeting that i did not need to treat him as a kid as he knew everything about networks.
I then asked him for the ip on his computer to make sure he got an ip from the router, to witch he replied:
Where to i see that.
Only thing i could reply to this was: Lets start over, Hello my name is MushishiFI from manufacturer, how can i help you today.
Or the guy that wanted to discuss with me that the armored concrete was could not be the reason why his wifi signal was so bad on the other side of the wall. It had to be the router. After 5 mins of back and forth i asked him how far he would think he would get trough the wall if he ran into it.
Good thing was he did have a sense of humor so he took it well and he understood what i did mean and was ok with trying to move the router from the living room to the hall and that solved his problem so he had good signal in both rooms.
Bad_Idea_Hat@reddit
My favorites are the ones who will interrupt your sentence because they think they know what you're going to say.
Except they don't.
SaltJelly@reddit
If there’s no error why are you asking for help
ThatRustyBust@reddit (OP)
Exactly.
Another time, another user had a similar issue, terminal popped up for a second then closed and I instructed them to run from terminal and we were able to figure out what the issue was.
I later ended up adding a "pause" command to the Windows batch script, so the terminal wouldn't instantly close if there was an error.
eviloutfromhell@reddit
At least you got one good thing from all these.
ozzie286@reddit
"It sounds like you know everything about what's going on. Good luck resolving your issue."