Rant: OMFG STUPID USERS

[Mookow]

Originally posted by: alkemyst

Originally posted by: EyeMWing
How much more blatant do I have to be when I tell you this: When Windows pops up telling you that an update is available, FVCKING DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL IT! REBOOT WHEN IT TELLS YOU TO!!!

Do not attempt to tell me you didn't download a virus - you're still equally responsible for my having to de-worm your machine, which is the equivalent to sticking your hand up a horse's butt.

Now what do you tell them with the window that popped up from some non-windows site they stumbled upon said "IMPORTANT WINDOWS UPDATE AVAILABLE!!!!" and clicking on that downloaded the virus?

That the word gullible isnt in the dictionary... and to look it up if they dont believe me?

 

[ROTC1983]

Originally posted by: SaltBoy
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

 

[SharkyTM]

read a little Bastad operator from h#ll

 

[damonpip]

lol operator form h3ll is the funniest.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

One question though, do you let those who know what they're doing get more access and do stuff on their own? I mean, I know there are policies, but those are for people who don't know a cd drive from a coffee holder, hehe, not for those who know what they are doing and 'understand' the computer enough to realize it only does what you tell it.

 

[Skiguy411]

Dont know if you can compare this, but I have situations like this with my mom. When she wants pictures off her digital camera and onto the computer, I have to show her each time. I show her every time and even let her do it herself will I show her, but she still doesnt get it! It drives me crazy!!!!




edit- grammer

 

[sillymofo]

I had a woman called in and persist that she want to use her prodigy dial up software with her new found wonder of broad band cable. After calmly explain to her that she couldn't, the woman then starts going on a tantrum how our network equiment sux0r, and it should allow her to use her dial up software with cable. As I sit and try not to choke the woman over the phone, at the same time refraining my laughs, there was a moment of silent.

The woman then ask me :"What... we don't know or what?"... this came from a user who doesn't know where a refresh button is on her browser (wait, she didn't even know what a browser is either, and her "XP 2000" did "not" come with IE) <B>
</B>

 

[AgentBehemoth]

Originally posted by: Moralpanic

Originally posted by: Mookow

Originally posted by: PlatinumGold
I find STUPID @ss CSR's and Helpdesk People WAYYY more annoying. AFTER ALL, IT IS THEIR FVCKING JOB. what's their EXCUSE??

Excuse for what? The only excuse 90% of users with problems can give you for their problems is "I'm a complete retard"

Case in point: there is a woman working at my university, lets call her "brenda". Brenda is a secretary. Brenda has a P4 2.2 with 256MB RAM, running Win2K. Brenda's computer is "too slow". Again, lets repeat, Brenda is a secretary. The most CPU intensive program she needs to be able to run is PowerPoint. So, why is Brenda's computer too slow? Let me make a short list of the stuff you can see at the bottom right corner of her screen:
-Gator
-weatherbug
-webshots
-realplayer
-Kazaa
-Morpheus
-computer date/time accurizer (not the actual name, but close)
-etc

Basically, she has ~15-20 items hogging up memory. We remove them. Her computer gets a lot, lot faster. A week later, her computer is slow again...

Also, her computer "loses" files. Usually when she copies them from the network, or her floppy drive. She knows her computer is defective and needs replacing, because it says "the file xxxxx.xxx points to cannot be found"... because after "copying" it, she deleted the original.

And lets not forget the classic "I need a new computer because mine messed up a print job". She had 30 pages that needed printing, her computer tried to print 1200, the last 1170 of which were blank. Want to guess why? Because she had a document with, you guessed it, 30 pages of text followed by 1170 blank pages.


We get weekly, if not more frequent, calls from her, all of which conclude with "I need a new, faster PC". We are almost ready to cave and give her a new PC, just as soon as we can get our hands on a 286.

One thing i've learned from being tech support, is to let the user 'fix' their own computer. If the user says her computer is slow, sit down beside her, but let her perform the functions. Have her remove her own programs, and then she'll see the differences that SHE did. That way she understands that she created the problem, and she can rectify it herself.

The same thing with the copying of files... show her what's she's doing, and let her see the errors she's causing. Then show her the proper way.

Instead of just rolling your eyes, cursing at her under your breath, and trying to get things done quickly so you can go back to your office or cubicle, take a little more time with them. Not only would you help yourself in the long run, but they'll learn what they did, AND feel better about it.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE come to work where I do. In less than a week you would be in the loony bin in a jacket drooling out the side of your mouth. My, and I use this term because I can't think of anything else to call them, users would eat you for lunch and schitt you out by afternoon break. Out of 750 users, maybe and this is a big maybe, 200 of them know the difference between a MF terminal and a PC. Of the remaining 500 most will turn off the monitor when you tell them to turn off their PC and when you tell them to turn it back on and ask them what they see they say it's the same thing that was there when they turned it off. You then say not the monitor the PC and from there, it's on, because they don't know the difference between the two. And if you think you're gonna sit down and show them the error of their ways and they are gonna know it from there well you've got another thing coming because they'll run you through the same thing tomorrow. Most all my users cannot tell you what they were doing when they hosed their system all they can tell you is "I hit this then 2 then 7 and I enter in the #". When you ask them what their Novell password is they ask you "What is that?", hell most can't even tell you what their user id is.

Everything that Mookow said is 100% the way most of my users keep their pcs and they're not nearly as powerful as his "secretaries", they're maybe 266-550s. The best deal I've run into was the secretary that worked on a Word document for 4 hours without ever saving it and when the network message popped up on her screen to tell her to save all work and close all programs before lunch because the server was going to be restarted she just closed it and never read a word of it. Well she called after lunch and when I went to check out her problem I asked if she had seen the message and she said she did but closed it without reading it I informed that her pc was locked up because of the reset and her only recourse was rebooting it, she said I need to save that document before we do and I then informed her it was locked up and there would be no saving and she says to me "I worked on that for 4 hours and now it's gone?" and I said didn't you save it and she says "I shouldn't have to save my work!" and I said " then you should have to work another 4 hours to get it back then!". Man that felt sooo good I got a semi!

That's all good that some of you people work with semi-intelligent users but my users are nothing more than factory workers whose most high tech apparatice at home is a remote controlled tv. Hell most couldn't use the trip odometer in their car much less become semi computer savvy.
And we have a policy it's # 1206 and all signed it although most didn't understand it and fewer abide by it from the CEO on down to the secretaries. The head of IT doesn't enforce it and unless it hoses something up we aren't allowed to enforce it either. They aren't allowed to have anything on their pc that pc support hasn't installed and other than maybe 10-20 they all have something they've installed themselve. Hell nearly every pc in the 450 user corp. off. has some kind of personal picture background.

I like my job though, I've done it 4 years and I let the users know one thing, when I get a trouble ticket and I come to work on your pc if you do not get out of my way and let me fix it while I'm there then I won't come back until I'm ready to fix it on my schedule and who knows when that'll be but it won't be anytime soon. My boss believes in this and will always back me up on it.

Good post Eye, and Mookow you're on the money.

 

[Mookow]

Originally posted by: Moralpanic
One thing i've learned from being tech support, is to let the user 'fix' their own computer. If the user says her computer is slow, sit down beside her, but let her perform the functions. Have her remove her own programs, and then she'll see the differences that SHE did. That way she understands that she created the problem, and she can rectify it herself.

The same thing with the copying of files... show her what's she's doing, and let her see the errors she's causing. Then show her the proper way.

Instead of just rolling your eyes, cursing at her under your breath, and trying to get things done quickly so you can go back to your office or cubicle, take a little more time with them. Not only would you help yourself in the long run, but they'll learn what they did, AND feel better about it.

Others have tried to show her how and why she screws up her computer. Others have then gone to the bar and gotten massively drunk. Basically, the problem is two fold: she's stupid, and she thinks that a faster computer is just one more problem ticket away. In a previous problem ticket, the helpdesk person entitled it "PEBKAC", and then gave the description of the problem. So, she creates a lot of stupid problems, and thinks reporting them enough will get her a new PC. Not a pleasant combo.

One problem that I forgot to list: she has an inflated sense of importance. Seriously, she has attempted to tell techs that, once they are done with her problem, to sort/file her papers, since its "very important" (said in quotes, if you know what I mean). The tech replied "it may be 'very important', but it is definitely 'your job'." She isnt even secretary to someone important, just secretary to the professors on the floor. This sense of importance tranlates into a belief that she should have the absolutely fastest personal PC on campus. She apparently attempted to get a dual Zeon setup (not that she knows what a Zeon is, but one of her friends did configure "the fastest personal computer" he could think of, and she put it in as a request). Think about it... a floor secretary with a dual P4 Zeon for her own personal use. Say it with me now: "Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight".

However, generally, I do attempt to explain the problem to the user, and how to prevent it, and or fix it. That just generally makes my life easier. However, there are some people you just cannot reach. The people that no matter how many times you explain it to them, or show them, believe that rebooting is turning the monitor off, then on. The people who think a good way to temporarily fix a HD that a tech told them was dying (and that would be getting replaced two days later) is to smack it on the side of their desk, with the theory that "hey, it works on my TV".