what are the worst calls you've gotten on the job?

[nageov3t]

inspired by a slashdot post... what are the worst calls you've ever gotten in the line of duty?

about a year ago, I got a call from my boss (located in CA at the time) at 2 am. he was freaking out because we had a scheduled blade replacement on a fiber switch in our NJ data center but it wasn't powering on after hands-on techs did the work.

he called me in a panic because I was the closest person in the department to the data center. so I hopped in my car and drove an hour to the location only to discover that the power switch was in the "off" position. /facepalm

 

[Possessed Freak]

Was called on the weekend to come on campus and help an outside event who rented the space. The problem was that they could not get the podium computer to work with the data projector. I tried troubleshooting the problem but it was helpless over the phone.

I drove to the campus and the group showed how they rebooted the PC but it still wouldn't come on. Yeah, they were hitting the monitor power button and not the PC (which was still off).

 

[MichaelD]

Got called in b/c one of the workers in our 24/7 ops floor was reporting a "dead computer." Got dressed and drove in. Turns out his mouse was dying and he didn't want to use one of the 8 computers that were not in use b/c it was 3:00AM and the day shift wasn't there. He wanted to use "My computer, not one of the others." I turned around and walked away. I got railed for that too, b/c the ops floor is our 24/7 nerve center and the prima donnas that work there get coddled.

 

[Zargon]

lady couldnt get a dial tone, had already had the phone company out to check the line


yeah she knocked the phone line out of the wall jack while vacumning

she was really shitty on the phone to me as well, and hung up on me when I asked if she had checked the line to the phone, right after she demanded my managers name

she was dialed in about 5 minutes later, called my manager in the morning to apologize but wouldnt talk to me

 

[shortylickens]

Working at Tektronix I got some dumb shit occasionally.

We had a third party calibration service call up and claim we didnt do things to their specifications.
We dropped them as a customer entirely, and told THEIR client to deal with us directly. (They were too dumb to remove the clients information tags from the equipment.)

 

[sixone]

I worked in a pharmacy in high school. Got a call from a guy who needed help with the directions for an enema. :shudder:

 

[pontifex]

not on the job but really dumb.
i'm the tech guy in my family. my great aunt calls or emails any time she even has the slightest problem. Usually I get there and its her own fault. she always says she's going to through out the computer too.

the best one was when she put a cd in the system and it wouldn't read it. She tried to take it back out and it disappeared.

I go out and open the case and the cd was inside the case. She slid it (somehow) underneath the cd drive....

she did give me $20 though.

I've worked some sort of tech support almost all my life. There's been so much stupid stuff that happened that I can't remember it all.

 

[RavenSEAL]

I work at a tech helpdesk. I can make this a very long and boring thread.

 

[sixone]

not on the job but really dumb.
i'm the tech guy in my family. my great aunt calls or emails any time she even has the slightest problem. Usually I get there and its her own fault. she always says she's going to through out the computer too.

the best one was when she put a cd in the system and it wouldn't read it. She tried to take it back out and it disappeared.

I go out and open the case and the cd was inside the case. She slid it (somehow) underneath the cd drive....

she did give me $20 though.

That's not for finding the CD. It was for not making her feel bad.

 

[BoomerD]

For several years, I was the crane operator for an electrical utility. I always hated the calls at 0230-0300. They almost always involved some drunk plowing into an electrical transformer somewhere. All too often, it managed to fuck up the underground wires badly enough that new wire had to be pulled...usually at least several hundred feet of it at once.
That usually meant 4-8 hours of overtime BEFORE my normal work shift started. Sure, the extra money was nice, but rarely worth the hassles.

 

[MotionMan]

My 82 year old uncle called me last night. The computer light is on and the monitor power light is on, but there is no picture. He mentions three times that the modem lights are on, as if that has to do with anything. I remote into the computer and it looks fine.

I ask if he checked the monitor cable on both ends. He says there are a lot of wires and he is not sure which one is the monitor. Rather than describe the monitor cable, I ask him to just make sure that everything is plugged in snugly.

He pushes on a cable and the monitor comes to life. The first cable he tried just happen to be the monitor cable into the computer and that just happen to be the problem.

I have no idea if it was just luck or he was messing with me.

MotionMan

 

[shortylickens]

For several years, I was the crane operator for an electrical utility. I always hated the calls at 0230-0300. They almost always involved some drunk plowing into an electrical transformer somewhere. All too often, it managed to fuck up the underground wires badly enough that new wire had to be pulled...usually at least several hundred feet of it at once.
That usually meant 4-8 hours of overtime BEFORE my normal work shift started. Sure, the extra money was nice, but rarely worth the hassles.

You should probably speak to Zane about that......

 

[nanette1985]

I worked for many years in NYC movie theaters, installing projectorsetc. One night I got a desperate call from the projectionist saying that the platter had thrown the film. Always a pain to fix, 5000 feet of film on the floor but this time the film was The Gods Must Be Crazy - a horrible print, bunches of tiny short pieces of film badly spliced together. As the film hit the floor the splices came apart. So we had to figure out the order the short pieces had to go back together - and redo every single splice. Of course with the management standing over us asking when he could let the audience back in. Took 7 - 8 hours to finish.

 

[nanette1985]

I worked for many years in NYC movie theaters, installing projectors etc. One night I got a desperate call from the projectionist saying that the platter had thrown the film. Always a pain to fix, 5000 feet of film on the floor but this time the film was The Gods Must Be Crazy - a horrible print, bunches of tiny short pieces of film badly spliced together. As the film hit the floor the splices came apart. So we had to figure out the order the short pieces had to go back together - and redo every single splice. Of course with the management standing over us asking when he could let the audience back in. Took 7 - 8 hours to finish.

 

[rudeguy]

I work at a tech helpdesk. I can make this a very long and boring thread.

I work for a major cable company in the call center.

I cannot reply without risking my job but if I could.... it would fill many pages.

 

[mmntech]

When I used to work at the car rental place, we used to get dumb calls from customers on a daily basis.

We had one lady drive all day with the parking brake on before calling to ask why there was a red exclamation point on the dash.

People calling to complain about the car revving high was a common one. 99% of the time, they had put it in tiptronic.

Then we had one lady who was literally so overwhelmed by having to rent a small van to move, we were on the phone with her for over an hour. Asking all sorts of dumb questions. When she finally came in, we had to explain what everything on the van did like she was in kindergarten.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I got a call one morning from while working at a Michelin 3 star hotel from the catering director who'd just returned with a tour group of two hundred people from the lobby wanting to know where their brunch was. I replied, what brunch? There's no BEO (banquet event order).

Now, these two hundred people weren't your average vacationers, they were high rollers, whales. I left the catering director with the impression he was on his own. In the mean time, I was running around doing my best to pull a rabbit out of my hat. 15 minutes later, the general manager, vice president of operations and, the F & B director show up wanting to know what the malfunction is. I pointed to some aprons on the wall and told them to put them on and help me fix the problem the catering director had caused. They shut up and helped out.

The GM asked how we could fix it so that it never happened again. I told him that I wanted every person in the catering/rooms division (including the director) to spend 2 days a month working in the kitchen. He made it happen and, the booking problems disappeared.

 

[jlee]

The ones involving deceased people.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

When I used to work at the car rental place, we used to get dumb calls from customers on a daily basis.

I've been that guy. Rented a van, couldn't figure out how to release the parking brake. Thanks for being there for me.

Working helpdesk, I have plenty of stories. Power switches off, cables unplugged, speakers off, etc. We keep a bag of extra mice and a shelf of keyboards so people can swap their own if they have a problem.

Thing is, after a while, it all runs together and you have a hard time judging your friends and coworkers too harshly.

The ones that annoy me the most are the people who don't tell me anything is wrong. Last month we had a machine in the staff lounge. It had been blue screening for weeks before somebody let me know. (Reimage and ram upgrade, and good as new. But still... guys, help me out here.)

 

[olds]

In my capacity as a road supervisor, got called at home after duty hours to go confirm the identity of a co-worker killed in a collision.

 

[RavenSEAL]

I work for a major cable company in the call center.

I cannot reply without risking my job but if I could.... it would fill many pages.

I work for an university packed with retarded teenagers using Macs.

 

[maddogchen]

i had a doctor ask me to fix her phone. i lifted up the receiver, no dial tone. Lifted up the phone, no phone cord plugged into it... located it under the desk and plugged it in.

 

[Leopardos]

Had a call at 6:00AM from the cashier in our company ,
He couldnt login to his computer, i had to go to work 2.5 hours earlier because he dont know what Num lock is or turn it on ...

FML !

 

[Sinsear]

The ones involving deceased people.

Those can be bad; kid calls are the worst. Had one the other night. 15 year old hit by car doing 45-50. Not good.

 

[amdhunter]

Had to make the fastest run ever to our Manhattan office to fix a projector that my manager couldn't fix.

The problem? No video card driver installed...the best thing was he left the location before the CEO and President of our company got there, leaving me looking stupid when I showed up 25 minutes later than they did.