IT Stories, Humor, Gripes...

[Incogneato]

OK, well I know I've seen quite a few members mention they work in the IT field, as I do, and was just trying to see if we could get a thread started maybe the nerds or anyone else who wanted to talk, could chat in.

I'll start off by saying that I have no particular goal for this thread, simply just a place to chat, share stories, projects, accomplishments, frustrations, etc, with things regarding IT.

I've worked in one field or another in IT since my first internship at a local computer repair shop in my senior year of high school. While there, I helped repair computers that were dropped off by customers, took orders for custom made computers, and later helped the owner do custom programming work with VBA.

I'll start by sharing a story that happened to me when I was working there during my internship. So I'm working there one day and I hear the bell jingle that let us know someone entered the store. I don't immediately look up, but then I hear the person that entered drop their computer up on the window/desk and huff. I look up and their entire computer tower, was covered, completely..top, front, both sides....with magnets of all types and sizes. Refrigerator magnets, round circle magnets, bar magnets, everywhere... I unscrew the side panel and take the side off and they are on the inside as well, anywhere they could put them. I'm not sure if a kid did it, or if they did it and didn't realize, but needless to say they were having trouble booting the computer.

A more recent story would be that I get a call from a user saying their computer won't come on or do anything, they tried holding the power button down, they checked all of cords going into the back of the computer, etc etc, and they need help. I go to their office and take a look at the surge protector...it's not plugged into the wall

 

[mom2many]

A more recent story would be that I get a call from a user saying their computer won't come on or do anything, they tried holding the power button down, they checked all of cords going into the back of the computer, etc etc, and they need help. I go to their office and take a look at the surge protector...it's not plugged into the wall

Bwahahahha our dish went out, well kept coming in and out, when I called they asked about one of the boxes and the light on it. I said I had found it but the light was red. She thought that was weird since it was supposed to be green. Now we had service, but it kept fading.

So they send us out a replacement box, I open the box and it's not the right part....at least not what I was looking at. Turns out there is another box in the house, buried behind a dresser....................it was unplugged. I felt so stupid, but laughed my ass off at myself.

 

[TabascoNatalie]

I remember it was 1996 and the first PC arrived in our home. One day, my mother is sitting in front of it and then starts shouting "look, there's a hole in the screen!"
I came to look, and it was a little drop of liquid on the screen that distorted the colors. It turned out she had sneezed at the screen.

 

[GigglesNStuff]

I remember it was 1996 and the first PC arrived in our home. One day, my mother is sitting in front of it and then starts shouting "look, there's a hole in the screen!"
I came to look, and it was a little drop of liquid on the screen that distorted the colors. It turned out she had sneezed at the screen.

Hahah! When my sister got her first computer her son set her up with an email account. The first email she ever sent me, she typed the whole email in the "Subject" box and nothing in the message box. Needless to say, I had to call her and explain how to write an email.

My other sister is notorious for calling things by weird names. Even though she's been emailing for 10 years and texting for only around 5, she now calls email "texting on the computer". I actually think she's forgotten the word "email" because she never uses it anymore!

 

[singledad]

Yup, another IT nerd checking in here... fortunately I managed to skip the seemingly obligatory PC support stage. Though I've been roped in when things go seriously wrong, though mostly on the software side.

Lets just say I have quite an arsenal of stories about so-called PEBKAC errors (as in Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair). Like the one user who was completely unable to grasp that she cannot work on our web-based application unless she is actually on the network, and then proceeded to insist that she should be able to, and that the fact that she couldn't was a serious defect in the system...

 

[Incogneato]

haha yep, I have heard of similar acronyms... "PICNIC" Problem In Chair, Not In Computer

Then there's the infamous "ID10T" error.

I also love when people argue with me and get upset when I can't make a web server or other remote servers that are located 500 miles away come up and start working... they look at me like "You're the IT guy, FIX IT!".

 

[singledad]

I also love when people argue with me and get upset when I can't make a web server or other remote servers that are located 500 miles away come up and start working... they look at me like "You're the IT guy, FIX IT!".

LOL. Yep. Sometimes people seem to think IT people are magicians. Like - we can just make things work in an instant.

LOL That reminds me - I had the one user a while ago - a darling old lady, who got distracted soooo easily. She would do something halfway, get side-tracked, and then complain that it didn't go through. Of course, she would be really hurt if you told her she messed up, so I just got in the habit of waiting a few minutes, and then asking her to try again. She then be absolutely delighted, saying "Yes! Its working again now! You're so clever!". I'd just tell her I was glad I could help... even though I didn't do anything.

I never had the heart to tell her that it wasn't the system that was acting up, it was her... She's probably retired by now, and still no wiser.

Funny, in any other person that would have been really frustrating, but she was so sweet about it that I just had to smile and humor her...

 

[Incogneato]

I tend to get one of two responses if I go fix a problem within the first 10 seconds of being there...either they scoff and roll their eyes and don't even say thanks, or they realize how silly they were being and face palm and apologize profusely.