1

I had a user email me at 10:07 yesterday saying that she couldn’t get a certain document to open automatically after printing it to a pdf format from Outlook. I was busy and away from my desk at the time. She emails again and 10:35 and says that she is not able to do her job until the issue is resolved, so she decided to leave her computer. I return to my desk at around 10:50 and see these emails and ask the guys around me if she contacted them at all about her problem.

Nope, neither of them have heard from her at all. She just decided I was the only one capable of helping and since I didn’t respond, she was gonna call it quits. I mean, we have an IT department distribution group and everything, but nah. No point in trying to contact someone else.

48 Spice ups
2

From your description above, jacobreppert, I have determined that your mind reading memory module must be on the fritz and needs to go once again to the repair shop.

I’ll put a ticket in for you.

Really, kind of disappointed in you. You know there is a DL and a process for this and yet, you chose to ignore it.

I am sure you will now receive thousands if not MILLIONS of replies agreeing with me.

Well, okay, we’ll let is slide this ONE time!

</sarcastic tone mode>

:wink:

4 Spice ups
3

Setup helpdesk email make clients/users send all technical issue there have this email go to all techs someone will take ownership hopefully… it sounds like you may have this setup ??

Tell user to alway do this first SAVE AND CLOSE OUT OF PROGRAMS AND REBOOT THEN TRY AGAIN BEFORE SUBMITTING A TICKE :slight_smile:

4

I had a user with an issue a few years back that sent in a ticket right at 5PM (our normal closing hours). I remember the timestamp being literally 5PM. I was still in the office but on my way out. I contemplated just putting it off until the next day but figured I’d be a good guy and at least give her a response. I said something along the lines of “thanks for reaching out, I’ll have our guys take a look at this in the morning!” then packed my crap and left.

I have an hour commute home. By time I get home, my inbox is a warzone. She had sent a bunch of emails pretty much every minute or two afterwards which were essentially like this:

HELLO? HELLOOOOOOOO?????!! I need this fixed NOW. I CANT DO MY JOB!!!! URGENT!!! HELLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Thanks!

Tons of emails like that. Then they progressed into the following types of emails in which she made sure to CC everybody individually in the IT Department and the VP who was the Director’s boss:

This is absolutely unacceptable. Why do we even pay for these IT staff if they can't even do their jobs?? I cannot work and they do not care and have refused to help me. I am NOT happy!

Thanks!

It goes further… because literally nobody, including the VP, is responding to her. It’s after hours and everybody is either commuting home, eating dinner, or whatever. She then decides it’d be a great idea to email her boss, her bosses boss, and then finally the CEO with something along the lines of:

Well I regret to inform you that I am unable to perform my duties as (job title) because the IT department has blatantly refused to fix my urgent problem. So until this is fixed, I will be unable to assist you. Please direct any questions you may have to (IT Director).

Thanks!

All of this in less than an hour… So I call my Director and he says to ignore them for now and he would handle it.

The next day was glorious. She sent us all a long and wordy apology and made sure to mention several times that she understands now that the office closes at 5 and regardless of closing time she doesn’t need to be CC’ing CEO’s, VP’s, or people’s managers unless it is an absolute emergency. I have no idea who talked to her or what was said but I would have paid good money at the time to be a fly on the wall.

Oh and the best part. The issue she had? She couldn’t remember where she had saved an Excel sheet. It was on her desktop.

44 Spice ups
5

Auto reply rule when you receive any email from her:

Her Name,

Thank you for notifying me of a problem. There are times when I am unavailable and unable to respond immediately. If your problem needs immediate attention, please email (insert distribution group name or ticket system generation name). This (or someone) will create a ticket for you and we will work to resolve the issue.

Regards (or love and kisses - your option),

Your sig (don’t forget the smiley imogis)

If she complains that she was just sending out a generic email. Just respond with an OK then ignore. Keep doing this until she gets the picture.

3 Spice ups
6

I would reach out and reiterate that there are other techs that she could have contacted if she wasn’t getting a response.

7

HAHAHAHAHA, that literally is the best part of this story! I would love to have been able to see her face once she was shown how to ‘resolve’ her ‘issue’. Some people, *sigh.

4 Spice ups
8

Yeah I have this problem too. We use SpiceWorks helpdesk but I cannot get everyone on board with emailing the helpdesk instead of me directly. I’m the only dedicated IT guy, but I have someone else as an helpdesk user who knows all the common issues and fixes. He’s also got the purchasing power to call an MSP to solve problems when I’m totally unreachable or on vacation.

But no, they email me. They don’t understand how placing a ticket will get their issue resolved more quickly and urgently. How an open ticket stays at the top of the list instead of an email, which will get buried with other useless emails and might be overlooked.

Meh… rant over

2 Spice ups
9

We have a ticketing system and were told by ownership to ignore any email for help that wasn’t generated by it.

6 Spice ups
10

I learned years ago to appreciate folks who claim they are going to quit if they can not do “X”…I am a bit upset that no one (that I am aware of) made threats to quit at our more recent facility take over when we blocked Facebook-Netflix-iHeart and all music sites. Kind of a let down.

The best for us is when a MD/DO spouse or child calls and wants us to get them onto the desktop computer on their >spouce-father-mother< desktop computer in the office. Most of them end the conversation with “you know your days here are numbered, right?”

1 Spice up
11

I really hate it when someone has a “world ending” problem that I have to drop everything and come over, but by the time I get there, they have figured it out and didn’t bother telling me so I wouldn’t have to go all the way over there. (especially when driving is involved)

1 Spice up
12

Oh Dimforest, you ladies man, she just had to talk to you!

I’m lucky enough that I don’t have any crazies here, though sometimes I wish they’d call me instead of doing things wrong on the registers, it pisses off our office manager who I sit next to.

3 Spice ups
13

Pet tech syndrome is a serious problem that spreads quickly throughout an office. Each day millions of users adopt technicians and forsake proper procedures to demand one on one service from their pet technician and demand complete and total loyalty and immediate service.

You have the power to help stop the spread of pet-tech syndrome. For only 75 reprimanding emails per month and ensuring those tasks are handled by other techs through the helpdesk system you can help break problem users of this terrible habit.

Do your part today. Say NO to being a pet tech. The butt you save could be your own.

This message was brought to you by the Just Say No to Pet Tech Syndrome Coalition and peppers just like you.

10 Spice ups
14

158008-SNL-Jeopardy-Will-Ferrell-Alex-So3O.gif

Nobody likes a quitter

2 Spice ups
15

That is one of the reasons for the ticketing system and the constant reminder to the employees that tickets need to be submitted to address issues.

3 Spice ups
16

The last part of this is awesome. Cry for help, then blame and publicly make yourself look like an ass. Love it.

3 Spice ups
17

Addressing multiple comments…

This user has worked here for almost 5 years. She knows who else to contact about issues, so I shouldn’t need to remind her who else to contact.

She had submitted a ticket the previous day at around 3:15, as I’m getting ready to head out the door. I gave her some suggestions for a workaround she could do on her own before I left. The response I got at 10:07 was that one issue was fixed, but it created another problem.

1 Spice up
18

Every once in a while I would actually like to see a user give up after one call. The other day I rolled in to find 17 (count 'em 17) missed calls on my extension from a user. In a 20 minute time span. At 0630. What, did she go get a cup of coffee and miss 3 minutes worth of dialing? Pretty much as soon as I sat down, the phone rang. I was so tempted to see if she would call every minute, but you know, professionalism and all…

1 Spice up
19

This is one of those times when you just gotta see that email and say…

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1 Spice up
20

Similar mentality here, I setup a complete system to be able to reach the entire IT department with a single email but instead they call a random person that either isn’t at their desk or not even at work that day and blame not being able to do their jobs on the entire IT department.

Karma is coming…