Ever have one of those days? You know, where a user with some IT experience (in a university setting, as a student) has the flat out BALLS to tell you how you’re doing your job wrong in a ticket, and includes links to “helpful articles” to help you understand something you learned and have worked with for 15 years? And then follows up with all the reasons IT isn’t doing its job to make the company run better? Without ANY knowledge about little things like budget, time constraints, budget, the fact that they (the users) want Ferrari performance and Cadillac features out of Geo Metro gear, budget?
He’s not wrong, other than a bit of confusion about what is possible vs practical, but can he really believe that we’re not AWARE of the issues? That I don’t deal with the crap he’s whining about all day EVERY #$&() DAY?!?! That I don’t have an IT wish list a mile long, or am just ignoring their problems while dancing on a pile of extra money? I don’t need his arrogant @ss telling me my $()#&Q() job!
I am freaking LIVID, and that was 2 hours ago. I wish I could , but I don’t think I can… :S
47 Spice ups
You and your team need to arrange a meeting with him to “congratulate” him for his ideas. Then you congratulate him with a bag full of pennies…
21 Spice ups
Been there. I laugh at them and ask them to tell me more, until they make an ass of themselves.
I then ask them rudimentary IT questions and they have no idea what I am talking about. At which point I smile and write them off as fools.
13 Spice ups
If he is not in IT, I would arrange a meeting with his manager and with your HR department. This user needs to be made aware of what his job duties actually are, and to keep out of your business.
7 Spice ups
lmao and follow it up with “You know what this bag symbolizes? Didn’t think so.”
4 Spice ups
chrisw
(Cwiegraffe)
6
Preach on brother!! Feel the same way all the time!! My boss(CEO) mistakenly thinks IT stands for instant technology!!
4 Spice ups
gwurzel
(Gary3057)
7
That pretty much sums up my day so far today - sad thing is, my customer has no idea about anything IT, but thinks she does. No bags of pennies either sigh!
G
He’s doing it to push your buttons because it works. It’s really easy to sit on the sidelines and point fingers at everything that’s wrong or that you THINK is wrong which is what he’s doing. He’s probably sitting in his chair LOL’ing because people like that have to tear somebody else apart to make them feel better/forget about their own problems.
He might also just be trolling you. (Same diff’ I guess…)
2 Spice ups
Meh. You can do this with any job. Do 10 minutes of Google searches and do the same for him.
5 Spice ups
matt7904
(Matt_P)
10
Reply: “We are already aware of this and do not have the resources to implement at this time.” and close the ticket.
Don’t say thank you, don’t explain what resources, don’t second guess the Geo Metro, and don’t give the little shit any ammunition to come back at you with. If he responds he will only be repeating himself.
13 Spice ups
I was SO tempted to respond with extreme prejudice…so tempted…I had to delete the ticket response I wanted to send, then delete the email I wrote instead. I ended up just calling the department head and asked him to take care of it. As it turns out, he did this to another department recently, ironically enough, that time it was HR he was doing it to. I’m thinking his survival instinct may be compromised…
Matt_P: your reply was similar to part of what I wrote, only I was going to include that we could GET those resources by firing him and using that money to buy one new computer and a doughnut.
6 Spice ups
MAN, I was going to say you could reply with, “Yeah, I can fix that problem and while I’m at it I’ll write a script that makes your job obsolete. Have a nice day!” but you beat me to the punch.
2 Spice ups
rename
(Orvis3094)
14
I get this every once in awhile. “I think”, “My nephew is good with computers and he said”, “I was reading pc magazine”
If I’m in a good mood I’ll be cool and explain budget and time issues, and that maybe they could take it up with their VP and he can get with my VP (hehehe, there ain’t one) and maybe figure something out to help out.
If I’m in a less good mood, It all comes in sounding like Charlie Browns teacher, and I ignore it and move on.
If I am in a very < good mood, I’ll ask them how much money they, their friend, their nephew, ect, made last year doing any kind of IT support. When the answer inevitably turns out to be zero. I tell them that’s why I’m doing this job and their nephew isn’t. Then I tell them to shut their pie hole, or I’ll start forwarding helpful suggestions to their boss about how they could be better at Accounting/HR/Sales/or whatever drone paper pushing life draining garbage they spend their day doing…
All good stuff, and Matt_P, that’s usually my response, or some variant, but MAN, some days it’s really hard NOT to dream about Evanalmightyyy’s bag of pennies or a maybe a bag of raccoons…
Thanks IT People!
1 Spice up
matt7904
(Matt_P)
16
I prefer to put them in their place, but that’s what seems to work best for pissing them off further while covering my ass so I don’t end up using the “He started it” excuse that holds no value. And usually I don’t really care what they think. They think I’m stupid, but I know they’re stupid, and I don’t value the opinion of stupid people.
kris
(Kris (Spiceworks))
17
“I will replace you with a very small shell script”
9 Spice ups
I usually respond to these folks with something like this:
I appreciate your frustration, I really do. I wish we were equipped to give everyone the best and most modern technology and services, it would make our jobs a whole lot easier. Unfortunately we aren’t equipped that way, and very few IT departments are. We do the best that we can do with the budget and tools that we are given, and we recommend better hardware, software, infrastructure, and staffing every chance we get.
1 Spice up
Huw3481
(Huw3481)
19
I will replace you with a very small shell.
From a very small snail.
Because that has more intelligence.
1 Spice up
clintw
(Clint-W)
20
I feel your pain. We have folks like that, and the other half think we’re moving too fast and don’t want anything to change. Feels like a tug-of-war some days.
