Laptop Flop, Part 2

Laptop Flop, Part 2

Tampa, FL, USA

(Go to the site to see the other parts. They are all separate stories.)

(I work in a technology help desk fixing computers. A preteen girl brings in her laptop. The entire left side is damaged, and quite badly.)

Girl: “My laptop isn’t working and I don’t know why.”

Me: “Well, it may have to do with the damage on the side.”

Girl: “What damage?”

Me: “The entire left side of your laptop is smashed up.”

Girl: *surprised* “Oh! When did that happen?”

Me: “Have you dropped it recently?”

Girl: “Well, yeah, I’m really klutzy, so I tend to drop it out of my car when I go to school.”

Me: “Okay. Well, we can take a look at it and try to fix it for you so your laptop works again. In the future, try not to drop your laptop so much.”

Girl: “Oh, is it bad to drop it a lot?”

Source: v

Vacation Crime

ME, USA

(I work for a computer repair shop which gets a lot of work orders from a big company because we’re nearby and are known for how fast we repair units. We also use receipts for orders that are being picked up by others.)

Customer: “Hey, I’m here to pick up a computer for [Supervisor].”

Me: “Do you have the repair receipt for their computer?”

Customer: “No, just use my ID.” *shows me work ID*

Me: “Unfortunately, sir, I’m not allowed to give you any computer without a receipt due to security reasons.”

Customer: *suddenly very angry* “Look! I’m an executive at [Big Company]. I can pick up as many computer orders as I want! Just shut up and do your **** job and give me [Supervisor]’s computer!”

Me: “I’m sorry, sir. But regardless of who you are, I cannot give you any computer without a receipt.”

(The door jingle goes off, meaning another customer has come into the shop.)

Customer: “That’s it! I’m gonna have your a** fired, you incompetent f***! I’ve never been treated so rudely!”

Me: “Well, I hate to repeat myself but again, we’re not allo—”.”

(At this point I notice a police officer and security guard from [Big Company] standing behind the man.)

Customer: *practically yelling at this point* “What?! Not allowed to give me [Supervisor]’s computer?! Well, I’ll –”

Police Officer: “Mr. [Customer]. You’re under arrest for attempted robbery.”

(The customer turns around to see the two men, and makes a break for the door only to be tackled in seconds and taken away by the police officer.)

Security Guard: “Can you believe that guy? He quit and threatened to steal [Supervisor]’s computer all because he didn’t get the vacation time he wanted.”

Source: http://notalwaysright.com/vacation-crime/39053

Maybe He Was Looking for a Raspberry Pi

ME, USA

(I own my own little computer repair shop, and lease it in a building next door to a restaurant. Though it is rare, I do sometimes get people who come into my shop by mistake looking for the restaurant because it offers to order out its food, and often this problem is resolved by me giving them directions to next door. My shop is very much so obviously a computer repair shop with only a desk to drop of your computer and a few displays with replacement parts. I am behind the drop off desk checking which order to work on next, when a customer comes in.)

Me: “Oh, hi there. Here to pick up an order?”

Customer: “Yup, I had a order for Ted.”

Me: *I look up my database and find no orders for Ted.* “Umm, is it perhaps under any other name, or last name?”

Customer: “No, I definitely put it under Ted.”

Me: “Hmm, well what did you get done on your system? Maybe I can find it that way?”

Customer: “Oh I ordered a large pepperoni, well done, with some hot wings.”

Me: “You mean, like the food?”

Customer: “…duh! You work in a restaurant. What do you think is here?”

Me: “No, as you can see…” *I point around my shop* “I run a small computer repair shop.”

Customer: “Don’t give me that bull-s***! I’m the husband of the owner and if you don’t get me my order I’ll have you fired!”

(I am amused by this, because since we’ve been neighbors for a few years I know for sure the owner of the restaurant is indeed a woman, but is also a same sex couple with her partner.)

Me: “Really now? I heard she and her husband broke up.”

Customer: “No, we didn’t. We’re a loving man and wife. Now get me my d*** food, now!”

Me: “Sorry. I just can’t do that. It goes against my policies.”

Customer: “I want to speak to your manager, now!”

(I call the restaurant and ask if the owner could come over real quick. She does.)

Owner: “What seems to be—” *comes in and stops almost immediately. at the sight of the customer.*

Customer: “You’re not the manager of [Restaurant]. You’re just the stupid c*** that thinks you’re clever. I wanna speak to the owner, now!

Owner: “For the last time, you stupid dolt, this is not [Other Restaurant]. Stop coming to my store and yelling at my employees and customers!”

Me: “I’m sorry, sir, but you’ll have to leave now.”

Customer: “Screw this s***! You’re all stupid f***s! You can all go to h***! I’ll never eat at [Other Restaurant] again! I’ll have your jobs, too!”

(Both Owner and I were left dumbfounded by the stupidity of this customer. Lucky for me, though, I got a free sandwich for having to deal with the stupid dolt!)

Source: http://notalwaysright.com/maybe-he-was-looking-for-a-raspberry-pi/40570

VHS No Longer Computes

Sweden

Customer: “I’ve got a broken computer and I need it fixed.”

(The customer proceeds to open a bag and out comes a old VHS player.)

Me: “Sir, that is not a computer. That is a VHS tape player.”

Customer: “Well, my PC is broken and I was hoping that you could fix it.”

Me: “Sir, that is not a PC. That’s a VHS tape player and there is no repair shop for VHS players around anymore, as they are deemed outdated.”

Customer: “Well, where can I find one?”

Me: “You can’t. You will have to buy a new one.”

Customer: “So, you can’t repair it?”

Me: “No.”

Customer: “I heard great service from my friends when they came here to fix their PC.”

Me: “That is not a PC. That is a VHS player that you are holding in your hands.”

Customer: “So, can you fix it?”

Source: http://notalwaysright.com/vhs-no-longer-computes/42382

Silly IT Customers

Lately I have been reading funny stories regarding IT staff dealing with clients, and thought it would be fun to share some. I will do my best to include the source for each story, and I hope you go to the sites they are from and view more of the amazing stories they have listed. I will post each one in a separate post over the next few weeks. I hope these provide you as much entertainment as they did for me.

MSVR80.dll Error

If you get an error stating that MSVR80.dll is missing when you try to run iTunes or even when you start your pc go to My Computer and then selecting Uninstall or change a program. Let the list of programs load and then select Apple Application Support. Click uninstall. Once it has uninstalled click on the start menu and using the search box find Apple Software Update. Run this program and update iTunes. It may require a restart after it updates. This should fix your problem. Apple Application Support will be reinstalled, but will be working properly now. 

MSCR80.dll is associated with the Apple Application Support program. This error can be caused sometimes if you go to update iTunes and it glitches and errors out. I'll update this post with other causes and solutions for this error as I find them. This particular solution worked out for me because my iTunes update had glitched a few days prior.

What in the world caused all of this?

I am not going to surgar coat it. This is a rant about some of the random stuff that happens that makes me wonder if students are really getting anything from their college education.

A patron comes up to me and asks me to help him fill out his US Bank form. What in the world made him think I was the person to ask? One I am not risking telling someone the wrong information and two a banker should help him with that. They get paid more than me to know all of that stuff and be bound by all the rules they are bound to and such.

Some I am walking around the computer lab last week cleaning up trash left by college patrons. As I am walking around I find a razor blade and a pencil that was obviously sharpened by said razor blade. WHY? There are cheap little pencil sharpeners you can buy for less than $1 and we have an electric pencil sharpener in the computer lab. Also I am pretty sure either of these are a far safer alternative to a completely exposed razor blade.

In the computer lab we will help people with programs all the time, but we are generally only expected to be knowledgeable in some of the more common use programs like Microsoft word and PowerPoint. New programs are being added to departments all the time and as a result to the computer images. Also some of these are only used for specific majors and such. Our supervisors do not expect us to understand SPSS (a statistics program often used in Sociology and Statistics in general) if you are an Art student or a Music student. Also some of these programs require a ton of detailed training to do a lot with them.

I hate it when students come up expecting me to know how to completely create an amazing affect in Photoshop (Don't get me wrong I can do some simple stuff with Photoshop because I have had some basic training when I took an entry web design class in HIGH SCHOOL). Also I hate it when they act like I am some idiot because I do not know how to do it. Hey stupid did you forget that you are the one doing this as part of a class and even you seem to not know how to do it.

It gets even worse when they want us to do stuff for them that is obviously part of the assignment. Like a girl who was learning to write in APA format as part of a class and wanted me to show her how to do everything. No I will not help you cheat and bypass the fact that your teacher wants you to know how to do this and you will not learn it if you do not do it yourself. I will direct you to the OWL Purdue site (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/), but I am not doing it for you.

Next fun thing to happen was when a girl comes up to me. She has a 6 page document in word and somehow has managed to get it to where all 6 pages are showing up at the exact same time. She wanted to fix it so that it would just be the one page view. Now if she had taken a moment she would have realized that:
#1 she could still type so it was just zoomed out
#2 she already had the "View" tab open and right smack in the freaking middle of it ,in a section labeled "Zoom", is a button labeled "One Page" with a picture of a single page as its icon. Just 2 buttons below that is a button labeled "page width", which has lines with arrows pointing outward on either side as its icon, that would have allowed her to even expand the view to show the page across the length of the screen. Instead of taking a second to not make herself look like an idiot she just wanted someone else to fix it for her.

Don't think college students are the only lazy ones. Between not bothering to read a single campus email they receive and then bitching when the Blackboard site is down even though they were warned 4 times via the email they are required to check regularly over a 2 month period. A professor came in wanting to scan some documents in. Now if she wanted someone to do this for her there are options for this on campus or in some copy shops. Here in the campus computer lab we will explain to you how to do it but we are not going to do it for you because we are here to help you learn so you don't need someone to do it for you every time. This is because when you have over 120 computers to monitor to make sure people don't destroy them and to ensure they get fixed when they are broken, it is hard to keep going back and having to help one person with something they should have learned years ago. Did she ask if we could show her how to scan the documents in? Nope. She logged into the computer and then point blank ordered us to scan them for her.

Anyhow that is my rant for the day.