My current job I love. I'm a Systems Analyst for the Power Company and I program Java for their billing system (and for the millionth time, I don't control how much you pay so don't ask). It's a big learning curve to jump into but I'm getting there. I get praised for creating a simple class with a hundred lines that's basically an example off the web in a day and they think it'll take a week. It's good to be the only Java guy (for now until there are problems). And yes I am at work now being unproductive.
Before though, I've worked several Helpdesk/IT jobs while getting my degree. Probably the most recent story was with a remote user. The helpdesk is a centralized location (Edmonton) with the company having lots of satellite offices (Calgary, Victoria, Vancouver, Fort St. John, etc). The bigger locations have dedicated IT people but primarily it's the central's responsibility. As well, we have home users that connect via VPN and do all their CAD work from home (slowly).
Had a home user that could not connect to the VPN because his antivirus was out of date (anything more than a week and it won't connect). Walked him through the upgrade steps but his Norton install is corrupted so he's SOL. Being a home user, he'd have to bring his computer to the nearest office and we can remotly connect and fix it or have a local IT guy do it. Of course, he lives where there is no office and He EXPLODED. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN!!! I GOTTA DRIVE 2 HOURS EACH WAY to fix my work computer! This is your fault, and your updates locking me out of my control panel and all the changes you do." Yes it's my fault you managed to convice the company to give you a computer for your home to use.
Well the problem is, we don't do security policy updates. His computer is just super infected with spyware and viruses. Also his complaining of a 2 hour drive is actually a 50 km drive down the highway which will take him maybe a half hour. Eventually, he managed to download a norton definition pack and reconnect to the VPN and it took 2 days of cleaning to get his computer working at some reasonable level. Took so long because of the crappy VPN connection but still a major pain.
Moral of story: Don't browse for porn/warez/whatever on the work computer.
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ThomamelasOnly one man can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me! Registered Userregular
My current job I love. I'm a Systems Analyst for the Power Company and I program Java for their billing system (and for the millionth time, I don't control how much you pay so don't ask). It's a big learning curve to jump into but I'm getting there. I get praised for creating a simple class with a hundred lines that's basically an example off the web in a day and they think it'll take a week. It's good to be the only Java guy (for now until there are problems). And yes I am at work now being unproductive.
Before though, I've worked several Helpdesk/IT jobs while getting my degree. Probably the most recent story was with a remote user. The helpdesk is a centralized location (Edmonton) with the company having lots of satellite offices (Calgary, Victoria, Vancouver, Fort St. John, etc). The bigger locations have dedicated IT people but primarily it's the central's responsibility. As well, we have home users that connect via VPN and do all their CAD work from home (slowly).
Had a home user that could not connect to the VPN because his antivirus was out of date (anything more than a week and it won't connect). Walked him through the upgrade steps but his Norton install is corrupted so he's SOL. Being a home user, he'd have to bring his computer to the nearest office and we can remotly connect and fix it or have a local IT guy do it. Of course, he lives where there is no office and He EXPLODED. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN!!! I GOTTA DRIVE 2 HOURS EACH WAY to fix my work computer! This is your fault, and your updates locking me out of my control panel and all the changes you do." Yes it's my fault you managed to convice the company to give you a computer for your home to use.
Well the problem is, we don't do security policy updates. His computer is just super infected with spyware and viruses. Also his complaining of a 2 hour drive is actually a 50 km drive down the highway which will take him maybe a half hour. Eventually, he managed to download a norton definition pack and reconnect to the VPN and it took 2 days of cleaning to get his computer working at some reasonable level. Took so long because of the crappy VPN connection but still a major pain.
Moral of story: Don't browse for porn/warez/whatever on the work computer.
Earlier this week I had to help our support guys clean up a machine for one of our customers. My company does DVR's for CCTV. The stupid fuck was surfing porn on his security system. People do dumb shit for porn fixes.
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Dr_KeenbeanDumb as a buttPlanet Express ShipRegistered Userregular
The 78 year old woman who's door was kicked in late at night, followed by people rampaging through her house, vandalising the walls with spray paint, destroying every item of furniture, stealing anything of value, then urinating on the carpets on their way out.
I bet that carpet really tied the room together.
Oh, God, I'm so desperately trying to place that quote and I just can't. It's almost there but I just can't remember where it comes from.
"It really tied the room together". They say it like a million times... but where?
I want to say the big lebowski..but i am in no way certain..back to employee lounge related..err..soo..how many guys in IT have absolutely nothing to do almost all day every day? I know me and quite a few other people I know who work in IT all have the same problem
Well I work IT and the only thing I've done today is read forums and such. Anyway heres an e-mail I sent to my brother the other day around 4:30pm.
So I got here at 8:30 and all I've done today is go to a guys desk who said "My computer is broken, I opened a file off the network drive and now my computer wont run, it's dead" So I go to the guys desk and he has a laptop in a dock I open the lid and boom working computer I look at the guy a moment and close the lid look at his dell monitor and hit the input switch from vga to dvi. The dude thought I was fucking magic. Theres a fucking golden statue of me between cube 91F2E9 & 91F2D9, Jesus is pissed.
PS: Jesus is the name of the janitor who, as fable has it, plugged in a mr.coffee
I plugged in a network cable yesterday.
I found someone's lost .pst file with all her emails today.
Now, seriously, where the fuck do people get this idea that games are on tapes?
VHS, more than likely. I know that doesn't make sense to you or I, but these people have dealt with VHS being the defacto standard for media you use with your TV. Even though they aren't using VHS for any of this crap, they still think they're called "tapes."
And why do people refer to systems as games??
You got me on that one.. You don't see anyone referring to a DVD player as a movie, after all.
No, but I see people refer to a DVD player as a DVD all the time, though.
I work in billing/sales/tech support for a cable company, so I get a broad taste of all the best interactions.
A couple of weeks ago, a customer called in to set up service. Things were moving right along, and I explained to him that he would pay $60 up front for his installation and service. He said that was fine.I also told him that since he hadn't had service with us before, there would be a $100 deposit for the equipment. This, he was also perfectly ok with. Then, I said something along the lines of "So, sir, that brings your total to $160".
At this point he went ballistic, asking my why it was so expensive. I explained that it was $60 ("Ok, I got that.") and $100 ("Yeah, I get that too"), therefore, $160. He then insists that what he doesn't understand is why it's so high. After going back and forth for a few moments, I finally said, "Sir, 100 and 60 is 160. It's just math." And he hung up.
And yep, I'm at work right now. Time for more fun.
So I got here at 8:30 and all I've done today is go to a guys desk who said "My computer is broken, I opened a file off the network drive and now my computer wont run, it's dead" So I go to the guys desk and he has a laptop in a dock I open the lid and boom working computer I look at the guy a moment and close the lid look at his dell monitor and hit the input switch from vga to dvi. The dude thought I was fucking magic. Theres a fucking golden statue of me between cube 91F2E9 & 91F2D9, Jesus is pissed.
edit: quote tree trimmed.
PS: Jesus is the name of the janitor who, as fable has it, plugged in a mr.coffee
I plugged in a network cable yesterday.
I found someone's lost .pst file with all her emails today.
These were the highlights of my week.
You wouldn't believe the number of times I've gotten to work to hear "I can't log into the VS. When I type my password it just moves around." So I sit down at their computer. I take a quick look around. Sure enough, it is exactly the same problem I've seen before. I tap the numlock key, stand up and say "Try it now." It works! They log in, breathe a sigh of relief, and thank me.
I also had to help a dealer of ours update our software once. Normally this is no issue, I just point them to the download site, but for some reason, this guy's wasn't working. He kept saying the installation screen was up, but he couldn't click on the button. After 10 minutes, in a flash of inspiration I say "Sir, where exactly are you clicking? What does it look like?" It turns out he was clicking on the picture of the installer on the instructions page.
"What's the difference between that iPod and an .mp3 player?"
Actually, I don't blame the customers on this. The brick & mortars don't help things by advertising things as "iPod" and "MP3" players seperately, and have different markings on them at the actual displays. Granted, one would hope someone would research a little before they spend $100+ on a music player... but that doesn't mean they're stump-pulling idiots.
Every phone in my building is an IP phone. It allows me to make changes to phones remotely, move around extensions, delete extensions, all from my own machine and it usually works very well. The one big problem is that every Sunday night the PBX reboots itself and all the phones, usually missing one or two. It's an easy fix; just unplug the network cord and plug it back in, forcing the phone to reboot. The funny part is that the compters and phones are on the same physical network (different vlans), so if the phone goes, the computer plugged into it loses connectivity as well.
Almost every week someone sneaks up to my desk and nervously asks, "nothing works, am I being laid off?"
It was funny until we laid off 13 people at once and the next day my HR gerneralists phone was dead...
I remember selling systems to parents, and telling them to feel free to call and ask for me if they had trouble setting it up. "I plugged it into the TV and turned it on, but nothing happened." "Look at the remote. Is there an Input or Source button? Try channel 00." This was usually followed by either silence and a polite thanks, or sounds of amazement.
Today, I restored an MSMoney file from our nightly backup, because someone decided to do a reconcile on the file, pushing the file size from 768KB, to 4.1GB.
Woo.
And yes, MS Money. Like the version from 1996 or something. Why do we even still use this? I really do not know. If I could, I would remove it and force them to move to one of our many other systems that could do the same thing.
So lately everyone at my office has been really big on automation. Weve got a new program rolling out, and someone wrote some really clever stuff to automate a lot of the process. I casually mentioned to someone i knew how to use the automation program, and now ive got a ton of people asking me to make the tools.
However, my boss wants me to run them all by him first, which isnt a bad thing, its just i hardly see him so sometimes i end up sitting on stuff for a while before its "production ready", which again isnt a bad thing, per say.
I wrote one script early last week, and it worked, so i sent it off to him. However, after the weekend, i came in and magically its not working. Send him an email telling him NOT to fire it off just yet, and try to solve the problem. I thought i had fixed it, turned out to be some timing issues and a specific window call which should have been a general window call. No big deal. So i send him another email with the new file, and let him know whenever he wants to come by to check it out, its ready.
That was at the beginning of the week. I used it all week without incident. Probably close to 100 times. This morning i see him come in, and let him know "Hey, whenever youre ready, ill give you the demo". He comes over, i explain the scope, go to launch it. Big red error message. What the fuck?
Boss was just kind of like "eh, well, whatever, keep trying". I was super disappointed though, because this was probably the one script i was most proud of, it was really complex, and it worked fucking awesome. I had about 15 minutes left before my shift was over, so i did some digging into why the fuck it failed. Turns out the program its latching into updated about 30 fucking minutes before i went to show him, and changed the identifiers on all of its objects, which the program was trying to latch on to. Now the problem is, i have no idea how often this program is going to update, and how often the identifiers are going to change.
So now i have to rewrite this stupid script over again from scratch, which is probably going to take me another week since it took me for-fucking-ever to figure out a "fail-proof" way to get the scripting program to latch on to it.
Oh well, atleast it gives me something to do at work other than surf the internet.
Ugh, I've been there. Our IT here won't give me access to the database for our SAP servers, but there is a nightly excel dump with all the data I need. So I use that. Worked great with the only problem being that it was slow as shit because the excel file was about 40 megs or so. Anyway, the first day the program was demoed, it crashed and burned with error messages all over the place.
Turns out the night before all the headers changed in the excel file that was dumped. Retarded changes, like "Start Date" changing to "Start" + chr(32) + " Date". Ugh, Start, linefeed, SPACE date? The whole reason I was using headers to identify the columns was because in development the column order changed twice.
Thing's been stable now for about a year with only one other header change, but man that makes you feel stupid when the fully bugtested code fails due to changes outside your control. Another one that kills me is that our IT is always messing up access rights to LAN files so these interconnected files fail a lot due to access issues as well. UGH.
Today, I restored an MSMoney file from our nightly backup, because someone decided to do a reconcile on the file, pushing the file size from 768KB, to 4.1GB.
Woo.
And yes, MS Money. Like the version from 1996 or something. Why do we even still use this? I really do not know. If I could, I would remove it and force them to move to one of our many other systems that could do the same thing.
we still use a software for making reports calle MyEureka! (yes, with the !). it was originally designed for windows NT4/Win95. The system requirements are a 60MHz CPU, 8MB ram, 16MB HDD space, a mouse or other pointing device. It took me an hour to get it insalled on an XP machine because of incompatabilities and shit. It made me sad to install it onto a nice C2D with 2GB of ram.
We just got approved to buy and install a $60k video conferencing system, yet can't spend a few hundred dollars on a new report tool. The argument is that it would cost too many man hours to learn the new system, since we've been using MyEureka for 12 years. I'm 21. that means they started using this software when I was 9 years old, in grade 4. Ya, time to move on people
I've been in IT for 5 years now and you see the same silly things over and over again.
Just five minutes ago I had someone call in telling me her computer, her moniter nothing would power on. I ask her if everything is plugged in properly and she get all huffy. So I go down to her cube and sure enough everything is plugged in, to a powerstip, that while being plugged in, has its cute little on off switch set to off.
I used to work at the tech shop in a compusa, I saw all kinds of weirdness there.
We had an attractive female "tech writer" tech writers work the counter, they answer basic computer related questions answer phones take orders and check systems in for repair. all much harder then performing the repairs imo She wasn't a pc genius or anything but she knew basic stuff and would look up things like ram compatibility online. Everyday someone would come in asking something and would cut her off mid answer to speak to a male. I was getting tired of it pretty quickly, I would do exactly what she would do, go to Crucial.com to find out what type of memory someones system needed, or read the box the person brought up to the counter.
So one day this guy comes in asking about ram for some old ass computer he had. He aperently didn't like the news that rambus is fucking expensive, so he asked to speak to someone that "Knew something other than makeup" the tech writer comes back to the tech shop pissed so I go out to the front and greet him.
Me: hello, you needed some help?
Ass: Yes I need to know what kind of ram my systems needs.
Me: I look at the tech writer "what type of ram does he need."
Ass:?
tech writer reads crucial.com
Me: well there you go is there anything els I can help you with?
Ass: I want YOU to help me...Look up what type of ram I need.
Me: Sir I assure you she is completely literate. You'd be hard pressed to find someone here that isn't, now is there anything non reading related I can help you with?
Ass: storms out.
Every phone in my building is an IP phone. It allows me to make changes to phones remotely, move around extensions, delete extensions, all from my own machine and it usually works very well. The one big problem is that every Sunday night the PBX reboots itself and all the phones, usually missing one or two. It's an easy fix; just unplug the network cord and plug it back in, forcing the phone to reboot. The funny part is that the compters and phones are on the same physical network (different vlans), so if the phone goes, the computer plugged into it loses connectivity as well.
Almost every week someone sneaks up to my desk and nervously asks, "nothing works, am I being laid off?"
It was funny until we laid off 13 people at once and the next day my HR gerneralists phone was dead...
If they are 7960s you can reboot them by holding *,6,settings. Connectivity is still passed through while the phone boots, IIRC.
Every phone in my building is an IP phone. It allows me to make changes to phones remotely, move around extensions, delete extensions, all from my own machine and it usually works very well. The one big problem is that every Sunday night the PBX reboots itself and all the phones, usually missing one or two. It's an easy fix; just unplug the network cord and plug it back in, forcing the phone to reboot. The funny part is that the compters and phones are on the same physical network (different vlans), so if the phone goes, the computer plugged into it loses connectivity as well.
Almost every week someone sneaks up to my desk and nervously asks, "nothing works, am I being laid off?"
It was funny until we laid off 13 people at once and the next day my HR gerneralists phone was dead...
If they are 7960s you can reboot them by holding *,6,settings. Connectivity is still passed through while the phone boots, IIRC.
They are Mitel 5212's for the most part. It is never consistant; sometimes none are dropped, sometimes 3, never more then 5. The strangest thing is that the mitel pbx actually loses the heartbeat before the reboot starts, almost as if the switch was losing the connection, not the pbx.
It is a puzzle, but not enough of one to contact our mitel vendor to bother to figure out. It keeps the users on their toes.
Now, seriously, where the fuck do people get this idea that games are on tapes?
VHS, more than likely. I know that doesn't make sense to you or I, but these people have dealt with VHS being the defacto standard for media you use with your TV. Even though they aren't using VHS for any of this crap, they still think they're called "tapes."
And why do people refer to systems as games??
You got me on that one.. You don't see anyone referring to a DVD player as a movie, after all.
No, but I see people refer to a DVD player as a DVD all the time, though.
I guess it's like the way people refer to a computer case as 'the hard drive'. It's just picking up technical terms that they miss-apply. The VHS thing leading people to think games are on tapes makes sense when you consider we call them 'video games'. I can see someone hearing the phrase 'video games' and think 'Oh, they must mean the games come on video tapes'.
I've been in IT for 5 years now and you see the same silly things over and over again.
Just five minutes ago I had someone call in telling me her computer, her moniter nothing would power on. I ask her if everything is plugged in properly and she get all huffy. So I go down to her cube and sure enough everything is plugged in, to a powerstip, that while being plugged in, has its cute little on off switch set to off.
I basically do the IT at our work. Well, me, my boss (who is also a co-owner of the company) and the web designer, depending on who is available and who can be bothered. Yesterday one of my colleagues monitors went out. I come over and it's just a white screen. I figure, ah she's just kicked out the cable or something, but no, shock of all shocks the monitor was genuinely fucked. Apparently it went blue, started 'doing a thing like graphic equalizers do' and then she switched it off and on again and now it just outputs a white screen. Zany.
This morning I get into work and apparently there was a power cut shortly after I left last night. As a result, the server running the database needed rebooting. We have a big room upstairs that I can only describe as Mission Control for the Rastafarian Space Program. My boss has rows of monitors and PCs and Macs and banks of external harddrives and server harddrives and internal harddrives plugged into open cases but lying out on the floor and god knows what else all doing whatever the hell they are doing all crammed in amongst piles of unfilled documents, magazines, crockery, ashtrays full of half-smoked rollups and just general junk. So I start poking at the computers trying to figure out which one is the database server, pop on one monitor and find a timed-out session of FFXI. Turns out my boss is a MMO addict, although I wouldn't be too surprised if he was running a gold farming outfit up there
Now, seriously, where the fuck do people get this idea that games are on tapes?
VHS, more than likely. I know that doesn't make sense to you or I, but these people have dealt with VHS being the defacto standard for media you use with your TV. Even though they aren't using VHS for any of this crap, they still think they're called "tapes."
I might be able to shed some light onto this, because I'm fucking old.
When the 2600 came out in the late 70s, eight-track tapes were popular. The 2600 was new technology then, and the cartridges looked a lot like the eight-tracks. Thus, "games" became "tapes" for many, many people.
Now, how the fuck this tendency has managed to straggle on THIS goddamn long is beyond me.
The thing that completely baffled me when I started my current job, and still baffles me as to why its common is that IT is in charge of the phones. I'm not talking VOIP phones, I knew/know VOIP like the back of my hand, but old fashioned phones. It's not really IT related at all, and the first time they sent me down to make a switch to some stuff I ended up knocking out about 20 peoples phones. :oops:
the conversation went something like this "have you ever done anything with phone systems before?" "you mean VOIP?" "no, but don't worry, you'll get the hang of it, go down there and flip stuff around " me=D:
Hooray for the return of the Employee Lounge Thread!
As your envoy in the archaic and decrepit world of banking, I shall regale you with more tales.
Today young twibbles I shall focus on a subject dear to my colon and apt at producing prodigious quantities of internal froth spewing rage at customers.
The subject?
BLOODY FUCKING WIRE TRANSFERS!!!!
For the un-inclined as many folks who send wire transfers are these days, to do a wire transfer within the United States, you ABSOLUTELY (no ifs ands butts or bojangles) must have at least the following:
-Destination Account Number
-Destination Bank Routing Number
-Name of Person receiving the wire.
-Name of the bloody fucking bank (Can't believe how many times people don't even bother providing this little nugget of information)
If you're doing international transfers you're also going to need to know if your'e going to covert the currency now or have it converted at the destination bank along with, (depending on the country):
-a SWIFT code
- Intermediary Bank information if your destination bank can't accept direct wires (thank god those are few and far in-between)
Here at my bank, we go a few steps further (due to the oh-so-wonderful deluge of wire-fraud scams of late) and require that you also provide the address of the person we're sending it to as well as the receiving bank's address. This works in both of our benefits because if the person sending the wire seems to exhibit the collective IQ of a turnip as I had today, it allows our wire transfer department to make sure that the money gets there and you don't have to pay multiple re-sending fees every time it gets sent back due to errors.
Today the customer I had seemed to have a hard time grasping these few simple concepts when filling out our very very clearly labeled form.
CS: "Okay I fill out form! Here! *Shoves it at me very importantly like* Do wire!
Me: "Uhhh...ok Ma'am let me see the wire form for you...
....
...
...Well...we have a few problems here....You put your receiving person in the SWIFT Code area, the destination account number in the Address Area (They weren't even next to each other!!!), I'm not sure that's even a proper SWIFT code.... and the name of the Bank as Australia New Zealand....."
CS: Yah, dat' all I need. I call mah sister der she says that info correct!
Me: Well unfortunately ma'am this form is incorrectly filled out, we'll have to do another one, plus we're going to need the name of the bank and the address of the receiving bank as well as her address to complete the wire, otherwise it will get sent back...
No sooner had I explained this that she launched into a vehement denial that she had the wrong or incomplete information, and that the bank's name was indeed Australia New Zealand....not sure how she came to that conclusion but after a bunch of wrangling with AND having her speak to a manager as she openly called me a complete idiot for not doing her wire (thank god the manager backed me up and shut her down) she finally left the bank in a huff only to come back later very sheepishly showing the correct wire form and we got that damn thing done.
Like it was mentioned before, hate people.... -_-
Working at a bank has got to be one of the worst jobs ever. People treat you like shit, even more than in other customer facing jobs. It's like a perfect storm - waiting in line, complex transactions, and idiots.
Try working in disputes and fraud. Not only are you dealing with money, but your trying to help recover stolen money, sometimes having to explain that the idiot wont be getting the $2000 back because he wrote his fucking pin on the back of the card.
How does one come to think that this is a good idea?
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ThomamelasOnly one man can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me! Registered Userregular
The thing that completely baffled me when I started my current job, and still baffles me as to why its common is that IT is in charge of the phones. I'm not talking VOIP phones, I knew/know VOIP like the back of my hand, but old fashioned phones. It's not really IT related at all, and the first time they sent me down to make a switch to some stuff I ended up knocking out about 20 peoples phones. :oops:
the conversation went something like this "have you ever done anything with phone systems before?" "you mean VOIP?" "no, but don't worry, you'll get the hang of it, go down there and flip stuff around " me=D:
IT departments got used to huge budgets in the 90's and there has been a big push from them to absorb the functions of other departments. It can be very cringe worthy when you start thinking about IT departments picking up the functions of access control and security.
My company is pretty much "if it has electricity running through it, it must be an IT thing"
The only thing that's not is the actual building maintenance, and phones. While I am the blackberry admin, I don't actually go out and buy the phones. someone else manages our phone system, she just tells me when we get a new user and we work to get the device activated.
Hooray for the return of the Employee Lounge Thread!
As your envoy in the archaic and decrepit world of banking, I shall regale you with more tales.
Today young twibbles I shall focus on a subject dear to my colon and apt at producing prodigious quantities of internal froth spewing rage at customers.
The subject?
BLOODY FUCKING WIRE TRANSFERS!!!!
For the un-inclined as many folks who send wire transfers are these days, to do a wire transfer within the United States, you ABSOLUTELY (no ifs ands butts or bojangles) must have at least the following:
-Destination Account Number
-Destination Bank Routing Number
-Name of Person receiving the wire.
-Name of the bloody fucking bank (Can't believe how many times people don't even bother providing this little nugget of information)
If you're doing international transfers you're also going to need to know if your'e going to covert the currency now or have it converted at the destination bank along with, (depending on the country):
-a SWIFT code
- Intermediary Bank information if your destination bank can't accept direct wires (thank god those are few and far in-between)
Here at my bank, we go a few steps further (due to the oh-so-wonderful deluge of wire-fraud scams of late) and require that you also provide the address of the person we're sending it to as well as the receiving bank's address. This works in both of our benefits because if the person sending the wire seems to exhibit the collective IQ of a turnip as I had today, it allows our wire transfer department to make sure that the money gets there and you don't have to pay multiple re-sending fees every time it gets sent back due to errors.
Today the customer I had seemed to have a hard time grasping these few simple concepts when filling out our very very clearly labeled form.
CS: "Okay I fill out form! Here! *Shoves it at me very importantly like* Do wire!
Me: "Uhhh...ok Ma'am let me see the wire form for you...
....
...
...Well...we have a few problems here....You put your receiving person in the SWIFT Code area, the destination account number in the Address Area (They weren't even next to each other!!!), I'm not sure that's even a proper SWIFT code.... and the name of the Bank as Australia New Zealand....."
CS: Yah, dat' all I need. I call mah sister der she says that info correct!
Me: Well unfortunately ma'am this form is incorrectly filled out, we'll have to do another one, plus we're going to need the name of the bank and the address of the receiving bank as well as her address to complete the wire, otherwise it will get sent back...
No sooner had I explained this that she launched into a vehement denial that she had the wrong or incomplete information, and that the bank's name was indeed Australia New Zealand....not sure how she came to that conclusion but after a bunch of wrangling with AND having her speak to a manager as she openly called me a complete idiot for not doing her wire (thank god the manager backed me up and shut her down) she finally left the bank in a huff only to come back later very sheepishly showing the correct wire form and we got that damn thing done.
Like it was mentioned before, hate people.... -_-
Working at a bank has got to be one of the worst jobs ever. People treat you like shit, even more than in other customer facing jobs. It's like a perfect storm - waiting in line, complex transactions, and idiots.
Banking is terrible. Our IT guys come in and I try to latch onto whatever clique of personality I can, in hopes of somehow proving my worth to their department, ANYTHING to get me out of this customer-service-ridden environment.
I plugged in a network cable yesterday.
I found someone's lost .pst file with all her emails today.
These were the highlights of my week.
do share.
I have my name as my gmail and you wouldn't believe the email I get. Family photos from a family that is clearly not mine, a couple orders from Dell that aren't mine because I'd never buy from Dell and even some companies yearly budgeting. Good stuff.
Now, seriously, where the fuck do people get this idea that games are on tapes?
VHS, more than likely. I know that doesn't make sense to you or I, but these people have dealt with VHS being the defacto standard for media you use with your TV. Even though they aren't using VHS for any of this crap, they still think they're called "tapes."
And why do people refer to systems as games??
You got me on that one.. You don't see anyone referring to a DVD player as a movie, after all.
There were some VHS "Games" that had a toy light gun thing. But mostly people are dumb.
They call them "tapes" because games used to come in cassette tapes for the Spectrum, the MSX and some other primitive computers. You put the tape in, input a basic command to start loading the program (cload "cas -- Ah, the memories...) and pressed PLAY.
...and then waited for half an hour until the tape had gone all the way. And awful modem-like sounds came out of the speakers. And, some times, the game was on the two sides, so you had to switch the tape over and press PLAY again and wait another half an hour. I used to make more sport back then.
So a Spectrum "tape" was literally that. A tape with a game recorded in it.
Wow, I think after someone asked me for permission to grease the door I would have quit. Maybe at the Necronomicon
Nah, no big deal. Me and the other guy working there just shrug, look at each other and say "this one goes in the list".
The grease guy popped his head in one day holding, literally, a can of grease and a brush and said "want me to grease your door?" Things like that come to your mind in boring days and make you happy.
Also on the list, just today:
Martial arts gear (a shop used to be next door, but it's been closed a while)
Cheap pants. Or rather, the location where a guy could buy cheap pants. I gave it to him.
...Well...we have a few problems here....You put your receiving person in the SWIFT Code area, the destination account number in the Address Area (They weren't even next to each other!!!), I'm not sure that's even a proper SWIFT code.... and the name of the Bank as Australia New Zealand....."
Well, we do have a bank called ANZ, which I assume stands for Australia and New Zealand. She got the name wrong, yes, but it seems like a simple mistake to make.
Well color me corrected! O_o
She had gotten so many other darn things wrong with the wire form so many times I assumed it was just another case of "oh dear god I have to explain everything again and write it out for them again even though legally I'm technically not allowed to even touch that form with a 20" stick" issue.
The thing that completely baffled me when I started my current job, and still baffles me as to why its common is that IT is in charge of the phones. I'm not talking VOIP phones, I knew/know VOIP like the back of my hand, but old fashioned phones. It's not really IT related at all, and the first time they sent me down to make a switch to some stuff I ended up knocking out about 20 peoples phones. :oops:
the conversation went something like this "have you ever done anything with phone systems before?" "you mean VOIP?" "no, but don't worry, you'll get the hang of it, go down there and flip stuff around " me=D:
IT departments got used to huge budgets in the 90's and there has been a big push from them to absorb the functions of other departments. It can be very cringe worthy when you start thinking about IT departments picking up the functions of access control and security.
Pretty much, yeah. Our phones belonged to the operations department, but somewhere along the way, someone had the bright idea to assign them to the IT department. We also picked up managing the security cameras for the company, which is a colossal pain in the ass. All of this was mandated before I showed up, so I don't know how long we've been running "everything with electricity."
Also, despite having no prior phone experience, the phones got assigned to me when the network engineer left the company. We're using digital, which is better than analogue, but not as cool as VOIP. I've picked up a lot along the way, even becoming comfortable going down to the switch room and moving/punching lines down, although I can't tell you how many times I've knocked people out because I pulled the wrong cross connect.
Evil_Reaver on
XBL: Agitated Wombat | 3DS: 2363-7048-2527
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ThomamelasOnly one man can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me! Registered Userregular
The thing that completely baffled me when I started my current job, and still baffles me as to why its common is that IT is in charge of the phones. I'm not talking VOIP phones, I knew/know VOIP like the back of my hand, but old fashioned phones. It's not really IT related at all, and the first time they sent me down to make a switch to some stuff I ended up knocking out about 20 peoples phones. :oops:
the conversation went something like this "have you ever done anything with phone systems before?" "you mean VOIP?" "no, but don't worry, you'll get the hang of it, go down there and flip stuff around " me=D:
IT departments got used to huge budgets in the 90's and there has been a big push from them to absorb the functions of other departments. It can be very cringe worthy when you start thinking about IT departments picking up the functions of access control and security.
Pretty much, yeah. Our phones belonged to the operations department, but somewhere along the way, someone had the bright idea to assign them to the IT department. We also picked up managing the security cameras for the company, which is a colossal pain in the ass. All of this was mandated before I showed up, so I don't know how long we've been running "everything with electricity."
Also, despite having no prior phone experience, the phones got assigned to me when the network engineer left the company. We're using digital, which is better than analogue, but not as cool as VOIP. I've picked up a lot along the way, even becoming comfortable going down to the switch room and moving/punching lines down, although I can't tell you how many times I've knocked people out because I pulled the wrong cross connect.
Yeah, the movement of security to IT annoys me. IT departments always fuck up camera installations. "Why can I only see glare in this camera?"
"Cause it's pointed at the sun?"
The thing that completely baffled me when I started my current job, and still baffles me as to why its common is that IT is in charge of the phones. I'm not talking VOIP phones, I knew/know VOIP like the back of my hand, but old fashioned phones. It's not really IT related at all, and the first time they sent me down to make a switch to some stuff I ended up knocking out about 20 peoples phones. :oops:
the conversation went something like this "have you ever done anything with phone systems before?" "you mean VOIP?" "no, but don't worry, you'll get the hang of it, go down there and flip stuff around " me=D:
IT departments got used to huge budgets in the 90's and there has been a big push from them to absorb the functions of other departments. It can be very cringe worthy when you start thinking about IT departments picking up the functions of access control and security.
Pretty much, yeah. Our phones belonged to the operations department, but somewhere along the way, someone had the bright idea to assign them to the IT department. We also picked up managing the security cameras for the company, which is a colossal pain in the ass. All of this was mandated before I showed up, so I don't know how long we've been running "everything with electricity."
Also, despite having no prior phone experience, the phones got assigned to me when the network engineer left the company. We're using digital, which is better than analogue, but not as cool as VOIP. I've picked up a lot along the way, even becoming comfortable going down to the switch room and moving/punching lines down, although I can't tell you how many times I've knocked people out because I pulled the wrong cross connect.
Yeah, the movement of security to IT annoys me. IT departments always fuck up camera installations. "Why can I only see glare in this camera?"
"Cause it's pointed at the sun?"
Fortunately, the cameras were already in place, so we don't have to mess with that stuff. Our pain comes from when Transportation sends us an email asking us to find "the car accident that happened two weeks ago at some point during the day on the company's property."
"I DON'T NEED YOU TO TELL ME HOW TO USE FINAL CUT. I'M A PROFESSIONAL VIDEO EDITOR. DO YOUR FUCKING JOB YOU RETARDED MONKEY! NOW GO IN THE BACK AND FIX MY GODDAMN COMPUTER, MONKEY! GET ME YOUR BOSS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO DO YOUR FUCKING JOB, YOU MONKEY!"
Yeah. I've also had customers that have asked for a manager when they realize I won't give them their impossible dream, but have added "and I don't want to talk to a woman or a n*****."
these two quotes go together so, so well.
really.
all i can think of is pop copy "I'm your manager B"
Sul on
Who is the mortal I see every morning with more than a little bit he must be important
Nintendo Friend Code: SW-0689-9921-0006
So I work in a university bookstore/copy centre that happens to also sell university clothing. Some old lady comes in "Do you guys have the new Western sweater?"
Me: "Uh, theres alot of them over there, why dont you go take a look and see if you see it"
Her: "No no, its on the website."
I open up IE and go to our site...
Her: "No, this isn't the right site..."
Me: "Oh, ok, was it Mustang Alley(another store ran by the university)"
Her: "I dunno"
So I go to their site and take a look, they happen to have a new Western sweater
Her: "Nope, still not it"
At this point im thinking "wtf..." cause theres only either the Bookstore clothing or the Mustang Alley clothing for western. I decide to google "uwo clothing" to see if anywhere else comes up.
I find some Cafepress-esque site that does rip off western clothes. And the lady goes "YEA THATS IT!"
Me: "Hmmm, I've never heard of this place, I dont think they're an official western store."
Her: "WELL SINCE YOU GUYS ARE RIGHT HERE I SHOULDNT HAVE TO PAY SHIPPING!"
Me: "Umm, sorry? They're a different store than us."
Her: "But cant you have it sent down here or something?"
Me: "No, they're not associated with us at all."
Her: "Oh... Well do you know where they are located?"
Me: "Doesnt look like there's an address here..."
Her: "WELL WILL THEIR SIZES CORRESPOND TO YOURS?"
Me: "...I dont know, they are completely different..."
Her: "Do you sell the mustang tickets?" (We get this alot, people always try to buy football tickets from us)
Me: "No, you'll have to go to the box office for that"
Her: "YES YOU DO IT SAYS SO ON THE WEBSITE"
Me: "I'm sorry, but we dont sell football tickets"
Her: NO I WANT HOCKEY TICKETS
Me: oh, ok
I get her the tickets, and she goes back to:
"I STILL DONT SEE WHY I SHOULD HAVE TO PAY SHIPPING"
Wezoin on
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
Now, seriously, where the fuck do people get this idea that games are on tapes?
VHS, more than likely. I know that doesn't make sense to you or I, but these people have dealt with VHS being the defacto standard for media you use with your TV. Even though they aren't using VHS for any of this crap, they still think they're called "tapes."
I might be able to shed some light onto this, because I'm fucking old.
When the 2600 came out in the late 70s, eight-track tapes were popular. The 2600 was new technology then, and the cartridges looked a lot like the eight-tracks. Thus, "games" became "tapes" for many, many people.
Now, how the fuck this tendency has managed to straggle on THIS goddamn long is beyond me.
To be fair, it's probably Nintendo's fault. Video game manuals used to have some pretty specific stuff in the precautions section, including things like "do not immerse your Nintendo Video Game Cassette in water."
Yes, they said "Cassette," so I will blame Nintendo. :P
How many former gamestop employees find themselves spending hours in the store they used too work at just hanging out?
It's been 3 months and it's still the place I go when I'm really lonely.
I don't hang out at Best Buy, but I find myself swinging by the Geek Squad counter during almost every trip just to say hi to my former co-workers. 8-)
On the subject of death and daemons disappearing: arrows sure are effective in Lyra's universe. Seems like if you get shot once, you're dead - no lingering deaths with your daemon huddling pitifully in your arms, just *thunk* *argh* *whoosh*. A battlefield full of the dying would just be so much more depressing when you add in wailing gerbils and dogs.
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ShadowenSnores in the morningLoserdomRegistered Userregular
edited February 2008
So I work for a big booze-producing company. They're called Diageo. Produce damn near every fucking thing you can think of. Guinness, Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, Captain Morgan...
Anyway. I work in "Consumer Care" (i.e. call center). Consumer calls in on the Goldschlager line.
Goldschlager is a cinnamon schnapps drink with flakes of real 23k gold in it. In total, there's about $2-3 worth. Completely non-toxic, complete gimmick.
"Yeah, I read somewhere on the internet that the gold in Goldschlager cuts your throat."
"I can assure you that's not true."
"No, it's not a bad thing I hear it cuts your throat and then since the alcohol goes straight in your bloodstream you get drunk faster."
"...no. That doesn't happen."
"Then I'm gonna sue!"
"...the Internet?"
"Yeah!"
"The whole Internet?"
"Damn right! Fuckin' liars!"
"...well, good luck with that."
"Gonna sue you too!"
"Why?"
"Because it doesn't get me drunk faster!"
That was a happy ten-minute phone call. Of course, complaining about drunken fuckwits is like being a reviewer complaining about having to review bad things.
Moral of story: Don't browse for porn/warez/whatever on the work computer.
For my last help desk job, we had one lab with server that was experiencing all kinds of issues. Two of us walked them through every fix we could think of to get things up and running, with the lab's staff fighting us every step of the way.* Finally, it turned out that someone had installed AOL on the server, which FUBARed it so much that we ultimately just had to give them a new one.
These people could not figure out how to restore a damn icon, but they knew how to install AOL? O_o
________________________________
*Why do people fight you when you try to help? Look, dumbass. You fucked up your computer and don't know how to fix it. That's why you called me. If you just shut up and do what I tell you to, it will be fixed. If you "don't have time for this", why the hell did you call me in the first place?
On the subject of death and daemons disappearing: arrows sure are effective in Lyra's universe. Seems like if you get shot once, you're dead - no lingering deaths with your daemon huddling pitifully in your arms, just *thunk* *argh* *whoosh*. A battlefield full of the dying would just be so much more depressing when you add in wailing gerbils and dogs.
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INeedNoSaltwith blood on my teethRegistered Userregular
I stand around and look and look something going on in front of me at the grocery store when I'm line and wonder how the cashier hasn't went postal yet.
So over the past couple of days, this kid (not sure of age since I didn't deal with him directly) has been calling our office asking if we can sell him a strategy guide for one of our games. The first time we took his call, we didn't even know what he was trying to ask us. He just kept mumbling about if we had guides in our office or something. Once we finally got him to explain what he wanted, we told him that the guy who handles sales through our store was out sick. We told him to call back the next day at around 10. The rest goes as follows:
Clueless Customer: "What?! Ten at night?! I can't call then!"
Awesome Us: "No no, 10am pacific time."
CC: "Pacific time, what's that?"
AU: "Uhh...our time zone? We're in California."
CC: "Oh, well I'm in Kentucky. What's a time zone?"
AU: "It's...it's a time zone. When it's 10am here, it's 2-3 hours later where you are."
CC: "I've never heard of that."
AU: "Okay, well then just give us your phone number and we can call you later."
CC: "I don't have a phone. Oh, but I DO have a cell phone, is that okay?"
He then gives us a 7-digit number. We tell him we need the area code. He then proceeds to give us another 5-digit number. His zip code. We explain this, and in frustration he tells us he doesn't know his area code. Okay, so just call us back the same time tomorrow.
So we get that sorted out and he says he'll call back. Which he does. Our online order guy tells him that the only way we can sell him a guide is if he orders through our online store. He informs us that he "doesn't know how to use a computer". He then offers to send us a money order, despite us explaining several times that we don't have anything to sell in our office. Because we are not the back of a van, you see.
Finally he gets huffy and says this is taking too long, so he doesn't wanna buy it anymore. Haven't heard back since, but I won't be surprised when we do.
Posts
Before though, I've worked several Helpdesk/IT jobs while getting my degree. Probably the most recent story was with a remote user. The helpdesk is a centralized location (Edmonton) with the company having lots of satellite offices (Calgary, Victoria, Vancouver, Fort St. John, etc). The bigger locations have dedicated IT people but primarily it's the central's responsibility. As well, we have home users that connect via VPN and do all their CAD work from home (slowly).
Had a home user that could not connect to the VPN because his antivirus was out of date (anything more than a week and it won't connect). Walked him through the upgrade steps but his Norton install is corrupted so he's SOL. Being a home user, he'd have to bring his computer to the nearest office and we can remotly connect and fix it or have a local IT guy do it. Of course, he lives where there is no office and He EXPLODED. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN!!! I GOTTA DRIVE 2 HOURS EACH WAY to fix my work computer! This is your fault, and your updates locking me out of my control panel and all the changes you do." Yes it's my fault you managed to convice the company to give you a computer for your home to use.
Well the problem is, we don't do security policy updates. His computer is just super infected with spyware and viruses. Also his complaining of a 2 hour drive is actually a 50 km drive down the highway which will take him maybe a half hour. Eventually, he managed to download a norton definition pack and reconnect to the VPN and it took 2 days of cleaning to get his computer working at some reasonable level. Took so long because of the crappy VPN connection but still a major pain.
Moral of story: Don't browse for porn/warez/whatever on the work computer.
Earlier this week I had to help our support guys clean up a machine for one of our customers. My company does DVR's for CCTV. The stupid fuck was surfing porn on his security system. People do dumb shit for porn fixes.
I plugged in a network cable yesterday.
I found someone's lost .pst file with all her emails today.
These were the highlights of my week.
3DS: 1650-8480-6786
Switch: SW-0653-8208-4705
No, but I see people refer to a DVD player as a DVD all the time, though.
A couple of weeks ago, a customer called in to set up service. Things were moving right along, and I explained to him that he would pay $60 up front for his installation and service. He said that was fine.I also told him that since he hadn't had service with us before, there would be a $100 deposit for the equipment. This, he was also perfectly ok with. Then, I said something along the lines of "So, sir, that brings your total to $160".
At this point he went ballistic, asking my why it was so expensive. I explained that it was $60 ("Ok, I got that.") and $100 ("Yeah, I get that too"), therefore, $160. He then insists that what he doesn't understand is why it's so high. After going back and forth for a few moments, I finally said, "Sir, 100 and 60 is 160. It's just math." And he hung up.
And yep, I'm at work right now. Time for more fun.
D/P: 2621-2512-5050
You wouldn't believe the number of times I've gotten to work to hear "I can't log into the VS. When I type my password it just moves around." So I sit down at their computer. I take a quick look around. Sure enough, it is exactly the same problem I've seen before. I tap the numlock key, stand up and say "Try it now." It works! They log in, breathe a sigh of relief, and thank me.
I also had to help a dealer of ours update our software once. Normally this is no issue, I just point them to the download site, but for some reason, this guy's wasn't working. He kept saying the installation screen was up, but he couldn't click on the button. After 10 minutes, in a flash of inspiration I say "Sir, where exactly are you clicking? What does it look like?" It turns out he was clicking on the picture of the installer on the instructions page.
Every phone in my building is an IP phone. It allows me to make changes to phones remotely, move around extensions, delete extensions, all from my own machine and it usually works very well. The one big problem is that every Sunday night the PBX reboots itself and all the phones, usually missing one or two. It's an easy fix; just unplug the network cord and plug it back in, forcing the phone to reboot. The funny part is that the compters and phones are on the same physical network (different vlans), so if the phone goes, the computer plugged into it loses connectivity as well.
Almost every week someone sneaks up to my desk and nervously asks, "nothing works, am I being laid off?"
It was funny until we laid off 13 people at once and the next day my HR gerneralists phone was dead...
Woo.
And yes, MS Money. Like the version from 1996 or something. Why do we even still use this? I really do not know. If I could, I would remove it and force them to move to one of our many other systems that could do the same thing.
Ugh, I've been there. Our IT here won't give me access to the database for our SAP servers, but there is a nightly excel dump with all the data I need. So I use that. Worked great with the only problem being that it was slow as shit because the excel file was about 40 megs or so. Anyway, the first day the program was demoed, it crashed and burned with error messages all over the place.
Turns out the night before all the headers changed in the excel file that was dumped. Retarded changes, like "Start Date" changing to "Start" + chr(32) + " Date". Ugh, Start, linefeed, SPACE date? The whole reason I was using headers to identify the columns was because in development the column order changed twice.
Thing's been stable now for about a year with only one other header change, but man that makes you feel stupid when the fully bugtested code fails due to changes outside your control. Another one that kills me is that our IT is always messing up access rights to LAN files so these interconnected files fail a lot due to access issues as well. UGH.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
MMOG Comic, Quests, and News. www.thebrasse.com
we still use a software for making reports calle MyEureka! (yes, with the !). it was originally designed for windows NT4/Win95. The system requirements are a 60MHz CPU, 8MB ram, 16MB HDD space, a mouse or other pointing device. It took me an hour to get it insalled on an XP machine because of incompatabilities and shit. It made me sad to install it onto a nice C2D with 2GB of ram.
We just got approved to buy and install a $60k video conferencing system, yet can't spend a few hundred dollars on a new report tool. The argument is that it would cost too many man hours to learn the new system, since we've been using MyEureka for 12 years. I'm 21. that means they started using this software when I was 9 years old, in grade 4. Ya, time to move on people
Just five minutes ago I had someone call in telling me her computer, her moniter nothing would power on. I ask her if everything is plugged in properly and she get all huffy. So I go down to her cube and sure enough everything is plugged in, to a powerstip, that while being plugged in, has its cute little on off switch set to off.
I used to work at the tech shop in a compusa, I saw all kinds of weirdness there.
We had an attractive female "tech writer" tech writers work the counter, they answer basic computer related questions answer phones take orders and check systems in for repair. all much harder then performing the repairs imo She wasn't a pc genius or anything but she knew basic stuff and would look up things like ram compatibility online. Everyday someone would come in asking something and would cut her off mid answer to speak to a male. I was getting tired of it pretty quickly, I would do exactly what she would do, go to Crucial.com to find out what type of memory someones system needed, or read the box the person brought up to the counter.
So one day this guy comes in asking about ram for some old ass computer he had. He aperently didn't like the news that rambus is fucking expensive, so he asked to speak to someone that "Knew something other than makeup" the tech writer comes back to the tech shop pissed so I go out to the front and greet him.
Me: hello, you needed some help?
Ass: Yes I need to know what kind of ram my systems needs.
Me: I look at the tech writer "what type of ram does he need."
Ass:?
tech writer
Me: well there you go is there anything els I can help you with?
Ass: I want YOU to help me...Look up what type of ram I need.
Me: Sir I assure you she is completely literate. You'd be hard pressed to find someone here that isn't, now is there anything non reading related I can help you with?
Ass: storms out.
My RockBand/SingStar song list, videogame karaoke is Awesome!
If they are 7960s you can reboot them by holding *,6,settings. Connectivity is still passed through while the phone boots, IIRC.
They are Mitel 5212's for the most part. It is never consistant; sometimes none are dropped, sometimes 3, never more then 5. The strangest thing is that the mitel pbx actually loses the heartbeat before the reboot starts, almost as if the switch was losing the connection, not the pbx.
It is a puzzle, but not enough of one to contact our mitel vendor to bother to figure out. It keeps the users on their toes.
I guess it's like the way people refer to a computer case as 'the hard drive'. It's just picking up technical terms that they miss-apply. The VHS thing leading people to think games are on tapes makes sense when you consider we call them 'video games'. I can see someone hearing the phrase 'video games' and think 'Oh, they must mean the games come on video tapes'.
I basically do the IT at our work. Well, me, my boss (who is also a co-owner of the company) and the web designer, depending on who is available and who can be bothered. Yesterday one of my colleagues monitors went out. I come over and it's just a white screen. I figure, ah she's just kicked out the cable or something, but no, shock of all shocks the monitor was genuinely fucked. Apparently it went blue, started 'doing a thing like graphic equalizers do' and then she switched it off and on again and now it just outputs a white screen. Zany.
This morning I get into work and apparently there was a power cut shortly after I left last night. As a result, the server running the database needed rebooting. We have a big room upstairs that I can only describe as Mission Control for the Rastafarian Space Program. My boss has rows of monitors and PCs and Macs and banks of external harddrives and server harddrives and internal harddrives plugged into open cases but lying out on the floor and god knows what else all doing whatever the hell they are doing all crammed in amongst piles of unfilled documents, magazines, crockery, ashtrays full of half-smoked rollups and just general junk. So I start poking at the computers trying to figure out which one is the database server, pop on one monitor and find a timed-out session of FFXI. Turns out my boss is a MMO addict, although I wouldn't be too surprised if he was running a gold farming outfit up there
I might be able to shed some light onto this, because I'm fucking old.
When the 2600 came out in the late 70s, eight-track tapes were popular. The 2600 was new technology then, and the cartridges looked a lot like the eight-tracks. Thus, "games" became "tapes" for many, many people.
Now, how the fuck this tendency has managed to straggle on THIS goddamn long is beyond me.
the conversation went something like this "have you ever done anything with phone systems before?" "you mean VOIP?" "no, but don't worry, you'll get the hang of it, go down there and flip stuff around " me=D:
Try working in disputes and fraud. Not only are you dealing with money, but your trying to help recover stolen money, sometimes having to explain that the idiot wont be getting the $2000 back because he wrote his fucking pin on the back of the card.
How does one come to think that this is a good idea?
IT departments got used to huge budgets in the 90's and there has been a big push from them to absorb the functions of other departments. It can be very cringe worthy when you start thinking about IT departments picking up the functions of access control and security.
The only thing that's not is the actual building maintenance, and phones. While I am the blackberry admin, I don't actually go out and buy the phones. someone else manages our phone system, she just tells me when we get a new user and we work to get the device activated.
Banking is terrible. Our IT guys come in and I try to latch onto whatever clique of personality I can, in hopes of somehow proving my worth to their department, ANYTHING to get me out of this customer-service-ridden environment.
My heart is telling me no...
/me eyes the computer system
But my body, my body is telling me yes.
do share.
I have my name as my gmail and you wouldn't believe the email I get. Family photos from a family that is clearly not mine, a couple orders from Dell that aren't mine because I'd never buy from Dell and even some companies yearly budgeting. Good stuff.
Steam | Live
They call them "tapes" because games used to come in cassette tapes for the Spectrum, the MSX and some other primitive computers. You put the tape in, input a basic command to start loading the program (cload "cas -- Ah, the memories...) and pressed PLAY.
...and then waited for half an hour until the tape had gone all the way. And awful modem-like sounds came out of the speakers. And, some times, the game was on the two sides, so you had to switch the tape over and press PLAY again and wait another half an hour. I used to make more sport back then.
So a Spectrum "tape" was literally that. A tape with a game recorded in it.
Nah, no big deal. Me and the other guy working there just shrug, look at each other and say "this one goes in the list".
The grease guy popped his head in one day holding, literally, a can of grease and a brush and said "want me to grease your door?" Things like that come to your mind in boring days and make you happy.
Also on the list, just today:
Martial arts gear (a shop used to be next door, but it's been closed a while)
Cheap pants. Or rather, the location where a guy could buy cheap pants. I gave it to him.
Well color me corrected! O_o
She had gotten so many other darn things wrong with the wire form so many times I assumed it was just another case of "oh dear god I have to explain everything again and write it out for them again even though legally I'm technically not allowed to even touch that form with a 20" stick" issue.
Wud yoo laek to lern aboot meatz? Look here!
Pretty much, yeah. Our phones belonged to the operations department, but somewhere along the way, someone had the bright idea to assign them to the IT department. We also picked up managing the security cameras for the company, which is a colossal pain in the ass. All of this was mandated before I showed up, so I don't know how long we've been running "everything with electricity."
Also, despite having no prior phone experience, the phones got assigned to me when the network engineer left the company. We're using digital, which is better than analogue, but not as cool as VOIP. I've picked up a lot along the way, even becoming comfortable going down to the switch room and moving/punching lines down, although I can't tell you how many times I've knocked people out because I pulled the wrong cross connect.
Yeah, the movement of security to IT annoys me. IT departments always fuck up camera installations. "Why can I only see glare in this camera?"
"Cause it's pointed at the sun?"
Fortunately, the cameras were already in place, so we don't have to mess with that stuff. Our pain comes from when Transportation sends us an email asking us to find "the car accident that happened two weeks ago at some point during the day on the company's property."
Pain.
i work at a computer store. we sell computers. and audio/video cablery.
Customer1 : "you sell light timers?"
"...no."
Customer1 : "where can i get them?
"home depot?...you can use a computer to look it up..."
this wasnt so bad. timers...are...tech of a sort. i guess. but, later that day:
Customer2 : "you guys got lighter fluid?"
"... no." O_o
Customer2 : "then where can i get it?"
Nintendo Friend Code: SW-0689-9921-0006
these two quotes go together so, so well.
really.
all i can think of is pop copy "I'm your manager B"
Nintendo Friend Code: SW-0689-9921-0006
Me: "Uh, theres alot of them over there, why dont you go take a look and see if you see it"
Her: "No no, its on the website."
I open up IE and go to our site...
Her: "No, this isn't the right site..."
Me: "Oh, ok, was it Mustang Alley(another store ran by the university)"
Her: "I dunno"
So I go to their site and take a look, they happen to have a new Western sweater
Her: "Nope, still not it"
At this point im thinking "wtf..." cause theres only either the Bookstore clothing or the Mustang Alley clothing for western. I decide to google "uwo clothing" to see if anywhere else comes up.
I find some Cafepress-esque site that does rip off western clothes. And the lady goes "YEA THATS IT!"
Me: "Hmmm, I've never heard of this place, I dont think they're an official western store."
Her: "WELL SINCE YOU GUYS ARE RIGHT HERE I SHOULDNT HAVE TO PAY SHIPPING!"
Me: "Umm, sorry? They're a different store than us."
Her: "But cant you have it sent down here or something?"
Me: "No, they're not associated with us at all."
Her: "Oh... Well do you know where they are located?"
Me: "Doesnt look like there's an address here..."
Her: "WELL WILL THEIR SIZES CORRESPOND TO YOURS?"
Me: "...I dont know, they are completely different..."
Her: "Do you sell the mustang tickets?" (We get this alot, people always try to buy football tickets from us)
Me: "No, you'll have to go to the box office for that"
Her: "YES YOU DO IT SAYS SO ON THE WEBSITE"
Me: "I'm sorry, but we dont sell football tickets"
Her: NO I WANT HOCKEY TICKETS
Me: oh, ok
I get her the tickets, and she goes back to:
"I STILL DONT SEE WHY I SHOULD HAVE TO PAY SHIPPING"
To be fair, it's probably Nintendo's fault. Video game manuals used to have some pretty specific stuff in the precautions section, including things like "do not immerse your Nintendo Video Game Cassette in water."
Yes, they said "Cassette," so I will blame Nintendo. :P
I don't hang out at Best Buy, but I find myself swinging by the Geek Squad counter during almost every trip just to say hi to my former co-workers. 8-)
Anyway. I work in "Consumer Care" (i.e. call center). Consumer calls in on the Goldschlager line.
Goldschlager is a cinnamon schnapps drink with flakes of real 23k gold in it. In total, there's about $2-3 worth. Completely non-toxic, complete gimmick.
"Yeah, I read somewhere on the internet that the gold in Goldschlager cuts your throat."
"I can assure you that's not true."
"No, it's not a bad thing I hear it cuts your throat and then since the alcohol goes straight in your bloodstream you get drunk faster."
"...no. That doesn't happen."
"Then I'm gonna sue!"
"...the Internet?"
"Yeah!"
"The whole Internet?"
"Damn right! Fuckin' liars!"
"...well, good luck with that."
"Gonna sue you too!"
"Why?"
"Because it doesn't get me drunk faster!"
That was a happy ten-minute phone call. Of course, complaining about drunken fuckwits is like being a reviewer complaining about having to review bad things.
For my last help desk job, we had one lab with server that was experiencing all kinds of issues. Two of us walked them through every fix we could think of to get things up and running, with the lab's staff fighting us every step of the way.* Finally, it turned out that someone had installed AOL on the server, which FUBARed it so much that we ultimately just had to give them a new one.
These people could not figure out how to restore a damn icon, but they knew how to install AOL? O_o
________________________________
*Why do people fight you when you try to help? Look, dumbass. You fucked up your computer and don't know how to fix it. That's why you called me. If you just shut up and do what I tell you to, it will be fixed. If you "don't have time for this", why the hell did you call me in the first place?
Human beings are horrible people.
I feel bad for you
I stand around and look and look something going on in front of me at the grocery store when I'm line and wonder how the cashier hasn't went postal yet.
Clueless Customer: "What?! Ten at night?! I can't call then!"
Awesome Us: "No no, 10am pacific time."
CC: "Pacific time, what's that?"
AU: "Uhh...our time zone? We're in California."
CC: "Oh, well I'm in Kentucky. What's a time zone?"
AU: "It's...it's a time zone. When it's 10am here, it's 2-3 hours later where you are."
CC: "I've never heard of that."
AU: "Okay, well then just give us your phone number and we can call you later."
CC: "I don't have a phone. Oh, but I DO have a cell phone, is that okay?"
He then gives us a 7-digit number. We tell him we need the area code. He then proceeds to give us another 5-digit number. His zip code. We explain this, and in frustration he tells us he doesn't know his area code. Okay, so just call us back the same time tomorrow.
So we get that sorted out and he says he'll call back. Which he does. Our online order guy tells him that the only way we can sell him a guide is if he orders through our online store. He informs us that he "doesn't know how to use a computer". He then offers to send us a money order, despite us explaining several times that we don't have anything to sell in our office. Because we are not the back of a van, you see.
Finally he gets huffy and says this is taking too long, so he doesn't wanna buy it anymore. Haven't heard back since, but I won't be surprised when we do.