Unfiltered Story #190108

I work as the sole web developer for a small online art store. Typically reception can help customers with any issues they have, but in the rare case they can’t a call will get transferred to me. For this call, the client had already been on the phone with someone for 10 minutes.

Reception told me he was unable to see the navigation to go from page to page on the bottom of the site. So he could only see the first page of every category.

Me: [store name], how can I help you?

Client: I can’t change pages in the categories. All I can see is the first page and no one can tell me why! If your site is broken how can I trust buying from you?

Me: No problem sir. This isn’t a known issue so I am going to ask a few questions about how you are browsing our site.

[at this point I go through various troubleshooting steps, check his browser version, etc. Spent about 8-10 minutes on the phone trying to figure out this guys issue. I even had him try to install another browser to test on that. No luck.]

Me: I’m sorry sir. But based on the information you’re telling me and what I see here, there shouldn’t be any issues browsing the site. I have exhausted all my options. Do you have a friend’s computer you can try it on?

Client: I can’t get to anyone else’s computer. I am fully blind in my right eye, and 50% blind in my left eye so I can’t drive or travel alone safely.

Me: Oh.. Ughm.. You know what, can we try one last thing? Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and between the last row of products and the footer, just click in the middle of that open area.

Client: [Slight pause] WOW! It just took me to a new page! What on earth was the problem?

Me: I have no clue. Must have been a bug we couldn’t see.