Unfiltered Story #247400

(On one of the many days I worked the help desk, I got a call regarding our online registration where the user couldn’t log in. This happens more often than you think, either being an error on our end, or the user accidentally adding spaces or copied it wrong from the email. Username is always FirstName.LastName and a 5 digit password.)

Me: “Thank you for calling [IT Support], this is [Name]. How can I help you?”

Customer: “I can’t log into this online registration.”

Me: *Looks him up after asking his name. Nothing is wrong on his profile* “This could be an error when the email sent out. Please perform a password reset.”

(Customer takes his time performing it and getting back into his email. We are about 20 minutes into the call at this point. He goes back to the registration page and tries again.)

Customer: *Tries new password.* Nope. Still not working.

(Double checking, there are multiple names in our database that share his, which could mean the username might have a number at the end. I ask him to doublecheck.)

Customer: *After taking 10 minutes to go back to the email* Yeah my username is [FirstName.LastName]. And my new password is [Password].”

(We aren’t supposed to try and log in as them, but we are about 40 minutes into the call. I attempt the combo and it works. He is still having trouble logging in.)

Me: “Just to make sure, for your username, you are doing First dot Last name. No commas, dashes, slashes, spaces, anything. Right?”

Customer: *Short Pause* What’s the difference between a comma and a period?

Me: *voice dropping a bit low* “You see the ‘M’ key? To the right is the comma. To the right of that is the period. Push the period.”

(Customer was able to log in, but didn’t get far because the browser he picked wasn’t supported. After a few more long minutes, he was in and chugging away at the registration. I thankfully went on my break after that ordeal.)