Androids Are Scared Of Them

I work in IT. The company supports email on phones but only on iPhones at this time as the play store retired the app that we used to be able to manage for Androids. If someone with an Android already had email on their phone then it will still work, but if they get a new phone or are just now trying to add email, it won’t work.

We have training/KB articles with steps for various things that users regularly do. What a lot of managers and customer service teams have done is print stuff out in batches to hand people so they might not have to call for support.

I get this call the other day.

Me: “Service Desk, this is [My Name].”

User: “Hi, I’m trying to put mail on my phone but I’m at step seventeen and it’s not working.”

I am wondering what she’s looking at, because even the install that also adds a couple of extra reporting systems only has, like, fifteen steps.

Me: “Um, can you clarify? What’s not working? Is there an error?

User: “It’s not working. I got the steps and I got to this one and it’s just not working.”

I start to look up her account in the system.

Me: “What kind of phone do you have?”

User: “Well, I have a Samsung, but I don’t know why that matters. I’m looking at the steps I got from Customer Service.”

Me: “Oh! Well, I’m sorry, but at this time, we don’t support email on Android devices as the system was retired.”

User: “But I’ve got the steps right in front of me!”

Me: “I understand that, but if you have an old copy, it wouldn’t have the updated information. A note was added to the KB article that mentioned we aren’t supporting it at this time.”

User: “It doesn’t say that here. I got the steps from Customer Service!”

Me: “I understand that, and I apologize, but at this time, we don’t support email on Android devices.”

User: “When is it going to be supported again?”

Me: “I’m not sure at this time. They’re working on coming up with an alternative but don’t have one currently.”

User: “But I’ve got the steps from Customer Service! Why won’t they work?!”

Me: “Because it sounds like they gave you a copy from before the system was retired, back when it was still supported, so it doesn’t have the note that it’s no longer being supported.”

User: “When is it going to be supported again?”

Me: “At this time, I don’t have an ETA. They’re working on it.”

User: “Well, why isn’t it working? When is it going to work again?”

I mentally bang my head against the desk.

Me: “At this time, it’s not being supported and I currently don’t have an ETA.”

User: “Well, you should put a note out! Bye!”