I work internal IT for a retail company. We have several stores, and a few of the stores do have restaurants and coffee bars included, as well. We’re phone support only, and while we do have a third-party company we use for onsite support, some stuff can be done by the users to help prevent the need for an onsite visit… if they’re willing to listen, which doesn’t always happen.

I get a call one day from a user at one of the restaurants saying their registers are having trouble. I reach out to the team that manages the back end of the registers and they ask for someone to reboot a server. The servers are labeled and everything, but there are only specific people who have access to the server room for security reasons.

I am talking to the user and one of the users who is authorized to get into the room.

Me: “Okay, the server is going to be labeled [Server]. There are three of them, but they’re all labeled.”

Authorized User: “Is someone from [Third-Party Support] going to come onsite?”

Me: “If needed, but if you can do this now, then you don’t have to wait.”

Authorized User: “I’m not going in there to push buttons and risk bringing everything down.”

Me: “All the servers are labeled. You just need to turn on [Server].”

Authorized User: “I understand, but in this store, I don’t push buttons without [Third-Party Support] say-so.”

Me: “We can try and get them out there, but this can be resolved without their involvement. You just need to turn on the server.”

Authorized User: “I will not be going into that room without [Third-Party Support].”

He apparently walks away at that point.

Other User: “So, he’s not going to go in. Can we get [Third-Party Support] to come out?”

Me: “Well, we can try and send a request, but it will be at least an hour before they can get there.”

Other User: “Oh. We open in less than an hour, though, so I don’t want to wait.”

Me: “If you can find [Authorized User #2], they should be able to get in. I’m not 100% on the exact layout because each room is slightly different, but it is labeled.”

Other User: “Yeah, thank you. Sorry he wasn’t willing to cooperate. I’m trying to locate [Authorized User #2], but it’ll take me a few minutes.”

Me: “No worries!”

It takes a few minutes and the user ends up in the sound closet by mistake, but we find [Authorized User #2] and they are able to get into the server room.

Authorized User #2: “Okay, I found the server!”

Me: “Awesome! Can you double-check if it feels hot to the touch before you turn it back on?”

Authorized User #2: “It’s a little warm, but not burning, and I just turned it back on.”

Me: “Thank you! One sec.”

I reach out to the team who asked for it to be rebooted and confirm they are seeing it come back up.

Me: “Okay, you guys should be good! They’re seeing the server come back up on the back end.”

Authorized User #2: “Great! Thank you for being patient with us!”

Other User: “Yes, thank you so much for waiting through that! Can I go check my registers really fast just to make sure they’re back up?”

Me: “Sure.”

The user gets back to his restaurant and verifies things are up.

Other User: “Thank you so much for sticking with me and getting these back up! So glad I didn’t have to wait for [Third-Party Support].”

Me: “No problem! Glad we were able to get this resolved for you!”

Other User: “Thank you so much! Have a great day!”

We ended the call and I wrote up and resolved my ticket for the issue. I found out later that someone at that specific store had pushed down a rule that the only people allowed in the server room were building services or [Third-Party Support].

Apparently, some people want to stick to that rule even if it means waiting an hour for a resolution. I do wish the first authorized user I talked to had actually said that was the reason, though, instead of just flat out refusing.

The creepiest customer I’ve ever had was at a tech support company about seven years ago when I did tech support for a company that provided free online apps across the globe. They needed help finding some files on their account.

User: “So, how old do you have to be to work there? You sound twelve!”

Me: *Laughs* “Oh, yes! I get that a lot. Definitely not twelve.”

User: “I don’t believe you! Are you single?”

Me: “Uh… married with a kid.”

User: “No, you’re not. You’re only twelve. You sound hot. You should go out with me.”

To make it worse, they either had that smoker’s voice people get or they were in their sixties. Their tone of voice was that one that creeps get when they think they’re being sexy but it’s all cringe.

This takes place around 2012. I have been at this help desk, tech support job for about four years now. I am the lead Tier 2 technician. Since no management works on the weekends, I am in charge of the half-dozen other technicians working with me. There is an escalation list of managers to contact should any issues beyond my scope come up.

One day, on what starts like any other Saturday morning, I arrive at work about ten minutes early. The two guys that work third shift are just leaving and everyone for first shift is coming in to get logged on the phone system to and to start working any older tickets.

The morning progresses like it usually does: a few calls early in the morning but nothing pressing. About an hour goes without any calls and we’re approaching the pre-lunch rush, but the phones aren’t ringing and any outgoing calls we’ve tried to make, no customers are picking up. About another thirty minutes pass and still no calls. We find this odd.

I grab my cell phone and dial the help desk phone number; it just goes to a busy signal. Oh, s***! Phones are down!

I grab the escalation list and see what manager is on call for the day and I call him using my cell phone. About twenty minutes later, phones are still down, but the manager is on the floor and he’s calling out to the phone company and then to his supervisor. With the phones being down, we cannot call out to customers to work with them on issues and we certainly can’t get any inbound calls to help customers with any current issues. So, the help desk techs and I just sit and wait for instructions from management.

Another thirty minutes go by and in walks a couple of the owners with our in-house techs to check phones on our end while they are still working with the phone company. Management and owners are trying to figure out what actions to take next because we cannot have downtime like this.

Pretty soon, one of the owners comes around and tells the help desk techs that they are working on getting some burner phones so we can start making outbound calls because it could be a few more hours before the phone company can fix the issue. In the meantime, the owner tells us that we need to start using our personal cell phones to make outbound calls to customers. They say they will reimburse us and pay us $50 to use our personal cell phones.

A couple of guys think it is a good deal, but I don’t. 

Me: “I am not using my own personal cell phone to make outbound calls to customers. Once customers get technicians’ cell phones, they are relentless and constantly call them. So, I am not going to be using my cell phone for any work-related calls to customers.”

Immediate Manager: “I understand, and I don’t blame you. I have customers who’ve gotten my number constantly trying to call my personal cell.”

About an hour goes by. The phone company resolves the issue and phones are working again, just about the same time that one of the other owners shows up with a dozen burner phones to use. With the phones up, we continue on with the workday without any other issues.

Along comes Monday, and after I get into work and to my desk, my manager tells me that his supervisor wants to see me. I head into the head manager’s office and he sits me down across the table from him.

Head Manager: “Why wouldn’t you make any calls with your cell phone on Saturday? You knew the phones were down and we needed to make calls to customers to work on existing tickets in the system.”

Me: “I already told you guys that I wasn’t using my personal cell phone to make calls to customers.”

Head Manager: “The owners said they would pay for your cell phone bill for the month, so I don’t understand why it was an issue.”

Me: “It’s my cell phone. Not a work phone. You guys don’t pay for it nor own it, and I don’t want customers to have my number to call me on my personal cell phone. If you want me to have a company-owned cell phone to use and make calls from it, I’ll be more than happy to do that, but I won’t use my personal cell for work-related calls.”

Head Manager: “Okay. Fair enough. That’s all.”

I head out to my desk and do my work, and after a few days, I forget about the incident and life moves on. Or so I think.

The following week, I’m once again asked to talk with the head manager for the help desk.

Head Manager: “The owners want to know why it was such a difficult thing to not use your cell phone a couple of Saturdays ago when the phones were down.”

Me: “I already told you. My phone. Not a company phone.”

I glare at my manager. If he can’t tell that I am pissed about being questioned about the same thing we went over about me using my personal phone for work, he needs to find a better position, because reading people isn’t one of them.

Head Manager: “They offered to pay for your time using your phone. We just don’t understand why it was so difficult for you to do. The other guys on the help desk used their phones to make outbound calls.”

Me: “I already told you! My personal f****** phone!”

People outside his office can hear me yelling at him.

Me: “You guys don’t get to tell me what I can and cannot do with my phone and my property. I don’t appreciate you harassing me about it again.”

The manager sat there with his mouth slightly open and eyes as wide as can be. He took a moment to collect himself. Then, he thanked me for my time and said I could go back to my desk.

The issue was never brought up again, and a new policy was put in place that personal cell phones were not to be used for contacting customers. They would keep burner phones on hand should the phone system go down again.

I work tech support for a major ISP. A customer calls because her TV set-top box won’t start up; the message is “check cabling”. Throughout the process, I have to shout to get her attention because she is chatting with roommates. Apparently, they are med students.

Customer: “[Lots of medical information about a patient].”

Me: “Ma’am, what is the TV doing?”

Customer: “[Lots of medical information about a patient].”

Me: “Ma’am, what is the TV doing?”

Customer: *As if I’m being a nuisance* “Still starting.”

Customer: “[Lots of medical information about a patient].”

Me: “Ma’am, what is the TV doing?”

The customer continues violating every privacy law on the books and probably necessitating a few new ones.

Me: “Is the TV starting?”

Customer: *Suddenly very surprised* “It works! What was the problem?”

Me: “When it said, ‘check cabling’… the cable was loose. Have a nice day, ma’am.”

If I ever need a doctor in that city, I think I’ll just die.

I work for a company that supplies Point Of Sale hardware, software, networks, and the works to grocery stores all over the Americas. I have been here for just under a decade and BOY, do I love my job. I am on the support side of the house, essentially the warranty.

This story happened fairly early on.

We had this one customer, a small-time independent grocery store chain with maybe three stores and a tight budget. They were on a contract that did not include upgrades to their hardware and were still rocking Windows XP “Servers” with at most 2GB of ram. We had been having issues on the regular with one store where their poor little engine that (almost) could would lock up running batches on their inventory for price management, and the manager was properly fed up with the situation.

His main file server would lock up, he would call us, and we would band-aid it and recommend to the owners of the company that they needed to have a beefier boy installed. They would deny it every time. So, after about day umpteen million and three of this repeat issue and the manager begging both us and his bosses for a hardware upgrade… I get an automated alert that his server is offline again.

“He’s probably just rebooting it because its frozen,” I think. Boy, am I wrong. I call the store and the manager answers with an audible grin so wide I could practically get a tan from all that radiating smugness.

Me: “Hey, [Manager] this is [My Name] from [Company]. I’m calling because your server is showing offline for us again. Do you have a few minutes?”

Manager: “Oh, buddy, I’m glad you called. You’re going to have to schedule a tech out here to get this server replaced.”

Me: “Well, you know we need owner approval for that, but if you could jus—”

Manager: “Emergencies are covered under contract, right?”

Me: “Um… yes, sir?”

Manager: “And I can assure you that nothing you or I can do from where we are will get this server back online, so this is an emergency, correct?”

Me: “Fair enough, sir. I’ll get someone out there ASAP.”

I dispatch a tech and, as luck would have it, he was already in the area, just coming off working on another store. I get him to go take a look and he calls me about an hour later.

Tech: “Hey, can you schedule another dispatch for this store, emergency, to get their new server authorized?”

Me: “Yeah, I can start the process, but you know how these owners have been about buying new hardware.”

Tech: “Yeah, that’s not going to be a problem this time.”

Me: “What happened? Can we try to get the server back online?”

Tech: “That’s not gonna happen there, bud. Calling it catastrophic hardware failure over here. I’ll send you a pic.”

The tech sent my work email a picture. What I saw was a computer case that had a little hole on one side and a substantially larger hole on the other side. Opened up, the case revealed a penetrated hard drive and a shredded motherboard. The manager got his new computer.