Lack of info when asking for help (was Re: conversion of data for filePro?)

[Richard Kreiss]

My best support issue. 

Terminal not working. Client, dress manufacturer in New York, advise to unplug the terminal and send it for repair. This was a serial terminal. He asked us to send someone out to unplug it. We told him anyone could disconnect it. He said no one there could. I asked if I could speak to one of his sewing machine fixers and explain how to unscrew the serial cable from the terminal. He said no, they don't know anything about computers. 

It cost him 250.00 for me to go out and disconnect it. I asked him if I could show a fixer how to reconnect the terminal when it came back so he would've have to pay me again. He said no. I made another 250.00 a few weeks later. 

Richard
Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 21, 2012, at 12:51 PM, Kenneth Brody <kenbrody at spamcop.net> wrote:

> On 9/21/2012 12:32 PM, Mike Schwartz wrote:
>>> Or is it a banner day for people not posting enough details in their
>> question?
>>> :-)
>>> 
>>> Jeff Harrison
>> 
>>       Just be thankful you're not on a school district helpdesk system or
>> you would have help tickets like this, just from this week :
> [...]
> 
> What about the time Laura had a client who refused to give any more 
> information than "I can't print"?  Numerous request for more information 
> were met with "I can't print.  Fix it."
> 
> After traveling over an hour to get on site (client paid for travel time), 
> and trying numerous diagnostics (everything Laura tried printed just fine), 
> and numerous "Can you show me?" / "I can't print.  Just fix it." exchanges, 
> the client *finally* takes time to show Laura the problem.
> 
> Boots up computer.  Starts Windows.  Starts WordPerfect.  Loads document. 
> Moves the mouse around, in an attempt to click the "print" button, to no 
> avail.  Tells Laura, "See?  I can't print."
> 
> Turns out the mouse had a bent pin and wasn't connected correctly.
> 
> Yup... "mouse is broken" gets reported as "I can't print".
> 
> -- 
> Kenneth Brody
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