[RESOLVED] Classic...

Thought y'all might like this one:

Customer called me because she had just purchased a computer from the store I work at and it would not boot. She was the type that got pissier and pissier the more questions I asked. !!!! I told her to bring the system in and I would take a look at it. She brings it in, and sure enough, Disk Boot Failure. I looked down and the stupid **** had a HP driver disk in the floppy. Then she had the gall to try to get me to install a program she had purchased for free. Come to find out, she had bought the system for her "psychic" home business.

You guys wont belive how many times I have seen this. I also drove 3/4 hour to get to a ladys house that power button wouldnt work, turned out that she was pressing reset

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Originally posted by RacerTech:
*snip* she had bought the system for her "psychic" home business. *snip*

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I just about wet my pants when I read that :D :D :D :D :D :D

I've seen similar 'problems' more than 10 times. I could set the boot sequence from A,C,SCSI to C,A,SCSI on the BIOS of every new machine I build, but naaah.. this ain't a solution.

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Originally posted by Radical Dreamer:
You guys wont belive how many times I have seen this. I also drove 3/4 hour to get to a ladys house that power button wouldnt work, turned out that she was pressing reset

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I feel your pain man, I had to do the same thing once. "So to turn it on, I use the really big button on the front, not the little tiny one that's so small most people don't even notice it. Isn't that kind of silly?"

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You guys wont belive how many times I have seen this. I also drove 3/4 hour to get to a ladys house that power button wouldnt work, turned out that she was pressing reset

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I tend to run my main machine with the front and side off for ventilation (lets me turn a few fans off so I can hear the TV) and you wouldn't believe how many times I sit there pressing the wrong button D'OH!!!

Looks to me like if she was "psychic" then she coulda mind-melded with ms cleo and she wouldv'e used her fake accent to let the user know "thers an hp driver disk in the floppy mon"

She must not be a very good psychic if she didn't know what was wrong...shouldn't she have gotten some sort of "vibes" from it? :D

Had one today, virtually called me a liar the last time he was in. Had a hard drive recently installed, then comes back saying that he can't get the scanner to work and that he's been doing it for ages installing it the same way every time and it worked. Got one of the otoher techs to look at it and he just installed the driver first then plugged in the scanner (exactly the procedure I described to him over the phone) and what do you know! It worked!! Oh! he says it looks like it was my mistake. Sometimes I wonder why they call it common sense. :mad:

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Originally posted by Radical Dreamer:
You guys wont belive how many times I have seen this. I also drove 3/4 hour to get to a ladys house that power button wouldnt work, turned out that she was pressing reset

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I heard that too many times its drive out since either they just yell on the phone or think that your treating them like a baby. Get out there and its something that takes ten seconds to correct then you hand them the bill. I just started carrying a spare bill on me that is invoiced to cover errors that could have been taken care of over the phone if the user would just talk to you. Thank God i am no longer in the retail racket.

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Originally posted by RacerTech:
Come to find out, she had bought the system for her "psychic" home business.

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Years ago when I lived in the VA. Beach area, I worked as an on-site service rep for Dictaphone. Took a service call at the Association for Research and Enlightenment (the Edgar Cayce institute). Barely had to time to look at the machine before some guy who worked there came up and asked me what was wrong with it. I said, "I was hoping you could put your hands on it and then tell me."

Some people have no since of humor. He called my boss and I got written up for it, even though my boss thought it was funny.

LOL! Damn that's hilarious!

The best newspaper headline I ever read was in my local paper about a psychic whose business was going down the drain:

Future unclear for Psychic

LMAO!

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Originally posted by RacerTech:
she had bought the system for her "psychic" home business.

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LOL

Ah yes, the mysterious Disk Boot Failure.... See it all the time! And remember, my "customers" are pro engineers and the like!

That's OK, just pay me....

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I also drove 3/4 hour to get to a ladys house that power button wouldnt work, turned out that she was pressing reset

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Uh oh, I have a "Power switch on main PC is gone." request to be fixed today. Oh well, I get paid 33 cents per kilometer on top of hourly rate.

Dare I say, I worked at a Best Buy for a few months early (Very early ) in my tech career. THe problem with that one is there's a lot of violent peopl who shop there. This one guy....he had tried to install his own hard drive and failed, so we tacked on a failed install fee, cause damn, it was a mess in there. He refused to pay it, started screaming at me that I was a Communist Evil Nazi Ba$$@#!#. Then his wife came in and did the same thing, but she decided to pick up a VCR that was sitting on the counter to be repaired and threw it at me. The worst part is, the store manager came out, kissed butt, they got their computer fixed for free (which they seriously rubbed in my face), a free gift certificate for like $50, and we had to buy a new VCR for the people whose had been chucked. THen the store manager started screaming at me, threatening to dock my pay and write me up and put me on probation etc, and then I told him if he even attempted to again, I would walk. He seemed to change his attitude then as I was 1 of 1 full time day techs.

Stil laugh about that one

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Originally posted by IronTech PC:
<STRONG>Dare I say, I worked at a Best Buy for a few months early (Very early ) in my tech career. THe problem with that one is there's a lot of violent peopl who shop there. This one guy....he had tried to install his own hard drive and failed, so we tacked on a failed install fee, cause damn, it was a mess in there. He refused to pay it, started screaming at me that I was a Communist Evil Nazi Ba$$@#!#. Then his wife came in and did the same thing, but she decided to pick up a VCR that was sitting on the counter to be repaired and threw it at me. The worst part is, the store manager came out, kissed butt, they got their computer fixed for free (which they seriously rubbed in my face), a free gift certificate for like $50, and we had to buy a new VCR for the people whose had been chucked. THen the store manager started screaming at me, threatening to dock my pay and write me up and put me on probation etc, and then I told him if he even attempted to again, I would walk. He seemed to change his attitude then as I was 1 of 1 full time day techs.

Stil laugh about that one</STRONG>

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I used to work for PC World (UK equivalent of Best Buy!), and although the management was pretty $hitty (hey they tried to do me for theft so tat they could get rid of me!), they would never have let this guy get anything. Our security guard (6'5", 240lb) was know to physically hurl problem customers out of the store once or twice. If I had met this guy, I would have just refused to serve him.
Having said that, I once had a scanner chucked at me for refusing to fix it out of warranty. The guy then had the cheek to say "Now will you fix it?".

<IMG SRC="smilies/rolleyes.gif" border="0">

Cad

Gotta love this one,
I got a call from a user bitching and complaining that the modem that we sold him was no good. " It just isn't connecting to the internet". After walking him through reinstalling drivers and checking all the settings I asked him who his ISP was. I had to control my laughter when he answered "Internet Explorer". This guy actually though he could just buy a modem and hook it up to his phone line and surf away. Well, I set him straight right away.

had a professional call and tell me that her floppy drive was bad, needed it fixed ASAP for important data. Drove down there to fix, and she was trying to put the disk in backwards. Pushing on it, and saying, "see, it will no take it"

Also, if it is electrical, and has a wire in it, I am susposed to fix it. Has anyone else ever been asked to come by and take a look at an air conditioner. When I said I don't think I can help you, well, you work on computers, I thought it would be about the same...

I have been asked to look at the photocopier before, just because it is next to my desk.

Also I am now a telephone engineer because everyone says "well its the same as networking, isn't it??".

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Originally posted by Pogi:
Took a service call at the Association for Research and Enlightenment (the Edgar Cayce institute). Barely had to time to look at the machine before some guy who worked there came up and asked me what was wrong with it. I said, "I was hoping you could put your hands on it and then tell me."

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Man, that is so funny!

<IMG SRC="smilies/biggrin.gif" border="0"> <IMG SRC="smilies/biggrin.gif" border="0"> <IMG SRC="smilies/biggrin.gif" border="0"> <IMG SRC="smilies/biggrin.gif" border="0"> <IMG SRC="smilies/biggrin.gif" border="0">

Crazy Customer brought in his computer 4 times complaining of constant lockups that we couldn't replicate. During the 5th time, we actually went to his home to see for ourselves when it locked up. I use the term "locked up" literally. Customer had it locked up in a trophy like glass cabinet with only a small hole in the back just big enough to fit the chords through it. The system wasn't getting any proper air ventilation to keep the computer cool. Guess he just wanted to show it off to people who come to his house. <IMG SRC="smilies/rolleyes.gif" border="0">

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Originally posted by bohr:
<STRONG>Crazy Customer brought in his computer 4 times complaining of constant lockups that we couldn't replicate. During the 5th time, we actually went to his home to see for ourselves when it locked up. I use the term "locked up" literally. Customer had it locked up in a trophy like glass cabinet with only a small hole in the back just big enough to fit the chords through it. The system wasn't getting any proper air ventilation to keep the computer cool. Guess he just wanted to show it off to people who come to his house. <IMG SRC="smilies/rolleyes.gif" border="0"></STRONG>

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Now that's a fine example of why I HATE doing telephone support. You can't possibly think up all the possible scenarios to ask the right questions and end up wasting so much time. Not that telephone support doesn't need to exist; I just don't want to be the one to have to do it.

I had a user who was having repeated problems with file corruption. It wasn't until I visited her office and saw that she was using the side of her case to house some 20+ refrigerator magnets that I figured out what was causing the problem.

hehe, I had one about two weeks ago. Lady brought her computer in because she said that the floppy drive and CD drive didn't work. side note AT not ATX

upon first bootup into windows. no floppy.
ok. so I checked the Cd-rom worked fine...with a disk in it....she said the error message she kept on gettin with the CD was
"D:\ not accessable The device is not read y"
*sigh* the floppy cable was a little loose, so I put it back on. she picked the machine up and took it home.

two days later she called my boss and talked to him saying the computer will not turn on.
he tried to walk her throug checkin cables and stuff...she said "iv'e already done that....blah...blah...blah... will you send someone out please?"
so i get in and i call her and try to do the same stuff, walking throug basic cable checking....same response..........blah.......i went out to her house and pushed the power button and Voila....imagine that...it worked

she was like "now what did you just do?" i said i pushed the powerbutton....."i have never done that before. i always turn it off at the power strip....." HOW AM I SUPOSED TO KNOW THAT SHE USED A POWERSTRIP.....AAHHHHHH

Similar story earlier this week. did a svc. call to a ladys house (elderly) and fixed some software problems. She called back next day sayin the computer will not shutoff, it just keeps restarting. ......i had chosen "restart" from the shutdown menu. and had not changed it back to shutdown. so every time she was done she would click start, shutdown, then clik on ok....never looking at the options...... *SIGH*

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Originally posted by tradeer3:
<STRONG>hehe, I had one about two weeks ago. Lady brought her computer in because she said that the floppy drive and CD drive didn't work. side note AT not ATX

upon first bootup into windows. no floppy.
ok. so I checked the Cd-rom worked fine...with a disk in it....she said the error message she kept on gettin with the CD was
"D:\ not accessable The device is not read y"
*sigh* the floppy cable was a little loose, so I put it back on. she picked the machine up and took it home.

two days later she called my boss and talked to him saying the computer will not turn on.
he tried to walk her throug checkin cables and stuff...she said "iv'e already done that....blah...blah...blah... will you send someone out please?"
so i get in and i call her and try to do the same stuff, walking throug basic cable checking....same response..........blah.......i went out to her house and pushed the power button and Voila....imagine that...it worked

she was like "now what did you just do?" i said i pushed the powerbutton....."i have never done that before. i always turn it off at the power strip....." HOW AM I SUPOSED TO KNOW THAT SHE USED A POWERSTRIP.....AAHHHHHH</STRONG>

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It just goes to show you that common sense does not prevail in the computer world. Common sense tells you that there might be other ways of turning the computer on besides the power strip.

I've had similar problems with people plugging their speakers into the jack on the modem and calling in complaining their speakers do not work. Common sense tells us there there are four other holes the speaker plug can fit it, let's try those other holes to see if the speakers work. <IMG SRC="smilies/rolleyes.gif" border="0">

A few months back I sold a new P3 1Ghz system with all the bells and whistles to a nice old lady who was upgrading from her old Atari!!!

After a few days I get a phone call
" There's funny sounds coming from the speakers when the computer is off"
" Ahh...what kind of sounds?"
" Whooshes and gurgles etc."
" Does it happen often?"
"No, just once or twice"

Now in my neighbourhood I've come across this a couple of times with PC speakers and telephones picking up ham radio so I suggest she keep track of it to see if it's at regular times and how often and to keep me posted. A couple of days later she calls me at home and holds the phone up to my ear and says "Can you hear this?" I hear like running water and gurgles and think, Huh?

I'm on my way with a new set of speakers the next day and as sit down in front of her computer then it hits me!!!
<IMG SRC="smilies/eek.gif" border="0">

You guessed it. Her daughter had visited a week after she got her system and set the undersea screensaver with sound enabled. DOH!!! Screensaver came on at 14 minutes, monitor turned off at 15 minutes but sound stayed on.

We both had a good chuckle.

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Originally posted by tradeer3:
<STRONG>. . . ."i have never done that before. i always turn it off at the power strip....." HOW AM I SUPOSED TO KNOW THAT SHE USED A POWERSTRIP.....AAHHHHHH</STRONG>

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LOL -

One of our salesman (older gentleman early sixties) was doing the same thing with his workstation, but only he was turning it off by "pressing the switch with the green light" (the UPS) and " . . .for the life of me can not figure out why the d%^ thing will not come back on. The grenn light comes back on . ."

This guy was really nice, and was extremely embarrassed when I told him what he was doing. I couldn’t help but laugh a little when he said " . .don't tell anyone I was doing that! “ Which until this day, I didn’t. He’s retired now, so I guess it’s okay.

i've seen it enough times that now no machine leaves here looking to boot from
the "A" drive first. In this town no one but me should even have a boot disk. <IMG SRC="smilies/smile.gif" border="0">

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Originally posted by RacerTech:
<STRONG>had a HP driver disk in the floppy. </STRONG>

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I actually ran into that last week, My dad called, and he is a basic user, but smart enough to troubleshoot himself. Sure enough, he is getting the "Could not find NT Loader" error, indicating a floppy in the drive. We checked, but there was no floppy. What in the heck? As it turned out, my cousin (who lives with them) had burned a CD and made it bootable, but not set an image for it. It was trying to boot from the CD and failing.

UGhhhh.

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Originally posted by RacerTech:
<STRONG>had a HP driver disk in the floppy. </STRONG>

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I actually ran into that last week, My dad called, and he is a basic user, but smart enough to troubleshoot himself. Sure enough, he is getting the "Could not find NT Loader" error, indicating a floppy in the drive. We checked, but there was no floppy. What in the heck? As it turned out, my cousin (who lives with them) had burned a CD and made it bootable, but not set an image for it. It was trying to boot from the CD and failing.

UGhhhh.

One time I did an upgrade on this ladys machine. She had mentioned that her floppy drive was not working. During the upgrade I checked it, and even used the Wn 95 driver disk to load 95 on it. She took the computer back. Few hours later, the owner of the shop comes in and yells at me for not fixing her drive since she just called and bitched him out.

I said it worked fine for me.... he said go over there and replace it just incase it is flaky. I drove 30 miles each way, to get there and find out the stupid b*tch was putting her disk upside down.

And then I sat and trained her on how to use quick books because she was too damn stupid to figure it out even though she had been using her machine with QB for a whole yr. Some people should just be banned from owning a computer. <IMG SRC="smilies/frown.gif" border="0"> <IMG SRC="smilies/frown.gif" border="0"> <IMG SRC="smilies/redface.gif" border="0"> <IMG SRC="smilies/wink.gif" border="0"> <IMG SRC="smilies/tongue.gif" border="0"> <IMG SRC="smilies/wink.gif" border="0"> <IMG SRC="smilies/rolleyes.gif" border="0"> <IMG SRC="smilies/cool.gif" border="0">

not realated, i have driven 350Km's to unjam a photocopier, 3 hour driver man. what a pain

Believe it or not Once i had a call from Somebody that his computer Don't work but Don't make anything.
Arrived and i saw that the Screen was off.

Kill 'em All!!!

Ok, I'm going to admit something now, but please don't tell anyone 'cos you'll ruin my reputation.

Replaced a motherboard in a PC for a friend, quick 5 minute job, everything went fine...until I came to switch it on. pressed power button, nothing. Hmm, said I. No power, checked the connections - fine. Put the old multimeter in, all voltage levels fine. What could be the problem?

While reaching round the front to hit the power button, accidently pressed the reset switch, power came on.

DOH!!! (Forehead slapping time...), made a quick excuse about the flux capacitor not being correctly wired to the 2:1 surge protection system (while swapping the power and reset button's over).

Good thing is, I've never forgotten and now always check before powering up. I also us this when teaching other people how to troubleshoot.