Tech Support Without the Support

Just time for a quick whine this afternoon. Gotta leave early so I can shake Madeleine Albright's hand while drooling uncontrollably and getting all toungue tied.

I'm very annoyed today since I've been having computer difficulties all week at work. Nothing is working correctly. I have to re-start multiple times a day, each re-start is taking progressively longer and longer (it's now up to about 10 minutes), I can no longer remote-access the computer from home, and I have no "admin" rights on the damn thing and can't do anything about it.

So, instead of complaining about it, I decided to just call our IT support group and let them fix it. They advertise that they're just a phone call away and that practically every problem imaginable can be fixed via one simple phone call. That's a good thing considering our IT support group is actually a contract facility located hundreds of miles away.

Anyway, I call in and tell them all my symptoms. The first thing they suggest: defrag the hard drive. OK, fine. Reasonable suggestion. Only, I can't do it because I'm not an "admin" and don't have the rights. So, IT Support guy tells me that he'll have to submit a temporary authorization request so I can get rights. That can't be done until Monday at the earliest.

Whatever. So I'll live with the slow, sluggish response for a few more days. But what I really need - the ability to remote access - I need help with today. I explain to the phone guy that I need it. But first, I have to explain to him what "remote access" means (like, you sit somewhere else and use your computer to attach to and control my computer, dude). I also explain to him that when I try to attach to it, it can't be found on the network.

Once he understood what I was talking about, and I explained the correct software to use for remote access, he tries to connect. Guess what? He can't. My computer isn't visible on the network. Voila! That is the problem - the problem I just told him I was having.

After about half an hour of totally wasting my time and his, he said he'd have to send a real live human being over to see what was wrong. Hmmm. What a great idea.

In the meantime, I guess I have an excuse for not consuming my weekend with work. If I can't access my computer, which isn't working properly anyway, then I can't work from home...all the motivation I need to shut 'er down and not think about work again until Monday.

Have a great weekend!

Comments

[Scott-O-Rama]

Don't you hate when you know more than the tech support person on the other end of the phone? I guess that is why I rarely call tech support anymore (and I really don't know that much).

[Scott-O-Rama]

So how did the book signing go?