That really doesn't make it any easier to not shoot myself in the head.*
Today we got to experience several of the holy grails of tech support when a user called in for us to troubleshoot his copy of Eudora:
- An analyst of ours told the user to hit the "OK" button that just popped up on the screen; the user spent five minutes looking for the OK key on his keyboard.
- We decided it would be best to do a remote assistance session (like remote desktop through your browser). The user was unable to locate a web browser, yet was able to find the "Run..." command and enter the URL for the support page.
- The user spoke very slowly and read everything on his screen aloud.
- Remote assistance requires you to install an ActiveX control. A window pops to the forefront with a large arrow pointing to the Information Bar in Internet Explorer and instructing you to click on it to install the ActiveX control. The user lost this window and was unable to relocate it, causing the remote session to need to be started over.
- The user would randomly decide to right- or left-click on something and would not click the correct button when instructed to do so.
All told, what would normally be a 45-second setup took 45 minutes of coercing, prodding and swearing (to a muted handset) to accomplish. Now begins the actual task of, you know, figuring out what's wrong.
Technology: it makes the world go 'round.
* I actually like my job, I just sometimes wish people would let me do it.†
† Please don't fire me.
