Pet peeves when providing technical support: ... "your software doesn't work!"

[SnowMule]

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@josborne wrote:

Heh heh.  Lots of funny stories about customers here.

Let's turn the tables, and give me some examples of really bad tech support!  I hate it when I go to the trouble to provide a detailed explainaition of my problem (with links, screenshots, instructions to reproduce the problem, etc) and the tech support agent blows me off with:   "this is explained in the manual" or "see this link" to something totally irrelevant.  Half the time I don't even bother calling tech support because I am more highly skilled than they are ... if I can't figure out the problem, no chance some kid out of college will be able to help me.

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Mechanics/dealers/shops can be pretty bad about this too. 

Took my sled into a local shop for warranty repair a few years ago.

Since it was there I kinda wanted them to change out some parts in the clutch since I didn't have the tools for that. 

I get a call a day later telling me the warranty items were fixed and replaced, and the tech that called me wanted to know what I wanted the machine rejetted to.

Like, rejet the carb.

Except that sled's fuel-injected.   Just like every other Polaris mountain sled in that chassis.

"How about you put the sled back together and I'll pick it up in half an hour.  Don't do anything else to it."

And I think that was the last time my sled ever went to a dealer.

Or when I punched a hole in the rim of my truck... long story.  Anyways, spare on, juggle some lug nuts, i'm on the road again... Go to Discount Tire a few days later to have them pull the tire off the rim so I could bring the core in for a replacement.

Pulled the tire out of the bed of my truck, "Just take the tire off and give me both parts back".

15 minutes later, kid's telling me "We got this tire balanced but it's not holding air!"

Ya think?  Did you even look at it?  "I asked you to take the tire off the rim, not balance and fill it."

[Matthew_Kelton]

Probably my favorite/most frustrating was at my old employer.  Customer called up and had issues with a test system.  I told him it sounded like the 12V fuse had blown.  I was told that they checked it and the fuse is fine, but the test system doesn't work.  I had them pull a cable off the fixture and probe it.  No 12V.  I told them I was pretty sure the fuse was blown.  I was again told the fuse was fine.  I told them to pull it and check it with a meter.  Still fine they said.

So, I fly across the country, walk in the door, verify the 12V is missing, pull the fuse and can visibly see the fuse is blown (clear fuse, so the fuse has a big black spot on it).  I verified it was blown with a meter and replaced it.  System started working.  Fortunately for my employer, the customer had to pay for all maitenance, so they were on the hook for the bill.  If I recall correctly, the flight only had first class seats available, too, so it was a costly error on their part.

[JÞB]

Which reminds me of one of my favorite "Tech support stories":

A company I worked for back in the '90s offered a system with a custom Graphic card for rendering pretty visuals used in broadcast TV (Yup, we sold weather).

Twice the same system arrived on site at the TV Station and was returned as "Non-Funtioning upon arrival."  neither time could we find anything wrong with the system when it was returned.  Just plug it in, turn it on wait for the OS to boot.....RIGHT?  Further investigation revealed that the AMA Certified staff meteorologist was unwilling to toggle the "Logic Switch" on the rear of the PC since "That would invert all the data inside the PC."  Logic Switch?  "Yeah the big black switch on the back labled with a white "1" and "0".... D'OH!  [Must be a design flaw... unit does not function with primary power switch open]

[LordNobady]

I don't have much experience with software tech support. ( my software is so good thy can't do it wrong ) 

But I have been working in a home electronics repair center. 

The things I have seen there. A small example

A steam-iron. The customer told us it a light turned on and he would stop steaming after 30min of use. Can you imagine that after 30min the reservoir is empty.  ( The corresponding LED did even turn on. )

An electrical frying pan that gets hot when on. 

An water cooker that came back for the 4th time doing nothing. ( RTFM ) The forth time we put the solution down. Connect powerplug. 

for this tread we need a facepalm emoticon. 

[PaulG.]

I was debugging a prototype A/B/C scan ultrasonic immersion tank system - all done in LabVIEW and NI Vision. It was working very well for months and the customer just kept wanting more and more and more. I think I gave him everything he asked for and then one day out of the blue he says: "I think our next system won't be done in LabVIEW. LabVIEW's only good for reading thermocouples."      I wanted to throw him in the immersion tank. 

[JÞB]

Sometimes you even get theads on the forums that fall into this catagory

https://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/Flush-USB-buffer/m-p/2588593#M778759

[RavensFan]

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SnowMule wrote:

Or when I punched a hole in the rim of my truck... long story.  Anyways, spare on, juggle some lug nuts, i'm on the road again... Go to Discount Tire a few days later to have them pull the tire off the rim so I could bring the core in for a replacement.

Pulled the tire out of the bed of my truck, "Just take the tire off and give me both parts back".

15 minutes later, kid's telling me "We got this tire balanced but it's not holding air!"

Ya think?  Did you even look at it?  "I asked you to take the tire off the rim, not balance and fill it."

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I'm curious as to how you managed to that to a truck rin.

[GuenterMueller]

I was told by one of my colleagues, that he built a test system about 20 years ago.  The system had to operate in another country and the labelling of the system was translated by someone that pretended to be fluent in that language.   A few weeks after shipping my colleague got a call: "The system is not operating."  Pressing the RESET button turned the system into a state of proper operation. But it took some time to recognise that nobody dared to apply the RESET button because the translation was too close to "FACTORY OFF". 

[altenbach]

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@RavensFan wrote:

I'm curious as to how you managed to that to a truck rin.

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I am wildely guessing the wheel came off while driving and the lug studs landed on the inside of the rim, causing the hole and all the scratch marks. 😄

[altenbach]

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@GuenterMueller wrote:

But it took some time to recognise that nobody dared to apply the RESET button because the translation was too close to "FACTORY OFF". 

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One of my kids had a little toy with a turn knob and a warning molded into the plastic next to it. The warning said "Do not turn against opposite direction!" (No arrows or anything else). I still don't know which direction we were supposed to turn it.