Tags
blog, blogging, Customer service, Customer Service Fails, Hardware, Humor, humour, Humpty Dumpty, Information Technology, Intel, Laptop, Life, Motherboard, Notebooks and Laptops, Short Circuit
I don’t talk much about my job here, but I work in Information Technology. Specifically, I repair computers. I get to tear them apart, replace what’s broken, and put them back together. It’s not a glamorous job, but I like it.
Like any other job, it certainly has its ups and downs, and its customer service fails.
Last week one of our super important (in his own mind, anyhow) financial guys decided to dump an entire cup of coffee on his laptop. Nice. This particular sales guy seems to think he’s important and made a big ruckus about getting his machine fixed even before he sent it in for repair. I was told by my supervisor to order replacement parts for the machine before I had even had a chance to examine it and determine which parts needed to be replaced. Obviously, for the sake of keeping my job, I did so.
Smooth, man. Smooth.
The next day I received the parts, but not the laptop. This guy was very obviously in a hurry to have it fixed. I didn’t receive the laptop until the next day, two days after I had been instructed to order the parts so I could have it back to him as soon as possible. Nice. I had ordered a new keyboard, motherboard, and top cover (the thing with the touchpad built into it) for the laptop.
I disassembled (NO DISASSEMBLE NUMBER 5!) the machine and put all the replacement parts in it. I plugged it in and fired it up. The machine turned on, the fan started spinning, and all the lights blinked, but there was no video on the screen. I wondered if maybe the guy had somehow damaged the LCD screen so I connected an external monitor to the laptop. Still no video. So I docked the laptop and tried to see if I could get video that way. Same result. They sent me a defective motherboard. It happens occasionally. No biggie.
I ordered another motherboard and sent the defective one back. The next day I received the new motherboard and installed it…only to have the same issue. Now I’m thinking something else is wrong. Maybe the processor is bad. Maybe the memory is bad. Perhaps something else got fried. I tried replacing each part individually and nothing changed. I grabbed another laptop of the same make and model and ripped it apart. I took the motherboard from it and put it in the system in question using all of the parts that came with it. It fired right up. With video. So I had been sent a defective motherboard a second time. Nice. That has never happened to me before.
I ordered a third motherboard for the laptop, this time directly from the manufacturer. I plugged it in, powered it on, and wa-la! Smoke began spewing from it. I couldn’t contain my laughter. The room filled with my cacophonous guffaws. And, you know, smoke.
At that point we decided the laptop was not worth the effort. We pitched it and gave the guy a different laptop. More than a week after he destroyed it.
So let this be a lesson to you. Be careful with food and drink around your laptops, folks. It’s not always an easy task to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
Outtakes:
- When searching for Humpty Dumpty pictures I misspelled Humpty to humpy. And I laughed.
- Baby C is clumping around the bedroom with his mom’s shoes on. Hilarious.
- Watched multiple clips from Short Circuit instead of writing this post. Time well spent.
- Typed talk instead of task in that last sentence when writing this originally. That looked pretty dumb.
Ha ha ha! Spill coffee? Hope he’ll learn a lesson someday…
Hope so, but doubt it.
As an IT guy, I usually mock the users for the really stupid stuff.
I would love to, but this Guy was an ass. Probably still is.
Sometimes, they’re the best targets. Or, if they yell that a fix too long, explain slowly and patiently that I wasn’t the jackass that poured coffee on my laptop.
Well, he knew that I was being sent defective parts. We didn’t do much accommodate him since, you know, he dumped coffee on it and burnt up the motherboard.
Oh boy. Gotta love the good ‘ole coffee spill, eh?
It keeps me employed.
Yup.
At least it shouldn’t be to difficult to replace his cup of coffee.
Perhaps. Maybe Starbucks gave him a cup of coffee that wouldn’t open.
People like that will keep you employed. They could be moving to VDI..;-)
Ugh, been through that and hated it. As I told Tammy, this story was more about the failure of getting three defective motherboards than that Guy being an ass.
K.
K? Don’t make me come up there…
Sales guys have to be the biggest dicks on the planet.
Yeah, they need their computers to sell stuff. I get that. But maybe they shouldn’t pour coffee on them.
Bet your sales guy needs to learn about the locking coffee cups that have spill proof lids…might be a good investment for his future. No wonder we have started to sell a lot of them lol…maybe they have become mandatory in some work places. Glad you finally made the whiner happy.
This story was more about getting three defective replacement parts than making him happy. That was a huge fail.
obviously that company does an AQL when testing and does not do a high percentage of yield prior to sending out unless they receive a ton back that are defective. I used to work for a computer company like that.
I have no idea. I have never had this problem before…
I am in IT too, I am constantly amazed how stupid people can be.
I’ve become numb to it.
Me too mostly, it is generally the source of laughs in the office, and amazement.
Same here.
I LOVE our IT guy and I never even met him. Every time I have a problem and he talks me through it (recently hooking up a scanner that wasn’t being recognize) I feel like we just performed surgery over the phone. I alwaysI hang up very satisfied.
Well, this Guy got a new computer out of it, but his boss won’tbe satisfied with the bill.
Yea the boss usually does frown upon spending $$. Hopefully he’ll learn his lesson.
Doubtful…
Outtakes=Genius.
Loved them. And the post. It made me put my coffee down.
Thanks!!!
Oy. THREE defective parts? Brilliant. I am far from an IT person (you guys mystify me) but it’s amazing how many problems you can solve yourself by turning the stupid machine off and then turning it back on. Or unplugging and plugging it back in. Or not spilling stuff on it (I admit I did this once and wrecked a keyboard. D’oh). Back at my old job, this made me “the expert” and the only one willing to go out into the computer lab. Seriously?
I try to fix as much as I can because getting to IT can be a hassle – they are too busy dealing with the stupid of others. I try not to add too much of my own.
But wow – a self-destructing laptop. Maybe it just didn’t want to go back there.
Lol. You can’t make me go!!
What a tragic waste of a cup of coffee!!
Right???
The motherboard mothership was off its game last week. The smoke spewing from the computer is quite funny though.
It was quite comical.
I’m so glad that wine does not have the same effect on laptops. And that I can send you my laptop when I screw up and that you will fix it. Perhaps you can also find the incredibly funny stuff I wrote about Europe to my Dad….
Perhaps…
This wasn’t your point, but I love IT guys. Love them.
How YOU doin’?
Hey there!
No… I mean. how YOU doin’?
*girlish giggle*
LOL. Naked Blog Goddess, you do make my laugh. It’s too bad you’re on the other side of the planet.
Oh Sexy Stormtrooper, you always make me smile (even from all the way on the other side of the planet)
Wonderfully hilarious.
My biggest fear with my laptop is dropping it. (I usually won’t eat or drink near it, mainly because I’m usually using it in the library anyway, and if I am eating near it, it’s at a computer desk where I have a wireless keyboard and mouse to pour drinks into instead, which are of course much cheaper to replace.)
Dropping it is probably better than dumping coffee in it.
Yes, but I’m still petrified of the idea of doing that. It would be like having an arm cut off – and I’ve only had the laptop a year, and I expect it to last at least another 5 before needing replacing! (Being in community, if it broke, the community would pay to fix it, but if it was beyond repair, it could only be replaced by my family buying me a new one.)
Oh, you live in the priory?
Yes, I’m currently a Novice with the Order of the Holy Paraclete. Hopefully, and God-willing, I’ll still be here in 2015 which is the centenary year of the Order, and the year I’ll be able to apply to take First (or temporary) vows, which is usually for a 3-year period, and then it’ll be 2018 (again, God-willing) for Life Vows.
Wow. I wish you well on your journey.
Thank you. I’m trying to blog about my experiences but I sometimes find it difficult to sit down and type. I have got ideas lined up, I just need to actually write the posts!
I’m not blogging anonymously, and I’ve mentioned the Order by name all over the place, so that also affects what I can post. One quick internet search on OHP will find me (probably right after the Order’s own webpage now) and if anyone can find me, that means the Sisters can too! So I need to bare this in mind when I’m writing, and assume that they’re going to be reading every post too.
That’s a good assumption to make.
INPUT!
I love that movie.