Helpdesk Call of the Day

End User: I'm having a problem with my phone. Everytime I email a photo to myself it doesn't appear in my work emails.

Tech Support: Show me on your phone what you're doing and I'll see if I can spot what's wrong.


The EU then opened a photo on his Smartphone and then selected the email option, he then pointed to the screen...


End User: This is the email address I've put in and it's not my work email address so when I get back to my work computer the photo isn’t there - it's just not working.


After staring at the EU blankly for a few seconds in disbelief, I realised he was being serious and was actually telling me he was emailing the photos to his personal email address and couldnt understand why they were not going to his work email address!  He seemed to think that if he stared at the screen long enough it would magically enter the correct email address.

After explaining several times that if he wanted them sending to his work email address he had to type in his work email address and not his home one, I just gave up and handed him a USB cable and told him when he connects his phone to his computer to press the USB mode option on his phone and then just treat it as a memory stick.

A few moments later he came back and couldn’t even plug it in to his computer properly so I had to go to his computer, plug in his phone, press USB mode and view the photos via My Computer.

Helpdesk Call of The Day

End User: My data projector is't working can you help me please?

Tech Support: Have you tried turning it off and on again?

End User: Yeah I've tried that but it still won't work

Tech Support: Is it definitely turned on?

End User: Yes its definitely turned on!

Tech Support: Ok, I'll come down and have a look.

After pressing the on button and removing the lens cap it started to work...

I bit my lip and waited until I got back to the Helldesk before I started banging my head on my desk.

Helpdesk Call Of The Day

Tech Support: “Hello IT”
End User: “Hi!  I’m having that problem with my computer again”
Tech Support: “What problem’s that then”
End User: “You know, the one I always have when I come back from annual leave”

We love it when you make us try and guess what your problem is – we enjoy a challenge.  Why bother saving time by telling us what problem you are having when you can waste our time like this?!


Anyway, I persevered and carried on the conversation (it was the first call of the day so I wasn’t fully awake so the sarcasm hadn’t kicked in yet)…

Tech Support: “You’ll have to remind me as I’ve closed hundreds of support calls since then – so what’s on your screen at the moment?”
End User: “It looks like computers used to look like ages ago”

Great.  That makes loads of sense now doesn’t it?!  How hard can it be to read out what is says on the screen that’s right in front of you???

I decided to try a different approach that even a junior school pupil would be able to answer…

Tech Support: “What colour is the screen?”
End User: “Black”
Tech Support: “What happens if you press the power button?”
End User: “Which button’s that?”

It was at this point I was starting to lose the will to live...

Tech Support: “The one you use to turn the laptop on – press it and see what happens”
End User: “Oh, it’s doing something now.  That looks better.  I’m at the log on screen now, thanks!”

Give me strength!  It sounds like I'm making it up but this really happened and it's not the first time someone has called up and we've had to ask them to press the power button to turn their computer on.