PC Technology Person (knowing more than the tech at work)

[Mike Lowe]

Ok, I'm sure some of us have been in a similar situation: You have someone at work designated as the "technological guru" who can pass their CPU BS over on most people, but when it comes to you, it just wont fly. It seems like this person makes so much crap up, and when I try to subtlety call this person out, they get defensive and fire back with "well, it's just not that simple." I am not saying I know it all, but c'mon! This is a joke! I'm sick of things going in one ear and out the other with these people...only to, 20 minutes later, revert back to what I was saying all along (in some cases).

1. My IE kept giving me an error message as SOON as it loaded up. I restarted the CPU twice, nothing. I call the tech person and they come in. To me it seems like something needs to be reinstalled (after all, I am running Windows 98-puke). The tech person, bewildered, decides to tell me that they believe the problem is that my homepage is set to Yahoo.com. What!?!? This is obviously a problem with the web browser or the CPU itself and *should* have no bearing on what my homepage is. Now, if my homepage was some crazy off-the-wall website maybe I'd bite. However, this is such a stab in the dark IMO, and the way this person carries themselves when saying it drives me crazy lol! "Hmmm (clueless)...Oh, you have your homepage set to Yahoo...Yahoo is notorious for causing browsers to crash." You have got to be kidding me. Is this really true? I'm just not buying it.

2. You know when you connect a camera to your CPU, this time using Windows XP, and you get those little pop-up windows in the bottom right hand corner? I have always been the one to, as soon as those windows pop up, to close them out (impatient...bored...etc). Correct me if I am wrong, but I always thought that those were simply messages informing me of what was going on, sort of like the annoying pop-ups in Word. Anyway, the tech person is watching me use a lab CPU with a camera connected and I start closing out all of the dialogue boxes. The tech freaks out at me and says that I am aborting the install of the hardware/software or whatever. Total BS in my opinion, because the camera still connects anyway and works properly (it does everytime and I use these on a daily basis). The tech begins to tell me that this has been a huge problem that *they* have been trying to correct (sky is falling). Again, I'm not a paid tech professional, but I've used a CPU enough to know that this is total paranoia. Besides, with XP, if you were "x-ing" out of something you'd get some kind of warning message. The autorun/autoplay/install abillity of XP is going to install the hardware as long as the device stays connected properly.

Thoughts? I know I probably sound nuts and impatient and maybe I am, but it happened yesterday, I'm still hot, and I thought I would post anyway. Maybe I'll at least get a good laugh out of a response or someone will prove to me that I am in the wrong and my tech is omniscient. Thanks for letting me waste 5 mins of your life ;-)

[Mike Lowe]

Oh, and just for the record...*this person* is a great person outside of this. I get along great with them and respect them a great deal as a person. It's just the tech stuff! AH!

[panerd]

Does your tech person understand how to post a message once?

[jeff061]

I don't think you know what a CPU is.

And the tech guy probably just doesn't care about you cause you are one of 150 tickets he needs to hit on any given day.

[Mike Lowe]

Could you guys elaborate? I know I do not have all of the answers but I am curious to see how accurate the tech's solutions are.

[Mike Lowe]

And the tech guy probably just doesn't care about you cause you are one of 150 tickets he needs to hit on any given day.

Yeah, I understand that totally. But, couldn't a simple, "you know, I am really not sure. I will have to look into this and get back to you" suffice? There always seems to be an answer to everything, regardless. I could say a purple rhinocerous came onto my screen and ate all of my desktop icons, burped them out of the CD-rom drive, and preceded to tell me that at 5pm the building would catch on fire, and the tech would easily explain it all away as something they'd seen a lot of lately.

[jeff061]

CPU = Central Processing Unit, = Pentium, Athlon ect. Does not equal your whole computer.

As for the rest, who cares? He probably gets hassled by people who think they know more than him, so he just shuts everyone out with a big 'ol blanket. I'd imagine he'd laugh if he found out your odd obsession with him, whether you're right or wrong.

Desktop support sucks, dealing with most users when doing desktop support sucks, since all you want to do is get in, fix it, and move to the next without any hassles. I'm glad I'm out of that.

Granted I, and everyone else, do not know him or your company so no one can give you a "right" answer.

[CraigSca]

The guy's probably just trying to get his work done, and doesn't feel like dealing with someone who

a) feels he knows enough (but really doesn't)
b) has a propensity to screw things up because he's impatient (ie closing the dialog boxes)

Since you know so much, you know that sometimes Windows can be a odd beast. It's best to do things the right way the first time, even if it does take 25 seconds longer. As far as the IE thing is concerned, I would be shocked to no end if it was your CPU (which, as someone mentioned earlier <> computer).

Edit: It's ironic that you "know" PC's yet obviously haven't mastered the usage of starting a thread on a public forum.

[Toddzilla]

Does your tech person understand how to post a message once?Winner!

[Mike Lowe]

It's ironic that you "know" PC's yet obviously haven't mastered the usage of starting a thread on a public forum.

Ha, I'll leave that "mastery" to you guys lol.

Like I said originally, I know I do not know it all. My life is not all computers; I simply use them often at work. I was asking about the two situations that I came across yesterday. Does anyone have a definitive answer to either one? That's all I'm really looking for. No reason for this thread to keep clogging up the forum. I was expecting one response from someone in the know.

[Buccaneer]

Tech support is right on both issues. But since you know more than the tech support does, how can you be wrong?

[jeff061]

You don't provide enough information and it's clearly described through tinted glasses. Not worth the effort.

First lesson for end users, almost nothing is more annoying than someone saying they got an error without telling you what the error is.

[Mike Lowe]

Tech support is right on both issues.

Thanks. Can anyone elaborate on either issue?

For IE, how can a website like Yahoo! cause problems suddenly when it has worked fine as my homepage for 2 years; even working properly earlier in the same day (anything is possible I guess, right?)? As far as I can tell, Yahoo! doesn't have a ridiculous amount of flash or anything like that; nothing extraordinary, comparatively speaking. I would think, if anything, the problem exists due to my system not being updated or something to that effect.

For the device pop-up windows (bottom right), is this a case of precaution or are they legitimate concerns with closing them out too early? Why has it worked every time I've done it this way? Again, this one is using XP (Pro and Home).

[Buccaneer]

Since XP is truly PnP, it will automatically find and load the drivers for any device connected to it. Sometime it will take seconds (in the case of a USB stick) but others, like a camera, it will some time - but it will try to do much of that for you so don't stop the process. You would get this every time you disconnect and reconnect the device, as oppose to leaving it in (assuming you got everything installed and setup properly). As far as the website, it's not the site but the network, proxy, firewall, domain server, routing tables and any other number of reasons where it would be different from one PC to another.

Cavaet: I'm not in tech support and really don't understand quite a bit of this but I just relate from years of experience. A tech support person has seen much more than you and while they may be impatient, they will not take kindly to PC neophytes claiming they know more. All the customer should do is to explain the problem clearly and fully.

[Mike Lowe]

Thank you Buccaneer.

[Rizon]

Mixing IE and Yahoo is like mixing your ass with prison.

[MizzouRah]

Ok, I'm sure some of us have been in a similar situation: You have someone at work designated as the "technological guru" who can pass their CPU BS over on most people, but when it comes to you, it just wont fly. It seems like this person makes so much crap up, and when I try to subtlety call this person out, they get defensive and fire back with "well, it's just not that simple." I am not saying I know it all, but c'mon! This is a joke! I'm sick of things going in one ear and out the other with these people...only to, 20 minutes later, revert back to what I was saying all along (in some cases).

1. My IE kept giving me an error message as SOON as it loaded up. I restarted the CPU twice, nothing. I call the tech person and they come in. To me it seems like something needs to be reinstalled (after all, I am running Windows 98-puke). The tech person, bewildered, decides to tell me that they believe the problem is that my homepage is set to Yahoo.com. What!?!? This is obviously a problem with the web browser or the CPU itself and *should* have no bearing on what my homepage is. Now, if my homepage was some crazy off-the-wall website maybe I'd bite. However, this is such a stab in the dark IMO, and the way this person carries themselves when saying it drives me crazy lol! "Hmmm (clueless)...Oh, you have your homepage set to Yahoo...Yahoo is notorious for causing browsers to crash." You have got to be kidding me. Is this really true? I'm just not buying it.

2. You know when you connect a camera to your CPU, this time using Windows XP, and you get those little pop-up windows in the bottom right hand corner? I have always been the one to, as soon as those windows pop up, to close them out (impatient...bored...etc). Correct me if I am wrong, but I always thought that those were simply messages informing me of what was going on, sort of like the annoying pop-ups in Word. Anyway, the tech person is watching me use a lab CPU with a camera connected and I start closing out all of the dialogue boxes. The tech freaks out at me and says that I am aborting the install of the hardware/software or whatever. Total BS in my opinion, because the camera still connects anyway and works properly (it does everytime and I use these on a daily basis). The tech begins to tell me that this has been a huge problem that *they* have been trying to correct (sky is falling). Again, I'm not a paid tech professional, but I've used a CPU enough to know that this is total paranoia. Besides, with XP, if you were "x-ing" out of something you'd get some kind of warning message. The autorun/autoplay/install abillity of XP is going to install the hardware as long as the device stays connected properly.

Thoughts? I know I probably sound nuts and impatient and maybe I am, but it happened yesterday, I'm still hot, and I thought I would post anyway. Maybe I'll at least get a good laugh out of a response or someone will prove to me that I am in the wrong and my tech is omniscient. Thanks for letting me waste 5 mins of your life ;-)

Speaking from experience, I hate know it all users. :)

but, imo....

1. Without seeing what the error was, generally it could be a spyware/adware issue or something corrupt in the registry to cause IE errors, but again without knowing the error anything is possible in Windows. I would agree that www.yahoo.com (http://www.yahoo.com) as a homepage shouldn't give you errors unless there's an issue with that site and Windows 98.

I say you're right, but let the tech change the homepage and when it doesn't fix the issue, you'll know you're right.

2. Yep, those little bubbles are just there to let you know what's going on, closing them has no effect on the software or driver installing - at least I've never heard of it.

[Mike Lowe]

let the tech change the homepage and when it doesn't fix the issue, you'll know you're right.

We did that and nothing changed. She set it to the default homepage for my work and we received the same error message (I do not know the error off the top of my head). As of *her* (amazing to see how sexually biased we all can be) leaving yesterday, the plan is to reinstall IE on Monday.

Thanks for the other information.

[jeff061]

I've worked with probably 50 IT people. Three of them were females.

I don't think it's a crime to assume its a guy.

[MizzouRah]

We did that and nothing changed. She set it to the default homepage for my work and we received the same error message (I do not know the error off the top of my head). As of *her* (amazing to see how sexually biased we all can be) leaving yesterday, the plan is to reinstall IE on Monday.

Thanks for the other information.

I would also run a virus and adware/spyware check prior to reinstalling IE. Usually, googling that error will give you specific ways to fix it besides re-imaging the pc. Good luck to her.

[Surtt]

My guess is the error message you received is "could not load web page" or something to that effect.

There is a couple of possibilities
1. Yahoo is down. That would explain the comment about your home page, but be very unlikely.
2. Your internet connection is screwed up: Very likely and a lot of things can cause this.

Such problems can take time to track down. You can not always walk up and instantly know what is wrong. In you tech's defense, it is VERY annoying having some one look over you shoulder while you work, doubly so if they think they know more than you do. Your tech probably told you the first thing that he thought of to get you off his back. Not very professional, but understandable.

[Mike Lowe]

Surtt,

The error was simply that IE encountered problems and was shutting down. This was not a problem with an internet connection or yahoo being down. You would actually see the yahoo page load up and immediately thereafter, the error message would pop up.

[Riggins44]

Hello, I'm the manager of an IT department. I regret to inform you that you are inferior to your IT representative. That is all. ;)


Good lord! There's still office environments that use Windows 98?!?!

[MizzouRah]

Good lord! There's still office environments that use Windows 98?!?!

That was my first thought. :)

[Oilers9911]

Does your tech person understand how to post a message once?

So you have never accidentally made a double-post? Not once? You are the MASTER.

[Mike Lowe]

Unfortunately, I cannot do anything about the Windows 98 issue. I work at a school that the issue of updating our OS is not very high on the priority list.

[Mike Lowe]

I'll correct myself...

Most of our CPUs in the school have XP but the ones we use to simply do mundane tasks like take attendace and enter grades, it really would be wasted funds.

[Surtt]

I'll correct myself...

Most of our CPUs in the school have XP but the ones we use to simply do mundane tasks like take attendace and enter grades, it really would be wasted funds.

A CPU is not a computer it is just a part of a computer. Your CPU plugges into your mother board along with memory, hard drives, ect.. housed in you computer case. Referring to you CPU having XP on it is like describing you car by saying "My motor is a 4 door."

[Surtt]

Dola

Microsoft stopped issuing security updates for 98 awhile ago, so still having 98 on a network, especially with a internet connection, is asking for trouble. Upgrading my seam like a waste of money, but it is cheaper then getting hit with a virus. (which my be your problem)

[MizzouRah]

Dola

Microsoft stopped issuing security updates for 98 awhile ago, so still having 98 on a network, especially with a internet connection, is asking for trouble. Upgrading my seam like a waste of money, but it is cheaper then getting hit with a virus. (which my be your problem)

Exactly what I getting at or at least thought but didn't type. I would think a school could get a corporate license and upgrade all the pc's, but that's none of my business.. you're using what's available to you.

Re-installing IE isn't something that usually fixes an issue such as yours and you'll probably need the pc re-imaged.

[panerd]

So you have never accidentally made a double-post? Not once? You are the MASTER.

You mean a triple post? Not yet.

[Oilers9911]

You mean a triple post? Not yet.

I only saw two but it still doesn't give permission to be a smart ass when the guy is just asking a question.

[panerd]

I only saw two but it still doesn't give permission to be a smart ass when the guy is just asking a question.

It was very ironic that he made a triple post about he knows more than the IT tech at his work so I made a joke about it. Several other posters thought the same thing and you didn't. I thought it was pretty funny.

[jeff061]

Not to mention the CPU thing and the thought he could have adware on his system causing the IE problems.

[Daimyo]

I'll correct myself...

Most of our CPUs in the school have XP but the ones we use to simply do mundane tasks like take attendace and enter grades, it really would be wasted funds.
I hope by school you mean a K-12 and not a university... for universities course enrollment info and grades are FERPA protected and processing them in any way on a Windows 98 box is not secure. Even if you're not a university I sincerely hope you don't store or process student SSNs or other private info on those boxes.

As for your original two issues, if I was a betting man I'd bet your IT guy is BSing you... desktop support people are usually either 1) really bad or 2) overworked because they're the one good guy in the group who has to do all the work. He very likely doesn't know what he's talking about or is too busy to give you adequate support.

For the first issue, while Yahoo! or some network configuration outside of your system could very well cause the 1st issue a competant tech guy would be able to determine that with a high degree of certainty within about 2 minutes of sitting down at your machine give or take 90 seconds. The way you described it, he didn't do troubleshooting at all, but blamed yahoo just from seeing the error... bad form.

For the second issue, it depends on what you're taking about. If you're simply refering to the little status bubbles that appear above your system tray in the bottom right hand corner you can close those with no issue... they're merely give you status updates like "Windows detected a camera was plugged in" or "It is now safe to unplug your camera" and are not asking you for input... closing them does not interfere with the computer properly mounting or configuring the device. If you're talking about something else then all bets are off without knowing what it is, but I'd lean toward being cautious.

[Daimyo]

DOLA, its a really hard and thankless job doing desktop support. Expressing appreciation for the job she's doing (or trying to do) will go along way to helping you get better service I bet.

[A-Husker-4-Life]

Good lord! There's still office environments that use Windows 98?!?!

Its the best OS since Windows ME or B.O.B. ;)

[BrianD]

The way you described it, he didn't do troubleshooting at all, but blamed yahoo just from seeing the error... bad form.


...unless he had been seeing that error all day. IT people do plenty of BSing, but sometimes they see a problem so often that they just get sick of dealing with it. If they have time, it is better to properly reassure the users while they are fixing problems, but sometimes there just isn't time. If the user makes it plain that they think they know more than the IT person, you can figure that you will get about the minimum amount of help possible.

[wade moore]

...unless he had been seeing that error all day. IT people do plenty of BSing, but sometimes they see a problem so often that they just get sick of dealing with it. If they have time, it is better to properly reassure the users while they are fixing problems, but sometimes there just isn't time. If the user makes it plain that they think they know more than the IT person, you can figure that you will get about the minimum amount of help possible.

And this is a major problem.

I have managed Help Desks in several very different environments. Do you see the first word in that statement? "Help". I'm sorry, I don't care how annoying the user is, there is no excuse to lie or be rude to them. Period. If I would have found out about one of my techs acting the way that this tech did, they would have been hearing from me about it.

Yes, we're there to fix the computers. But we're just as much there to provide customer service. The two need to go hand in hand. The best techs I've had were good at troubleshooting and good at customer service, not badass at troubleshooting and terrible at customer service.

And before people start ranting about "stupid manager doesn't know what it's like" crap, I was a tech support agent for about 6 years before I got into management and this is how I was. I was always as friendly as can be to their face and as helpful as can be. You can cuss and get mad when you hang-up/leave the room - but in front of the customer, there is no excuse for it.

So, anyway. This support that Mike got is unacceptable imo and the defending of the tech in this thread is just as unacceptable (from a professional standpoint, not from a "neener neener I don't like you as a poster now" standpoint ;) ).

[BrianD]

And this is a major problem.

I have managed Help Desks in several very different environments. Do you see the first word in that statement? "Help". I'm sorry, I don't care how annoying the user is, there is no excuse to lie or be rude to them. Period. If I would have found out about one of my techs acting the way that this tech did, they would have been hearing from me about it.

Yes, we're there to fix the computers. But we're just as much there to provide customer service. The two need to go hand in hand. The best techs I've had were good at troubleshooting and good at customer service, not badass at troubleshooting and terrible at customer service.

And before people start ranting about "stupid manager doesn't know what it's like" crap, I was a tech support agent for about 6 years before I got into management and this is how I was. I was always as friendly as can be to their face and as helpful as can be. You can cuss and get mad when you hang-up/leave the room - but in front of the customer, there is no excuse for it.

So, anyway. This support that Mike got is unacceptable imo and the defending of the tech in this thread is just as unacceptable (from a professional standpoint, not from a "neener neener I don't like you as a poster now" standpoint ;) ).

I agree, the best techs are able to provide customer service while they are fixing problems. That is the way they should be, and managers should always strive for that level of support. I was mostly commenting on the blanket "this was bad form" statement. The service probably could have been handled better, but when a problem is encountered many times, at some point most techs will just say "we've seen this a lot today, make this change and you will be fine." While not perfect, it gets the point across and the tech can then move on to the next fire.

Techs are normal people, and they sometimes get stressed out. The good ones will realize this and take extra efforts to not let that stress show, but they are only human. Techs also tend to be prideful people and (like most people) don't like others telling them that they could do the tech job better. This first time you make this claim and then tell someone your browser is Windows or your Operating System is Internet Explorer (or your CPU is running Windows), you are going to get a negative reaction from the person trying to help you.

Techs should always treat people with respect and a high level of service, but people needing tech help would also be well served to show a little respect and professionalism. Actually showing respect and professionalism seems like good advice for all human interaction.

[wade moore]

Techs should always treat people with respect and a high level of service, but people needing tech help would also be well served to show a little respect and professionalism. Actually showing respect and professionalism seems like good advice for all human interaction.

I think this sums up how this whole situation could have gone better very well.

[BrianD]

I think this sums up how this whole situation could have gone better very well.

I agree. In case you couldn't tell, the general point of my last post was to agree with you. I just got sidetracked along the way. :)

[wade moore]

I agree. In case you couldn't tell, the general point of my last post was to agree with you. I just got sidetracked along the way. :)

Yup, I do realize, that's why I just picked out that last part.

Customers could definately be more considerate, especially when you're talking about an in-house environment and not commercial (i.e. like here where you're at a school or where you're in your office vs. calling Dell). This would avoid many of the conflicts that happen. Totally agree with you there.

I guess my point is that the techs are the ones being paid to be nice along with technical, so no matter what they should be considerate.

That being said, in the in-house environments I've been in, if a "customer" was particularly abusive, the right way to deal with it was be polite and then get it reported to that person's superior. They then get in just as much trouble as a rude tech support agent would.

Of course, that's for particularly abusive, just annoying is a different story ;).

[sterlingice]

Wow, I was about ready to predict how this thread would end about 10 posts in but I guess I was wrong. Still, what's with jumping on the OP? Now, I know we only have one side of the story to go on, but the worst transgression here was "I try to subtlety call this person out". All this other stuff looked to me like a guy wanting to do his homework before asking the desktop guy about it.

Don't get me wrong- I hate going onto a site where there's someone who clearly doesn't know more than I do but likes to say they do (not to be confused with "this guy does know more than I do so I should learn what I can"). But a few posts in, I was dead sure this thread was going to end with the guy getting fed up with being dumped on for (insert number here) posts, calling the collective "you" a bunch of jackasses and then everyone would talk about how he was such a jerk.

SI

[BrianD]

There were real answers mixed in there too...in at least one of the three copies of the post.