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Randomness XVIII: Ex-Vee-Triple-Eye


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4 hours ago, TripleH said:

 

Are you going to leave any for the rest of us??

He can have my share.

 

36 minutes ago, Cygnwulf said:

 

Sadly, I think we're in that minority of people who are the ones suffering for other peoples broccolihattery, since I guarantee you that there are probably large numbers of people who would use those tricks to get basic troubleshooting help.

I concur.

 

 

I wrote up a whole series of troubleshooting documents for the equipment.  One is a generic "Troubleshooting for the Novice" which gives tips and tricks to make it easier for customers to help us help them.  It's generic and basic enough that most of my distributors "stole" it for their own documents.  Then I have a bunch of more equipment and problem specific ones that list a bunch of tasks and questions sites can use to gather data.  Laminated copies of those and the Preventative Maintenance Schedule are sent with every system. 

Does anyone ever use them? 

 

Rarely, as far as I can tell. 

We once talked about building them into a service request form sites would have to use to submit a trouble ticket for a call back.  But upon further discussion, we realized that either sites wouldn't fill it out, or worse, they'd just lie and make up answers, which would lead us in the wrong direction. 

These days when I get certain types of problems covered by these troubleshooting references, I just start throwing questions at the customer from said references. Most of the time they don't have any answers beyond "it's not working".   Yeah, well, answer some of these questions and get back to me. 

Had one this morning - site owner called, got our service VM, left message. Emailed us immediately afterward, then called his distributor, and his distributor called.  His entire credit card system was down, and he needed help immediately! First question he was asked - "Is your internet on site working?"

 

Guess what wasn't working? 

If his first response had been to start asking his people on site the questions from the Credit Cards Not Working Troubleshooting Reference, he could have solved it without calling or emailing anyone. 

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47 minutes ago, kristof65 said:


If his first response had been to start asking his people on site the questions from the Credit Cards Not Working Troubleshooting Reference, he could have solved it without calling or emailing anyone. 


I find that same mentality in engineering design. So many ask me a question that either Google can answer in 0.34 seconds or easily found in those hovering “tool tips” above the button they were trying to use. Best compliment I have ever received was from another source of help. I’d apologized for seeking her help, but was rebuffed by her saying she didn’t mind helping me because she knew when I asked for help I had already exhausted every other path to finding an answer.

 

I also read instructions. Which was apparently too hard for half the patients in the waiting room last Thursday according to my wife. Seems they have to nearly double book the doctor to get at least a good work load as so many had to be turned away to try again because they didn’t follow the instructions close enough.

 

I keep saying I need to find a nice backwater planet to retire on. Wife says she ain’t going tho. But it’s so nice! Tropical beach with snow capped mountains within sight and an easy hike. Son says I am describing New Zealand. 

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After yesterday's issues with the dental surgeon's office #1, office #2 called me this morning and they have same day consult and surgery options. I chose that one because I know if I don't my anxiety will go through the roof waiting around for it. So starting at 11am on the 26th I should be having my wisdom teeth removed.

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28 minutes ago, Pegazus said:


I find that same mentality in engineering design. So many ask me a question that either Google can answer in 0.34 seconds or easily found in those hovering “tool tips” above the button they were trying to use. Best compliment I have ever received was from another source of help. I’d apologized for seeking her help, but was rebuffed by her saying she didn’t mind helping me because she knew when I asked for help I had already exhausted every other path to finding an answer.

A few years ago I admitted to one of my now favorite distributor techs that when he first started that I would deliberately wait 30 minutes before calling him back. I had discovered by accident that if I waited that long, he _usually_ figured the answer out on his own.  He laughed, told me he had finally realized that his boss was doing the same thing and stopped calling us until he absolutely had to. He thanked me for helping to make him a better tech.   These days I'll answer his calls in a heartbeat if I can because these days if he's calling me, he has exhausted everything else OR simply needs someone understanding to vent to. 

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7 hours ago, Great Khan Artist said:

So I went to the outdoor store in Red Deer on Saturday. They let you take your doggy in, which was great because it was too hot to do a proper shop otherwise. We bought a compass, because we thought it would be fun to learn to read maps properly. We also came home with a whole bunch of free catalogues and other accutrements. We get to the lake, and I'm like, the damned thing doesn't point north! So I show Mumsy. She's like, no, it points north, that's west, that's where the storms come from, remember? Good thing I didn't take it back and tell them it doesn't work. But in my defense, something in my car messes it up. 

 

Your car's maps would be using true north, not magnetic north. Depending on where you are, there can be a big difference.

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3 hours ago, Green Eyed Monsty said:

Went to my Credit Union this afternoon.

Spotted Halloween Candies on  shelf waiting to be set out.

GEM

Halloween candies is understandable as they can double as back-to-school snacks.

 

Halloween decorations on the other hand... Summer vacations still aren't done and already I started to see them last week.

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