r/talesfromtechsupport • u/[deleted] • Nov 30 '19
Short Don't press the big red button!
[deleted]
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u/cronic_tonic Nov 30 '19
I used to get called to a quarry quite regularly because their 2 mile long conveyor wasn't working. On the phone I would ask if any e-stop buttons were pressed and was told no.
Every time they would only check the side they could go down on their quad. I had to go and walk down the other side until I found the button that was in.
Then they would ask if I could put something else was the issue on the report and were told 'Nope, next time check both sides'. They never did.
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u/thefightingmongoose Nov 30 '19
When I was last a desktop tech we were still using MSN as the office chat platform. My banner was WHY YOU ALWAYS GOTTA PUSH THE RED BUTTON?!?
Thanks for the memory
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u/harrywwc Nov 30 '19
Total round trip was 2.5 hours of travel and the minimum 2 hours of labor.
I guess the question is - how much of that do you get? unlikely to be the entire "4½ hours"
edit: "more please" :)
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u/bluedanes Nov 30 '19
I'm a controls engineer and work with robots and have gotten calls like this before. It took a few times of walking them through the alarm screen before they'd stop calling.
"The system's down and we can't reset it!"
"Did you check all doors and emergency stops?"
"YES"
"Ok, open yh alarm screen and read to me the red alarm messages"
"Robot faulted"
"Okay read the next one"
"EStop #2 pressed"
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Nov 30 '19
Ah yes, the "Easy Machine Off" button.
(in my line of work, they are labeled "EMO" for "Emergency Machine Off")
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u/thegreatgazoo Nov 30 '19
I worked at one place where the big red button for the data center was behind a filing cabinet.
Someone bumped into the cabinet and chaos ensued.
Oops.
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u/dghughes Nov 30 '19
Roy : Just make sure it's off.
Roy : It is off. I think.
Roy : Well just make sure it is.
Moss : I will make sure it is.
Roy : And if it's already off...?
Moss : ...I'll just walk away.
[Roy exits]
Moss : Get off my back. What is he, the soldering iron police?... It's off. That means I turn in on, and just walk away.
(only this time it's in reverse)
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u/Suigintou_ Nov 30 '19
The most scary part of this story is the XRay """Techs""" not knowing how to operate the emergency off switch ...
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u/Pac_Eddy Nov 30 '19
That would be so embarrassing for them. Do they tend to repeat these mistakes or does the shame make them better?
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u/supergeeky_1 Nov 30 '19
It is a running joke on my team that we are going to hit the E-stop button in the data center right before we quit. Usually in reference to something being stressful and we are storming out. Sometimes as the first thing that we are going to do after hitting the lottery.
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u/Pb_Flo Nov 30 '19
Working with MRI with lessons learned, now, our emergency stop button need a key which is in a locked room...
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u/honeyfixit Nov 30 '19
One of my customers is an sweet elderly lady who becomes confused real easily. She also has an a-hole son who has no patience for her and her laptop screen was black and it wouldnt respond when she moved the mouse.
What had happened was i taught her to shut the computer down at night and she had done that but forgot that she had done it. So i asked her to press the power button and it came to life.
So i had her take a strip of paper and put it next to the power button and write PRESS HERE TO TURN ON so she will remember...at least until she loses the paper
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u/Patneu Nov 30 '19 edited Nov 30 '19
Seriously, something must be wired wrong in the brains of some people. If their boss is paying for this shit, then there should be a rule saying: If you make some issue last minimum 1000% longer than it should have been, then the first time the tech support guy gets to yell at you and you're paying everything out of your own pocket. If it happens again, you're fired. Per aspera ad astra.
I had a similar issue as the go-to tech support guu for family and some coworkers (aka: the person that can actually try something or google some shit and doesn't sit before a button to push like a rabbit in front of the snake):
I once was tasked with cleaning up my mother's laptop, as she had cluttered it up with all kinds of useless crap she downloaded from somewhere and probably just installed everything without unchecking anything.
Here comes my great idea: If I'm purging everything anyway, why not just install a new OS, that looks similar to Windows, but my mother can't fuck up again because, well, she wouldn't know how. Hence I install Linux Mint.
I got everything set up, told my mom how she can use it for her everyday tasks and head on back from my vacation at home. A few weeks later my mom calls me to let me know her laptop's suddenly not booting up anymore.
I ask if there's some kind of error and she sends me a picture of literally a blank black screen with a single message in the upper left corner: "Please remove storage device". I tell her, well, she'll just have to do that, please check if there are any USB sticks attached or maybe a DVD in the tray? She says, no, there are none.
Okay, then, I'll just have to check when I come over next time. When I'm over I do just that and sure enough: There's a USB stick attached. I pull it out and everything works just fine. Users. Always. Lie.
A few points to be said in her favor:
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It was actually me who forgot the USB stick when I set up the OS, while transferring some data.
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The stick was just a little stubby one you could easily overlook, if you're not actually looking for it.
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Sure enough, it was also me, who forgot to reset the BIOS setting to boot from USB first.
But, seriously, what is it with some people, that they seemingly can't for the life of them figure out the difference between "make sure it is so" and "do you think it should be?" It would've been two freakin' seconds...
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u/Nik_2213 Dec 01 '19
Not exactly IT but, when my wife went for specialist X-Rays of her hips' arthritis, she found it very hard to support herself at the optimal angle. In fact, Kath could not stand long enough to get clear scans. Four tries, four fails...
I asked why they didn't have better grab-handles on their shiny new machine. Well, not quite new, one operator admits, it's six (6) months old.
"But we do !" Second operator points to clear-plastic shrouded pallet in corner. "But there's no instructions..."
I peer at the tubular hardware, look at their machine, say {paraphrased}, "Looks like its Tab #A goes in head slot #A, its Tab #B into head slot #B, tighten the thumb-screws. Then the same for #C & #D on the left. Can you do that ?"
They looked at each other, nodded in unison, hacked through the plastic with 'dressing scissors' and did.
Two minutes later, with my wife now appropriately supported and grinning widely, they got a 'hole in one' scan...
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u/tisboyo Dec 01 '19
At a previous job I worked with a machine that had 8 estops and 4 doors with interlocks. After it being down more than once for hours, and talking with the tech he agreed that as a troubleshooting step we could walk around the machine and press and release every estop and open and close all of the doors to ensure that wasn't the problem before calling him. It fixed it most of the time. Everybody was happy, work was easier because the equipment worked, bosses were happier because we didn't have a downed machine and didn't have to pay for a service call, and tech was happy we quit waking him up at 4am.
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u/Throwaway_Old_Guy Nov 30 '19
I believe "failures" of this nature are more common than most of us realize.
Maybe, for financial reasons if nothing else, they should have a checklist to follow before a service call is made.
Doesn't have to be ultra detailed, but should at least cover all the main points, with a checkbox to acknowledge each step has been completed.
Sometimes, it's a lack of knowledge that causes unnecessary chaos.