Stupid questions you get asked at work.

[gbremset]

I work in tech support, and I remember my colleague getting this call.

An elderly lady calls in, trying to install her printer on her PC. She tells my colleague that on her computer screen it says "No printer found", and continues to explain that she's even tried to turn the screen towards the printer and still it says "no printer found"

In my own experience, the stupidest question I ever got, was if the warranty covered the printer being struck by a sledgehammer.. (This guy was actually being serious)

I've got tons of other strange stories as well, but that one is the stupidest one..

[blast3r]

I work in tech support, and I remember my colleague getting this call.

An elderly lady calls in, trying to install her printer on her PC. She tells my colleague that on her computer screen it says "No printer found", and continues to explain that she's even tried to turn the screen towards the printer and still it says "no printer found"

In my own experience, the stupidest question I ever got, was if the warranty covered the printer being struck by a sledgehammer.. (This guy was actually being serious)

I've got tons of other strange stories as well, but that one is the stupidest one..

You should have told him you only honor the warantee if it is struck by axes, polearms or swords. Sledgehammers are not covered. lol...that is just too funny!

[blast3r]

I work in IT for a University (currently in the Office of Information Security) but at my previous title of Dir of Network Services we had a PHD student come and complain to us that our anti-virus software wouldn't allow here to open this attachment she received in the mail. She was VERY upset and demanded that we disable it for her so she can see the virus. I'm not kidding, this really happened! Of course we told her no.

And yet another time at the same location I received a call that a computer in one of the confernce rooms wasn't working. So I walk in and kindly greet all the PHDs and professors in the room and start to troubleshoot. First thing I want to check is the power. I go to the back of the computer and find the power cord, i trace it to the power strip....good so far...then trace the power strip and find it was plugged into itself. Doh! I didn't have the heart to say anything but "it is working now" and left.

[Ðeceased]

I work in IT for a University (currently in the Office of Information Security) but at my previous title of Dir of Network Services we had a PHD student come and complain to us that our anti-virus software wouldn't allow here to open this attachment she received in the mail. She was VERY upset and demanded that we disable it for her so she can see the virus. I'm not kidding, this really happened! Of course we told her no.

And yet another time at the same location I received a call that a computer in one of the confernce rooms wasn't working. So I walk in and kindly greet all the PHDs and professors in the room and start to troubleshoot. First thing I want to check is the power. I go to the back of the computer and find the power cord, i trace it to the power strip....good so far...then trace the power strip and find it was plugged into itself. Doh! I didn't have the heart to say anything but "it is working now" and left.

/double facepalm

worst I've had so far (I don't do IT but I help friends of the family out) was when someone bought a TV card and had thrown out the tiny antenna (those rly rly thin ones) because they though it was just a cable wrapper/tidier :P
and that someone was worried they would be arrested after the computer came up with an error message that said "an illegal operation..."

[daviddoran]

Not my story, but I remember reading about a tech support employee at a call center (who got fired over this btw) who got a call from an elderly lady, that her computer wouldn't turn on, and when he asked her to check behind the computer, she responded with "it's too dark" so he told her to turn the lights on, and she responded back "I can't, the power has been out for the past 2 hours".......

(not the end of the story)

He then asked her if she has the original box the computer came in, she said yes, and he told her to pack it all back up, and ship it back, and to never touch a computer again. Not sure if it's a true story or not, but funny nonetheless.

Most of the stupid questions I get asked are just stupid, like "what's the start button" or IntRAnet? "Don't you mean IntERnet?"