Memorable support calls

Our recent Summer survey asked the Service Desk community to share their most memorable IT Support calls.

Our favourite, and winner of £100 Amazon voucher?
“I need a new mobile phone, as I dropped mine into the lawn mower and it’s been shredded.” Ohhh – can’t you just see it happening?!

Here’s the best of the rest; thanks to all who shared their pain.

Support has no limits
– Driving 120 miles to a data recovery company with a Director’s hard drive hoping to recover his holiday photos of a safari in Kenya.
– Travel to a motorway services 110 miles away to demonstrate how to use a sat nav. * winner of the irony prize

That tricky work / life balance
– How do I connect my robot to the Wi-Fi?
– Asked to fix CEO’ s son’s laptop as it had his A-level coursework on it.(We said no!) Career limiting move part I…
– A user saying their 4 year old had changed their laptop password and they were now unable to login!
– Can you help setup my son’s Xbox?
– Asked to provide guaranteed remote access to someone going on a road trip across Australia.

Career limiting move part II
– Broadband not working in the company flat and the chief exec couldn’t watch the football – logged as URGENT…..

Ouch…
– Someone managed to run over their own handbag destroying their phone, laptop and Skype phone in one go!

Testing their patience
– Not knowing where the off button was … and didn’t know how to switch off a plug !!
– Asked to change a light bulb.
– Asked how to purchase an Oyster card online.
– Documents not printing – printer not turned on.
– Please can you change the plug on the kettle?
– Asked by a user to get their monitor to work whilst they were in a middle of a power cut.

Aah…
– Asked to help a bird that hit the office window.

Tech gurus – you can do anything, right?
– Got asked if we could implement something that would check you were sending emails to the correct person. We told them of course, see the bar next to To….It tells you who you’re emailing.
– An executive had mistyped an email address to an email they had sent. We were instructed to ensure that the email reached the intended recipient.

No pleasing some people!
– I had to travel with a non-technical colleague (as I didn’t drive at the time) to install a fax machine at my Chief Executive’s house, including trips to Dixons to get power and telephone extension leads, only to have to remove it all when the Chief Exec’s wife came home as she didn’t like the size, colour and where we had installed it.

And finally – Eeeww…
– A secretary called and asked if there was a way to cancel background noise on her fee earner’s dictations.  When asked what kind of noise it was she explained that her fee earner would often dictate while sitting on the loo!  (we think perhaps careers advice would have been more appropriate!)

To find out more about our Summer survey and the impact of mobile and holiday working on service desks, read our press release here.