Oh the wonders of tech support
Sep. 10th, 2003 11:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silversolitaireSo, I had the unspeakable joy of dealing with our university's tech support. Or, a whole load of them, actually. When I came into the office yesterday I soon noticed that something was screwy. I could connect with Dreamweaver, but it gave me an odd error with the remote server's time. I ignored it since it was irrelevant for my work. But when I continued to work and then tried to upload the first files, the received an error 550 Access Denied. D'oh! I checked my Dreamweaver settings and they seemed to be okay. After some searching I decided to call support. And reached no one. Surprise! 30 mins later I actually got someone who was immensely stressed and promised me to check later. Hours passed. I called again and he whined at me that they were oh so busy and he couldn't possibly spare a single hand. -.-;;; I said I'd call again tomorrow.
And so I did. I called again in the morning and got a lady with a Czech accent. She was quite helpful but obviously clueless. She promised to call me back. Half an hour later she did!!! With no solution to the problem -.-. I told her that I suspected it wasn't a Dreamweaver problem but a server problem. She said she'd look into it. Half an hour she showed up in the office O.o. It was kinda nice to see she cared, but it really was painfully obvious that she had no fucking clue about Dreamweaver. She sat down in front of the computer and said "And how do I connect with this program?" -.- In addition to her "competence" she brought a stack of printed help-files from the Macromedia support site. Erm, okay. Nothing I couldn't have done, but still. Quite helpful.
When she realized she couldn't help me she told me to call a certain Kolonkai. The fabled Kolonkai. After she left I did so... and was promptly told he's not in charge of this server and told me to call the internet department since our website miraculously was the only one that wasn't hosted on the uni servers. Okay... so I did. And reached some secretary who then redirected me to some guy who immediately started treating me like a retard. He probably thought I didn't know shit about computers. He asked me about my IP number which as I told him was totally irrelevant to the problem. But fine, I told him that. Then we opened the run panel, got the ipconfig and he told me to ping my computer. That didn't work. He exclaimed "A firewall!". He said "Now do a trcert." Yes that's what he said. And I replied "A traceroute?" to which he said nothing. Oh dear, I wasn't as stupid as he wanted to believe. So I did one and it died on the first hop. "AHA! Then I'm not in charge!" he exclaimed, with audible relief in his voice and hung up on me! *seethes*
Grudgingly, I called my Czech friend again who expressed her sincere apologies and promised to find some solution to the problem. 3 hours had passed now. A bit later I received a mail, offering us to delete our entire homepage and move it over to their servers. D'oh! So basically their idea was "Oh, the door doesn't open, let's tear the house down." I called back and said this is out of the question since we had lots of links to our pages and if we moved servers we'd lose our number et cetera pe pe. She said then she doesn't know.
Skip 2 hours where I designed a poster for the upcoming presentation. Then it was almost time for me to go home. I was just about to leave when the boss looked up and said "But what about the homepage now?" *groans* I tried to weasel my way out of it, but to no avail. She decided that I had to talk to the highest guy in the support section personally and tried to get him on the phone. That didn't work. She tried calling two more people who were next in line, none of them were available. Then she finally got some unfortunate soul whom she forced to give her the number of someone who could help us. And we got a number. Of the great Kolonkai! So I called him again and he remembered me and said "Oh dear, so you've been sent around all day?" And I cried "YES!!!!!!!!" He showed much sympathy and listened to my problem. I repeated for the 20th time today that I really think this was a server problem and that I just fucking need someone to give me authorisation again since it was obviously deleted. I heard him type and hum and then he informed me that our server was indeed located at the internet department and that his dear colleagues were complete retarts if they thought a traceroute would do anything with our firewall (which is what I said, too!). He told me our server's name was Pamela (LOL). He also told me that he heard that the internet section had switched off FTP (GROAN!!!)
When we saw there was no solution to the problem he promised to come over!!! And he did! Only 5 mins later. Never mind the fact that I was to be on my way home already 30 mins ago. But okay. He arrived, Kolonkai, dressed in black entirely, pale as death, a cig hanging from the corner of his mouth. I went bulge-eyed for a moment. He immediately strolled on to the computer and took a seat. He typed in commands at a speed that it was impossible for me to follow. I watched him hack into their servers using my password, heard him rant on how they were still using Windows NT servers. He tried to upload some files, confirmed that it wasn't a Dreamweaver problem, tried to change my authorisation, cussed that Windows didn't show these option. He grabbed the phone, punched in some numbers, got the poor secretary from the internet department again. He told her to get him one of the Admins ASAP! She said she'd call him back immediately. Which she did, telling him the Admins were in a conference right now but they'd call back real soon. He hung up and hacked some more. Then the phone rang. He had a highspeed conversation with the guy. I felt like I was standing next to my big brother while he was beating up the bullies that were mean to me. After 5 mins he had forced them to acknowledge that their servers had fucked up. I heard the other guy on the phone apologize that it took so long to look something up, to which Kolonkai said dryly "Well, 1 min hardly matters now, does it." Another 5 mins later I had finally gotten my priviledges back and could upload as much as I pleased. Yay!
I'm not going to mention how extremely annoying all of this has been. It took all day, maybe even two, and it really was the problem I suspected ALL the time. Kolonkai bid me farewell and left. I realized that I now was 1 hour late and grumbled. I quickly grabbed my stuff and fled my office before they could come up with other things to say...
Don't you just love Tech Support?
And so I did. I called again in the morning and got a lady with a Czech accent. She was quite helpful but obviously clueless. She promised to call me back. Half an hour later she did!!! With no solution to the problem -.-. I told her that I suspected it wasn't a Dreamweaver problem but a server problem. She said she'd look into it. Half an hour she showed up in the office O.o. It was kinda nice to see she cared, but it really was painfully obvious that she had no fucking clue about Dreamweaver. She sat down in front of the computer and said "And how do I connect with this program?" -.- In addition to her "competence" she brought a stack of printed help-files from the Macromedia support site. Erm, okay. Nothing I couldn't have done, but still. Quite helpful.
When she realized she couldn't help me she told me to call a certain Kolonkai. The fabled Kolonkai. After she left I did so... and was promptly told he's not in charge of this server and told me to call the internet department since our website miraculously was the only one that wasn't hosted on the uni servers. Okay... so I did. And reached some secretary who then redirected me to some guy who immediately started treating me like a retard. He probably thought I didn't know shit about computers. He asked me about my IP number which as I told him was totally irrelevant to the problem. But fine, I told him that. Then we opened the run panel, got the ipconfig and he told me to ping my computer. That didn't work. He exclaimed "A firewall!". He said "Now do a trcert." Yes that's what he said. And I replied "A traceroute?" to which he said nothing. Oh dear, I wasn't as stupid as he wanted to believe. So I did one and it died on the first hop. "AHA! Then I'm not in charge!" he exclaimed, with audible relief in his voice and hung up on me! *seethes*
Grudgingly, I called my Czech friend again who expressed her sincere apologies and promised to find some solution to the problem. 3 hours had passed now. A bit later I received a mail, offering us to delete our entire homepage and move it over to their servers. D'oh! So basically their idea was "Oh, the door doesn't open, let's tear the house down." I called back and said this is out of the question since we had lots of links to our pages and if we moved servers we'd lose our number et cetera pe pe. She said then she doesn't know.
Skip 2 hours where I designed a poster for the upcoming presentation. Then it was almost time for me to go home. I was just about to leave when the boss looked up and said "But what about the homepage now?" *groans* I tried to weasel my way out of it, but to no avail. She decided that I had to talk to the highest guy in the support section personally and tried to get him on the phone. That didn't work. She tried calling two more people who were next in line, none of them were available. Then she finally got some unfortunate soul whom she forced to give her the number of someone who could help us. And we got a number. Of the great Kolonkai! So I called him again and he remembered me and said "Oh dear, so you've been sent around all day?" And I cried "YES!!!!!!!!" He showed much sympathy and listened to my problem. I repeated for the 20th time today that I really think this was a server problem and that I just fucking need someone to give me authorisation again since it was obviously deleted. I heard him type and hum and then he informed me that our server was indeed located at the internet department and that his dear colleagues were complete retarts if they thought a traceroute would do anything with our firewall (which is what I said, too!). He told me our server's name was Pamela (LOL). He also told me that he heard that the internet section had switched off FTP (GROAN!!!)
When we saw there was no solution to the problem he promised to come over!!! And he did! Only 5 mins later. Never mind the fact that I was to be on my way home already 30 mins ago. But okay. He arrived, Kolonkai, dressed in black entirely, pale as death, a cig hanging from the corner of his mouth. I went bulge-eyed for a moment. He immediately strolled on to the computer and took a seat. He typed in commands at a speed that it was impossible for me to follow. I watched him hack into their servers using my password, heard him rant on how they were still using Windows NT servers. He tried to upload some files, confirmed that it wasn't a Dreamweaver problem, tried to change my authorisation, cussed that Windows didn't show these option. He grabbed the phone, punched in some numbers, got the poor secretary from the internet department again. He told her to get him one of the Admins ASAP! She said she'd call him back immediately. Which she did, telling him the Admins were in a conference right now but they'd call back real soon. He hung up and hacked some more. Then the phone rang. He had a highspeed conversation with the guy. I felt like I was standing next to my big brother while he was beating up the bullies that were mean to me. After 5 mins he had forced them to acknowledge that their servers had fucked up. I heard the other guy on the phone apologize that it took so long to look something up, to which Kolonkai said dryly "Well, 1 min hardly matters now, does it." Another 5 mins later I had finally gotten my priviledges back and could upload as much as I pleased. Yay!
I'm not going to mention how extremely annoying all of this has been. It took all day, maybe even two, and it really was the problem I suspected ALL the time. Kolonkai bid me farewell and left. I realized that I now was 1 hour late and grumbled. I quickly grabbed my stuff and fled my office before they could come up with other things to say...
Don't you just love Tech Support?
