Adventures in tech support, vol. 39
As some of you know, my job at Machinery, Inc. is tech support. Here's a typical call I received today:
me: "Machinery support, this is Steve"
Smart User: "Hi, I'm having trouble with Adobe Illustrator. It keeps crashing when I scale a drawing."
me: "That's no good. Does it give you an error message when it crashes?"
SU: "No, it just crashes."
me: "Is it crashing when you're working with one particular file, or every file?"
SU: "Just one file."
me: "I would be willing to bet that the file you're working on is corrupt. Try copying the file's contents and paste everything into a new file."
SU: "That can't be it. This file isn't very old."
me: "Okay... can I connect to your machine and check some settings?"
SU: "Sure."
[I connect, user opens the file and demonstrates the crash while I watch using our remote control software]
me: "Hmm... this file doesn't look right."
[I copy the contents of the file and paste it into a new file]
me: "Try scaling the drawing again in this new file."
SU: "Wow. It didn't crash."
me: "Yup."
SU: "So that other file is corrupt?"
me: "Yup."
SU: "Ok, thanks." *click*
I always wonder why people bother to call if they aren't going to believe what I say anyway.
me: "Machinery support, this is Steve"
Smart User: "Hi, I'm having trouble with Adobe Illustrator. It keeps crashing when I scale a drawing."
me: "That's no good. Does it give you an error message when it crashes?"
SU: "No, it just crashes."
me: "Is it crashing when you're working with one particular file, or every file?"
SU: "Just one file."
me: "I would be willing to bet that the file you're working on is corrupt. Try copying the file's contents and paste everything into a new file."
SU: "That can't be it. This file isn't very old."
me: "Okay... can I connect to your machine and check some settings?"
SU: "Sure."
[I connect, user opens the file and demonstrates the crash while I watch using our remote control software]
me: "Hmm... this file doesn't look right."
[I copy the contents of the file and paste it into a new file]
me: "Try scaling the drawing again in this new file."
SU: "Wow. It didn't crash."
me: "Yup."
SU: "So that other file is corrupt?"
me: "Yup."
SU: "Ok, thanks." *click*
I always wonder why people bother to call if they aren't going to believe what I say anyway.
Labels: random
posted by steve at 8:06 AM
2 Comments:
yup, same goes for paras. always amusing to give your expertise on how to do something only to have someone either not believe you or just not listen, do it their way and then mess the whole thing up. not that it has ever happened to me. nope. not at all. not here. no, sir. i've just heard about this sort of thing happening.
What's been the best thing about working at Machinery Inc., in terms of what you can put on your resume? Inquiring minds want to know!
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