Month: August 2007

As I’m in the process of slowing shutting down other sites I’ve worked on (due to time constraints), I’m reposting them here. Here’s an article from “Behind The Frontline” which was going to be a cross between I Work With Fools, Worse Than Failure and Dilbert.

Categories: More Information, Please!, Timewasters and Just Plain Dumb. Author: Dohpaz.

*Ring Ring*

Peon: “Is the server down?” (note: we have many servers)
Me: “Which server?”
Peon: “MY server” ok, so now we are expected to recognise people just by their voices are we?)
Me: “What is your web site address?
Peon: “xxxxx” (checks – up and running)
Me: “That appears to be working for me. What message do you get when you go to your website”
Peon: “THAT WORKS.”
Me: “Well, what appears to be the problem?”
Peon: “Its email that’s not working” (why didn”t you tell me that before?)
Me: “What, exactly, is the problem?”
Peon: “I can’t send or receive email.”
Me: “What error message are you getting when you try?”
Peon: “Invalid password.”
Me: “Ok, in your email program, what does it say in the username box”
Peon: “‘Username'”
Me: “The word username?”
Peon: “Yes”
Me: “Try actually putting your username – yyyy- in that box and trying again”
Peon: “Oh yes, that works. Bye!”

I’ll love to know how they thought an “Invalid password” message meant a server was down…

As I’m in the process of slowing shutting down other sites I’ve worked on (due to time constraints), I’m reposting them here. Here’s an article from “Behind The Frontline” which was going to be a cross between I Work With Fools, Worse Than Failure and Dilbert.

Categories: Just Plain Dumb and Timewasters. Author: Myself.

*Ring Ring*

Co-worker: Hello “Company Name”, how can I help?
Peon: Why has my account been suspended?
Co-worker: Can I take your domain name?
Peon: xxxxx
Co-worker: That account has been suspended for breaching our terms and conditions.
Peon: What do you mean?
Co-worker: The totally free web hosting package (which you don’t pay for) just asks for you to put a link back to our site from yours.
Peon: And?
Co-worker: Not including that link after 30 days is a breach of the free hosting terms and conditions.
Peon: But I didn’t know about that!
Co-worker: It’s displayed on the screen before you place your order, when you complete your order, when you receive email notification with your login details AND it’s displayed in your control panel.
Peon: Well, that’s a rip-off!

*Peon hangs-up*

So it’s a rip-off that we’re offering him a free hosting account and he can’t follow basic instructions that are repeated several times?

As I’m in the process of slowing shutting down other sites I’ve worked on (due to time constraints), I’m reposting them here. Here’s an article from “Behind The Frontline” which was going to be a cross between I Work With Fools, Worse Than Failure and Dilbert.

Categories: Just plain dumb and Timewasters. Author: Anonymous

I had to call a supplier today and whilst queuing for an operator listening to “Your call is important to us – please hold” – isn’t it nice to think that your call is more important than anybody else’s in the queue, and if it’s true, why don’t they answer me first?..Where was I? Oh, yes, in a queue. Then an announcement came on “We are experiencing long wait times, please call back later – lines are open 24 hours a day – or stay on the line”.

Whilst I was tempted to call back later, I thought I’d stay on the line. A few “Your call is important to us”‘s later and “We are experiencing long wait times, lines are open 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and 9am to 1pm on Saturdays. Please call again during these times or stay on the line”.

How come their opening times changed from 24 hours a day to “just slightly longer than normal business hours” within a space of a few minutes?

As I’m in the process of slowing shutting down other sites I’ve worked on (due to time constraints), I’m reposting them here. Here’s an article from “Behind The Frontline” which was going to be a cross between I Work With Fools, Worse Than Failure and Dilbert.

Category: Political Situations. Author: blankreg

Whilst trying to improve productivity at work (and consequently reduce my own workload a bit!), I proposed that we use this new simple to use CRM system (Customer Relationship Management : it’s just a piece of software which stores information and then sends it to the right people). This”ll make it easy for everybody to know what’s going on, what the situation is on everything and to keep customers updated (save us having to bother). Everybody else in the department thought it was a good idea, it’ll save a lot of time and it’ll hardly cost anything.

The Boss shot it down with “I don’t think it’s a good idea”. No other reason given despite us pointing out all the pluses. Turns out, he”s got his own way of working and he doesn”t want to change (even though it means more work for everybody else).