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Sharky

Shark Tank

When in doubt, there's probably a switch somewhere

User calls the help desk at 8 a.m. with a laptop that has stopped connecting to wireless networks, according to a support pilot fish who doesn't take the call -- at least, not at first.

"The help-desk person spent two hours trying to ipconfig, enable the card in Windows, refresh IPs and so," fish says. "He finally gave up and sent the ticket on to second-level support -- that's me.

"I said to the user, 'Did you check the switch on the right-hand side of the laptop? It gets bumped in your bag sometimes and can turn off the card.'"

User: "There's a switch for that?"

Fish: Yes, didn't the help desk have you check that first?

User: "No, they never mentioned a switch. There it is! Wow! What do you know, I can see wireless now. Thank you!"

Sighs fish, "Another tale of a tech on a help desk who only reads the scripts provided to him but really can't fix a computer..."

Feed the Shark! Send me your true tale of IT life at sharky@computerworld.com. You'll snag a snazzy Shark shirt if I use it. Add your comments below, and read some great old tales in the Sharkives.

The Best of Shark Tank includes more than 70 tales of IT woe submitted by you, our readers, since 1999. Which all goes to prove, conclusively, that hapless users and idiotic bosses are indeed worldwide phenomena. Free registration is all that's needed to download The Best of Shark Tank (PDF).

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