2011-09-14

Major service outage

I do wonder about putting up blog posts about some of the more special customers. There is always a risk of "doing a Rantners" and saying something I shouldn't.

So, yesterday, a customer who has two lines (so has fallback anyway), had one of his two lines go off line. To be honest, we don't actually know why - the router was still in sync. The fix was simply turning off and back on again. From our logs the customer has clearly been messing about, swapping the routers around the day before, for example, but he denies that.

So, just to get this right, one of two routers went off line, and we texted him automatically to tell him, during the working day.

Does he try turning off and back on again? Does he call? No.

He texts the Major Service Outage number which goes to me (Director) and several staff. He also emails in a ticket saying there is a major outage. MAJOR!!!!

I don't really know how to explain it better on the web site. One line going off is not a major service outage. And people should try the obvious before calling in.

That is not to say that anyone should expect to have to routinely reboot things, obviously, but "have you tried turning it off and back on again" is not just a joke - it is something to try before calling support!

Fun...

1 comment:

  1. There's a reason that tech support are often advised to learn tricks (like suggesting that you need to blow the dust out of the power connector) to get people to do things.

    Too many people have an idea that (a) they're an expert, and (b) they know better than you about what's wrong - to get anywhere with such people, you need to give them an opportunity to avoid saying "d'oh, my mistake", as that whole idea is not in their lexicon.

    And yes, I know people who now believe that ordinary 13A plugs routinely stop working due to overheating, and need to be unplugged, left to cool for a minute or two, then plugged back in; it's easier for my nerves to have them believe that than it is to try and ask them to reboot every time they have a problem.

    ReplyDelete

Comments are moderated purely to filter out obvious spam, but it means they may not show immediately.

Hot tubbing...

I have a hot tub, it came with the house over 3 years ago. Managing a hot tub is complicated, and expensive. The expensive part is the power...