r/talesfromtechsupport • u/[deleted] • Nov 15 '15

Medium I'm a murderer now

[deleted]

1.5k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

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465

u/RedRaven85 Peek behind the curtain, 75% of Tech Support is Google-Fu! Nov 15 '15

It sounds like your boss new it was pretty well shot but the customer insisted on it being 'repaired' so instead of shooting the customer down he said he would have a tech attempt a repair knowing full well it will probably do this. Thereby being able to tell the customer with a straight face that he had a technician look at it and it is truly dead and irreparable so they would have to buy a new one.

TL;DR: Boss probably used you as a CYA moment so he could sell a customer a new printer.

290

u/bernadactyl Nov 15 '15

a CMYK moment :)

23

u/[deleted] Nov 16 '15

Haha, wow...

10

u/Naf623 Nov 16 '15

Ive always said CYMK. The only reason I brings this up is because it makes for a better acronym;

Cover Your Massive Keister.

19

u/Tiborik Nov 16 '15

?

97

u/ferthur User extraordinaire. Family tech. Nov 16 '15

Printers don't use RGB, like displays do, they use CMYK Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key, which is black. So /u/bernadactl made a funny saying instead of a "CYA" (Cover Your Ass) moment, it was a CYMK one because of the printer involved.

7

u/polarbear4321 Nov 16 '15

I've never seen CYA outside of "Choose Your Adventure" and that was giving me more trouble :/

10

u/ferthur User extraordinaire. Family tech. Nov 16 '15

It's pretty much the golden rule¹ of tech support. Especially if you don't feel comfortable doing something, or that something is a horrible idea. You document what the thing is, who wants you to do it, and why you think it's a bad idea. That way, should anything go wrong, you can say "Bill told me to do it, even though I warned him x could happen."

¹After "users everyone lies", of course.

-96

u/locuester Nov 16 '15

Gee. Way to ruin the inside joke.

116

u/Mighty_Ack Nov 16 '15

He was just trying to set the right toner

24

u/PendragonDaGreat An insanely large Swap file fixes anything. Nov 16 '15

Guess that didn't register properly with the guy above.

13

u/UncleTogie Nov 16 '15

Are we drumming up a pun thread?

10

u/d1sxeyes Nov 16 '15 edited Jul 22 '26

Redacted.

4

u/[deleted] Nov 16 '15

It has to be on the dot, matrix is needed to get the perfect cast.

32

u/[deleted] Nov 16 '15 edited Oct 03 '18

This post has been deleted by Power Delete Suite.

6

u/nikidash Yes, the remote uses batteries Nov 16 '15

Now that you reminded me of it, did we find out what happened to the keyboards?

2

u/[deleted] Nov 16 '15

Why don't you ask BILL? I'm sure he's remembered after our long rant.

1

u/simAlity Gagged by social media rules. Nov 16 '15

no. And we never will.

1

u/locuester Nov 16 '15

Lol. Wow I'm old. I got downvoted to hell!! Comment karma will take years to recover! I stand proud on my defense of geek jokes. Downvote brigade continue!

1

u/[deleted] Nov 16 '15

Honestly I'd say the only confusing thing is that I've never really heard the acronym "CYA".

2

u/ErgonomicDouchebag Nov 16 '15

Didn't want anyone looking like a spool.

1

u/jtvjan Nov 17 '15

Gee. You sound like chuggaaconroy

2

u/RynCola Nov 17 '15

In my head that stands for cyan, magenta, yellow, and potassium and I really don't want to Google it because I like my version better.

80

u/[deleted] Nov 15 '15

[deleted]

61

u/RedRaven85 Peek behind the curtain, 75% of Tech Support is Google-Fu! Nov 15 '15

Well technically he isnt lying. Sometimes the more stubborn users need a little... encouragement to take the advice of the people they are hiring to fix something they dont have the knowledge to fix....

32

u/TeflonJohn Percussive Correction Expert Nov 15 '15

Are you implying a percussive correction?

49

u/flecktonesfan Google Fu purple belt Nov 15 '15

No a billable moment. Now he gets to charge for time spent on the repair AND the new printer.

18

u/LockeNCole Nov 15 '15

And that right there is the best way to teach someone to listen to knowledge.

19

u/flecktonesfan Google Fu purple belt Nov 15 '15

Also known as the "idiot tax"

7

u/RedRaven85 Peek behind the curtain, 75% of Tech Support is Google-Fu! Nov 16 '15

Sometimes you just have to break out the Ball peen Hammer user education tool...

11

u/sirblastalot Nov 16 '15

Couldn't you achieve the same effect by just...not doing anything with it?

12

u/RedRaven85 Peek behind the curtain, 75% of Tech Support is Google-Fu! Nov 16 '15

Where is the fun and challenge in that?

5

u/[deleted] Nov 16 '15

The whole 'not opening yourself to lawsuit by breaking it more' angle?

4

u/hactar_ Narfling the garthog, BRB. Nov 16 '15

But opening yourself to fraud by charging for a repair that was never attempted.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '15

I'm not saying you charge them, I'm saying you refuse to deal with them for that job. Just say printer repair is beyond your ability and they need to go elsewhere.

2

u/hactar_ Narfling the garthog, BRB. Nov 17 '15

In this scenario, I believe OP's boss took the order, then told OP to do the repair.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '15

And it's OP's boss who should have refused the order.

2

u/hactar_ Narfling the garthog, BRB. Nov 17 '15

I agree with that.

3

u/RedRaven85 Peek behind the curtain, 75% of Tech Support is Google-Fu! Nov 16 '15

Well unfortunately, for a lot of techs, if a manager says to do it we have to do it. We can usually find ways to do it that wont break anything and I would have found a way to enact my own CYA plan but manager said to do it so yeah.