Users

mok` · 12-09-2008, 16:24

Whilst sitting at work bored I came up with the following list of annoying user traits. Apologies for the formatting but I've basically just copy-pasted it from my blog

"A few observations on User Support. (L)Users take note ;-)

1) Marking emails as "URGENT:" won't make us fix it quicker. Surprisingly what is urgent to you is not necessarily urgent to us. Particularly when that something is along the lines of "I can't find X Word file I had open 5 minutes ago". What would be considered "urgent" to us is something like "there's been a catastrophic network failure in building X and no-one in it can connect to the network". Leave the prioritising to us.

2) Similarly, typing the heading of your email IN CAPITAL LETTERS won't make us respond any quicker. Refer to point 1.

3) COMPOSING YOUR ENTIRE EMAIL IN CAPITAL LETTERS WILL HAVE THE SAME EFFECT AS POINTS 1) AND 2), SQUARED

4) Phoning us up 5 minutes later about said insignificant PEBKAC issue will not get it looked into any quicker. As a general rule a couple of hours to a couple of days is an acceptable time window to chase something up, depending on the severity of the problem.

5) If a service works for 24,999 users but not for you, the problem is more than likely at your end.

That is all"

Garp · 12-09-2008, 16:29

Hmm.. I've got a few more I'll add to that tomorrow I think. Joys of having done support work for an ISP, even in a supposedly higher level technical team.

5 is all the most pertinent as far as I'm concerned. Happens all too often.
"Oh our website has been hacked, it's your fault, your servers are insecure, they hacked your servers!!!!11111oneoneoneone"
in every single case (and I've checked thousands), bar one, it's all been down to either: a) customer having a crap password, or b) customer had compromising code on the system, e.g. poorly writted PHP that allows XSS attacks.

AboveTheSalt · 12-09-2008, 17:38

I know that you aren't anything as lowly as a mere Operator, but I suspect I know from whence you came Link

12-09-2008, 16:24	#1
mok` Columbian Coffee Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Edinburgh Posts: 76	Users Whilst sitting at work bored I came up with the following list of annoying user traits. Apologies for the formatting but I've basically just copy-pasted it from my blog "A few observations on User Support. (L)Users take note ;-) 1) Marking emails as "URGENT:" won't make us fix it quicker. Surprisingly what is urgent to you is not necessarily urgent to us. Particularly when that something is along the lines of "I can't find X Word file I had open 5 minutes ago". What would be considered "urgent" to us is something like "there's been a catastrophic network failure in building X and no-one in it can connect to the network". Leave the prioritising to us. 2) Similarly, typing the heading of your email IN CAPITAL LETTERS won't make us respond any quicker. Refer to point 1. 3) COMPOSING YOUR ENTIRE EMAIL IN CAPITAL LETTERS WILL HAVE THE SAME EFFECT AS POINTS 1) AND 2), SQUARED 4) Phoning us up 5 minutes later about said insignificant PEBKAC issue will not get it looked into any quicker. As a general rule a couple of hours to a couple of days is an acceptable time window to chase something up, depending on the severity of the problem. 5) If a service works for 24,999 users but not for you, the problem is more than likely at your end. That is all" __________________

12-09-2008, 16:29	#2
Garp Preparing more tumbleweed Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Hawaii Posts: 6,038	Hmm.. I've got a few more I'll add to that tomorrow I think. Joys of having done support work for an ISP, even in a supposedly higher level technical team. 5 is all the most pertinent as far as I'm concerned. Happens all too often. "Oh our website has been hacked, it's your fault, your servers are insecure, they hacked your servers!!!!11111oneoneoneone" in every single case (and I've checked thousands), bar one, it's all been down to either: a) customer having a crap password, or b) customer had compromising code on the system, e.g. poorly writted PHP that allows XSS attacks. __________________ Mal: Define "interesting"? Wash: "Oh, God, oh, God, we're all gonna die"?