Calculated Mistakes

I posted this story on Reddit in r/talesfromtechsupport, but thought it would fit in here as well.

I worked as head of IT in a municipal office, and part of my job description was help desk things. Well, one day a kindergarten called and let me know that nothing worked. With them not willing to elaborate any further I found myself needing to drive up and see what the problem was for myself.

On the drive there I tried imagining all the possible ways that everything was broken. Did a meteor land on top of the kindergarten? Maybe there was a huge sinkhole that only swallowed everything that has to do with IT? An EMP could have exploded near it as well.

Sadly Fortunately, none of the above happened, but rather only the phone didn’t work in some cases. Talk about good communication skills.

I get there and the older (about 50-ish) lady explained to me that she receives calls and texts, but can’t place calls herself. For context, they had a land line phone for the past few decades and only recently transitioned to smartphones with VOIP so that they don’t have to leave the children alone to take calls and can take pictures while at it as well. I try everything out and it works like a charm. So I asked her to show me what shes doing when she wants to call someone.

“Well, I open the number app and type in the number” – proceeds to open the CALCULATOR APP (insert scream of absolute agony) and type in the telephone number. “Then I put the phone to my ear but nothing happens”

I calmly explained that this is, indeed, not a land line phone and she needs to use the phone app. I can understand the confusion, however smartphones have been around since that lady was 30 and by now she could have used one once.

At least I got a good laugh with my boss and a 20 minute break.