| I submitted this QOTD three times to Kickstart just so I could tell this story, so I guess I better tell it. Yeah, I know, I've told it before, but it's my favorite tech support story.
When I was on the tech support team at the Marriott International Corporate Headquarters (Mr. Marriott used to park his Rolls Royce next to me every day, yes really) I got a call one day in which the woman said "When I wiggle in my chair, WordPerfect quits". I asked her to repeat that and she said again "When I wiggle in my chair, WordPerfect quits."
This sounded like a call that ought to made in person, so I told her I would stop by. Later that day I stopped by her desk, curious what strange problem I would find. She was very glad to see me because she thought she might be going crazy. She opened up WordPerfect, then said "watch". She proceeded to wiggle and jiggle in her chair. I stifled laughter. WordPerfect just sat there.
"I just don't understand," she said, "it does it all the time." Not knowing what else to do, I decided to check out her settings. I asked to look at her computer. As she moved out of the way and I moved over to the computer, my hand brushed the keyboard... and WordPerfect quit.
I looked closer at the keyboard. I realized the F7 key looked somehow wrong. I touched it and realized that it was broken. The clip holding the key had snapped, and the button was just resting on the trigger. Any little motion would set it off. And F7 is the key to quit WordPerfect. We replaced the keyboard and she was happy.
Moral of the story: users aren't crazy or stupid, though they may not be able to adequately describe the problem. Believe there is a problem. Don't believe the explanation of it. |
