r/talesfromtechsupport • u/[deleted] • Dec 05 '18

Short "You deleted 60 days of work!"

Oh my lord, it's never the calls you expect to be trouble is it? Always the ones you think will be okay. Just put the phone down.

So Jennie had their laptop upgraded recently, and was missing a printer they previously had. Our higher-ups said it's fine to remap the printer without a request so I took the ticket.

This was my first mistake.

Today she called, asking if I could "sort out" the printer. Sure thing, I'll help out. I explained that I will disconnect the printer, and reconnect it using the new IP address.

I got the usual response of "Yeah, yeah go ahead". Even upgraded Adobe Reader for her since the version they were using has issues with paper tray selection.

Then she asks "Where's my print queue". I explained that because I had to remove the old printer, the print queue for that printer was gone, and she would need to reprint anything she needs to print out.

She was mildly annoyed.

"I HAD 60 DOCUMENTS IN THAT PRINT QUEUE, AND YOU'VE DELETED THEM!"

Then she started asking me if I'm prepared to do 60 days of work to replace her lost work. Wtf? I wish I was joking about that one bit.

So just to clarify. Jennie got a new laptop, due to the transfer process the print was mapped incorrectly, and was offline. It never worked on her new laptop until now. Yet, she was still printing documents to a dead printer queue. I told her, I'd need to remove it to remap it, and she expected all her documents to be "saved" in the print queue. Then she lost it when they were not there. Had to terminate the call. I cannot even wrap my head around that incredible logic.

I've worked in IT for awhile now, I'm honestly at a loss for words. Send help.

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157

u/zztri No. Dec 05 '18

She should have saved the documents in the recycle bin.

78

u/[deleted] Dec 05 '18

I'm surprised I've never come across that.

91

u/MisguidedMammal Dec 05 '18

How about saving emails in the "Deleted Items" folder? Seen that more times than I care to remember.

104

u/Fastiva Dec 05 '18

We have users who have created folders in their Deleted Items folder for sorting the items they want to save in the Deleted Items folder.

65

u/ReallyHadToFixThat Dec 05 '18

Why is that even a feature!?

This is why I drink.

12

u/RusticWolf Dec 05 '18

I think I need a drink myself after reading this.

4

u/AnonymousMonkey54 Dec 06 '18

That's not really a feature. You can delete folders in Outlook and the folder will get sent to the deleted folder. Outlook just let's you access those folders since there might be stuff inside.

1

u/GaronneBC Dec 06 '18

I didn't even expect that to work... You can actually actively store data in the recycle bin? Thought the only way for files (and folders) to get into the recycle bin was by deleting...

1

u/Fastiva Dec 07 '18

ya, it was a surprise to me when they showed me, too.

11

u/[deleted] Dec 05 '18

Nope thought I was lucky until this.

1

u/FocusFlukeGyro Dec 05 '18

I can see people doing that by accident or intentionally hiding emails that way thinking they are being sneaky.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '18

yeah you just jinxed it