I work on the other end of tech support. The receiving end.
Luckily, I only have to do tech support for
the people in my building, and I only have to do it for a
few more days.
The mail server has gone down today. This affects roughly about a third of the 300 or so people I support. The mail servers we use are spread across the US. None of them are located in our building. I can understand the employees not realizing this, but if you're having a problem, and your neighbor is having a problem, and your boss is having the same problem, chances are, me running up to your cubicle isn't going to solve much.
When I get in this morning, I check the voice mail.
You have.. 5 ..new messages. To listen to the first message, press One-One.
"Hi jeremy, this is Bob, from up on the fourth floor. I'm getting an e-mail problem, whenever I try to start up Outlook, I get an error saying that I can't connect to the mail server. Oh, and a few other people around here are having the same problem. Can you come up and look at our computers for us?"
"Hi jeremy, this is Beth from AR..."
And once I work through all the messages, I get a phone call. I check the ID on the display: a new employee who came on Tuesday. I know for a fact that she's using the mail server that's down.
"Hi, this is (name withheld), and I'm having a problem with.."
"Is it an e-mail problem?"
"Yes, b.."
"The e-mail server's down. They're fixing it right now. Is that it?"
(shaken) "um... Yes"
"Okay, bye"
(Coworker bursts into laughter as soon as I hang up the phone)
BOFH, I am.