3 ms·
I used to know a chap who liked to tell about how he took one of the worst support calls ever. He worked for a company that did industrial control systems and
by arethuza 4y ago
I used to know a chap who liked to tell about how he took one of the worst support calls ever.
He worked for a company that did industrial control systems and he was in the office by himself one weekend and the phone kept ringing - apparently they had strict instructions not to answer the phone but he did it anyway.
On the other end of the line was an irate operator at the Hunsterson nuclear power plant who said something like "I'm standing on top of Reactor B and all your systems have gone down and we can't see what the f*ck is going on and what are you going to do to fix it".
Apparently there was a standard support line but the operator had decided to pick on the name of the company displayed somewhere in the software and look them up in the phone book (this was about 1990) and shout at someone.
It turned out to be nothing to do with the systems this chaps employer was responsible for - they just got the call because their name was visible!
- dmd 4y agoDaniel Stenberg (curl) knows the feeling. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12949114 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12949114
- squigg 4y agoIt's Hunterston in case anyone wants to read-up - just down the road from me and sadly the AGR is now being de-fuelled as it heads for the big pile in the sky .... such a feature on the local coastline https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunterston_B_nuclear_power_station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunterston_B_nuclear_power_sta...
- arethuza 4y agoRecommended reading on AGR plants - a blog entry by Charlie Stross about Torness, the other AGR plant in Scotland: https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/rants/nothing-like-this-will-be-buil.html https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/rants/nothing-l...
- squigg 4y agoLoved that thanks - my dad worked there for a year as a pipe fitter. Brings a lot of it to life!
- lb1lf 4y agoOne of my first field service calls was similar - show up at a vessel in a godforsaken port way outside civilization, after a curt greeting from the C/E I head for our deck machinery to get to work, only to be told in no uncertain terms I am an effing greenhorn idiot - THOSE are not the winches with a problem, THOSE OVER THERE ARE. I have a look at them, find they are not delivered by my then employer, and tell the chief as much. "The fck do I care who made that piece of crap, you going to fix it or not?" Turned out we had some electrical cabinets with our logo prominently displayed installed onto a bulkhead near the offending units. C/E had simply seen those, assumed they were the ones controlling the malfunctioning equipment, and had me flown halfway around the globe to fix them. Luckily it was a rather simple problem to figure out, so I got it going again and somewhat snarkily stamped the service log with my employer's stamp. As soon as it all worked again, the chief was all smiles and got me thoroughly sloshed on some liquor of dubious origins. Good times.
- chasd00 4y agoHeh and I think you voided the support contract for those winches you fixed to boot.
- lb1lf 4y agoThat was kind of what I hoped for, yes. (We did get a rather confused call from the manufacturer a couple of years later, they had spotted my stamp and were curious, but not hostile in any way. If nothing else, they were probably grateful it hadn't been one of them working his way to Rabaul. It is hardly a world metropolis.