RE: Technical Difficulties

One of the craziest situations I remember when doing tech-support was remote diagnosing a printer issue. I could see the spooler filling with unprocessed print jobs, and the staff in the office assured me over the phone that the printer was plugged-in and powered-ON. But, the evidence said otherwise, yet they were arguing with me.

My boss walked into the room and heard part of the conversation. So, he stepped up to my desk, put my phone on MUTE for a moment. Back in those days, polarized power plugs had not yet been implemented in many places. So, he instructed me to tell them that it was a "polarity issue" and they should unplug the printer from the wall, rotate the plug 180° and plug it back in. When they went to do that, I heard someone exclaim, "Oh look, it wasn't plugged in, after all." Problem solved. 😜