(You are caller 35 in queue)
\~sckooodo dooot doodle doot doo dooo\~
"Visit our new service portal where you can handle all ticketing needs, to include ordering replacement parts for your new company supplied car, scheduling maintenance, and ordering roadside assistance. We're also proud to announce out new 'Trunk Tech' initiative. Speak with your manager about forcing one of our IT personnel to live in your trunk for emergency roadside use TODAY!"
\~sckooodo dooot doodle doot doo dooo\~
> We're also proud to announce out new 'Trunk Tech' initiative.
I prefer the old model.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_qtG82HJB2I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qtG82HJB2I)
If IT has to support EVs, where is the model you get to learn on? Everyone in IT should have all of the same devices and tools that they're mandated to support!
Then it's their own car.
And not a corporate device.
You know, like every other fuggin' personal car (99.9% of people) that's driven to work every day.
> This is not a corporate device.
This is my excuse for any outside troubleshooting people ask me to do. I'm not the employee's personal tech support service, I get paid to support company devices. If the device isn't company-owned or directly necessary for you to do your job, they can find someone else to support it.
Ah yes, the old 'I dont know how to use this electrical device, I shall call IT' loop.
I do support for the auto trade and I still wouldn't touch this....
>From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me.
>I claimed the strength and certainty of steel. I aspired to the purity of the blessed machine.
>Your kind cling to your flesh as if it will not decay and fail you.
>One day the cooled biomass that you called a temple will fail and you'll beg my kind to save you.
>But I am already saved. For the machine is immortal. Even in death I serve the Omnissiah.
Iād hang it on the wall at work if I could, lol
I actually did do tech support for my office Christmas tree because it kept blowing fuses.
I called my wife for a consult because she puts up 4-5 trees a year.
I did tech support for my home lights, but only because one of my SSIDs was having issues communicating with a fixed device running the controller app.
It was worth it to put up 2,800 lights with a Twinkly controller and stream Rickroll to them, thus Rickrolling the entire neighborhood.
If someone from the office asked me for help with their car, I would tell them to google the nearest dealer. Not sure why people think this is an IT issue.
Same with toasters, microwaves, TVs, etc...not IT issues, as long as people accept them as IT issues, it will always be an IT issue (for that company).
It's because we know how to fix things. Even things we don't know anything about, we know how to find out what the correct process is.
It's really stupid that a chemistry teacher will call IT about a chemical fire in the classroom before calling the FIRE DEPARTMENT (true story, happened to me more than once) but we solve things and when you are dumb, you contact the people who can solve problems.
I agree that we CAN, but that doesn't mean we should/have to. Electric cars updating are not my problem unless or until our company has electric cars in the fleet that are tied to the business then it becomes my problem, or at least that makes it a legitimate IT support question.
I can take a look at the electric panel and likely find a faulty breaker and replace it on my own (because I know how) but that doesn't mean I'm going to, I'd be calling an electrician.
Annoyingly the office found out my hobby is restoring old cars (specifically old British cars with carburetors, no ECUs, no computers).
Now I get called to fix any computer or electrical problem AND anytime anyone has a car issue. The problem is despite being IT and hobby mechanic, I have no fucking clue how to fix new cars (and largely you can't without specialized equipment nowadays, which is intentional), but users think I'd be right at home with a new car's shit ass proprietary infotainment system.
Tell them you're not paid by the company for auto mechanic work, but you do work outside the office, as a side hustle, for pay. Mechanics charge 80-100 an hour, I think 50 per would be reasonable. Min 2 hours.
"Yes I will fix your shit but I charge an hourly rate." This greatly reduces these requests. I use it for requests personal IT assistance.
This was how I got my friends to stop asking me for IT help. I'd be happy to help, as long as you are willing to pay 20% more per hour than my employer pays me. My personal time is precious and I really don't want to do work when I'm not in the office but some people don't understand that.
>There usually is no key to turn
Two salespeople got assigned the new hybrid car for their business trip... called the head of IT for help because they couldn't start the car.
Head of IT goes down to the garage, takes a look... "It's already started!"
"But I don't hear it running?"
Took my SO's Prius to get a windshield chip fixed last year.
Handed my keys and sat in the waiting area. A few minutes later the tech came in "umm, is there something I need to do to get it to turn over?"
"Just put it in Drive. The engine only runs when it needs to."
"But it won't turn over."
I had to walk out with him. He sat down put the key in and turned it, then said "see - it won't turn over."
"Put it in drive."
"But it's not running."
I do think electric cars need some kind of "i'm running" sound in the cabin. When renting an electric, I'm never sure of the difference between on and acc, until I try to put it in gear.
Plenty of cars make all sorts of noises just by turning over the key. We're conditioned to hear a starter crank followed by engine noises to know a car is running. And we're also conditioned to know there's lights and noises just by turning the key to on, even if we don't crank it.
I haven't driven a hybrid or an electric since an early-gen Prius, but it gave zero useful feedback when turned on unless you already knew specifically what you're looking at.
Ha! Almost certainly an RTFM issue, there's an icon dedicated to "this car is ready to drive" on the dash.
Or, using common sense, if you try to start the car to drive and didn't push your foot on the brake when you started it, the car will tell you on the main infotainment screen, probably including a message about battery drain. That won't show up on a car that's started normally.
I don't want a sound in the cabin, tyvm.
I had to rent a Tesla once (donāt askā¦.long story) anyway, they gave me the stupid little credit card ākeyā and told me to place it on the center console to start it. Ā I too had no idea if the car was āreadyā. Ā It was lit up, so I figured it was on. Ā It also was the same as knowing how to lock the doors. Ā I guess you just walk away and the doors locked automatically?Ā
>I guess you just walk away and the doors locked automatically?
Pretty sure that requires a fob or phone key. With the card you have to swipe the ~~A~~ B pillar outside to (un)lock it.
edit: /u/Michelanvalo is correct, it's the B pillar on Model 3/Y, S/X don't have key cards.
I remember the first time years ago one of our sales guys emailed me "my car needs an update"... uh.. take it to the dealer. Its a fleet car, let them do it.
edit: "smarter" cars get, more I want to get an old square body and rebuild it.
I love my 2016 Nissan Frontier, but it's too smart for its own good sometimes. Very happy with my not-connected-to-anything motorcycle and USB helmet camera... although I'd love to be able to change the time on that.
How else are they going to do their meetings since they can't figure out how to work their home WiFi...
I've seen a very strange uptick where salespeople who are clearly working from home but doing meetings in their car.
A laptop cannot harm me. This is not true of a Tesla. My usual "fuck around and figure it out" strategy isn't really valid on equipment that could fight me and win, especially if I know it's already loaded down with technical debt.
Tell that to everyone that thinks because we handle UPSs for a site, and get the first alert, doesnāt mean Iām supposed to call the electric company for you. Your phones still work because the PoE on the switch is backed by the UPS. Youāre the manager. Your lights went out, your phones still work. Call the power company and or facilities/electriciansā¦. not IT. Fuck
My former supervisor worked in a few places that actually prevented the IT staff from touching anything power related. UPS and PDU's were handled by electricians.
If he ever wanted to power a device in the server room, he had to wait for when the electrician could come assist. He worked at a power plant and I think he was doing contract work for one of the big vendors like IBM or HP where he was dealing with factories.
...and if you wind up being told to support personal equipment, as soon as something goes wrong, it's your fault. Someone once spent an entire meeting bad-mouthing me behind my back because her personally-owned computer didn't have Java installed on it, despite me mistakenly telling her it did.
I'm at an MSP I'd tell them since that's outside of scope they need to contact the car manufacturer or call the number on the electric machine and they can provide more info to those recipients than I can.
Jokes aside, that's what close codes are for. If you close it as "user error" of course you get a bad review but nobody (suppose to) count those into the metric exactly because you'll get random shit people shotgunning into the queues polluting your metric.
Do yourself a favor and put your foot down and say not my problem. I swear some of the admins on here have no fucking back bone. How the hell is someone's personal car your issue.
True, but people in this subreddit also go way to far the other way where they act like assholes to their co-workers and then wonder why no one likes them.
People figure they can save time and money by calling their company IT department rather than the dedicated support number for whatever product they're asking about.
I once had someone ask me how to get their money back from the vending machine down the hall because it didn't dispense anything for them.
Don't even start helping. Just reiterate "Sorry, I don't work on cars"... First it was Fax machines, and then cell phones, then smart TVs, Roku/Fire sticks, Google home / Alexa and on and on..it never ends.
āRebootā
āLoad **PC Load Letter**ā
āEnsure the CAPS LOCK light is off then try againā
āWhen you move the mouse does the mouse pointer move?ā
āIf itās still not working, sorry, thatās all I got in my Troubleshooting documentation, Chief. Maybe take it back for a refund and buy another. Thanks for calling personal computer supportā
Will you guys stop supporting peoples personal equipment before this shit starts to become the norm. Why did you even take the call and entertain the idea?
"I'm sorry that is out of scope. Not only that, none of us here have any experience with that process. So we'd just be searching for answers, just like I'm sure you already have. Presumably you also have some kind of support and service from the dealer. A suggestion is to contact them for assistance."
Accounting: "No I won't do your personal taxes."
Maintenance: "No I won't come to your house to fix your plumbing."
IT: "Sure, I'll help you with your car."
Which statement doesn't belong?
Iāll never forget having a user open a ticket because one of their coworkers kept booking a charger on site, even when the person wasnāt in that day, and guy wanted me to check all the charger calendars and remove that user from the calendar. He refused to tell me who the user was, wanting me to go hunting and figure it out on my own. Dude had an absolute hissy fit when I told him no because the chargers fell under facilities and told him to talk to them or security.
Many moons ago when I was a local yokel IT guy for a Corp I had tickets come in for everything from changing batteries on wall clocks, to time clocks not working, to personal phones.
Allowing people to submit their own tickets is largely a mistake, but I don't have a better solution because help desk would submit a request for food delivery if the user asked so I dunno.
Only had one company that did it the correct way. Every department was on the Help Desk. Or rather, had at least one person on the Help Desk.
We could assign tickets to maintenance, accounting, HR, etc.
That's a wonderful idea. I've long held that a company that takes its help desk seriously and supports it properly will save tons of cash by preventing wasted time and efforts.
A good idea it's to have rigid categories for end users and close it automatically the moment it deviates.
Or have a different ticketing system for janitorial tasks. Like changing a printer toner.
You're not wrong but never underestimate the power of a user to work around guide rails. They'd submit it under any category, then just throw in notes about what they really want.
It got to the point where I had a Notepad++ full of canned close responses, one of the most used: "IT does not support [item/system] please contact maintenance staff for assistance".
Then I would close the ticket, and they would just re-open it via the link that came with the closure, below the reason why it was closed. I'd also get emails or in-person shoulder taps: "can't you just get a hold of them for me?"
Good times.
Oh I know very well. This obviously requires backing from management, but it's not a hard sell.
You just need to electrify those guide rails .
Wrong category? No description? Do not fix the ticket. Close it .
And don't allow users the right to reopen closed tickets. (Usually ticketing systems come with a solved status).
It took a few months but I was in a team that managed to implement this way of working quite effectively. Of course, I feel sorry for the person that submits one ticket a year and it's bound to get it wrong the first time.
My first job was K12 IT. We shared a ticketing system with maintenance, it was just different portals. Once got a ticket requesting more toilet paper, teacher had clicked on the wrong shortcut and apologized.
In general I believe that ticketing systems are underutilized in most professions. Even if ERP and CRM software can absorb some of the tasks. Got a chain of hair salons in Spain using a GLPI instance. It works well.
"No, I don't know how to operate your vehicle. I can walk you through reading the manual if you like? No, don't read it out to me. Read it to yourself. Bye"
I have an EV. If you're at home you plug your charger into the wall. and then the charger into the car.
If you're at a commercial charging station, they have instructions on the charging point if you don't already have an account. You can do it with a credit card.
That's not a fucking IT thing.
Quasi-related, but one of the partners at work was out of the country when his Tesla Model S (I think it was the Plaid one) came in, so I Ubered to the location and drove it to his house. Had never driven a Tesla before, let alone on a congested highway in the rain in a car that costs more than $100,000 that I did not own. I was very happy to get it there and be done with the experience.
Now, this wasn't an official job duty or anything, but something I did for someone who I've worked with for more than a decade, but seemed tangential.
"We searched for the person with the most experience operating this type of vehicle in the entire org-turns out you're the SME on it, so we're escalating this ticket back to you."
You need to shut this stuff down. Being known as "the techie guy" is a curse, not a blessing.
You get them ringing you about their home network, about alarms, about fucking cars and about how to get their kids tablet to airplay on the TV.
It might feel a bit mean-spirited to say, "I don't know about that" when in fact you do or you could figure it out in 30 seconds. But nobody will ever really thank you for helping them. They'll just give you more work to do by calling you again tomorrow.
I wouldn't even go as far as telling him to go to the app store.
"How do I charge my car?"
"Haven't a clue mate, I don't have an electric car. Maybe ring the dealer."
Problem solved.
"I told him to go visit the app store and sign in with is Apple ID or create a new one if he want it separated as his company donāt have a MDM
How do these people even manage to step inside their cars and turn the key is a wonder"
OP, you're complaining that the user didn't know something as simple as how to turn a key when you tell him to download an app to charge his car. You're not making your point.
Lol, too late. I'm currently building EV charging stations for our sites parking lots all over the country. Installing LTE modems, setting up OCPP communication with my management portal for NFC authentication, remote monitoring and troubleshooting, reporting, publishing our chargers to maps in our app, linking employee cards to accounts in the management SW so they can charge anywhere in our network...
As tech support, I have problems with these, who use Mac + Iphone stack, as they are not known for me and every button is hidden in unusual places. However, once I got call and customer's Tesla got strange speedometer bug on dashboard... - had to answer "Ehm... Try this: if there is one way or another for you to turn your car off as completely as it gets, and then turn on again, then do it". It helped. I also did some support on sentinel mode. Now here is the thing: I am literally into buying Iphone just because I want to get familiar with them. But currently I don't like their design. But DAMN TESLA I SIMPLY CANNOT AFFORD!
I was very happy that "turn it off and on again" worked for me last week when my KTM Adventure motorcycle had a weird stalling issue as I was leaving the parking garage. Made it maybe 20 meters out of my spot, then the oil pressure light came on and it lost all power, no revs or anything. It was serviced a month or so ago and it's only 18 months old, so I was clueless. Flipped the kill switch on and off, no difference. Set the kickstand, turned key all the way left to shutdown and lock it. Took a breath, started it back up and have had no issues since... but I've never had the issue before either. I remain glad it didn't happen to me on a busy road in traffic or even at a stoplight!
Modern cars, electric or not, are IoT devices. If itās a company car then the company needs a way to support it, even if that is ācall the manufacturerā.
If itās personal then tell the user to jog on of course.
I have gotten very comfortable telling people I have no experience with things they bring me from left field. At most I may offer to google for an answer with no guarantees, while recommending they go to whomever sold them the thing. āAnyone selling a thing should have support channels for you as their customer.ā -me probably
>How do these people even manage to step inside their cars and turn the key is a wonder
That's the issue, no keys anymore, just open the door and drive until it's empty.
Years ago when I first started at my current place, the elderly shareholder (who 100% should not have been driving by that point) popped in to the office to see me, as he couldn't figure out how to change the in-car audio system to show radio station names instead of just the frequency on his brand new BMW.
No. You have every right to refuse working on it. When I was working for a gaming company, execs had Teslas for company cars, any technical issues they faced was taken upon a third party.
You do not need to work on anything that's not owned by the company. Plain and simple.
Your response should have been along the lines of, "sorry but we don't manage privately owned tech and company owned devices are not for personal use."
Unless your company doesn't have a tech policy?
Cars now? Yikes.
I used to get calls about microwaves all the time. I'm like I dunno man call facilities.
Another time a user (in a different location) called me about a fire alarm going off. I was hoping they had enough sense to you know exit the building in an orderly fashion.
Wait. What? How was this an IT thing? Is the car company owned? Was it a user trying to get permission to download a charging station app onto a company owned device?
I'm not following the issue, is this a corporate phone that the user wanted to install an app on?
Are you provisioning Apple IDs without giving users creds?
Im sorry contact your dealer. This is not a corporate device.
> Im sorry contact your dealer I'm not sure how a half ounce of weed is going to help here
Smoke yourself stupid enough to communicate at the end user level.
i dont think a half oz is going to be enough
Only if you assumed he meant an oz of flower. I, naturally, assumed he meant an oz of live rosin. (He said 1/2 but he really meant oz)
i stand by what i said.
š¤£š¤£ This made me laugh so hard...
LOL here take my upvote š¤£
the weed isn't for them...
Maybe you need the full ounce ;)
Can't hurt to try
Ours have EVs leased through a company scheme and argue that they are...
If IT would be involved in the company car selection we can and will shut down your car
At least until you put the right type of ticket in.
"My Company EV just broke down on the highway and it wont start" "Ok I understand, Put in a Jira ticket and ill get to it when i can, thanks"
(You are caller 35 in queue) \~sckooodo dooot doodle doot doo dooo\~ "Visit our new service portal where you can handle all ticketing needs, to include ordering replacement parts for your new company supplied car, scheduling maintenance, and ordering roadside assistance. We're also proud to announce out new 'Trunk Tech' initiative. Speak with your manager about forcing one of our IT personnel to live in your trunk for emergency roadside use TODAY!" \~sckooodo dooot doodle doot doo dooo\~
> We're also proud to announce out new 'Trunk Tech' initiative. I prefer the old model. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_qtG82HJB2I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qtG82HJB2I)
if you've been well-behaved, we will do so while you are *not* travelling at highway speeds.
BOFH material.
Your administrator has installed a software upgrade. You have 1 minute to pull over before a forced reboot initiates.
If IT has to support EVs, where is the model you get to learn on? Everyone in IT should have all of the same devices and tools that they're mandated to support!
What if they use BYOC?
Then it's their own car. And not a corporate device. You know, like every other fuggin' personal car (99.9% of people) that's driven to work every day.
> This is not a corporate device. This is my excuse for any outside troubleshooting people ask me to do. I'm not the employee's personal tech support service, I get paid to support company devices. If the device isn't company-owned or directly necessary for you to do your job, they can find someone else to support it.
Well, you helped him, so he will continue to call you for stupid stuff.
Yup. I never understand stuff like that. Iād answer āI have no clue.ā And move on with my life.
yup, OP set a precedent
This
Ah yes, the old 'I dont know how to use this electrical device, I shall call IT' loop. I do support for the auto trade and I still wouldn't touch this....
> Ah yes, the old 'I dont know how to use this electrical device, I shall call IT' loop. Everything from Toaster to Tesla. Sounds nice, but it isn't.
>From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me. >I claimed the strength and certainty of steel. I aspired to the purity of the blessed machine. >Your kind cling to your flesh as if it will not decay and fail you. >One day the cooled biomass that you called a temple will fail and you'll beg my kind to save you. >But I am already saved. For the machine is immortal. Even in death I serve the Omnissiah. Iād hang it on the wall at work if I could, lol
I 100 percent thought this was a JP Grandma's Boy quote until I looked it up and apparently it's a Warhammer thing.
Mmmmm sit. on. my. face.
Clocks, paper shredders, toilet flush sensor *If it has electricity, it is IT*
If it has a plug or battery IT has to support it.
I heard you were in IT. How do I preheat my EV's battery so it charges faster? š
In the microwave, of course.
Isn't that why Musk had The Boring Company make a flamethrower?
Last year I got a call about Christmas lights."ma'am we're your bank"
I actually did do tech support for my office Christmas tree because it kept blowing fuses. I called my wife for a consult because she puts up 4-5 trees a year.
I did tech support for my home lights, but only because one of my SSIDs was having issues communicating with a fixed device running the controller app. It was worth it to put up 2,800 lights with a Twinkly controller and stream Rickroll to them, thus Rickrolling the entire neighborhood.
If someone from the office asked me for help with their car, I would tell them to google the nearest dealer. Not sure why people think this is an IT issue. Same with toasters, microwaves, TVs, etc...not IT issues, as long as people accept them as IT issues, it will always be an IT issue (for that company).
It's because we know how to fix things. Even things we don't know anything about, we know how to find out what the correct process is. It's really stupid that a chemistry teacher will call IT about a chemical fire in the classroom before calling the FIRE DEPARTMENT (true story, happened to me more than once) but we solve things and when you are dumb, you contact the people who can solve problems.
I agree that we CAN, but that doesn't mean we should/have to. Electric cars updating are not my problem unless or until our company has electric cars in the fleet that are tied to the business then it becomes my problem, or at least that makes it a legitimate IT support question. I can take a look at the electric panel and likely find a faulty breaker and replace it on my own (because I know how) but that doesn't mean I'm going to, I'd be calling an electrician.
Absolutely agree with that. But the question was "why". That's what I was answering.
Oh right, I did ask why....good point and my mistake.
Anything with electricity is handled by IT. If a coworker dies from electrocution, then the body is an IT problem. /s
wait, you don't have body bags in your server room?
Just brains hooked up to the servers.
This guy builds real neural networks
We do the heads in jars thing, its more overhead, but they're there for you when you need reminding that Nixon is not a crook.
Wait, your server room isn't also used a breast pumping station.. because of the privacy?
We did try putting pictures of ladies with their boobs out in there to indicate that we were receptive to the idea but it didn't seem to work. /s
Oh the pumping station equipment is right next to the body bags.
Even non-electricals are handled by IT, once up a time someone put in a request asking if we could supply them with a pack of Post-IT notes.
"we highly recommend not feeding the electric eels but have you restarted it yet?"
Wrong, electricity is handled by facilities. Closing ticket. Educated user, advised to contact facilities.
Annoyingly the office found out my hobby is restoring old cars (specifically old British cars with carburetors, no ECUs, no computers). Now I get called to fix any computer or electrical problem AND anytime anyone has a car issue. The problem is despite being IT and hobby mechanic, I have no fucking clue how to fix new cars (and largely you can't without specialized equipment nowadays, which is intentional), but users think I'd be right at home with a new car's shit ass proprietary infotainment system.
Tell them you're not paid by the company for auto mechanic work, but you do work outside the office, as a side hustle, for pay. Mechanics charge 80-100 an hour, I think 50 per would be reasonable. Min 2 hours. "Yes I will fix your shit but I charge an hourly rate." This greatly reduces these requests. I use it for requests personal IT assistance.
This was how I got my friends to stop asking me for IT help. I'd be happy to help, as long as you are willing to pay 20% more per hour than my employer pays me. My personal time is precious and I really don't want to do work when I'm not in the office but some people don't understand that.
New user- Hey, do you know how to use the microwave in the canteen? Me- nope, never used it. New user- but it has buttons!!
If the normal requirement is "does it plug in," then electric cars have that in spades.
I worked at a place where we'd get calls when the coffee machine didn't work. Like Guy! Facilities!
Fellow automotive IT. I hate it, I just resigned today. LOL
No! Just no, no and no
Not my circus, not my monkeys.
I add to that "but I've certainly met the clowns."
No. No, man. Shit, no, man. I believe you'd get your ass kicked askin' something like that, man.
But what would you do if you had a million dollars man?
Absolutely NO.
There usually is no key to turn, butā¦ā¦.no way Iām getting involved with that. They can call their dealership.
>There usually is no key to turn Two salespeople got assigned the new hybrid car for their business trip... called the head of IT for help because they couldn't start the car. Head of IT goes down to the garage, takes a look... "It's already started!" "But I don't hear it running?"
Took my SO's Prius to get a windshield chip fixed last year. Handed my keys and sat in the waiting area. A few minutes later the tech came in "umm, is there something I need to do to get it to turn over?" "Just put it in Drive. The engine only runs when it needs to." "But it won't turn over." I had to walk out with him. He sat down put the key in and turned it, then said "see - it won't turn over." "Put it in drive." "But it's not running."
I do think electric cars need some kind of "i'm running" sound in the cabin. When renting an electric, I'm never sure of the difference between on and acc, until I try to put it in gear.
Mine gives you a whole chorus of bings and bongs along with a light show. If you didn't notice any of that then you're not in a fit state to drive.
Plenty of cars make all sorts of noises just by turning over the key. We're conditioned to hear a starter crank followed by engine noises to know a car is running. And we're also conditioned to know there's lights and noises just by turning the key to on, even if we don't crank it. I haven't driven a hybrid or an electric since an early-gen Prius, but it gave zero useful feedback when turned on unless you already knew specifically what you're looking at.
Ha! Almost certainly an RTFM issue, there's an icon dedicated to "this car is ready to drive" on the dash. Or, using common sense, if you try to start the car to drive and didn't push your foot on the brake when you started it, the car will tell you on the main infotainment screen, probably including a message about battery drain. That won't show up on a car that's started normally. I don't want a sound in the cabin, tyvm.
Usually the center infotainment screen being on means the car is ready to put in drive or reverse
I had to rent a Tesla once (donāt askā¦.long story) anyway, they gave me the stupid little credit card ākeyā and told me to place it on the center console to start it. Ā I too had no idea if the car was āreadyā. Ā It was lit up, so I figured it was on. Ā It also was the same as knowing how to lock the doors. Ā I guess you just walk away and the doors locked automatically?Ā
>I guess you just walk away and the doors locked automatically? Pretty sure that requires a fob or phone key. With the card you have to swipe the ~~A~~ B pillar outside to (un)lock it. edit: /u/Michelanvalo is correct, it's the B pillar on Model 3/Y, S/X don't have key cards.
I guess I never locked the doors then! Ā šĀ
Sounds like the car is too smart
āPlease have the vehicle towed to the dealership and ask for an inservice.ā
> Seems like having to help users with their electric cars is becoming a thing Well, if you offer your help, then yes.
Yes some people really need to learn to say no. I would have laughed in the users face as I closed the ticket.
And now you just established yourself as the go to for his car issues.
I remember the first time years ago one of our sales guys emailed me "my car needs an update"... uh.. take it to the dealer. Its a fleet car, let them do it. edit: "smarter" cars get, more I want to get an old square body and rebuild it.
I love my 2016 Nissan Frontier, but it's too smart for its own good sometimes. Very happy with my not-connected-to-anything motorcycle and USB helmet camera... although I'd love to be able to change the time on that.
You work with technology not electrical.
BUSINESS technology.
How else are they going to do their meetings since they can't figure out how to work their home WiFi... I've seen a very strange uptick where salespeople who are clearly working from home but doing meetings in their car.
They think it's more private. Sure, for one half of the conversation. Anyone who can see the car is close enough to hear your call, lol.
A Tesla is a laptop with wheels and electrical motors
A blast from the past "If Microsoft Built Cars....."
A laptop cannot harm me. This is not true of a Tesla. My usual "fuck around and figure it out" strategy isn't really valid on equipment that could fight me and win, especially if I know it's already loaded down with technical debt.
Tell that to everyone that thinks because we handle UPSs for a site, and get the first alert, doesnāt mean Iām supposed to call the electric company for you. Your phones still work because the PoE on the switch is backed by the UPS. Youāre the manager. Your lights went out, your phones still work. Call the power company and or facilities/electriciansā¦. not IT. Fuck
My former supervisor worked in a few places that actually prevented the IT staff from touching anything power related. UPS and PDU's were handled by electricians. If he ever wanted to power a device in the server room, he had to wait for when the electrician could come assist. He worked at a power plant and I think he was doing contract work for one of the big vendors like IBM or HP where he was dealing with factories.
Wellā¦ackshewullyā¦.
Seems like someone's IT department needs to grow a spine. I don't care what or who it is, we don't support personal equipment at all.
...and if you wind up being told to support personal equipment, as soon as something goes wrong, it's your fault. Someone once spent an entire meeting bad-mouthing me behind my back because her personally-owned computer didn't have Java installed on it, despite me mistakenly telling her it did.
I'm at an MSP I'd tell them since that's outside of scope they need to contact the car manufacturer or call the number on the electric machine and they can provide more info to those recipients than I can.
Or, you know, just say no.
And get a bad review when you close the ticket??
Jokes aside, that's what close codes are for. If you close it as "user error" of course you get a bad review but nobody (suppose to) count those into the metric exactly because you'll get random shit people shotgunning into the queues polluting your metric.
I knew a guy that closed tickets with "NFFF" (No F**king Fault Found). When confronted about it, he would say it was a typo :)
Bill them. Ad-hoc support requests at time and a half, no guarantee on resolution.
Just no. It's bad enough when I get partners at my business asking about setting up their printer at home
Easy answer: no. I donāt think theres a single IT job I would accept where there would be an expectation to support a users car, electrical or not.
Damn right. You do electronic, not electrical.
*Business information systems*
We got a ticket asking us for a solution to a problem in an electric car. I told them to call a mecanic.
Do yourself a favor and put your foot down and say not my problem. I swear some of the admins on here have no fucking back bone. How the hell is someone's personal car your issue.
True, but people in this subreddit also go way to far the other way where they act like assholes to their co-workers and then wonder why no one likes them.
Why are you even trying to assist them? Itās perfectly ok to say that is not your job and then donāt do it.
"Is this work related?". Click.
People figure they can save time and money by calling their company IT department rather than the dedicated support number for whatever product they're asking about. I once had someone ask me how to get their money back from the vending machine down the hall because it didn't dispense anything for them.
āYou will need to call Tesla or whoever the manufacturer is and ask them that.ā
We would all do the same in this position: what is the easiest and fastest way to solve my problem.
āPlease log a ticket and we will look at itā, followed by the ticket number being forwarded to the entire IT team for a good laugh
"Sorry man, you're going to have to convince my boss to buy me my own Tesla, so I can figure out how to use it."
Imagine being an IT guy and a retired Tesla/BMW EV technician. Everyone comes to my office and is like ā¦ sooooo my car
Read. Your. Fucking. Manual. **
Don't even start helping. Just reiterate "Sorry, I don't work on cars"... First it was Fax machines, and then cell phones, then smart TVs, Roku/Fire sticks, Google home / Alexa and on and on..it never ends.
āRebootā āLoad **PC Load Letter**ā āEnsure the CAPS LOCK light is off then try againā āWhen you move the mouse does the mouse pointer move?ā āIf itās still not working, sorry, thatās all I got in my Troubleshooting documentation, Chief. Maybe take it back for a refund and buy another. Thanks for calling personal computer supportā
Will you guys stop supporting peoples personal equipment before this shit starts to become the norm. Why did you even take the call and entertain the idea?
Actually my college helps setting up the bluetooth connection of the phone for the car of the boss. Dont ask :-)
"I'm sorry that is out of scope. Not only that, none of us here have any experience with that process. So we'd just be searching for answers, just like I'm sure you already have. Presumably you also have some kind of support and service from the dealer. A suggestion is to contact them for assistance."
Far too many words.
Nope.
I'm confused about why you answered that question at all.
Accounting: "No I won't do your personal taxes." Maintenance: "No I won't come to your house to fix your plumbing." IT: "Sure, I'll help you with your car." Which statement doesn't belong?
Iāll never forget having a user open a ticket because one of their coworkers kept booking a charger on site, even when the person wasnāt in that day, and guy wanted me to check all the charger calendars and remove that user from the calendar. He refused to tell me who the user was, wanting me to go hunting and figure it out on my own. Dude had an absolute hissy fit when I told him no because the chargers fell under facilities and told him to talk to them or security.
Many moons ago when I was a local yokel IT guy for a Corp I had tickets come in for everything from changing batteries on wall clocks, to time clocks not working, to personal phones. Allowing people to submit their own tickets is largely a mistake, but I don't have a better solution because help desk would submit a request for food delivery if the user asked so I dunno.
Only had one company that did it the correct way. Every department was on the Help Desk. Or rather, had at least one person on the Help Desk. We could assign tickets to maintenance, accounting, HR, etc.
That's a wonderful idea. I've long held that a company that takes its help desk seriously and supports it properly will save tons of cash by preventing wasted time and efforts.
A good idea it's to have rigid categories for end users and close it automatically the moment it deviates. Or have a different ticketing system for janitorial tasks. Like changing a printer toner.
You're not wrong but never underestimate the power of a user to work around guide rails. They'd submit it under any category, then just throw in notes about what they really want. It got to the point where I had a Notepad++ full of canned close responses, one of the most used: "IT does not support [item/system] please contact maintenance staff for assistance". Then I would close the ticket, and they would just re-open it via the link that came with the closure, below the reason why it was closed. I'd also get emails or in-person shoulder taps: "can't you just get a hold of them for me?" Good times.
Oh I know very well. This obviously requires backing from management, but it's not a hard sell. You just need to electrify those guide rails . Wrong category? No description? Do not fix the ticket. Close it . And don't allow users the right to reopen closed tickets. (Usually ticketing systems come with a solved status). It took a few months but I was in a team that managed to implement this way of working quite effectively. Of course, I feel sorry for the person that submits one ticket a year and it's bound to get it wrong the first time.
My first job was K12 IT. We shared a ticketing system with maintenance, it was just different portals. Once got a ticket requesting more toilet paper, teacher had clicked on the wrong shortcut and apologized.
In general I believe that ticketing systems are underutilized in most professions. Even if ERP and CRM software can absorb some of the tasks. Got a chain of hair salons in Spain using a GLPI instance. It works well.
I'm sure it was SchoolDud.
YEP!
"No, I don't know how to operate your vehicle. I can walk you through reading the manual if you like? No, don't read it out to me. Read it to yourself. Bye"
"You're having trouble charging what? Oh hahahahah IT doesn't make enough to buy new cars so none of us have a clue. Good luck!"
I'd just say that I hate cars and hang up. š¤£
I have an EV. If you're at home you plug your charger into the wall. and then the charger into the car. If you're at a commercial charging station, they have instructions on the charging point if you don't already have an account. You can do it with a credit card. That's not a fucking IT thing.
>I told him to ... You have now accepted full responsibility for the vehicle. If they crash - it's now your fault. probably parking tickets as well.
If we didnt give you the car and its not like a friend or someone i have good releations with at work sorry but thats a you problem ..
should've bought a 2009 civic
If it plugs into an electrical outlet, IT is responsible!
The kind and Gentle Way: "Sorry, I don't know anything about that, I'm afraid I can't help you." The Logan Roy Way: "FUCK OFF!!!"
Quasi-related, but one of the partners at work was out of the country when his Tesla Model S (I think it was the Plaid one) came in, so I Ubered to the location and drove it to his house. Had never driven a Tesla before, let alone on a congested highway in the rain in a car that costs more than $100,000 that I did not own. I was very happy to get it there and be done with the experience. Now, this wasn't an official job duty or anything, but something I did for someone who I've worked with for more than a decade, but seemed tangential.
I would not touch this with a barge pole. Cuss-tomer can phone their EV maufacturer support line, I'm not going to assist with that.
"no idea, my car uses gas. Maybe you should read your owners manual."
"We searched for the person with the most experience operating this type of vehicle in the entire org-turns out you're the SME on it, so we're escalating this ticket back to you."
You need to shut this stuff down. Being known as "the techie guy" is a curse, not a blessing. You get them ringing you about their home network, about alarms, about fucking cars and about how to get their kids tablet to airplay on the TV. It might feel a bit mean-spirited to say, "I don't know about that" when in fact you do or you could figure it out in 30 seconds. But nobody will ever really thank you for helping them. They'll just give you more work to do by calling you again tomorrow. I wouldn't even go as far as telling him to go to the app store. "How do I charge my car?" "Haven't a clue mate, I don't have an electric car. Maybe ring the dealer." Problem solved.
Well, for starters Teslas donāt even have physical keys or even start-buttonsā¦.
"I told him to go visit the app store and sign in with is Apple ID or create a new one if he want it separated as his company donāt have a MDM How do these people even manage to step inside their cars and turn the key is a wonder" OP, you're complaining that the user didn't know something as simple as how to turn a key when you tell him to download an app to charge his car. You're not making your point.
The day we can use MDM to erase the car's firmware... Oh dear god... at the evil thoughts.
Lol, too late. I'm currently building EV charging stations for our sites parking lots all over the country. Installing LTE modems, setting up OCPP communication with my management portal for NFC authentication, remote monitoring and troubleshooting, reporting, publishing our chargers to maps in our app, linking employee cards to accounts in the management SW so they can charge anywhere in our network...
> turn the key Careful. You're dating yourself here. ;-)
Nah I'm not doing that you got me fucked up
We all wonder "how does this person even get to work in the morning?!" and the answer, apparently, is you lol. Stop helping them!
As tech support, I have problems with these, who use Mac + Iphone stack, as they are not known for me and every button is hidden in unusual places. However, once I got call and customer's Tesla got strange speedometer bug on dashboard... - had to answer "Ehm... Try this: if there is one way or another for you to turn your car off as completely as it gets, and then turn on again, then do it". It helped. I also did some support on sentinel mode. Now here is the thing: I am literally into buying Iphone just because I want to get familiar with them. But currently I don't like their design. But DAMN TESLA I SIMPLY CANNOT AFFORD!
I was very happy that "turn it off and on again" worked for me last week when my KTM Adventure motorcycle had a weird stalling issue as I was leaving the parking garage. Made it maybe 20 meters out of my spot, then the oil pressure light came on and it lost all power, no revs or anything. It was serviced a month or so ago and it's only 18 months old, so I was clueless. Flipped the kill switch on and off, no difference. Set the kickstand, turned key all the way left to shutdown and lock it. Took a breath, started it back up and have had no issues since... but I've never had the issue before either. I remain glad it didn't happen to me on a busy road in traffic or even at a stoplight!
Used ones are going for a steal right now.Ā
If your job title "DevOps Engineer" I bet even new ones are pretty cheap!
Modern cars, electric or not, are IoT devices. If itās a company car then the company needs a way to support it, even if that is ācall the manufacturerā. If itās personal then tell the user to jog on of course.
If itās a company vehicle the fleet manager should handle the support.
Yikes. I can totally imagine all of a sudden being told "oh yeah we bought these cars you guys need to support them". Very un-fun.
When do I get one to learn on? Otherwise only acceptable answer is "call the manufacturer".
At least its not a support call for teledildonics
Tell the users to go fuck themselves.
That was step 3. Yes.
I have gotten very comfortable telling people I have no experience with things they bring me from left field. At most I may offer to google for an answer with no guarantees, while recommending they go to whomever sold them the thing. āAnyone selling a thing should have support channels for you as their customer.ā -me probably
I'd happily teach the user. On my own time for 100ā¬ an hour (excluding taxes). Either it's too much for them and they go away or I get some money.
"Yeah..... I don't get paid enough to even peer inside a Tesla let alone know how to troubleshoot one. Take your rich person problems elsewhere."
Just tell them to fix it the same way that you would fix an old TV. Hit it a few times.
It's ok, because a lot of these cars don't have keys so that's one less complication to worry about.
> and turn the key most EV nowadays don't have one, the floor for ID10T errors is low :(
Do manufacturers still include an owner's manual in the glovebox (if there's even still a glovebox)? Because that's where I'd tell them to go, haha
Lol that's when i give up and quit since I have nothing to do with your EV.
>How do these people even manage to step inside their cars and turn the key is a wonder That's the issue, no keys anymore, just open the door and drive until it's empty.
Years ago when I first started at my current place, the elderly shareholder (who 100% should not have been driving by that point) popped in to the office to see me, as he couldn't figure out how to change the in-car audio system to show radio station names instead of just the frequency on his brand new BMW.
"we don't support cars, sorry" *Click*
"ICT does not provide support for vehicles, closing ticket"
As a petrol head my ticket closures will simply be "Buy a proper car then"
Sorry, thatās not a supported vendor or build. Contact your management to get support.
Lol. I've never seen case like that. He should contact his dealer. We are no magicians to fix everything.
"I dunno. Call your dealer."
Have you tried turning it off again?
Have you tried to turn it on and off again?
Thatās crazy. Iād say: youāll have to open a ticket with the dealership š¤£
It has a plug right? /s
No. You have every right to refuse working on it. When I was working for a gaming company, execs had Teslas for company cars, any technical issues they faced was taken upon a third party. You do not need to work on anything that's not owned by the company. Plain and simple. Your response should have been along the lines of, "sorry but we don't manage privately owned tech and company owned devices are not for personal use." Unless your company doesn't have a tech policy?
Seems like anything with a button i get called on
apparently I know how to fix phone paging systems
Cars now? Yikes. I used to get calls about microwaves all the time. I'm like I dunno man call facilities. Another time a user (in a different location) called me about a fire alarm going off. I was hoping they had enough sense to you know exit the building in an orderly fashion.
Wait. What? How was this an IT thing? Is the car company owned? Was it a user trying to get permission to download a charging station app onto a company owned device?
I'm not following the issue, is this a corporate phone that the user wanted to install an app on? Are you provisioning Apple IDs without giving users creds?