[tical00]

What type of problems do you get hit with when working at a helpdesk?
Also, for computer repair what are the main problems people ask you to fix? Just wanted to know so I can always be prepared!
Thanks alot guys!

[DoubleHelix]

The answer varies depending on your customer base. Are we talking about a large corporation? A small business? A repair shop?

[tical00]

Like basic computer repair shop, sorry about not specifying in the OP.

[daniel_b2380]

tical,
if you're not to busy, check this out

What's it like to be a sysadmin?
http://forums.techguy.org/6806859-post2.html
courtesy: 1002richards
14-Jul-2009, 01:11 AM #2

and click his link - you'll enjoy it

[daniel_b2380]

tical,
working a help-desk is usually not what most people think of it as
not trying to be toooo hard on help-desk personnel - but the 'idiot' on the phone when you call tech support is many times NOT as knowledgable as it seems they are - for the most part, when someone calls in - all they do is type in some 'keyword' to their database and then read the answer to you

example:
try this, start > help > click 'index' tab > type: network > click 'display' > read answer
in this case 'network' is a 'keyword'
if you noticed other words there, well, were you listening to the problem the caller was explaining to you? if so, then you can see some more words there, right? well click on them, then click display

that is about what you get from most help-desks when you call - not ALL of them are that bad, but for the most part, that's average......
didn't you ever wonder why sometimes the answer just didn't quite seem to fit the question you asked?

reckon that's why techguy.org has as many members as it does?

[Ironwood]

I can't speak for large Help Desk's like Dell or HP etc as I work the Help Desk for a company with 100 people. You will get questions anywhere from how do I print to how do I build an access database. Many times I cannot give the user an answer right away as i have to look it up. I don't use all the software that they use and I do anything from setting up computers for new users to a little bit of networking. Sometimes I get user's that just can't understand what I am explaining no matter how simple I make it.

I once had a user (in the days of CRT's) that asked me for a light bulb. I told her to call Facilities Management and she said "but it's for my monitor, it's getting dim". I told her I would replace the monitor and she could not understand why I would do this. She did not believe me when i told her there was not a light bulb in her monitor. Funny thing is she is working on her Phd. This is just one instance of a problem user not understanding, this is not the norm.

I also find that in a small company people are afraid they may get into trouble for screwing up their computer. I don't report my user's, I just want to know if what they were doing when the problem occured. That way I can fix it quickly as possible. I find having a good relationship with my users help's as they are more likely to listen to you.

I find most of my user's understand what I explain to them and if they are not sure I will walk them through it and they have no problems.

Just remember, if you are going to work help desk be patient with the users and try to understand where they are coming from. Also educate them with the info that they need to provide. Many times they do not provide any info other than my computer is not working. For instance I teach my users to provide as much info as possible. Write down the error message or do a screen capture, etc.

[DoubleHelix]

The title of your thread says "help desk", but your post says a small computer shop. They're not at all the same job. People are replying to the thread title, not your clarification.

Is this part of a career-related assignment for school? Or are you looking for a job?

[ozziebeanie]

Originally Posted by tical00

What type of problems do you get hit with when working at a helpdesk?
Also, for computer repair what are the main problems people ask you to fix? Just wanted to know so I can always be prepared!
Thanks alot guys!

Experences -
As to experiences, the first one that made me to a double take was in my last position where I had only been there three months and my boss decides to take three weeks off.

The first day I get a phone call, answered the phone (IT department and introduced myself) – and the only words that where said was – I can’t scan me cattle. (their words) No hello, no name, no department, just – I can not scan my cattle.

As you can imagine at first I thought this guy had got the wrong number, I was thinking what the ????- till I remembered that in my first week my boss had taken me to all the places where we provide tech support, one of those places being a Sales Yard for cattle.

It took me all of a few seconds to remember this and had to ask (just to be sure) that is was in fact the Sales Yard.

Of course as it happened they had turned the power off during a storm unplugged the UPS and had left their computer running from the UPS and where now wondering why it did not work.

Needless to say I went out there and sorted it for them.

Another time when we where out there, we upgraded their computer and had to make sure that all the weighing equipment connected to the computer and also the tag scanner (tag on cattle ears) where working with the new computer, (boss had returned at this stage).

And I laughed and said to the Sales yard boss you will have to put a tag on your ear so we can test to see if it’s all working, he said you are not far wrong.

Next thing I found myself holding a tag in the air (I am a bit on the short side) running through the yard through this machine to make sure it was working (thinking - I don’t think I read this in my job description)

As some of the others say it depends on your clients as to what it will be like and you have said that it will be a shop where I am guessing most will bring the computer to you, or if you offer contracts for tech support for fees then you will be either taking the phone or going out to places depending on the services you are offering.

Most of the time apart from the times we had to replace equipment or parts it was people wanting to know how to do something in a program and some here are right you don’t always use regularly the programs your clients will be using so you have to look it up, if you don’t know, as most will go on to other things till you can come along and give them the answers they need.

Where I was because we also oversaw other remote areas we had to make sure those that where not near where we where based where a little more educated computer wise and also in replacing consumables, and of course they had the phone to reach us we also on remote visits had to take extra stock out as we where not able to get there daily and sometimes not for a while because of floods.

It all boils down to your location, how fast you can get goods or parts in, (a couple of computer shops missed out on a lot of dollars because we never heard back from them or they took a month to get something because their customer service was bad they never got any more business.) - ( We where remote.)

Because of that, one business that treated us well ended up getting just over a third of our budget because they where really good at getting what we wanted and keeping good stocks there all the time which was over 100,000.00 for that year out budget was over 300,000.00 because of amalgamation, and that was a small computer shop business, running it from their home and had a work shop/store off the side. They knew was customer service was all about.

Treat your customers right and you will gain a good reputation and the good word gets about and you then will start building a business