User: I’m not able to log into myspace.
Me: That’s unfortunate. Contact myspace support.
User: Isn’t this *company* IT?
Me: Yes, but we don’t support Myspace.
User: It’s the employee portal, who do we contact?
Me: Oh, you mean “Employee Space”.
User: Yes. It’s not working.
Me: Okay, is the site down?
User: No but I can’t log in.
Me: What do you see?
User: It’s not working.
Me: That doesn’t tell me much… are you at the log in screen now?
User: It’s not working. I don’t know what to tell you.
Me: You can start by telling me what the error is when you try and log in.
User: Something about IT.
Me: Look… I can’t see your screen and I’m not a mind reader. You need to read me the exact error.
User: There is no error.
Me: Then what do you see?
User: It just says it’s not working.
Me: No, it really doesn’t… So are you able to log into the computer?
User: No.
Me: Who’s logged into the computer? If you’re at the employee login, someone has to be logged in.
User: I don’t know it’s not working.
Me: I want you to type your user name and password and press enter and then tell me exactly what you see.
User: I can’t.
Me: Why not?
User: Because I’m not at work anymore.
Me: Then why did you call me if you’re not able to troubleshoot your login problem?
User: Because it’s not working.
Me: And how would you like to fix that while on your commute home?
User: Well…
Me: Well???
User: I just thought you’d know what was going on.
Me: I do… You’re calling IT for a problem you can’t describe, hoping for a solution you can’t test.
*This is not my story but from another help desk*
