A less than spectacular helpdesk experience
At work, we are instructed, clearly instructed, to use the 'IThelp' email address to ask for any help from our IT department. Having spent plenty of time on the receiving side of these kinds of emails, I understand how useful it is to have a ticket intake system be the recipient of such emails, instead of having your personal inbox fill up with requests. I expect, though, that the system doing the intake will be backed up by sufficient processes to make the experience worthwhile.
I also expect that along with a notice of "we heard you", I would get a "and we took care of it" when it was done. About 3 weeks after I asked for the two user IDs to be created, I was working on a user auth part of our apps, and noticed that they existed in the company name space, where before they had not.
So I looked for a gentle poke into the system, to see if anyone was alive in there. I set about replying to one of their links (provided to me in an email from the ticket intake system) that implies that you'll get updated status on all your open tickets.
This is a sad response to see from their system:
---
Status not available for unknown user (Pat Cain)
---
when I have that name and user ID all over the place in the systems that matter (such as payroll, employee directory, etc.).
For the curious, yes, I am still employed here.
-----Original Message-----
From: Pat Cain
Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 5:16 PM
To: IT Help
Subject: New user, new group
Hi, IT Help People,
How would I go about getting 2 new users and 2 new groups added to the Company name space? I don't actually want them *used* anywhere but on the servers I'm building in the lab, but I want to be certain that they have no privilieges outside of the group of machines I'm putting together.
Can I reserve a pair of group ID numbers and User ID numbers?
Here's what I was thinking of using in the isolation chamber, if we couldn't get any official word on it:
User Name User ID number Group ID number
le_dev 1001 501
le_test 1002 502
Group Name Group ID number
le_devg 501
le_testg 502
I've looked in the LE and IT name spaces, and find none of these ID numbers in use. May I use them without conflicting
with something in the IT name space?
Thanks,
pjc
###########################################
-----Original Message-----
From: IT Help
Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 5:17 PM
To: Pat Cain
Subject: Work Order 49677 RE: New user, new group
Your request has been logged and your assigned IT ticket number is #49677
The IT help queue is regularly monitored during regular business hours Monday through Friday. Your ticket will be assigned to an appropriate resource, and that person will respond to this request as soon as possible.
IT Staff Contact Information:
IT Help on call number 408-nxx-eeee
IT Operations Contacts:
Jerry xxxx 720-nxx-eeee
Eric xxxx 408-nxx-eeee
IT Application Contacts:
Manoj xxxx 408-nxx-eeee
Hetal xxxx 408-nxx-eeee
Facilities:
Jim xxxx (CA) 408-nxx-eeee
Al xxxx (CO) 720-nxx-eeee
----------------------------------------
Click on this link to submit additional information related to this workorder:
mailto:ithelp@pxxxdata.com?subject=Append:49677
Click on this link to request an updated status for this workorder:
mailto:ithelp@pxxxdata.com?subject=Status&body=49677
Click on this link to request an updated status for all of your recent workorders:
mailto:ithelp@pxxxdata.com?subject=AllStatus
###########################################
-----Original Message-----
From: Pat Cain
Sent: Wednesday, May 05, 2010 9:23 AM
To: IT Help
Subject: AllStatus
just checking to see if I have anything open that might need input from me ... I'm behind enough on my mail to have doubts about what I've missed.
pjc
###########################################
-----Original Message-----
From: IT Help
Sent: Wednesday, May 05, 2010 9:24 AM
To: Pat Cain
Subject: Workorder status for: Pat Cain
Status not available for unknown user (Pat Cain). Contact your Track-It! administrator for assistance.
----------------------------------------
Click on this link to request an updated status for all of your recent workorders:
mailto:ithelp@pxxxdata.com?subject=AllStatus
###########################################
I also expect that along with a notice of "we heard you", I would get a "and we took care of it" when it was done. About 3 weeks after I asked for the two user IDs to be created, I was working on a user auth part of our apps, and noticed that they existed in the company name space, where before they had not.
So I looked for a gentle poke into the system, to see if anyone was alive in there. I set about replying to one of their links (provided to me in an email from the ticket intake system) that implies that you'll get updated status on all your open tickets.
This is a sad response to see from their system:
---
Status not available for unknown user (Pat Cain)
---
when I have that name and user ID all over the place in the systems that matter (such as payroll, employee directory, etc.).
For the curious, yes, I am still employed here.
-----Original Message-----
From: Pat Cain
Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 5:16 PM
To: IT Help
Subject: New user, new group
Hi, IT Help People,
How would I go about getting 2 new users and 2 new groups added to the Company name space? I don't actually want them *used* anywhere but on the servers I'm building in the lab, but I want to be certain that they have no privilieges outside of the group of machines I'm putting together.
Can I reserve a pair of group ID numbers and User ID numbers?
Here's what I was thinking of using in the isolation chamber, if we couldn't get any official word on it:
User Name User ID number Group ID number
le_dev 1001 501
le_test 1002 502
Group Name Group ID number
le_devg 501
le_testg 502
I've looked in the LE and IT name spaces, and find none of these ID numbers in use. May I use them without conflicting
with something in the IT name space?
Thanks,
pjc
###########################################
-----Original Message-----
From: IT Help
Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 5:17 PM
To: Pat Cain
Subject: Work Order 49677 RE: New user, new group
Your request has been logged and your assigned IT ticket number is #49677
The IT help queue is regularly monitored during regular business hours Monday through Friday. Your ticket will be assigned to an appropriate resource, and that person will respond to this request as soon as possible.
IT Staff Contact Information:
IT Help on call number 408-nxx-eeee
IT Operations Contacts:
Jerry xxxx 720-nxx-eeee
Eric xxxx 408-nxx-eeee
IT Application Contacts:
Manoj xxxx 408-nxx-eeee
Hetal xxxx 408-nxx-eeee
Facilities:
Jim xxxx (CA) 408-nxx-eeee
Al xxxx (CO) 720-nxx-eeee
----------------------------------------
Click on this link to submit additional information related to this workorder:
mailto:ithelp@pxxxdata.com?subject=Append:49677
Click on this link to request an updated status for this workorder:
mailto:ithelp@pxxxdata.com?subject=Status&body=49677
Click on this link to request an updated status for all of your recent workorders:
mailto:ithelp@pxxxdata.com?subject=AllStatus
###########################################
-----Original Message-----
From: Pat Cain
Sent: Wednesday, May 05, 2010 9:23 AM
To: IT Help
Subject: AllStatus
just checking to see if I have anything open that might need input from me ... I'm behind enough on my mail to have doubts about what I've missed.
pjc
###########################################
-----Original Message-----
From: IT Help
Sent: Wednesday, May 05, 2010 9:24 AM
To: Pat Cain
Subject: Workorder status for: Pat Cain
Status not available for unknown user (Pat Cain). Contact your Track-It! administrator for assistance.
----------------------------------------
Click on this link to request an updated status for all of your recent workorders:
mailto:ithelp@pxxxdata.com?subject=AllStatus
###########################################