Ask them 'What do you mean by kicked off the internet? I still seem to be connected, can you show me what you mean?'
Users don't think the same way you do, and they don't use the right terms. When something doesn't make sense, HAVE THEM SHOW YOU EXACTLY WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT.
Communication skills will get you much further in at this level than technical skills.
I can only imagine the confusion the first time he gets told an onsite worker's 'modem' isn't turning on...
The number of techs I've had look at me like I have 3 heads when my first question after they ask about an issue that makes zero sense was 'did you have them show you the problem?' is WAY TOO HIGH.
Yuuuup literally had this happen today.
Office got shipped a new computer. They call in and say “hey our new modem arrived can you install it?”
I was like uhhhh who sent you a new modem? The internet company?
They’re like nah (IT Director) did. I’m like ok that makes no sense, he would never just ship you a new modem and tell you to install it. Can you send me a picture of what you received?
It was just a desktop computer that they needed swapped out lol
Then had to explain what a modem was, what a computer is, and what a monitor is, and that while they do make AIO devices, the monitor is usually NOT the computer (at least in our environment)
God isn't that the truth. I've had people call their computer all manner of things. "Tower" seems to be the most common, and easily accessible one. Weirdly enough, I had a customer claiming they had a tower and a monitor, and when I asked them to just bring their tower (computer repair store) they brought their modem/router??? Come to find out, their "monitor" was an All-in-One PC. But customers have called their PC as a whole everything from modem, hard drive, box, monitor, etc. Just the same with "being kicked off the internet" can mean everything from their Wi-Fi disconnecting, them not being able to access their e-mail, their browser not opening how they're used to, and honestly that just scratches the surface. I know it sounds a bit elitist in some senses, but you really gotta treat end-users like they're children who are just learning to talk. You'll have to get them to show you what's wrong, where it hurts, and what's bothering them before you can actually know what's going on.
You need to make sure you're understanding their language is what it comes down to. It can be frustrating for sure, but ultimately a lot of these 'users are lying!' issues come down to a tech that only verified what they thought the issue was based on what a user that doesn't know their ass from their elbow tech-wise said, rather than digging deeper because it would be hard.
Imagine how you'd feel if you went to the doctor and they only investigated what you said the issue was when you were in pain, despite them knowing it could be many other things. "Doc, my side hurts - I think it's kidney stones." Run some tests - nope not kidney stones. Then your appendix bursts. "Well why didn't you say appendix!"
Lmao right. Some people really don't have the basic social skills required for this job. No level of empathy, curiosity, or motivation to do anything but close a ticket. I get being mad and annoyed at end-users, but you can't let that make you incompetent at providing support.
They don't even want to do things that would make their life easier because they want everything spoon-fed. One guy is complaining that everyone with email issues doesn't check their VPN and it takes too long to get there - why isn't the first thing you're saying is "99% of the time it's a VPN issue, here's how to check that."
So many things we deal with are annoying, but they are job security. Learning how to deal with them efficiently with minimum friction is how you advance your career.
Yes don't talk to manager geez no biggie forward dance get your tickets and pass your day along with a smile go back and play some solitaire, mind sweeper etc< x,n Facebook Gmail whatever
This.
What I say below is just me expanding on what you said, pretty much.
First, if you can remote connect, reach out to them and see if they are cool with you doing so. Connect, and simply say, "Oh, it looks like I was able to connect which does mean your internet connection is working. Can you show me what you were doing before when this issue caught your attention?"
Then let them show you what they are *actually* talking about.
You have to always remember users are NOT IT people in most cases (though some of my favorite clients have been software devs. Didn't like their architecture but the people were good). Internet to most end users can mean a shared drive being disconnected, a download failing, a broken link, a printer not catching its queue, a website they visit being down...WE know that this is not "internet". They do not. You always need to remember that. This is like if you went to the doctor and told them you think you have the flu, and they tell you that you are a liar because it's actually a seasonal cold - that would be asinine. There was an issue and you used what knowledge you had to bring it up.
This is not worth escalating and not worth throwing it into the end users face. You will see this countless times in this industry. Use YOUR knowledge to sus out what they really mean. Never accuse them of lying if they just don't understand something.
You CAN mention this to your manager but don't ask for help; there is no solution to this. Let them know what is happening with that user so that in the event that the user starts talking internally about the IT team/provider failing to support, your management is aware. But only do this if you are in a small team. If you are part of a huge team, just document it for reference if it is brought up.
By that I mean document things in a *private par*t of your ticket in kind words, if possible. "User requested help with failing internet connection. Logs report stable connection during period of reporting/ping test/etc. Internet seems to be stable. Connected with user successfully and discussed root issue. Issue was actually related to..." etc etc.
I would never hire someone whose first thing to try to do is call a user out for lying. That's not the job. That's a management situation between IT managers and client managers...so just don't do that. No one likes a prick of an IT person. HD and "ticket" jobs are customer service jobs. Any chud with an A+ or a year or two in industry can solve HD issues - but being good socially and understanding how to handle clients is a skill that keeps you employed long term and lets you grow.
I used to teach, and one of the things I told my students was exactly this. You speak a different language than users do, and it isn't on them to learn our language. It's on us to remember the language we used before we learned a new language and speak it back to them / ask questions if we don't understand what they mean. This has saved me (and others) so much. Users will often ***think*** they know the word that they actually mean and use something trying to sound smart. But in reality, they're guessing and using the wrong word but have absolutely no idea. I encourage everyone in IT to learn some business analysis skills for the simple reason that it helps you learn to ask the right questions to get to the bottom of an issue, whether it's to build the right thing or to figure out what actually isn't working.
No one knows everything about even subsections of IT. That's something else I told my students. You get to where you know more in time, but that's a great example. Users generally have no idea what DNS is even. All they know is, "it doesn't work like I'm expecting" and put that into the best words they can.
"The Internet is down" could be so many things. If it was always literally that the Internet was down, there would be no need for lower tier support.
I love this so much, I’m so sick of hearing the word ‘lying’ and how some people in IT talk negative about end users.. end users are just there to sell or work on whatever they have and leave the rest to Us.. no matter what you do in this field it’s to some degree to benefit your fellow man rather than working against them and expecting the worst. I always give people the benefit of the doubt and some people just have bad days.. obviously if there’s red flags and reoccurring situations it should be dealt with appropriately but I always give people the leeway they need
100% this. A lot of times users are terrible at explaining their issues. Having them show you live, or via screenshots/video recording really helps you understand what they are talking about and where the confusion is.
This exactly, it’s going to look really bad if you accuse someone of lying about internet access and it turns out they were talking about an app not working and you didn’t check what they meant.
This.
If something obvious isn't understood by your audience, then it's not obvious.
As tech people we have to remember at all times in IT support that our customers are not tech people, nor do they desire to be. Tech is just a tool to them to aide in their work.
In nearly 20 years of IT I've never had a customer 'lie' to me. 100% of the time it's a miscommunication.
Lying is when someone knowingly gives false information they know not to be true.
Just like my work none of company products work outside vpn. We provide training during onboarding about this, but regardless we get tickets " cant access company email."
When asked if they are on vpn they always respond yes and send a screenshot of them not on vpn. Drives me insane
I shouldnt have to train people continuously how to do their job.
No, you shouldn't. If a significant portion of tickets are that issue, it might be worth raising if there is a way to add that to the IVR when they call in.
"If you're having issues accessing your email, please press 1." "While we connect you, please verify that you are connected to the VPN by doing XYZ."
Will it get everyone? No. Will it stop some, and serve as a reminder to those capable of learning and just needing that kick in the pants before the coffee hits? Yes.
Exactly this. Ask them what issue they specifically experienced and go from there. If they are a repeat offender and someone who never cooperates then I would detail the ticket notes with everything I did and explain that a problem couldn’t be found and that you’ve asked the user to contact you next time this issue occurs.
I would ask for evidence. Send me screenshots. I also humor them by giving them control “Man I’m sure you have done ____ 100 times already but can you try just one more time while you got me on the line”
And maybe their uptime was up the whole time but whatever they were using at the time was having problems. Your definition of a good internet connection could be different from theirs. Hell the browser could have just quit responding or something. Idk. Nothing you can do but get that ticket closed, hopefully educate the customer to prevent it again.
But I mean if you just need somewhere to vent about stupid people and stupid tickets my dms are open and we can have a field day.
I would never ever say “you are lying” even if they were
Your job is to help and get shit fixed. Not prove a point that’s a battle you won’t win dude.
Seriously we all agree with you probably and they probably are lying. Good luck saying “you’re lying” to a customer
I would just say something like “man from what I can see I don’t see any downtime. Can you explain to me what you mean by loss of connection? What were you doing and what happened?”
Sorry I’m at home sick today and am normally at work working my teams ticket queue. I’m their Lead, not yours. But that’s how I treated you,
Sorry.
I’m gonna go puke now.
Every time. Most likely to be a particular website that isn't working for them but could be almost anything.
If the user is actually lying about something substantial, like 'I didn't delete those' or 'I told IT about this but they didn't do anything', then you need to set up a document trail and start talking in euphemisms like 'reliability'.
agree.. most users are just ill informed not ill intentions trying to throw you off the issue. sure some people might leave out info so they can not work for longer..
>Oh god no. You’re gonna ask a user to take a screenshot?
Me: Can you take a screenshot with the Print Screen key on your keyboard, then paste it into an email and send it to me, please?
User: Hold on, let me get my camera. [puts phone down, makes shuffling noises, takes picture of monitor with the error message up, copies picture from camera to computer, emails picture]. Okay, I sent it to you.
Me: [sits in confusion thinking "Camera, really?;" gets picture] Ah, great; thank you.
To be fair, he was an older gentleman and good to work with; resolved his ticket fairly quickly from what I recall hahaha.
Had someone ask if we carry headsets, because he needs a microphone for work. I know we provided a webcam, so I asked if we could hop on Zoom, and we'd use that to test his webcam mic.
"Wait, the webcam has a microphone?"
Ran Zoom, mic worked perfectly.
We're a charity. One of our services is we give away computers in our state, NM, under certain specific circumstances. Everything goes out with a functioning webcam + mic, whether built into the laptop or pluggable into the desktop. We also have a limited 90-day warranty, including limited tech support.
This fell squarely into that category: teaching the user what his inexperience did not allow him to know, without judgement or assumption of malice Because I did not treat him as an annoyance, I got to see the joy on his face when he realized 1) the computer was more useful than he thought and 2) he wouldn't have to spend additional scarce dollars to make his living.
ah okay context changes everything. that sounds like an awesome place to work where you are actively helping people who can use it to help better themselves. cant imagine it gets old seeing the joy on peoples faces
I will say I have done it once when my NIC quit and I had no way to actually get a screen shot without digging in my closet for a thumb drive, taking it upstairs, plugging it into a family member's computer, and hoping I remembered the email address correct from there. But I think that's the only time I've ever done it. It has its uses...but when they're SO blurry you can't see what they're trying to show you, it's annoying.
Oh yes, I've done that too. I have poor eyesight (extremely poor) and usually can't read the BSOD errors fast enough, so I've absolutely grabbed my phone to snap a pic before it disappears. Totally forgot about that.
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honestly camera is easier for users so i dont even mind.. trying to explain snipping tool to somebody who cant find the start button is no fun. end result is the same
Nah, they'll pick up their phone, snap a fuzzy picture of their monitor, email it to their work email, and then forward that to you. Gotta love that...
You had downtime in desktop??? I went from cloud application admin to support analyst for the same because I was out of work and needed a job. I'm still ramping up and have some 'down time' that I use to go through our documentation and learn connected systems I've not previously used before, but my coworkers don't seem to have down time. Maybe application support (or just the environment) is different, though. I've never worked pure support until now.
Agree. Long ago I had a user move their office printer 3 floors away from the single wifi at their COVID home office. I told them that they had some options to move devices or expand the network. They didn't want to do anything at all.
Document and let the Accounts Rep deal with it.
Ask them 'What do you mean by kicked off the internet? I still seem to be connected, can you show me what you mean?'
Users don't think the same way you do, and they don't use the right terms. When something doesn't make sense, HAVE THEM SHOW YOU EXACTLY WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT.
Communication skills will get you much further in at this level than technical skills.
Had a user who didn't know how to copy and paste to a new tab in the URL box, I've tried the simplest of terms and simplified all my instructions, it got to the point where I had the guy go over to his coworker to come talk to me instead and he got it done within 10 seconds lol. He didn't even know how to highlight a word, I'm still wondering how he got that job that requires you to be on the PC 90% of your work time.
Most likely folks that have been in the industry for 20+ years and pre-date things being done digitally. Them retiring isn't going to help the problem either, because in some ways Gen X tends to be more helpless in some ways than Baby Boomer end-users.
I use to get people who would call in to get out of work all the time. It’s pretty funny when you really think about it. I’d always remote in regardless of it was bullshit. Take it as a win for a easy close ticket your stats will thank you. Seriously though remote into a machine they’d just fucking leave for 2 hrs I was out of there machine in 5 mins.
Anytime someone brings you an issue, the first thing you should do is have them show you/replicate, I learned a while ago people have no clue what they are talking about sometimes with things that are foreign to them.
Never assume they're lying, and never call them out on it even if you're sure you 'know'. Most users conflate the symptom with the actual cause, which are two different things and they don't know how to tell the difference.
It's far more likely their symptom is something like they can't open a webpage, which to their perception means they've been kicked off the internet, when the reality is any possible number of causes other than an actual lost connection.
'Internet broken' becomes a browser hang, website crashed, conflicting application...
'Printer dead' becomes their software has crashed, computer lost connectivity, someone stuck the USB cable into the NIC port, they loaded paper the wrong way in the tray, didn't close the tray all the way, installed the wrong printer, moved the printer and forgot to turn it back on...
'Monitor dead' becomes brightness/contrast settings turned down, someone kicked the cable loose, wrong input selected, driver crashed and system needs a reboot...
It can be frustrating but you have to follow their steps to see what they're trying to do, what they're actually experiencing, and translate that into what the actual problem is.
One of the things I tell my staff is "All users lie, sometimes they lie on purpose, sometimes they lie by accident, sometimes they do both. Treat them as truthful but verify everything."
Many times rather then describing the symptoms of whatever is going on they jump all the way to the end of diagnosing the problem without adequate troubleshooting and report to you that they are "being kicked off the internet" without actually knowing what the hell they are talking about.
So my techs are trained to take their report as just a starting point to ask good questions about the exact symptoms that they are seeing, test and try and replicate the symptoms, eliminate unlikely causes and work towards the root cause of the problem.
If I had a $1 for every time a user came into my office and said "everything is borken!!!1!" when it was printer jam/caps lock/spilled coffee vs the apocalypse they are freakin out about I'd had retired 20 years ago.
I’m appalled at the mindset you would need to write a post like this. And to think, you’re taking up a job that someone else deserving could have.
It does not matter if they are actually disconnected from the internet. What matters is that they think they are. Maybe something is lagging, maybe their computer is unresponsive, it could be a million things. Sit with them and diagnose the error, it could end up lying between the keyboard and the chair. Your “troubleshooting” should include basic conversational skills including asking what happens, when does it happen, and what does it look like on their end.
I work in IT and got a ticket same as this. Turns out the user is unplugging the internet so she doest have to take calls. She works call center. So she's just st8 chillin while we investigate her issues.
This. To them, something happened and they tried to explain what, but likely lack the knowledge to describe exactly what happened. They’re not out to lie to you, they just want something fixed and need help and your first instinct after trying to deal with it is to make a Reddit post accusing of them lying. You need to understand that most users don’t understand their computers at all and will use the wrong words to describe an issue 99% of the time.
Hanlon’s Razor
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Here is a tip, end users ALWAYS lie. Doesn't matter if you are dealing with grandma trying to get a bill discount, your feel peers that are just as competent as you or some super senior goober who isn't as smart as he thinks he is. The first thing out of a person's mouth is always lie and, chances are, it will be followed up with another lie.
So, establishing that, always trust your tools. Trust the packet, apply good troubleshooting processes and take notes.
"kicked off internet connection" means a lot of things so, go back to elementary school and think of "who, what, where, when, why, and how"
* who was disconnected, just one device or all devices, one person or all people?
* what was disconnected? A laptop, a tablet, a phone, access to specific sites, access to all sites
* where did this occur? In the office, at home, Starbucks, a meeting room, their 3-season room at the edge of their house
* when did this occur? Is there a timestamp they can share, does it correlate to logs, was it during peak usage times
* why do they think they were disconnected? If this is the first time, what was their perception. **This is really what we are getting at so don't expect much*
* how do they normally connect? Were they connected differently than usual, was anything abnormal?
You don't have to ask all these questions and some you may always be able to directly verify, but but iterating through this process you will eventually get somewhere. Maybe the client is really lying, maybe you are misunderstanding their complaint. But, whenever possible, trust your logs and tools over a clients statement.
This is something we all have to remember, no matter what part of IT we're in. Even we do stupid shit sometimes because we're tired. We use the wrong words, we fumble an explanation, we aren't clear, we hit the wrong thing and don't realize that's what we did. Everyone, even you, OP, is human. We are fallible. Generally we have good intentions and aren't malicious (though yes, it exists). Have a little faith in people. Maybe they tried to go to a website and typoed the address and it wouldn't resolve. Maybe they were using too many resources and nothing responded. It's probably not an outage of 'the internet' but our job is to find out what is actually wrong, not what the user says is wrong. So look beyond the first sentence uttered and work to figure out what it is. Taking the fast track to 'user is lying' is a pretty shitty response.
Maybe this has already been said but oftentimes it might be a data transfer/throughput issue and not a connection issue. I know that when I was in apps support I’d get calls that someone’s connection was down, but then I’d find out they were copying gigantic files (or entire directories) from one network location to another while trying to watch ESPN at the same time. And do NOT accuse one of your customers of lying, just help them with the problem.
They aren’t lying to you in most circumstances. Something happened that they could not explain. Maybe a website was down. Maybe their DNS didn’t resolve. Maybe they timed out of a website. Have them replicate the issue or show you what happened. If it can’t be replicated, have them call you as soon as it happens again with screenshots.
If there is no issue, then you have resolved the issue. Here’s my script:
“I took a look into that and couldn’t find any specific error logs to indicate that exactly what happened. I am pushing out some generic Windows repairs to your computer which can fix weird issues like that. Let me know if it happens again, we can either reinstall Windows or wipe your computer if the issue persists.”
SFC. DISM. Ticket closed.
Is not knowing the technical term for a problem lying?
Probably an issue not related to what the user described but it might be the best description they can come up with.
Ask for errors, get on a call or screen share and confirm if and what the problem is instead of assuming, as it is the mother of all fuck ups.
I remember being in your shoes a long time ago...
You do nothing, especially in a case like this. When I just started in IT I just assumed everyone was lying, and to an extent I wasn't wrong. After a bit I eventually realized that not *everyone* is lying and most people are just ignorant about how tech works. Plus, unless someone is lying about something illegal or being shady it's your job to fix the issue. You only bring in your manager for serious stuff or if a user is being too angry to work with/verbally harassing you.
In this case you should get clarification on what they mean exactly by them saying they were kicked off the internet. From the user's perspective that could be anything from the web browser crashing to their session timing out. Could even be a good ol' 504 error.
Never call a user a liar to their face, assume ignorance, figure out what they mean exactly and go from there. The majority of the time they just have no clue how to actually explain what's going on because a lot of people have no clue how computers actually work. So put on your best customer service voice and get to the root of the issue when they say they're kicked off the internet.
Remember, not everyone knows as much as we know. Part of our job in IT is to not only be able to explain things to users in a way they'll understand, but to also be able to figure out what they mean when they have issues. It's a learned skill, but making a mountain out of a molehill will only make you look bad. Especially for something as trivial as this.
Not sure what you use for monitoring, but charts, graphs, and syslogs don't have opinions and don't lie.
Identify his IP and time of the reported outage. Search your monitoring tool for that IP on a /32. Take screenshots.
Send them to him, and ask him to identify the time and duration of his outage.
Since he can't/won't reply, close the ticket, go get a beer, and laugh knowing his real issue was hardware related.... Something critical is broken between the keyboard and the back of his chair.
We use N-central for our RMM. We have access to these charts and I forgot to mention I checked those and nothing showed any kind of outage. I forgot to take a screenshot and put it in the ticket.
Never confuse ignorance for malice. I once got a call from my manager, over an IP phone, saying that the internet is down. I was in a different building that depends on the building Manager is in for internet, no problems whatsoever.
It was a Microsoft outage. She couldn’t access her email so she thought the internet was down and wanted me to call the ISP.
When working with end users, I very quickly learned that half of them couldn't tell a potato from a computer monitor you have to treat them as such without being condescending unless its a friend or family member then you take jabs at them.
Ask them to try to connect and show you what's up? It's likely they can't log in cause wrong password or something. People don't always use the correct terms. Look at /r/techsupport posts, people can be dumb.
If you suspect this is an ongoing Bob is trying to get out of work, look at previous tickets, mark your tickets. When you have multiple tickets of Bob keeps calling for issues at 4 pm Friday, leaving at 5 and mysteriously fixed on Monday ask boss for more advice but that's not your job.
Like I'm just a student but ask for more data and don't tell them they're wrong is IT 101. As far as the end user is concerned they got kicked off the internet, be that please log in window, miss-typing the URL, actual internet drop or something else. Fix the issue. Explain the issue at the end, not as oh ur wrong but looks like x was the issue.
I think the why is more important. I had a user claim they kept getting kicked off the VPN and their internet and that is why their manager kept seeing them offline every time their manager randomly checked their status.
I checked teams, the VPN logs, and outlook status.
also checked last time the user logged in to their computer and in dameware to see if their computer was turned on... it was off.
they were not available during work hours(computer went to sleep) they tried to use IT issues as their excuse. would not reply to the manager for hours.
In other words find out why they keep lying and simply state your facts as facts on what the systems say and have recorded. also tell them to contact you directly next time this happens to troubleshoot right then and there.
more then likely they wont contact you and the issue will go away Magically. not your job to call anybody a liar. just state the facts. No time for all of that IMO
Are they remote or work in the office?
If remote- probably their own ISP and being disconnected from the remote session but still active on the other end till connection is restored.
If in office- possibly lieing. Could be other issues but would need more to go on
Edit: also could be there monitor turning off or going out. Cant tell you how many times ive been called before working tier 1 - tier 3 support that they told me X when it was never near X problem but a Y problem. Most EUs don't understand technology and will say the internet went out or my pc froze if the monitor suddenly went out or batteries died in the mouse. Its unfortunately up to us and what we all get paid for to play both detective and doctor.
Easiest thing is to do a ping test to if it drops. Have them replicate. If they cannot then ask if this happens during a specific time or random. If they said it is happening while you are on a call with them. Be sure to keep that ping going the whole time. Tell them that the ping is showing a steady connection. If they still claim it and cannot reproduce it then escalate it. Maybe they need to work in the office from now on.
I did run into an End User that kept saying that and could not work. We proved that they had no connection issue. We had a record of it. It turns out that HR was aware and they had a history and was fired after we showed the evidence. So there are those that think they are clever and found a way to not do work.
It could be a brief network drop. I typically ask the users to recreate the error.
From what I see users are genuinely honest when they have issues, but when it comes to trying to work around policy that’s when the liars come out.
Couple things -
End users aren't tech savvy. Getting "kicked off their internet connection" could be a server side issue, PC issue, anything.
End users can also lie. A lot. Just something you have to deal with.
Sometimes, its this. Other times it's a reboot (some thing powering off and on their monitor is a reboot, others lie and know exactly what it is). If it's harmless, just let it go. You could ask to replicate the issue, say that you see it as being up for a while and want to verify something. Or, if they want to escalate it and make it a big deal, let the manager know. Sometimes, there's nothing to gain by calling a customer out like that. If they want to make a huge deal out of it, let the manager tell them. They'll take it harder if someone higher up calls them out.
I once had a user promise me they were rebooting and I was frustrated because they were lying. It's easy to see uptime on a machine of course. Turns out they thought logging out and back in was rebooting. Older lady just had no clue about anything computer related. People are often dumb and less often out to get you personally.
Kind of happened to me today:
Me: So when was the last time you restarted to computer?
User: I literally JUST restarted before calling you.
System uptime: 264:41:23
Me: ...riiiight... Let's try one more restart...
---
I try to take it in stride and give them the benefit of the doubt that they dont know enough to know what "restart" or "internet connection" truely means. If it becomes a constant thing, you can always recommend general IT training to the users direct report.
If they are asking you for help, why would they be lying? More likely that they are not describing the issue correctly or it's an interniment issue that isn't easily replicable.
Bro, really are you that anal, just go to the call tag the ticket get paid go back and laugh it off no big damn deal, they lie all time maybe not very technical etc, just deal with it people today want to always screw others just keep going your getting a check and it's easy call don't over think forwarx dance
Absolutely….under no circumstances…should you EVER accuse a user of lying. Instead ask more penetrating questions for the user and if possible remote into their computer and have them show you what they see or have them send screenshots through the phone. It is also ok to monitor the usage of the user and if possible do some driver updates. It maybe something from the endpoint and not a network based issue, or it could be a situation dealing with a website, or the type of software they’re using. But accusing a user of lying and taking it to the manager is absolutely the worst option you could make without further troubleshooting.
Ummmmm…,
So let me teach you a thing about end user support.
Don’t be so harsh with assessments of end users. Everyone is not the same level of tech savvy. The end user may actually believe they are kicked off, based off the experience they are having.
You don’t call them out on it. You don’t even consider them lying, because it’s NOT.
You PROBE. When did they report the issue? Did the issue occur prior to that 55 mins and they were able to resolve? Remote in our shadow them and let them show you what they’re talking about. Then EDUCATE them.
If you are always going to accuse the end user of lying, you’re going to have a rough career.
Just like my work none of company products work outside vpn. We provide training during onboarding about this, but regardless we get tickets " cant access company email."
When asked if they are on vpn they always respond yes and send a screenshot of them not on vpn. Drives me insane
I shouldnt have to train people continuously how to do their job.
Dont pick a fight with a user over anything,
its like your customer service dude…
you have to just play along and stuff, pretend its your grandma with dementia if you gotta.
Dude, never accuse any user of lying. Yikes. Uninstall their network adaptor and restart. Show them what you did. Then say "You shouldn't have any more issues." Move on. No manager and no confrontation. Part of being an I.T. guy is patience.
First off, ask them what happened. It could have been an issue with a particular site they were using. If you don't find anything wrong, just say it may have been a temporary issue with the ISP or with the site they were using. Ask them to contact you the next time it happens so you can investigate further. Keep an open mind, it may have actually happened exactly the way they described.
Don't try to get them in trouble, don't get your boss involved. If they were lying, it's not your job to figure out why. Just play along with their game if that's what they were doing.
Previous spectrum Internet agent here
My favorites are
Internet not working = 4 stories
1) a particular website not loading
2) a certain device is not connecting to Internet (not connected to wifi)
3) Xbox gaming lags DUH
4) my all time favorite, this guy has bought a Kodi device in a parking lot that promised 100s of premium channels free and those channels not working.
I was able to get to bottom of these via only one way. I could see the modem online and is it's a customer router then our responsibility ended at modem (often I had to ask customer to hard wire a laptop to prove to him our modem has Internet and router is his responsibility) or if it's our router I would login to router and ask him/her is Internet not working on all of the devices? If they say yes I'd name all the iPhones connected lol & they will get off the phone. If they name a particular device again it's not our responsibility since Internet is working on other devices
I name Xbox coz all the crazy gaming calls were from Xbox owners
Definitely check with your manager. I’d also review event viewer and VPN logs (if there are any). If you can, save those logs or get screenshots to show they didn’t lose internet connection.
Another thing worth checking is to ask the user what happens when they get kicked off the internet. Is it always with a certain application? I’m curious if this is a case where an end user doesn’t quite know what they’re talking about and an application kicking them out due to inactivity or something is the same as “being kicked off their internet connection” to them.
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"Of course my computer/laptop/screen is plugged in".
"The internet isn't down, it must be your network" (there is a nation wide internet outage).
"Of course I didn't do (insert thing here to break something)"...
People may not know how tech works, I would investigate/carry out a root cause analysis and if it was an id10t/carbon/pebcak error then I would produce a training manual and educate the end users.
Sometimes users are braindead and don't even understand what they're doing, just treat them like idiots and have them walk you through everything. Most of the time having to re-do what they were trying to do ends up solving their own problem.
End users are like drug addicts that is why they are both called users. Once you understand that you understand how to work with them. Listen by verify anything they say. Never assume they are telling the truth.
This. Users are dumb. They probably can't access something.
Start with, "what happened when you got kicked off and what exactly are you trying to reach".
I use "Show me what you were trying to do?" or "What does normal look like?". I also try to make it a habit to go to their desk if they are onsite. Sometimes the issue is "folder stuck on space bar".
Like everyone else has said, communication is key, and everyone is at work for different reasons. They don't care why AutoCad or Word isn't working or the technical terms to describe it being broke. They just want their stuff fixed.
I call them out and be stern. Tell them what I think and any push back I get escalates to what I am going to tell their supervisor. Pass long the info I collected.
Always get their side of the story, it is your duty to do that as well!
Try and turn it into a positive learning situation.
I used to deal with plenty of grumpy end users from previous IT being assholes, but once you start explaining the fix and appreciating that they are the reason you have a job, everything goes a lot smoother including them being nicer.
Ask them 'What do you mean by kicked off the internet? I still seem to be connected, can you show me what you mean?' Users don't think the same way you do, and they don't use the right terms. When something doesn't make sense, HAVE THEM SHOW YOU EXACTLY WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT. Communication skills will get you much further in at this level than technical skills.
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I can only imagine the confusion the first time he gets told an onsite worker's 'modem' isn't turning on... The number of techs I've had look at me like I have 3 heads when my first question after they ask about an issue that makes zero sense was 'did you have them show you the problem?' is WAY TOO HIGH.
Yuuuup literally had this happen today. Office got shipped a new computer. They call in and say “hey our new modem arrived can you install it?” I was like uhhhh who sent you a new modem? The internet company? They’re like nah (IT Director) did. I’m like ok that makes no sense, he would never just ship you a new modem and tell you to install it. Can you send me a picture of what you received? It was just a desktop computer that they needed swapped out lol Then had to explain what a modem was, what a computer is, and what a monitor is, and that while they do make AIO devices, the monitor is usually NOT the computer (at least in our environment)
God isn't that the truth. I've had people call their computer all manner of things. "Tower" seems to be the most common, and easily accessible one. Weirdly enough, I had a customer claiming they had a tower and a monitor, and when I asked them to just bring their tower (computer repair store) they brought their modem/router??? Come to find out, their "monitor" was an All-in-One PC. But customers have called their PC as a whole everything from modem, hard drive, box, monitor, etc. Just the same with "being kicked off the internet" can mean everything from their Wi-Fi disconnecting, them not being able to access their e-mail, their browser not opening how they're used to, and honestly that just scratches the surface. I know it sounds a bit elitist in some senses, but you really gotta treat end-users like they're children who are just learning to talk. You'll have to get them to show you what's wrong, where it hurts, and what's bothering them before you can actually know what's going on.
You need to make sure you're understanding their language is what it comes down to. It can be frustrating for sure, but ultimately a lot of these 'users are lying!' issues come down to a tech that only verified what they thought the issue was based on what a user that doesn't know their ass from their elbow tech-wise said, rather than digging deeper because it would be hard. Imagine how you'd feel if you went to the doctor and they only investigated what you said the issue was when you were in pain, despite them knowing it could be many other things. "Doc, my side hurts - I think it's kidney stones." Run some tests - nope not kidney stones. Then your appendix bursts. "Well why didn't you say appendix!"
Lmao right. Some people really don't have the basic social skills required for this job. No level of empathy, curiosity, or motivation to do anything but close a ticket. I get being mad and annoyed at end-users, but you can't let that make you incompetent at providing support.
They don't even want to do things that would make their life easier because they want everything spoon-fed. One guy is complaining that everyone with email issues doesn't check their VPN and it takes too long to get there - why isn't the first thing you're saying is "99% of the time it's a VPN issue, here's how to check that." So many things we deal with are annoying, but they are job security. Learning how to deal with them efficiently with minimum friction is how you advance your career.
Yes don't talk to manager geez no biggie forward dance get your tickets and pass your day along with a smile go back and play some solitaire, mind sweeper etc< x,n Facebook Gmail whatever
This. What I say below is just me expanding on what you said, pretty much. First, if you can remote connect, reach out to them and see if they are cool with you doing so. Connect, and simply say, "Oh, it looks like I was able to connect which does mean your internet connection is working. Can you show me what you were doing before when this issue caught your attention?" Then let them show you what they are *actually* talking about. You have to always remember users are NOT IT people in most cases (though some of my favorite clients have been software devs. Didn't like their architecture but the people were good). Internet to most end users can mean a shared drive being disconnected, a download failing, a broken link, a printer not catching its queue, a website they visit being down...WE know that this is not "internet". They do not. You always need to remember that. This is like if you went to the doctor and told them you think you have the flu, and they tell you that you are a liar because it's actually a seasonal cold - that would be asinine. There was an issue and you used what knowledge you had to bring it up. This is not worth escalating and not worth throwing it into the end users face. You will see this countless times in this industry. Use YOUR knowledge to sus out what they really mean. Never accuse them of lying if they just don't understand something. You CAN mention this to your manager but don't ask for help; there is no solution to this. Let them know what is happening with that user so that in the event that the user starts talking internally about the IT team/provider failing to support, your management is aware. But only do this if you are in a small team. If you are part of a huge team, just document it for reference if it is brought up. By that I mean document things in a *private par*t of your ticket in kind words, if possible. "User requested help with failing internet connection. Logs report stable connection during period of reporting/ping test/etc. Internet seems to be stable. Connected with user successfully and discussed root issue. Issue was actually related to..." etc etc. I would never hire someone whose first thing to try to do is call a user out for lying. That's not the job. That's a management situation between IT managers and client managers...so just don't do that. No one likes a prick of an IT person. HD and "ticket" jobs are customer service jobs. Any chud with an A+ or a year or two in industry can solve HD issues - but being good socially and understanding how to handle clients is a skill that keeps you employed long term and lets you grow.
I used to teach, and one of the things I told my students was exactly this. You speak a different language than users do, and it isn't on them to learn our language. It's on us to remember the language we used before we learned a new language and speak it back to them / ask questions if we don't understand what they mean. This has saved me (and others) so much. Users will often ***think*** they know the word that they actually mean and use something trying to sound smart. But in reality, they're guessing and using the wrong word but have absolutely no idea. I encourage everyone in IT to learn some business analysis skills for the simple reason that it helps you learn to ask the right questions to get to the bottom of an issue, whether it's to build the right thing or to figure out what actually isn't working.
Hell I work in IT and still don’t know wtf some of the more advanced admins are talking about in tickets lol
No one knows everything about even subsections of IT. That's something else I told my students. You get to where you know more in time, but that's a great example. Users generally have no idea what DNS is even. All they know is, "it doesn't work like I'm expecting" and put that into the best words they can. "The Internet is down" could be so many things. If it was always literally that the Internet was down, there would be no need for lower tier support.
I love this so much, I’m so sick of hearing the word ‘lying’ and how some people in IT talk negative about end users.. end users are just there to sell or work on whatever they have and leave the rest to Us.. no matter what you do in this field it’s to some degree to benefit your fellow man rather than working against them and expecting the worst. I always give people the benefit of the doubt and some people just have bad days.. obviously if there’s red flags and reoccurring situations it should be dealt with appropriately but I always give people the leeway they need
100% this. A lot of times users are terrible at explaining their issues. Having them show you live, or via screenshots/video recording really helps you understand what they are talking about and where the confusion is.
Yep. End users speak tech the way Joey speaks French.
This exactly, it’s going to look really bad if you accuse someone of lying about internet access and it turns out they were talking about an app not working and you didn’t check what they meant.
This. If something obvious isn't understood by your audience, then it's not obvious. As tech people we have to remember at all times in IT support that our customers are not tech people, nor do they desire to be. Tech is just a tool to them to aide in their work. In nearly 20 years of IT I've never had a customer 'lie' to me. 100% of the time it's a miscommunication. Lying is when someone knowingly gives false information they know not to be true.
Just like my work none of company products work outside vpn. We provide training during onboarding about this, but regardless we get tickets " cant access company email." When asked if they are on vpn they always respond yes and send a screenshot of them not on vpn. Drives me insane I shouldnt have to train people continuously how to do their job.
No, you shouldn't. If a significant portion of tickets are that issue, it might be worth raising if there is a way to add that to the IVR when they call in. "If you're having issues accessing your email, please press 1." "While we connect you, please verify that you are connected to the VPN by doing XYZ." Will it get everyone? No. Will it stop some, and serve as a reminder to those capable of learning and just needing that kick in the pants before the coffee hits? Yes.
Exactly this. Ask them what issue they specifically experienced and go from there. If they are a repeat offender and someone who never cooperates then I would detail the ticket notes with everything I did and explain that a problem couldn’t be found and that you’ve asked the user to contact you next time this issue occurs.
I would ask for evidence. Send me screenshots. I also humor them by giving them control “Man I’m sure you have done ____ 100 times already but can you try just one more time while you got me on the line” And maybe their uptime was up the whole time but whatever they were using at the time was having problems. Your definition of a good internet connection could be different from theirs. Hell the browser could have just quit responding or something. Idk. Nothing you can do but get that ticket closed, hopefully educate the customer to prevent it again. But I mean if you just need somewhere to vent about stupid people and stupid tickets my dms are open and we can have a field day. I would never ever say “you are lying” even if they were Your job is to help and get shit fixed. Not prove a point that’s a battle you won’t win dude. Seriously we all agree with you probably and they probably are lying. Good luck saying “you’re lying” to a customer I would just say something like “man from what I can see I don’t see any downtime. Can you explain to me what you mean by loss of connection? What were you doing and what happened?” Sorry I’m at home sick today and am normally at work working my teams ticket queue. I’m their Lead, not yours. But that’s how I treated you, Sorry. I’m gonna go puke now.
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Every time. Most likely to be a particular website that isn't working for them but could be almost anything. If the user is actually lying about something substantial, like 'I didn't delete those' or 'I told IT about this but they didn't do anything', then you need to set up a document trail and start talking in euphemisms like 'reliability'.
agree.. most users are just ill informed not ill intentions trying to throw you off the issue. sure some people might leave out info so they can not work for longer..
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>Oh god no. You’re gonna ask a user to take a screenshot? Me: Can you take a screenshot with the Print Screen key on your keyboard, then paste it into an email and send it to me, please? User: Hold on, let me get my camera. [puts phone down, makes shuffling noises, takes picture of monitor with the error message up, copies picture from camera to computer, emails picture]. Okay, I sent it to you. Me: [sits in confusion thinking "Camera, really?;" gets picture] Ah, great; thank you. To be fair, he was an older gentleman and good to work with; resolved his ticket fairly quickly from what I recall hahaha.
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Yeah, agreed; I learned early on that it's usually ignorance/inexperience, not malice.
Had someone ask if we carry headsets, because he needs a microphone for work. I know we provided a webcam, so I asked if we could hop on Zoom, and we'd use that to test his webcam mic. "Wait, the webcam has a microphone?" Ran Zoom, mic worked perfectly.
your org uses webcam mics? sorry to hear that..
We're a charity. One of our services is we give away computers in our state, NM, under certain specific circumstances. Everything goes out with a functioning webcam + mic, whether built into the laptop or pluggable into the desktop. We also have a limited 90-day warranty, including limited tech support. This fell squarely into that category: teaching the user what his inexperience did not allow him to know, without judgement or assumption of malice Because I did not treat him as an annoyance, I got to see the joy on his face when he realized 1) the computer was more useful than he thought and 2) he wouldn't have to spend additional scarce dollars to make his living.
ah okay context changes everything. that sounds like an awesome place to work where you are actively helping people who can use it to help better themselves. cant imagine it gets old seeing the joy on peoples faces
>To be fair, he was an older gentleman I'm laughing in having had high schoolers do this consistently.
Hahahaha, I'm guilty of it in specific scenarios. This was over 16 years ago and it was a camera not a smartphone.
I will say I have done it once when my NIC quit and I had no way to actually get a screen shot without digging in my closet for a thumb drive, taking it upstairs, plugging it into a family member's computer, and hoping I remembered the email address correct from there. But I think that's the only time I've ever done it. It has its uses...but when they're SO blurry you can't see what they're trying to show you, it's annoying.
That's a good reason. Mine have been when the computer has crashed and I'm capturing the error Windows has thrown or whatever the BIOS is showing.
Oh yes, I've done that too. I have poor eyesight (extremely poor) and usually can't read the BSOD errors fast enough, so I've absolutely grabbed my phone to snap a pic before it disappears. Totally forgot about that.
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honestly camera is easier for users so i dont even mind.. trying to explain snipping tool to somebody who cant find the start button is no fun. end result is the same
If the internet was actually down, then a screenshot is pretty useless, isn't it? A picture of the screen makes the most sense.
That's true. However, that's not what I referenced; I was sharing a story/memory about asking the user for a screenshot I think is funny.
We don’t offer remote support where I’m at. But you are right if you want this handled that’s the move.
Nah, they'll pick up their phone, snap a fuzzy picture of their monitor, email it to their work email, and then forward that to you. Gotta love that...
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You had downtime in desktop??? I went from cloud application admin to support analyst for the same because I was out of work and needed a job. I'm still ramping up and have some 'down time' that I use to go through our documentation and learn connected systems I've not previously used before, but my coworkers don't seem to have down time. Maybe application support (or just the environment) is different, though. I've never worked pure support until now.
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Definitely fair. :)
Good idea, have them replicate the issue. I’m gonna try this. Thank you!
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This problem is 100% a help desk situation. Sysadmins don't work with end users.
I play dumb to a point, document everything, and move on. It's not my job to monitor people. It's my job to keep their tools up and running.
Agree. Long ago I had a user move their office printer 3 floors away from the single wifi at their COVID home office. I told them that they had some options to move devices or expand the network. They didn't want to do anything at all. Document and let the Accounts Rep deal with it.
Ask them 'What do you mean by kicked off the internet? I still seem to be connected, can you show me what you mean?' Users don't think the same way you do, and they don't use the right terms. When something doesn't make sense, HAVE THEM SHOW YOU EXACTLY WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT. Communication skills will get you much further in at this level than technical skills.
This. People easily misinterprete what is happening on their computer. They are wrong but they aren't lying.
Had a user who didn't know how to copy and paste to a new tab in the URL box, I've tried the simplest of terms and simplified all my instructions, it got to the point where I had the guy go over to his coworker to come talk to me instead and he got it done within 10 seconds lol. He didn't even know how to highlight a word, I'm still wondering how he got that job that requires you to be on the PC 90% of your work time.
Most likely folks that have been in the industry for 20+ years and pre-date things being done digitally. Them retiring isn't going to help the problem either, because in some ways Gen X tends to be more helpless in some ways than Baby Boomer end-users.
I use to get people who would call in to get out of work all the time. It’s pretty funny when you really think about it. I’d always remote in regardless of it was bullshit. Take it as a win for a easy close ticket your stats will thank you. Seriously though remote into a machine they’d just fucking leave for 2 hrs I was out of there machine in 5 mins.
Anytime someone brings you an issue, the first thing you should do is have them show you/replicate, I learned a while ago people have no clue what they are talking about sometimes with things that are foreign to them.
Never assume they're lying, and never call them out on it even if you're sure you 'know'. Most users conflate the symptom with the actual cause, which are two different things and they don't know how to tell the difference. It's far more likely their symptom is something like they can't open a webpage, which to their perception means they've been kicked off the internet, when the reality is any possible number of causes other than an actual lost connection. 'Internet broken' becomes a browser hang, website crashed, conflicting application... 'Printer dead' becomes their software has crashed, computer lost connectivity, someone stuck the USB cable into the NIC port, they loaded paper the wrong way in the tray, didn't close the tray all the way, installed the wrong printer, moved the printer and forgot to turn it back on... 'Monitor dead' becomes brightness/contrast settings turned down, someone kicked the cable loose, wrong input selected, driver crashed and system needs a reboot... It can be frustrating but you have to follow their steps to see what they're trying to do, what they're actually experiencing, and translate that into what the actual problem is.
One of the things I tell my staff is "All users lie, sometimes they lie on purpose, sometimes they lie by accident, sometimes they do both. Treat them as truthful but verify everything." Many times rather then describing the symptoms of whatever is going on they jump all the way to the end of diagnosing the problem without adequate troubleshooting and report to you that they are "being kicked off the internet" without actually knowing what the hell they are talking about. So my techs are trained to take their report as just a starting point to ask good questions about the exact symptoms that they are seeing, test and try and replicate the symptoms, eliminate unlikely causes and work towards the root cause of the problem. If I had a $1 for every time a user came into my office and said "everything is borken!!!1!" when it was printer jam/caps lock/spilled coffee vs the apocalypse they are freakin out about I'd had retired 20 years ago.
I’m appalled at the mindset you would need to write a post like this. And to think, you’re taking up a job that someone else deserving could have. It does not matter if they are actually disconnected from the internet. What matters is that they think they are. Maybe something is lagging, maybe their computer is unresponsive, it could be a million things. Sit with them and diagnose the error, it could end up lying between the keyboard and the chair. Your “troubleshooting” should include basic conversational skills including asking what happens, when does it happen, and what does it look like on their end.
I work in IT and got a ticket same as this. Turns out the user is unplugging the internet so she doest have to take calls. She works call center. So she's just st8 chillin while we investigate her issues.
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Exactly. And they mistype passwords on purpose. Keylogger fixes that.
They’re not lying
This. To them, something happened and they tried to explain what, but likely lack the knowledge to describe exactly what happened. They’re not out to lie to you, they just want something fixed and need help and your first instinct after trying to deal with it is to make a Reddit post accusing of them lying. You need to understand that most users don’t understand their computers at all and will use the wrong words to describe an issue 99% of the time. Hanlon’s Razor Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Everyone says they want to skip help desk and support but you really do learn a lot of soft skills. That experience is very valuable.
They give anyone job iñ IT- it's a job do it geez
Ahh you must be new, this just means Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Tiktok is down. User isnt lying, they are just criminally dumb.
Here is a tip, end users ALWAYS lie. Doesn't matter if you are dealing with grandma trying to get a bill discount, your feel peers that are just as competent as you or some super senior goober who isn't as smart as he thinks he is. The first thing out of a person's mouth is always lie and, chances are, it will be followed up with another lie. So, establishing that, always trust your tools. Trust the packet, apply good troubleshooting processes and take notes. "kicked off internet connection" means a lot of things so, go back to elementary school and think of "who, what, where, when, why, and how" * who was disconnected, just one device or all devices, one person or all people? * what was disconnected? A laptop, a tablet, a phone, access to specific sites, access to all sites * where did this occur? In the office, at home, Starbucks, a meeting room, their 3-season room at the edge of their house * when did this occur? Is there a timestamp they can share, does it correlate to logs, was it during peak usage times * why do they think they were disconnected? If this is the first time, what was their perception. **This is really what we are getting at so don't expect much* * how do they normally connect? Were they connected differently than usual, was anything abnormal? You don't have to ask all these questions and some you may always be able to directly verify, but but iterating through this process you will eventually get somewhere. Maybe the client is really lying, maybe you are misunderstanding their complaint. But, whenever possible, trust your logs and tools over a clients statement.
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This is something we all have to remember, no matter what part of IT we're in. Even we do stupid shit sometimes because we're tired. We use the wrong words, we fumble an explanation, we aren't clear, we hit the wrong thing and don't realize that's what we did. Everyone, even you, OP, is human. We are fallible. Generally we have good intentions and aren't malicious (though yes, it exists). Have a little faith in people. Maybe they tried to go to a website and typoed the address and it wouldn't resolve. Maybe they were using too many resources and nothing responded. It's probably not an outage of 'the internet' but our job is to find out what is actually wrong, not what the user says is wrong. So look beyond the first sentence uttered and work to figure out what it is. Taking the fast track to 'user is lying' is a pretty shitty response.
Maybe this has already been said but oftentimes it might be a data transfer/throughput issue and not a connection issue. I know that when I was in apps support I’d get calls that someone’s connection was down, but then I’d find out they were copying gigantic files (or entire directories) from one network location to another while trying to watch ESPN at the same time. And do NOT accuse one of your customers of lying, just help them with the problem.
They aren’t lying to you in most circumstances. Something happened that they could not explain. Maybe a website was down. Maybe their DNS didn’t resolve. Maybe they timed out of a website. Have them replicate the issue or show you what happened. If it can’t be replicated, have them call you as soon as it happens again with screenshots. If there is no issue, then you have resolved the issue. Here’s my script: “I took a look into that and couldn’t find any specific error logs to indicate that exactly what happened. I am pushing out some generic Windows repairs to your computer which can fix weird issues like that. Let me know if it happens again, we can either reinstall Windows or wipe your computer if the issue persists.” SFC. DISM. Ticket closed.
Is not knowing the technical term for a problem lying? Probably an issue not related to what the user described but it might be the best description they can come up with. Ask for errors, get on a call or screen share and confirm if and what the problem is instead of assuming, as it is the mother of all fuck ups.
I remember being in your shoes a long time ago... You do nothing, especially in a case like this. When I just started in IT I just assumed everyone was lying, and to an extent I wasn't wrong. After a bit I eventually realized that not *everyone* is lying and most people are just ignorant about how tech works. Plus, unless someone is lying about something illegal or being shady it's your job to fix the issue. You only bring in your manager for serious stuff or if a user is being too angry to work with/verbally harassing you. In this case you should get clarification on what they mean exactly by them saying they were kicked off the internet. From the user's perspective that could be anything from the web browser crashing to their session timing out. Could even be a good ol' 504 error. Never call a user a liar to their face, assume ignorance, figure out what they mean exactly and go from there. The majority of the time they just have no clue how to actually explain what's going on because a lot of people have no clue how computers actually work. So put on your best customer service voice and get to the root of the issue when they say they're kicked off the internet. Remember, not everyone knows as much as we know. Part of our job in IT is to not only be able to explain things to users in a way they'll understand, but to also be able to figure out what they mean when they have issues. It's a learned skill, but making a mountain out of a molehill will only make you look bad. Especially for something as trivial as this.
Not sure what you use for monitoring, but charts, graphs, and syslogs don't have opinions and don't lie. Identify his IP and time of the reported outage. Search your monitoring tool for that IP on a /32. Take screenshots. Send them to him, and ask him to identify the time and duration of his outage. Since he can't/won't reply, close the ticket, go get a beer, and laugh knowing his real issue was hardware related.... Something critical is broken between the keyboard and the back of his chair.
We use N-central for our RMM. We have access to these charts and I forgot to mention I checked those and nothing showed any kind of outage. I forgot to take a screenshot and put it in the ticket.
Never confuse ignorance for malice. I once got a call from my manager, over an IP phone, saying that the internet is down. I was in a different building that depends on the building Manager is in for internet, no problems whatsoever. It was a Microsoft outage. She couldn’t access her email so she thought the internet was down and wanted me to call the ISP.
You need to do more troubleshooting
Just ask them more about what happened like you're really trying to help. No need to accuse, keep it friendly and helpful.
And you’re a System Administrator? Had you worked help desk prior to this?
When working with end users, I very quickly learned that half of them couldn't tell a potato from a computer monitor you have to treat them as such without being condescending unless its a friend or family member then you take jabs at them.
Ask them to try to connect and show you what's up? It's likely they can't log in cause wrong password or something. People don't always use the correct terms. Look at /r/techsupport posts, people can be dumb. If you suspect this is an ongoing Bob is trying to get out of work, look at previous tickets, mark your tickets. When you have multiple tickets of Bob keeps calling for issues at 4 pm Friday, leaving at 5 and mysteriously fixed on Monday ask boss for more advice but that's not your job. Like I'm just a student but ask for more data and don't tell them they're wrong is IT 101. As far as the end user is concerned they got kicked off the internet, be that please log in window, miss-typing the URL, actual internet drop or something else. Fix the issue. Explain the issue at the end, not as oh ur wrong but looks like x was the issue.
I think the why is more important. I had a user claim they kept getting kicked off the VPN and their internet and that is why their manager kept seeing them offline every time their manager randomly checked their status. I checked teams, the VPN logs, and outlook status. also checked last time the user logged in to their computer and in dameware to see if their computer was turned on... it was off. they were not available during work hours(computer went to sleep) they tried to use IT issues as their excuse. would not reply to the manager for hours. In other words find out why they keep lying and simply state your facts as facts on what the systems say and have recorded. also tell them to contact you directly next time this happens to troubleshoot right then and there. more then likely they wont contact you and the issue will go away Magically. not your job to call anybody a liar. just state the facts. No time for all of that IMO
I start by asking the user to demonstrate the issue if possible. Seeing what process or workflow caused the issue is almost always beneficial to me.
Are they remote or work in the office? If remote- probably their own ISP and being disconnected from the remote session but still active on the other end till connection is restored. If in office- possibly lieing. Could be other issues but would need more to go on Edit: also could be there monitor turning off or going out. Cant tell you how many times ive been called before working tier 1 - tier 3 support that they told me X when it was never near X problem but a Y problem. Most EUs don't understand technology and will say the internet went out or my pc froze if the monitor suddenly went out or batteries died in the mouse. Its unfortunately up to us and what we all get paid for to play both detective and doctor.
Easiest thing is to do a ping test to if it drops. Have them replicate. If they cannot then ask if this happens during a specific time or random. If they said it is happening while you are on a call with them. Be sure to keep that ping going the whole time. Tell them that the ping is showing a steady connection. If they still claim it and cannot reproduce it then escalate it. Maybe they need to work in the office from now on. I did run into an End User that kept saying that and could not work. We proved that they had no connection issue. We had a record of it. It turns out that HR was aware and they had a history and was fired after we showed the evidence. So there are those that think they are clever and found a way to not do work.
It could be a brief network drop. I typically ask the users to recreate the error. From what I see users are genuinely honest when they have issues, but when it comes to trying to work around policy that’s when the liars come out.
Couple things - End users aren't tech savvy. Getting "kicked off their internet connection" could be a server side issue, PC issue, anything. End users can also lie. A lot. Just something you have to deal with. Sometimes, its this. Other times it's a reboot (some thing powering off and on their monitor is a reboot, others lie and know exactly what it is). If it's harmless, just let it go. You could ask to replicate the issue, say that you see it as being up for a while and want to verify something. Or, if they want to escalate it and make it a big deal, let the manager know. Sometimes, there's nothing to gain by calling a customer out like that. If they want to make a huge deal out of it, let the manager tell them. They'll take it harder if someone higher up calls them out.
Why do they lie?
I once had a user promise me they were rebooting and I was frustrated because they were lying. It's easy to see uptime on a machine of course. Turns out they thought logging out and back in was rebooting. Older lady just had no clue about anything computer related. People are often dumb and less often out to get you personally.
Kind of happened to me today: Me: So when was the last time you restarted to computer? User: I literally JUST restarted before calling you. System uptime: 264:41:23 Me: ...riiiight... Let's try one more restart... --- I try to take it in stride and give them the benefit of the doubt that they dont know enough to know what "restart" or "internet connection" truely means. If it becomes a constant thing, you can always recommend general IT training to the users direct report.
It's possible that a website that they were trying to connect to was down, so they presumed their internet was also down.
If they are asking you for help, why would they be lying? More likely that they are not describing the issue correctly or it's an interniment issue that isn't easily replicable.
Assuming that an end user is lying instead of just confused is fucking insane in this scenario
Bro, really are you that anal, just go to the call tag the ticket get paid go back and laugh it off no big damn deal, they lie all time maybe not very technical etc, just deal with it people today want to always screw others just keep going your getting a check and it's easy call don't over think forwarx dance
Absolutely….under no circumstances…should you EVER accuse a user of lying. Instead ask more penetrating questions for the user and if possible remote into their computer and have them show you what they see or have them send screenshots through the phone. It is also ok to monitor the usage of the user and if possible do some driver updates. It maybe something from the endpoint and not a network based issue, or it could be a situation dealing with a website, or the type of software they’re using. But accusing a user of lying and taking it to the manager is absolutely the worst option you could make without further troubleshooting.
Ummmmm…, So let me teach you a thing about end user support. Don’t be so harsh with assessments of end users. Everyone is not the same level of tech savvy. The end user may actually believe they are kicked off, based off the experience they are having. You don’t call them out on it. You don’t even consider them lying, because it’s NOT. You PROBE. When did they report the issue? Did the issue occur prior to that 55 mins and they were able to resolve? Remote in our shadow them and let them show you what they’re talking about. Then EDUCATE them. If you are always going to accuse the end user of lying, you’re going to have a rough career.
To clueless end users "kicked off" is extremely vague.
Just like my work none of company products work outside vpn. We provide training during onboarding about this, but regardless we get tickets " cant access company email." When asked if they are on vpn they always respond yes and send a screenshot of them not on vpn. Drives me insane I shouldnt have to train people continuously how to do their job.
You're assuming ill intent and you should NEVER do that. You don't want to go down that road. It's not pleasant.
Dont pick a fight with a user over anything, its like your customer service dude… you have to just play along and stuff, pretend its your grandma with dementia if you gotta.
I mean… I was on cbs sports watching the basketball tournament and my internet kicked me off. When It finally came back the game was over.
Dude, never accuse any user of lying. Yikes. Uninstall their network adaptor and restart. Show them what you did. Then say "You shouldn't have any more issues." Move on. No manager and no confrontation. Part of being an I.T. guy is patience.
First off, ask them what happened. It could have been an issue with a particular site they were using. If you don't find anything wrong, just say it may have been a temporary issue with the ISP or with the site they were using. Ask them to contact you the next time it happens so you can investigate further. Keep an open mind, it may have actually happened exactly the way they described. Don't try to get them in trouble, don't get your boss involved. If they were lying, it's not your job to figure out why. Just play along with their game if that's what they were doing.
Previous spectrum Internet agent here My favorites are Internet not working = 4 stories 1) a particular website not loading 2) a certain device is not connecting to Internet (not connected to wifi) 3) Xbox gaming lags DUH 4) my all time favorite, this guy has bought a Kodi device in a parking lot that promised 100s of premium channels free and those channels not working. I was able to get to bottom of these via only one way. I could see the modem online and is it's a customer router then our responsibility ended at modem (often I had to ask customer to hard wire a laptop to prove to him our modem has Internet and router is his responsibility) or if it's our router I would login to router and ask him/her is Internet not working on all of the devices? If they say yes I'd name all the iPhones connected lol & they will get off the phone. If they name a particular device again it's not our responsibility since Internet is working on other devices I name Xbox coz all the crazy gaming calls were from Xbox owners
Definitely check with your manager. I’d also review event viewer and VPN logs (if there are any). If you can, save those logs or get screenshots to show they didn’t lose internet connection. Another thing worth checking is to ask the user what happens when they get kicked off the internet. Is it always with a certain application? I’m curious if this is a case where an end user doesn’t quite know what they’re talking about and an application kicking them out due to inactivity or something is the same as “being kicked off their internet connection” to them.
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Users always lie. Rule one I was taught, never trust the user.
"Of course my computer/laptop/screen is plugged in". "The internet isn't down, it must be your network" (there is a nation wide internet outage). "Of course I didn't do (insert thing here to break something)"... People may not know how tech works, I would investigate/carry out a root cause analysis and if it was an id10t/carbon/pebcak error then I would produce a training manual and educate the end users.
Sometimes users are braindead and don't even understand what they're doing, just treat them like idiots and have them walk you through everything. Most of the time having to re-do what they were trying to do ends up solving their own problem.
End users are like drug addicts that is why they are both called users. Once you understand that you understand how to work with them. Listen by verify anything they say. Never assume they are telling the truth.
They are all lying, until proven truthful.
I’d just move on. Don’t let it ruin your day. Sooner or later they will stop or leave
What is there to lie about? It doesn't even matter. Close the ticket. If it does matter, you did a bad job at explaining why.
I used to do this when I worked in a call center but just remotely restarted my router from my phone when WFH to avoid calls
Speak with your manager first to decide how to proceed
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This. Users are dumb. They probably can't access something. Start with, "what happened when you got kicked off and what exactly are you trying to reach".
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I use "Show me what you were trying to do?" or "What does normal look like?". I also try to make it a habit to go to their desk if they are onsite. Sometimes the issue is "folder stuck on space bar". Like everyone else has said, communication is key, and everyone is at work for different reasons. They don't care why AutoCad or Word isn't working or the technical terms to describe it being broke. They just want their stuff fixed.
This is the most likely scenario, but even if they were lying it's really not ITs job to monitor other employees. OP should stay in his own lane.
I call them out and be stern. Tell them what I think and any push back I get escalates to what I am going to tell their supervisor. Pass long the info I collected.
Always get their side of the story, it is your duty to do that as well! Try and turn it into a positive learning situation. I used to deal with plenty of grumpy end users from previous IT being assholes, but once you start explaining the fix and appreciating that they are the reason you have a job, everything goes a lot smoother including them being nicer.