Most users who call into a company help desk are nice and appreciative of the support, but sometimes they try to gaslight you about what the issue really is.

What would you do if a caller kept trying to take control of their computer when you were fixing the issue, and claiming that a previous company did things differently?

That is what happened to the help desk worker in this story, so he locked her out and fixed the issue, resulting in her trying to get his direct information for future help.

Nothing like users trying to gaslight you

This story is from yesterday and I think this might’ve been one of the more frustrating calls I’ve been on with a user in sometime.

Working from home is the best.

The day started out like normal, just a relaxed day working from home with a steady amount of calls rolling in. Then shortly after I return from lunch I get another call, unfortunately for me this call is not going to be an easy one.

Me: Thank you for calling the help desk my name is EonThief, can I have your name please?

Scanners and printers are always a hassle.

User: Yes, hello my name is User and I’m having some difficulties with my scanner, printer, fax device it won’t scan.

Me: Alright I can definitely help with that, did you just receive this device?

User: Yes I did, but I was able to scan to it a couple of weeks ago.

Is the caller not paying attention?

Me: So you didn’t just receive the device, did you call the help desk to have us set it up for you?

User: No I just plugged it in and it worked I guess they had the drivers installed when they setup my computer.

The user is making things up.

Now here is a great time to break away and explain something about the workflow that we use for setting up new hire computers.

We don’t install any drivers for printers or scanners we send out. This is simply because those devices are usually ordered for the manager after the fact so they get setup as they come.

The user just isn’t having it.

Of course I try to explain this to the user to no avail.

Me: We don’t install drivers for those devices ahead of time because not everyone uses them, they usually get installed after you receive the printer/scanner.

Ok, that’s actually reasonable.

User: Well they did that as my last company so I just assumed that’s what they did here.

Me: Okay, well most companies tend to have different standards of operation. Anyway let me remote into your computer really fast and get the drivers installed and the device setup.

Just let him work, lady!

I remote in and the entire time she keeps wrestling me for the controls, and repeating the make and model of the device, while trying to type it in a Chrome window on a second monitor (remember this fact because it’s important for later).

Her constant wrestling for the controls though had me fed up so I locked her controls from the software I’m using.

User: Excuse me, I can’t seem to type in Chrome anymore.

Yeah, so stop trying!

Me: Yes ma’am I locked the controls because I’m trying to work on your computer and I can’t do that while you’re using it.

User: Yes you can, they’ve done it before!

Even if he could, why would he want to?

Me: Not here at this help desk ma’am because the software we use, and most remote control software, can’t have two people working on the device at the same time.

User: Yes they can, they’ve done it before.

Me: Ma’am at least here that isn’t the case.

Finally, he can get the job done.

I then proceed to work the issue some more downloading the driver install program from the manufacturers site and getting it installed.

During this time, however, she asked me why she wasn’t able to type in the open google chrome window or move her mouse THREE MORE TIMES. I ignored her after she asked a second time.

No surprise, she is lying.

While waiting for the program to load I look at previous tickets to see if she did in fact call the help desk for the scanner issue.

I did find one for a scanner issue but not this one, it turns out that she did have the help desk setup a scanner for her in office, not the scanner currently in front of her…

A wise decision.

I decided not to question that. But I did see something in the internal notes of that ticket that are only visible to us and it read:

User would often interrupt, not follow instructions, and leap to their own conclusions for what I am trying to tell her.

Little did I know how bad this would get.

What does the phone have to do with anything?

As we’re going through the setup she begins to bring up the brother app on her phone, and how she can see the device on there.

After a few attempts of trying to get the device to read on her computer and she brings up the phone app again I start to get annoyed.

Me: Ma’am, we’re not looking at the phone app for this we don’t actually support the phone app. If you would like to set that up you can but we have no support for it.

Users who think they know a lot are often the worst.

User: Why are you talking about my phone, I’m talking about the brother app.

Me: The brother app on your phone?

YOU BROUGHT IT UP!

User: Yes the brother mobile app, what does my phone have to do with this?

Me: Ma’am I only brought it up because you were mentioning the mobile app.

User: I don’t see what that has to do with my phone though.

End users are so frustrating.

I mute myself and sit with my head in my hands for a few minutes.

Thankfully in that time the laptop recognizes the printer and I was able to get it installed and setup for the user.

Finally, he can get off the call with her…Right?

We did a test print and scan and it was successful.

As I go through my wrap up script and ask is there anything else I can assist with, she unfortunately says yes.

Why is she making things up?

I ask how else I can assist her and she proceeds to say that she can’t open google chrome now, mind you I see the same Chrome window that she was typing in earlier in this call still open on her second monitor.

I inform her of this fact and she tells me that she wasn’t typing in Chrome, to which I dragged the browser over with a site that she went to before I locked the controls.

User: Where did that window come from?

Oh my gosh.

Me: From your second monitor.

User: I don’t have a second monitor.

Me: …

I checked the display settings and showed her that she did have a second monitor.

She knew she was caught lying.

She then was quiet for a moment before saying she didn’t have any other issues. Before I dropped the call she then asked if there was a way to reach out to me directly in case this issue happened again, preferably via Teams.

I informed her that we do not monitor Teams chats for help desk related issues, and that if you have any issues to either put in a help desk ticket or call the help desk directly.

Nobody cares about your last company!

She pushed the matter again and I gave the same response, she disconnected the call after this but not before throwing out one last “well they did it at the last company I worked for.”

Why would she ever think that this guy would want to help her directly ever again! She sounds awful.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about this frustrating situation.

She thought he couldn’t tell.

Yes, always document this type of thing.

This is such an annoying line.

Do they think they are protesting or something?

Why are so many users like this?

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.