Some tech issues are a mystery.

This tech support worker received a call from a customer complaining that the remote control for the TV doesn’t work when his wife is home. Together, they figured out the real issue and the customer was ever so grateful.

Read the full story below.

Remote that doesn’t work when wife is home

I was working for a TV distributor with both cable and dish channels. They had their own brand of TV box/decoders.

When the customer in question called in and started by saying that I had to believe him, I knew it was going to be a great call. The log showed he had called several times before.

Customer: When my wife is at home, the remote control to the decoder doesn’t work.

Me: Yes, it does, but I’ll hear you out.

He thought the knew the answer, but he was wrong.

Inner Me: I bet she takes the batteries.

Customer: Your colleagues all guessed that she takes the batteries.

Inner Me: Darn it.

This is weird!

Customer: …but she doesn’t! I can be holding the remote control and it works fine. She comes home and ten minutes later, it doesn’t work anymore. I haven’t let go of the control, and even tried changing batteries when it stopped working just to be sure, but it doesn’t make a difference.

We go back and forth for a long time, thinking of different things that could be an issue.

He’s being nice about my inability to help him.

This tech support and the customer finally solved the case.

Though I started out thinking he’s just another customer who thinks that the reply to “Did you check if the cable is connected properly?” is always “Yes, I did, I even tried five different cables.” even though they didn’t, I quickly realise he’s tech-savvy, and we test and discard a dozen theories.

In the end, 45 minutes later, we solved it.

So his wife wasn’t intentionally doing anything to mess with the remote.

When his wife got home, she pulled the curtains apart to let in light, and the sunlight was directly on the IR reciever, interfering with the remote control.

When his wife left, he pulled the curtains to see the TV better.

They’d tried to lower production cost of the new line of decoders, so the dark plastic in front of the IR reciever was just that – dark plastic instead of a filter to block other light.

Figuring that out was the most satisfying tech support moment I’ve had.

Good catch! This tech support should be a private detective.

Let’s read the comments from other readers on Reddit.

This person shares a similar story.

Another user can relate to the customer.

A plausible theory from this person.

A similar experience from this user.

And here’s a possible solution.

Who knew tech support could feel like cracking a case in a mystery novel?

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.