Some tech problems aren’t technical at all.

Imagine someone calling the service desk and urgently demanding that you “fix” their email problem, but the only problem was that they were replying to the wrong email address. Would you lose your patience? Or would you find the easiest way to show them the issue?

In the following story, a tech support worker finds himself in this predicament and makes the caller read.

Here’s how it played out.

HALP! I can’t email donotreply!

Me: Service Desk

Caller: You need to help me right now!

Me:…

Caller: HELLO!

Me: Help you with what please… You need to explain your issue

He asked her to show him the messages.

Caller: EVERY TIME I EMAIL SOMEONE, I GET A MESSAGE TELLING ME NOT TO REPLY. WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME? PLEASE FIX THIS!

Me: Well, if this is an external company, I suspect there’s not much we can do. May I remotely connect and take a look?

Caller: Whatever, just fix it!

I connected remotely.

Me: Okay please show me the messages that you’ve sent and received…

He saw the problem and tried to explain.

The caller opens her sent box, which has about 50 messages sent to donotreply@.com, and then opens her inbox, which has about 50 automatic replies saying she has contacted an unmonitored inbox …

Caller: SEE! YOU NEED TO GET THIS RESOLVED ASAP RIGHT NOW!

At this point, I’m rapidly exceeding my crap tolerance.

Me: You’re sending emails to a do-not-reply address. This is why it’s happening. As you can see from the multiple emails they’ve sent back to you, you should be using customerservice@.com, NOT donotreply@.com.

She was not happy with his answer.

Caller: DO YOU THINK I’M STUPID? STOP AVOIDING THE ISSUE!

Me: Can you see my mouse?

Caller: YES!

Me: Can you see this address in the ‘to’ field?

Caller: (sigh) YES!

Suddenly, it clicked.

Me: What does it say?

Caller: donotrep…

Caller: Oh

Caller: click

Yes, goodbye caller – you have a fantastic day now!

Too funny! At least she finally realized what happened.

Let’s see if the people over at Reddit have ever encountered this issue.

This person is dealing with something similar.

According to this comment, they let other people handle those types of emails.

Because that would be too easy.

The story brought on emotions for this reader.

What an annoying situation!

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.