The IT Officer Clarified the Boundary Multiple Times, but the User Insisted He Fix an Out-of-Scope Login Problem
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Some tech problems can be too technical for the average user.
In this story, a man worked in IT support and received a call from a user who was unable to access a third-party website because of an authentication issue. After investigating, he discovered that the problem was tied to an account managed by another company He tried to point the user in the right direction, but the user remained convinced that IT should handle it.
If you work in IT, this is a relatable story because a lot of support staff have to spend time explaining ownership and responsibilities. Read the full story below.
You are the support for this.
I work for a medium-sized IT ServiceDesk company, who supports a large multi-national company.
The client company provides primarily laptop.
The Windows OS security is customized for tight security, and they also use sites and account from vendor companies.
Not sure why, but a certain part of our users think these phrases are just suggestions or it’s not true:
“This is out of our scope” or “We are not the correct support for this.”
This man tried to solve the user’s tech problem.
I got a call few months back about unable to log in to the citrix site because the pingID is still on his old device and unable to authenticate.
I then proceeded to unpair his device, but I saw no devices registered or paired.
So I went back to him and informed there were no devices paired to your account, but they insisted there was.
So I then remotely controlled it to the laptop and asked to replicate where is he going.
He advised the user to contact the third-party website’s helpdesk.
I saw and learned it was a 3rd party site and the PingID was registered in their end not ours.
I then informed him that this was not within our scope and he needed to contact that company helpdesk to reset his account or mfa for them to pair up his new device.
He said that he called the helpdesk and he was referred back to us.
I then asked to reach out again and say exactly that they need to “unpair my device from my account.”
The user told him he didn’t know what to write in the email.
But I’m not sure what went on in his head.
He just said to them that he is unable to login from our company account, then he called back again to us.
I then suggested to send them an email.
He then said, “I don’t know what to say in the email.”
He was also now refusing to call back to the 3rd party helpdesk since he is unable to login using our laptop and was refusing to believe the pingID was registered on their account and that we don’t handle their accounts.
He contacted the helpdesk instead, and the issue was fixed immediately.
I went to my team lead for advice.
They suggested I send the email to the 3rd party helpdesk then CC the user on the email.
This was resolved with the 3rd party support reseting their PingID account.
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It sounds like OP handled the situation professionally and did everything possible to guide the user toward the correct solution. However, perhaps the user may not be that tech-savvy, which is why he got frustrated easily and refused to email the helpdesk. It was a good decision that OP decided to contact the helpdesk himself instead, which delivered fast results.
Let’s check out other Redditors’ comments on this story.
Here’s a personal thought.
A typical user problem.
This user gives a suggestion.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a grandson who is tired of driving 5 hours one way to work on his grandparent’s investment property for free.
This person commends the team lead.
And lastly, here’s a valid point.
The right solution always starts with the right support team.
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