She Was Happy To Track Down A New Cable For A Colleague, Yet Learning What Happened To The Original Made The Request Much Stranger
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Laptop chargers usually need travel adapters, not surprise electrical surgery.
This developer expected a routine request when a coworker urgently asked for a replacement power cable.
Her explanation revealed that the original cable was not lost, forgotten, or even technically broken by accident.
Read on to hear the modification that left the IT team speechless.
An unusual request for new laptop power cable
I work as a product lead and full-stack developer in a non-profit organisation based in the UK.
The headcount of the entire IT department, including myself, is fifteen people, compared to over 300 employees worldwide.
Sometimes, people ask me about all sorts of IT support requests, which I am more than happy to help with if I have the time.
One sunny afternoon during lunch time, I was approached by a colleague who had just returned from a trip to France. Let’s call her Jane.
Jane asked me if I had a spare power cable her my laptop, saying that she I desperately needed one.
Read on to find out how this worker (who wasn’t in tech support) responded.
I replied: “yeah, you can submit an IT ticket request, and someone will be able to help you with that. Did you lose your power cable?”
Jane replied that no, her cable wasn’t lost, but while she was in France she spent time with her father at his house.
Then, when she realised that the EU plug didn’t match the UK power cable, she asked her dad for help.
Making an assumption, I responded, “Ah, okay. So you forgot to bring it back with you?”
But that wasn’t quite the problem here.
Jane replied, “Well, no. My father loves to tinker with electrical stuff, so he cut the power cable head from my laptop’s power cable and replaced it with the EU head. But now I am back in the UK and I don’t know how to change it back to the UK head.”
I immediately ran to ask one of my colleagues from the IT support team to come and hear this amazing story himself.
My colleague explained to Jane that she would need to file an IT support ticket for a replacement cable, as that specific hardware was now deemed damaged and unusable and the company would need to contact our supplier about this.
He also told her that that counted as destruction of company property – that she could’ve just bought a travel adapter, and the issue wouldn’t have happened in the first place.
Jane, however, did not see the issue at all.
Jane replied, “Hmm, I don’t know what’s the matter with this. My dad is quite good at electrical stuff, so I don’t know what the big deal is about this. But I will submit a ticket for a replacement cable. Thanks.”
To this day, Jane still does not think that she did anything wrong, and we were just making things difficult for her.
I think she still hates me.
It’s absolutely crazy that instead of simply purchasing a travel adapter, this woman actually had her father replace the plug for an EU one.
Not only is that a huge oversight and destruction of company property, it could be dangerous too.
Moreover, the fact that she had the audacity to believe she had done nothing wrong, makes this so much worse.
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Let’s see what the Reddit community had to say about this.
This person was totally baffled about the way Jane had handled this whole situation.
While others shared the IT team’s frustration.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a delivery driver who, after being scolded for ignoring parking policies, decides to maliciously comply himself into some serious overtime.
However, this Redditor pointed out that for older people raised in the UK, changing the plug isn’t that unusual.
Jane’s father cut the UK plug from her company laptop cable and replaced it with a European one during her trip to France.
Back home, she requested another cable and remained confused when IT classified the original as damaged company property.
The travel adapter was optional, but the support ticket became mandatory.
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