Lets play House

Not that kind of house, the Gregory House kind.

User calls, says she can't log into the ftp server.

User logs in weekly to do her report, there were some server changes two weeks ago, but she says she logged in last week with no problem. Basic questioning follows; it's a weekend so we can't confirm more people are affected, she can't try from another computer or user, so answers were somewhat limited. Standard server troubleshooting, reviewing out-of-date info, and find I can't log in either. Create a new user, and still can't log in. Log into the box, and still can't log in to the ftp server. wtf? Troubleshoot, troubleshoot, troubleshoot.

Finally think I've done enough, call engineer, he says that since the changeover two weeks ago, you need to use username@servername instead of just username.

I test, it works, call user, tell her what to do, it works.

Called the engineer again, who confirmed there's no way she would have been able to log in last week without the "@server" after the username.

She lied.

If she had only told me the truth, I would have been able to figure out the problem, correct her, and send her on her way. Instead, she wasted my time, and hers.

But why?

Why would you go into work on a Saturday, run your urgent report that has to go out before Sunday, call a tech support person, and lie to them about being able to work just fine last week.

I really don't know, but speculation is always fun.

Maybe she didn't do her work last week, and it was not common knowledge. But her report needed to go out, presumably to people who were going to read it. The engineer said there were a bunch of e-mails that went out after the change over to make sure everyone knew how to log in so they wouldn't call up and waste our time. How did she miss those e-mails? If people would have noticed the report was missing last week, then it must have been sent. Obviously, it wasn't sent by her. Who sent the report for her and let others think she did, why was she unavailable to send the report herself, and why did she miss all the e-mails?

Perhaps she took a little off-the-books vacation, and got someone to cover for her?

Who knows? But it's a fun little game.