My Quick Regret
Last night I did a scheduled upgrade of QuickBooks for a client. One server, 10 desktops, three databases. It went well. As usual with an upgrade like this, I’m scheduled to be on site the next day for a couple of hours to help out and answer questions about the new version. In this case, I was scheduled for Monday morning since like most offices, they’re closed over the weekends.
My cell phone rings this morning at 7:30 am (on the weekend). I don’t recognize the number so I ignore it. I quickly regretted it. They then proceed to call back continuously for the next 10 minutes, never leaving a message until the last call. I listen to the message. It’s from a staff person at the client where I upgraded QuickBooks, irate as heck and yelling, “QUICKBOOKS IS BROKEN! I CAN’T DO MY JOB! THIS IS GOING TO COST THE COMPANY TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS! YOU BETTER GET THIS FIXED. GET OVER HERE! CALL ME BACK IMMEDIATELY”!
So I remote in to the remote desktop server, verify that all is well, take a deep breath and call her back. She proceeds to berate me until she runs out of breath, never tells me what the problem is but instead focuses on how her inability to enter some transactions she didn’t get to Friday is going to cause the end of life on this planet. After several minutes I finally get her to tell me what problem she’s having when she runs the program.
“IT WON’T START”!
“Does it give you an error message when you try to start it? What do you see”?
“I CAN’T RUN IT! THERE’S NO ICON ON THE DESKTOP! YOU NEED TO GET OUT HERE AND FIX THIS NOW! YOU’RE SCREWING WITH THE COMPANY”!
I remote into her system. The icon is there, in the exact same place as it was before, but it’s a slightly different icon. Still titled “QuickBooks” of course, but it’s a different color. I tell her to watch the screen, double click it, and of course QB comes right up.
I remind her that this is a new version and that some commands and screens will look a bit different. She accuses me of screwing around with it just to make things more difficult for her. I tell her that’s not the case, ask her if there’s anything else I can do to assist. A couple more ugly comments from her and we end the call.
My phone system sends me voicemails as emails with MP3 attachments. I forwarded the email to the owner of the company and told him I expect to be treated more professionally in the future. Frankly, I hope it costs her the job.