I had a customer that was working my last nerve on one of my Severity 1 cases that wasn't really a Severity 1 case. He was one of those that talked and talked and wouldn't allow me to get a word in edgewise. Then everything I suggested he was not open to trying. The customer's homebase was in London and I inherited the case when the customer insisted on wanting to work with an AMER engineer since the EMEA's shift was ending.
To make things worse he would not allow me to get access to review his issue deeper. Not only that he was demanding I resolve the issue in 30 minutes and get a manager on the call as well. This customer was definitely a piece of work.
That whole ordeal with the customer lasted nearly an hour. I did some initial research with the limited information provided. I spoke to the Sev1 Swarm lead and he agreed to join the next call. So he joined the call and then he invited a friend of his to join as well.
That call ended up being for nearly two hours. In the midst of the call, I heard a sound like a soft pop and then my work laptop shut off. I quickly found my work android and let my swarm lead know the laptop went out and I was going to rejoin by phone.
In the meantime I struggled to get my work laptop working again. Finally after a couple minutes I got it to come on again. I discovered that my charger was not working at all. I did switch back to the nightmare meeting from my phone back to my laptop. The call finished and then knowing that I only had so much time before my battery would die, I raced to get my General Hand-Off notes together for the two Sev1's, including this nightmare on, going before it died. This all happened on 07/02.
So when I got home, I discovered that my backup charger was not working on the one Type-C USB port but it worked on the second Type-C USB port. Then I discovered my work charger also worked on it as well. So I let the laptop charge for the rest of the day.
I decided I wanted to go in the office for a fourth day this week. My original intention was that I wanted to work 4 days to get an extra banked day in case I decided I wanted to work two days in the office one week. But with my charger issue, I decided it would be good to go in so I can work with tech support in case I had issues. I also wanted to find out about the USB port.
So fast forward to 07/03. I was in the middle of a team meeting (about 2 hours after I logged in for the workday) when I heard the soft pop and my laptop shut off again. At that point I decided to meet with the tech support team. After reviewing the issue, they concluded that the issue was with the charger. To confirm this he tried it with a different charger and the battery charged fine.
I was frustrated because I had bought a replacement charger in March 2024 so it only lasted about 15 months before conking out. Tech support was suggesting I get a new charger (which tech support does not supply). I also wanted to get a newer laptop. Tech support mentioned that the laptop would not really be new but rather the same version of my existing laptop. Plus they would need a valid reason for replacement.
My keyboard letters have faded into oblivion which made it difficult to see what I'm typing. The guy working tech support was not sure if that would be a valid enough reason. But after thinking about it, I told him that I wanted to try and get a replacement. Even if it's not a newer laptop, my hope was that it would be a functioning laptop.
So they went through the process of putting the order replacement in. I got a confirmation email that the replacement was in the process of being shipped. I also decided I needed to go home since I only had so much time before the work laptop would die.
It did save me from getting any new Sev1's that day, including potentially getting that nightmarish customer again. I looked at the case history and the customer was already demanding to speak with me since EMEA's shift was ending again and clearly was not open to the suggestions from EMEA. I saw that another team member ended up with the customer with disastrous results. The customer again was being overly demanding and not willing to listen to suggested workarounds.
Knowing that I didn't have much time before my laptop died again, I decided to head back home. I stopped at a local restaurant a few blocks from our home and ordered lunch for Dom and I. I got home just before my team meeting.
In the end I was pretty much dead in the water without my laptop. My manager suggested I just take the rest of the day off. I decided also to order a new charger for the work laptop even though the replacement should be coming as well. I want to see if I can at least get a charger that will work again.
Then as if to add insult to injury, my charger on my personal laptop decides to act up as well. So I basically have to order another replacement cord for that one as well. Luckily my backup charger actually works for my personal one. So that's what I'm using until my replacement charger comes in.
Both chargers are out for delivery and are expected to arrive sometime today. You got to love technology.
