Customer conversations

Working in IT and dealing with problems or setting up new systems involves talking to customers.

Occasionally these are amusing enough to repeat. Here is one.

I was setting up a new server with file, print, and email. As it happens I was using Novell OES, and GroupWise 7 for Linux, which comes with clients for Windows, Apple Mac, and Linux as well as a web interface.

When setting up email you have a bunch of people who need mail boxes and they have a standard format of email like logonname@somedomain.co.uk or firstname.lastname@ etc....

You also need some alias or group email addresses like sales@ and perhaps the odd one or two for people who have left who's mail you may want to redirect to some one else.

Anyway, so there I am, installing this system, and ask "what about email aliases?"

I get a nine yard long list, which includes many different ways of spelling peoples names people who left ages ago etc.

So I say:

"Why not tell them to f*ck off and learn how to spell?"

Customer
"That does not fit in with our customer focused strategy"

Ah well....

More on email miss spellings another day.