We often joked (privately of course) that most of the issues users face are really simple. Like the computer not being plugged in or worse, turned on. We had insider jokes about this -- which in hindsight are probably not very PC, but this was 20 years ago after all.
My favorite was to say, 'this is a chair to keyboard problem' -- in other words -- the user him/herself. I know, don't chastise me. It wasn't nice.
These days about the worst user problem we ever encounter are homeowners upset because they think their pool controls or TV remotes don't work properly when the fact is, they have forgotten how to operate them. This is particularly true when they have more than one home and their controls differ.
Recently though, I experienced my first ever embarrassment over an issue with a client. That has never happened before and I'm still feeling the sting.
Our client has a tankless water heater and he said it took a little while to get the water hot. We had our plumbers -- a company with whom we've been working since we first started this company -- come out to investigate.
On the first visit, they said everything was fine and they recommended configuring the internal recirculating pump which will keep the hot water flowing rather than simply waiting for it on demand.
Our client ok'd this but the water seemed to take longer and longer to heat. We then had the same company run diagnostics, even though the heater was not throwing error messages. No issues there.
I called the manufacturer who explained this is not an 'instant' hot water system but an 'on demand' system and that sometimes water can take a little while to heat.
I shared this with the client, but he insisted that the hot water previously came on in about 10 seconds where now it was taking minutes. He wasn't upset about the length of time so much as the water waste. Still, it needed to be fixed.
As someone who has yet to meet a problem I can't solve, I spent quite a bit of time researching tankless hot water heaters and determined that they need regular maintenance. Since this homeowner was new in this house (but the house wasn't new), we decided to do the maintenance.
Still no results. Finally, I called the company who installs these particular tankless systems regularly. Their technician came out and, you guessed it, the switch for the recirculating pump was not turned on!
O.M.G.! We have spent two weeks on this issue and have had our original plumber out three times -- and for what? A switch not being on! I am feeling the same flush of embarrassment now, as I write this, as I felt when we figured this out.
The client, as always, was very gracious and nonjudgmental -- he even said he was so happy he was running around the house running all the faucets! We're happy for him but still, we feel pretty awful about this.
However, and as is always the case, we did learn some valuable lessons in all of this:
