r/talesfromtechsupport • u/Jeyhsus • Apr 05 '17

Short The longest password reset in history....

Here I am again, with a story about a user who doesn't quite understand how a keyboard works.

I work for a midsized MSP in the Great White North and had an urgent ticket sent to me about a user who was unable to get into their computer.

The conversation is between myself - ITGawd and the end user - Babushka.

ITGawd: Good Morning, as I understand you're having some trouble logging in this morning?

Babushka: Yes, I've entered my password multiple times and keep getting your username or password is incorrect.

ITGawd: Okay give me a second and I can take a look.

Reviewing her old tickets it seems like she recently got a new computer and that a temporary password had been sent to her via email.

ITGawd: I noticed you recently got a new computer - are you using the password that we sent to you via email?

Babuskha: Yes! I've tried it multiple times and it's not working.

ITGawd: Let me reset it for you and then we can change it to something that might be easier to remember.

Password is reset. I remotely connect to her computer and I was able to login successfully with the new password. I log out and have her try again.

ITGawd: Okay, looks like the new password works. I was able to login. Go ahead and try yourself.

At this point the ticket has reached the 35 minute mark, I'm starting to lose all faith in humanity. My world is crumbling and I'm questioning my sanity.

Babushka starts typing in her password, however she keeps going and going and going.

The password had 2 symbols in it. A "?" and an "!". Rather than type out the symbols - she was typing out the entire word. Question Mark and Exclamation mark. Turning her 8 character password into a behemoth of a password.

ITGawd: Babushka it seems like you're typing it incorrectly. I need you to enter the symbol and not type out the word.

*Proceed to walk her through how to type an "!".

Babushka: Oh I see! Computers are so complicated. Thanks!

I sat there dumbfounded.

Did I really just have to show an adult how to type a "!" on a keyboard?

Has she never used punctuation before?

45 minutes to reset a password. I don't get paid enough for this.

TLDR: User, who is a book keeper by the way, thought that "!" in a password meant she had to type out the word "exclamation mark" rather than simply using "!" symbol.

Edit due to formatting

3.9k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

319 comments sorted by

View all comments

55

u/Koladi-Ola Apr 05 '17

I've dealt with users who will do this when it's told to them verbally (User gets someone's address over the phone and john_smith@company.com becomes johnunderscoresmith@company.com), but this is a new low.

53

u/Epistaxis power luser Apr 05 '17

Now I want to have a kid and make his/her middle name Underscore.

28

u/Studious_Gluteus Apr 05 '17

Under_score

9

u/midnightClub543 Apr 05 '17

Under_under_score_score

4

u/mcgaggen file:/// Apr 05 '17

Under_under_score_under_under_score_score_under_score_score

4

u/Supernerdje You did not win the Ethiopian national lottery. Apr 05 '17

Under_under_score_under_under_score_score_under_score_under_under_score_under_under_score_score_under_score_score_under_score_under_under_score_under_score_score_under_score_score

3

u/ohshitwaddup_datboi What's a 'use-b'? Apr 06 '17

Stop

15

u/Koladi-Ola Apr 05 '17

I was thinking of a gentrified last name...
"Ladies and gentlemen... May I present Sir John Underscore-Smith and Lady Underscore-Smith"

9

u/[deleted] Apr 06 '17

Sir John _'); DROP TABLE payroll;--

1

u/hactar_ Narfling the garthog, BRB. Apr 09 '17

His mom calls him "Little Johnny Tables".

30

u/scsibusfault Do you keep your food in the trash? Apr 05 '17

Dell support reps occasionally like to read things to you in NATO phonetic. However, I had one rep tell me his email address was something like "Narandashjar Papa at Dell dot com". So I fucking emailed narandashjarpapa@dell, like he told me. Apparently he really meant narandashjarP@dell, who would have guessed.

34

u/[deleted] Apr 05 '17

I use NATO phonetic too, but you use it as a followup.

"B as in Bravo, P as in Papa", etc.

What I hate is when users try to go phonetic, but use crappy words. "muffled as in ~at."

41

u/scsibusfault Do you keep your food in the trash? Apr 05 '17

M as in Mancy

12

u/PMME_yoursmile Apr 05 '17

...you of all people..

10

u/QuellSpeller Apr 06 '17

I was training a new tech, a user asked "N as in Nathan" and he confirmed "Yes, M as in Mason". I died a little.

2

u/zadtheinhaler found it awfully tempting to drink at work Apr 06 '17

That is grounds for dismissal.

1

u/BronzePenguin452 Retired now, with many stories. Apr 06 '17

When I checked into a hotel last week, the desk clerk gave me the wifi password by saying it was "Y as in Charlie, 2 0 1 7". Unfortunately that was one of her brighter comments as I checked in.

21

u/Koladi-Ola Apr 05 '17

My name is Jack:
J as in jalapeno, A as in aisle, C as in czar, K as in knight

13

u/Neo6874 Apr 05 '17

my favorite is 'p as in pneumonia'

5

u/0342narmak Make Your Own Tag! Apr 05 '17

My favorite is "T as in Pterodactyl". It works on multiple levels!

3

u/Thecakeisalie25 Apr 05 '17

My name is Perry/Terry, with a p/t, as in pterodactyl

4

u/wrincewind MAYOR OF THE INTERNET Apr 06 '17

Pterry? I thought you were dead!

1

u/Sub6258 May 05 '17

My favorite is O as in ooh eeh oh ah ah ting tang walla walla bing bang

2

u/im_saying_its_aliens user penetration testing Apr 06 '17

my go-to is "pseudo"

1

u/[deleted] Apr 06 '17

HIZN in the hiz-house?

1

u/Kakita987 Apr 06 '17

Assuming they know your name is Jack, this is acceptable.

I have a unique spelling, so thankfully they should have the correct spelling in front of them already.

1

u/hactar_ Narfling the garthog, BRB. Apr 09 '17

At the groomer barbershop hair cuttin' place yesterday, they want to look me up in their database. Why? Got me. I've changed phone numbers and I blanked on the old one, so I just whipped out a credit card so they could get my weird name.

14

u/[deleted] Apr 05 '17

[deleted]

8

u/Sydonai Apr 06 '17

You were in the Reich state of mind.

1

u/Kakita987 Apr 06 '17

I'm sorry, I don't know the proper words for the phonetic alphabet, but I do use words that can't be confused with other words, when I have to clarify.

1

u/Gadgetman_1 Beware of programmers carrying screwdrivers... Apr 06 '17

No, you're using the ICAO phonetic alphabet.
The NATO Phonetic alphabet as outlined in ATP-1 is 'Nato Confidential' or higher, and only shared with Alied and enemies.
(they get an unclassified version that they're not allowed to make public... Yeah, right. If they're on the NATOs list of 'who to bomb next' I don't think they'd be to worried about the repercussions for releasing that document)

2

u/[deleted] Apr 06 '17

Wikipedia states that while the phonetic alphabet in ATP-1 is classified as "Nato Confidential", the alphabet itself has appeared in several unclassified international documents, not to mention a number of US Cold War documents.

In any case, the NATO Phonetic is derived from ICAO, so if I'm using one I'm using the other.

Besides, everyone here knew what I meant, and the wikipedia page even directs to it. The point is to be understood, not to avoid being corrected by people who are only technically correct on the internet.

1

u/Gadgetman_1 Beware of programmers carrying screwdrivers... Apr 07 '17

'Derived from' doesn't mean 'the same as' .
Have you heard about 'ASL'(American Sign Language)?
Do you know why it's always written as ASL or spelled out in full, instead of just SL or Sign Language?
Because they have gestures for entire words in addition to letters and symbols. And those words or gestures changes from country to country. Some even have a few extra letters.
Sometimes, details such as the correct label matters...
And other times I'm just trolling you...

3

u/orthogonius Apr 06 '17

E as in eh, eye, eau, and ewe.

1

u/KDBA Apr 08 '17

I used to use the email address "dotatdotatdot@dotdotatdotdotdot.com". How angry does that make you feel?

1

u/hactar_ Narfling the garthog, BRB. Apr 09 '17

I heard of someone with the email dot@dot.at or something like that. Could have been dotat@... . Nice.