Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!

Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!

  • Congratulations TouchToneTommy on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Worst Ooops you've recieved 5

Status
Not open for further replies.

thekl0wn

Programmer
Jan 12, 2006
292
US
I just received an email to inform me that I misspelled maintenance on the title bar of a window. I spelled it maintinance. I know, idiotic and unprofessional on my part, but the reply was classic! And now, the quote from the email I received on the matter: "...maintenance was misspelled in the blue bar thing, and needs to be spelled correctly. You spelled it pfonetically."

Ooops... What was that? I can't understand you with your foot in there! I restrained myself from simply replying: PWNED!
 
I forgot all about that site. I remember it from long ago.

Denny
MCSA (2003) / MCDBA (SQL 2000)
MCTS (SQL 2005 / Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0: Configuration / Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007: Configuration)
MCITP Database Administrator (SQL 2005) / Database Developer (SQL 2005)

--Anything is possible. All it takes is a little research. (Me)
[noevil]
 
About 10 years ago I started working in a call center. We had an IM program, but no real business-need to use it. Keep in mind that 10 years ago IM was still kind of a novelty for most folks.

I don't remember what program we used, but every time you sent a message you had to select from a list of all available users.

I was flirting with a cute red-head in the office via IM one day. I teased her about something and she replied with something along the lines of, "Oh, eff you". But she didn't tone it down, she used the real word. And she didn't select my name, but, rather, the name of a (fairly) big wig over in the building where all the corporate types worked.

Can you imagine being that guy, just minding your own business and then having that message pop up out of nowhere? And from someone you don't even know!

She wasn't fired, but the next day they uninstalled the application from all of the call center boxes.

[tt]_____
[blue]-John[/blue][/tt]
[tab][red]The plural of anecdote is not data[/red]

Help us help you. Please read FAQ181-2886 before posting.
 
Worst Oops that I had was based on hearing the name wrong in the first place, which resulted in the mistype.

The IT dept I worked in at the time hosted a contest to introduce the users to the intranet we had finished publishing. I forget what the contest details were, BUT the prize was dinner for 2 at an upscale local restaurant.

I heard the name of the restaurant as "Candy Dancer" which I innocently placed in the email.

The actual name was "Gandy Dancer".

Oops...
 
My small hometown was too small to support both a fire department and a police department, so we had officers who served double-duty in both roles. They called the department public safety. One year, when they got a fresh batch of patches in, the embroiderer had omitted the L in PUBLIC SAFETY. They wore the patches like that for months before anybody noticed.

-------

When I was stationed at Langley AFB in VA, we'd often get some no-talent-a$$-clown wet-behind-the-ears airman that would fire off a rant to "All" thinking it was everyone in his office, when in fact "All" was really "ACC All" or everybody in the Air Combat Command, which included thousands of airmen of all ranks, around the globe. But, the best was when one particular airman decided to send out a rant that b!tched about how he was being treated poorly. The funny part was the group of first-sergeants and cheif master sergeants (more-or-less military's equivalent of HR) get in a reply-all b!tch session about "airmen these days" and how there is no discipline in the ranks anymore. The funny part is, these higher-ranking enlisted people are replying to all on all of their replies, so there is this whole conversation going to everyone when they think it is private. I don't know what ever came of it, but somewhere I know I have a transcript of the conversation, and one day I will come across it in one of my many boxes of junk and laugh.

-------

The biggest OOPS I've ever done personally, was only partly me. Zuke, a guy I worked with thought he would 'punk' me so he set me up as a SQL Agent and wrote a script that used SQL Mail to automatically email me every two minutes. Ha-ha, very funny Zuke, I thought. So I created a rule to automatically forward any emails from the server to Zuke's email account. He then got angry and set up an auto-reply to me. Frustrated, I auto-replied right back to him. When we came back from lunch, the exchange server was down...go figure.

We both got a quick lesson in exponential growth.

--Gooser

[small]UP Industries[/small]
 
This probably isn't the worst I've gotten but it is rather humorous. I had to call HP tech support one day for a replacement part for a printer. The tech (from India, I think) ran through all the questions on the screen to get all the proper info, including the address. So I told him "South Hill, that's two words," and then the rest of the address.

Imagine my surprise a couple of days later when a package arrived with the address of (you guessed it), "Southhillthatstwowords."


James P. Cottingham
-----------------------------------------
[sup]I'm number 1,229!
I'm number 1,229![/sup]
 
2ffat,

You have to applaud the postal service for figuring out where to deliver it.

 
I would have to agree with KornGeek on that one! When the computers couldn't figure out what was going on, and someone had to manually assign a destination, I bet they laughed at that one.
 
The secret is on the zip code. Once a mail/package gets to the right area, a mailman can easily figure out mistyped street names.
 
"Dumb-Customer" Call:

My sister used to be a customer-support rep handling incoming calls for AT&T Long Distance.

She took a call from a gentleman that complained that he couldn't get one of AT&T's automated systems to work properly. She said that she would be glad to assist. She then patched the gentleman and herself into the automated system, and she invited him to proceed with the response system so they could identify the problem.

They encountered the problem on the very first question: "For English, press or say '1'..." She heard the gentleman press six keys.

My sister explained, "Sir, you pressed too many entries."

The fellow replied, "How many keys does it take you to press 'ORSAY1'?"

********************************************************

"Dumb-CSR Call":

We received a request from the "Data Entry Quality-Assurance" department one time, to follow up on a strange name that ended up in the "Middle Name" field of a new-customer set-up.

We requested the audio tape of the conversation between the call-center rep and the new customer:
Rep: "Surname?"
Cust: "Anderson."
Rep: "First name?"
Cust: "Steven"
Rep: "Middle?"
Cust: "'B' for 'Bob'"
Rep: "Address?"
Cust: "(customer gave the address)..."
The middle-name data entry we were to quality assure:

"Middle Name: Beefabob"


[santa]Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I provide low-cost, remote Database Administration services: www.dasages.com]
 
I once ordered a evaluation software package from a company in the Netherlands addressed to our Louisiana company in

New Orleans, LOS ANGELES

They must have been watching too many Hollywood movies.

Tibi gratias agimus quod nihil fumas.

 
Not far behind is the letter that my father received (delayed only 1 day) when we lived in Twin Falls, Idaho (225 miles/375 km distant from the address on the face of the envelop). The address was simply:
Delivered Mail said:
<Dad's Name>
Mormon Tabernacle
Salt Lake City, UT
In this case, kudos probably should go to the LDS Church Mailroom more than the US Postal Service.

[santa]Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I provide low-cost, remote Database Administration services: www.dasages.com]
 
<COMPLETELY OFF-TOPIC>
Mufasa,
[tab]When did you live in Twin? I was born and raised in Burley (1958-1980).

<Sorry for digressing>


James P. Cottingham
-----------------------------------------
[sup]I'm number 1,229!
I'm number 1,229![/sup]
 
Another good one from the computer lab... One of the younger guys I worked with was a self-proclaimed "pimp". He was around 5'-3" and probably 220+ lbs. Not what most would consider an attractive lad, but he would hit on anything that moved, and would put 110% into that effort. One day, he used the library's messenger (like a one way IM) to send a message to a pretty girl in the lab. To his dismay, he sent it to the wrong computer, and one of the male vagabonds got it instead, and the bum flirted with the guy from then on, and there wasn't really anything he could do, because he knew he'd lose his job if he told anyone else about the bum and they investigated, to find out he was using the system to flirt!
 
<COMPLETELY OFF-TOPIC>
2ffat/James P. said:
When did you live in Twin? I was born and raised in Burley (1958-1980).
We left Twin in 1958 when my dad was assigned to design and build the 35,000-acre LDS Church commercial cattle-ranch/feed lot operation near Americus, Georgia.


But my wife, Nancy, is a born-and-raised "Burley Girl" (Sorry for the image that my conjure in the minds of you non-Idahoans.) Nancy was born in 1955; her sister, Janet, was a year ahead of you at Burley High School. Janet says that you wore glasses; had short, dark hair; and were a member of the "National Honors Society" (woo-hoo! Good Job, Mister).

My wife and her sibs spent their earlier years on a farm at about 150 S. 100 West (near the Boise Cascade plant) southwest of town. Later, when I met my wife, they lived on Bernice Drive just south of 27th Avenue and two blocks east of Overland.

Janet still lives in Burley (on 18th Lane). Nancy's older brother, Warren, just retired as the manager for the IHC Ambulance Service.

"Old Home Week" is fun, huh.[2thumbsup] (If you want to do more "Old Homing", feel free to contact me via my signature.
</COMPLETELY OFF-TOPIC>

[santa]Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I provide low-cost, remote Database Administration services: www.dasages.com]
 
This one happened to my roommate my freshman year in college...

We lived were living in coed residence halls and for whatever reason he and one of the girls across the hall were locked in an minor battle of friendly one-upsmanship.

Well my poor roommate thought for sure he had one when he sent her an e-mail of a morbidly obese (we're talking Jabba's mom obese) woman sitting on a twig of a man. Both were in a fairly natural state...

Well thats all fine and dandy except...

Our university assigned e-mail addresses based on FirstInitialLastName@university.edu, and it was on a first in basis.

So my friend sends an e-mail to jdoe@university.edu thinking he'd sent to Jane Doe. Unfortunately for him, the first jdoe in the system (and had been there for several years) was John Doe, an associate chemistry professor...

Jane Doe's e-mail addy was jhdoe@university.edu (it had inserted her middle initial).

Thankfully for him (though not for us because we wanted to rib him more) nothing ever seemed to happen from it (that I'm aware of) except he will never live that down. ;p

***************************************
Have a problem with my spelling or grammar? Please refer all complaints to my English teacher:
Ralphy "Me fail English? That's unpossible." Wiggum
 
<Off-Topic Yet Again>

Santa, is there ANYPLACE that you have not lived or visited? I think that it would be a shorter list that where you HAVE been......

<Sorry for the thread hijack>

Susan
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls, and looks like work." - Thomas A. Edison
 
Loony:

That reminds me of a college prank I was involved in.

The players
Paul: our resident computer guru. He graduated with double degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering and was in the honors society for both.

Joe: Was in business school. About 6'5", he lifted weights all the time. You wouldn't have wanted to run into him in a dark alley.

Me: Dork in physics. At the time knew very little about computers. But I'm part evil (on my mother's side).

Background
(Note: I was on the receiving end of this prank)

Joe and I were at the computer lab together, sitting two computers apart. A cute girl we didn't know was sitting between us.

Paul, who was in another computer lab elsewhere on campus, sent a link to Joe and I. Being the guru he was, Paul had temporarily given us limited access to his network folder.

Joe and I opened the link at the same time.

It was a full-screen close up of.... part of a woman. I scrambled to close the window, slapping all of the keys on my keyboard. I'm sure I looked silly. But Joe's reaction was much better: He turned off his computer cold, screamed like a 12 year old and ran out of the lab while still screaming.

I had to get his backpack for him, he was in too big a hurry to grab it.

Obviously, I told everyone about his reaction. Paul took great delight in this.

The caper
Not one to let a good thing die, I recruited Paul's expertise for a follow up.

About 2 weeks after the pr0n event, we sent an email to Joe and spoofed the FROM address. When Joe got the email, it appeared to come from a faculty member who worked in the computer department.

The email informed Joe that they had confirmed he was viewing inappropriate material on a school computer using his school account. Joe's account was to be suspended and he was to appear before a disciplinary committee which would decide his fate as a student.

We let Joe stew for a couple of days before letting him in on the joke.

Man, that's mean. But he was very relieved to learn that it was a joke. Relieved enough that he didn't beat us up.

Luckily, Paul and I never got busted for impersonating a professor.

[tt]_____
[blue]-John[/blue][/tt]
[tab][red]The plural of anecdote is not data[/red]

Help us help you. Please read FAQ181-2886 before posting.
 
Susan said:
Santa, is there ANYPLACE that you have not lived or visited?
I guess that for a plain, old country boy, I've been a mile or two...Six degrees of separation and all that.[wink]

[santa]Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I provide low-cost, remote Database Administration services: www.dasages.com]
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor

Back
Top