So... I feel like a bit of an idiot...
The guy who runs the Residence Internet Service in the student housing at the uni is off this week. This means I have had to come up with some creative alternatives to "around the corner, first door on the left". Such alternatives include "you can try calling or emailing", followed by a general gesture to the sign I have on my desk pointing out the RIS contact info, or "I'm sorry, he's not in this week, so it'll take a while longer to get fixed", or other similar sorts of things.

I have, however, had two students who were thoroughly unimpressed - for what I think are fairly legitimate reasons. One has been getting the runaround for about a month now - unfortunately it's just the way our system interacts with the Registrar's system and how they both interact with the RIS system. The other has a shitload of web-based coursework. Apparently almost all of her courses have some WebCT stuff that needs doing.

So I emailed some of the other IT guys to see if they knew if they or anyone else could take care of it, even though they aren't RIS specialists. Here is the text of that email (remote access is lovely!):

I had this student come in – her internet’s been cut off for overuse, and she’s signed the Internet Usage Agreement.I explained that [RIS Guy] is away and that it might take longer than usual for her internet to be restored, but she was pretty insistent that I do everything in my power to get her internet up and working again ASAP. Apparently she’s got a lot of web-based course content.

Don’t know if there’s anything you can do, but if you can, it’d be greatly appreciated.

Kate

So what did they do?

They called [RIS Guy] at home.

On his week off.

You hear that smacking sound? Yeah, that'd be me smacking my head against my wall/desk/whatever's handy. That's so totally NOT what I intended. Geesh. Now I totally feel like I owe [RIS Guy] the world's hugest apology and perhaps a week's worth of Tim's coffee.

Not only that, but I then got a lecture at my desk delivered in person about how they really couldn't do anything and I really shouldn't be bothering them. Honestly. A simple email saying "nope, nothing we can do, sorry" would have been fine.

Combine all that with the fact that I felt like ass for most of today (nausea and headache, great combo) and it's been a thoroughly shitty day.

Hooray for negativity!
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3 Responses
  1. genderist Says:

    Ug. Good ideas gone bad...

    Maybe brownies would be nice when (RIS GUY) gets back next week!


  2. Magnolia Says:

    NOT YOUR FAULT. You cannot hold yourself responsible for other people's bad behavior.


  3. Llewellyn Says:

    I hear you Kate. Last time someone did that to me, I sent a really long email basically telling them they were being a dick and here was why. But I used my incredible english skills to make it sound all nice and pretty... you know what I mean.

    And yes. Coffee. Good. Soon.