Blackened

Right before lunch time yesterday, we received a call (actually an IM...the help desk likes to IM us) that a customer wanted a previously opened ticket raised to a high severity. The ticket was about 18 hours old and moving it up to the next level would have made our partner/competitor miss the contracted service level, so I had the help desk open a new case. I called the competitor's help desk, gave them the ticket number and was grilled by the person who answered the phone in such a way that had he been within 10 miles of here (he was in India), I would have throttled him. He made some very snide comments that I will not go into, but I feel justified in e-mailing the client mgmt to inform them of the issue. However, I digress. Once the guy in India was done belittling me, I gave him our contact number and went on my way. 15 minutes or so later, he calls me back telling me that I did not do something correctly in the ticket and I needed to correct it. I immediately opened up the ticket and checked the logs and saw that I did it exactly as I was supposed to. Informed the sarcastic HD person that I believe he was mistaken and he "checked again". "Oh, it must have just updated", he replies and then he hangs up.

Two hours later, I notice the case is in "pending", indicating that they are waiting on the customer. I opened up the ticket and see an e-mail pasted in it indicating that they cannot continue working since the person they need to resolve it is on vacation. I call up the manager of the end user and inform her and she tells me this is unacceptable. Well "DUH!", of course it is. The problem is that the third party that our customer has chosen does not answer to us, even though we "own" I/T and the I/T processes. I call the tech to ask him why he has not called the vacationing employee's manager and he tells me that he can't. We argue back and forth and decided to call the end users manager to let her know the dilemma. I thought she would understand but she informs me that she "thinks" it should be my responsibility to contact her peer in Europe. "We must follow the process", she says.

"Well, if we are going to follow the process, then I suggest you contact your company's escalation team so they can find a manager to work with us", I reply.

"We do not need to get the escalation team involved," she says rather timidly. "I do not see why you cannot make the call."

"Because, we have processes that you have approved and in some cases, authored. Processes need to be followed."

"I don't think that is the process!" she quips.

"Well, I am quite sure it is. You see, before joining this team, was on the escalation team and it was my responsibility to make those calls...and they came from people such as yourself." I inform her.

Come to find out it was not a case of "I don't know", it was a case of, "I am just an acting mgr and I don't want to call up a real mgr late at night and make him mad".

This went on for a while and I finally gave the mgr a call. He did not answer, so I left him a message (something the techs in India and KL never seem to do...not sure why) with the tech's and the acting mgr's mobile number.

The rest of the day went smoothly and I was able to go home without incident at 5:00 PM. On my way home, I stopped by Lowe's to get lawn waste bags and some Weed Stop 2X (kills weeds, not grass). I really hate how stores do not put things near each other that should be. The lawn bags were outside in garden department, instead of in the inside where they would be easier to find. Home Depot will move the bags from the lawn and garden dept to front as soon as you walk in since they sell so fast.

I got home and took care of the dogs, ate a couple of pork bbq sandwiches, some chips, and a glass of sweet tea. I changed into old clothes and went outside to spray our back yard as well as our neighbors. The weeds were pretty heavy so I made sure I sprayed them well. I hope I sprayed well enough. Spraying an entire yard by hand takes a while. I try to do it a couple times a year.

After all that, I chatted with my wife cleaned up some, and ate some Blue Bell ice cream. There was nothing on TV to watch, so I read some e-mail, caught up on the MMA news, and went to bed.

I am so exciting.