An IT consultant describes the day a client showed him the true meaning of the word 'fanatic.'
Back in the mainframe days I supported a CICS/VSAM-based purchasing system. One afternoon I got a call from a panicked client. "The system has gone crazy!" She yelled into the phone. "My &*@&*#@ purchase order is bouncing all over the monitor screen. There's something &*@&*#@ wrong with the system!"
I couldn't conceive of any problem in CICS/VSAM that would cause a purchase order to bounce all over a monitor screen. But by the tone of her voice I knew something must be terribly wrong so I agreed to run down three flights of stairs to investigate the problem. I feared I had a long, complicated day ahead of me.
I found the client in her office pacing in front of her computer in a rather agitated state. As she had so eloquently indicated, the purchase order on her monitor was dancing around the screen. I let out a deep sigh and prepared to do battle with the system.
Just as I was about to start tinkering with the computer I noticed a rather large fan sitting next to her monitor. So of course, I reached over and shut the fan off. Eureka! Wouldn't you know, the purchase order stopped dancing and jumping on the screen. I explained to the buyer that the fan that was causing magnetic interference with the computer monitor and that she should move the fan away from her desk. The client stared at me and nodded slowly. Relieved that the problem was so easy to handle, I headed for the door.
As I was walking out of her office, I heard a loud click and then a hum. The client had turned the fan back on. Immediately the monitor screen began dancing around. The client turned toward me and screamed, "Hey you! See! There it goes again! Look, you'd better fix your &*@&*#@ program right now or I'm going to call your vice president and complain!"
Lesson learned: Sometimes, it's just best to slowly walk away from the scene…
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