I had one of our vice-chancellors call me over to his office today in a tizzy because he was having PC problems that were preventing him from getting a report out the legislature (which is currently in-session). Well, being customer service oriented, I ran over to his office to assist him and what to my wondering eyes do I see but a Page Not Found display in his browser.
Of course, my first inclination is that he has browsed to a someplace that has a broken link, but being ever diligent in my job, I first check to ensure that he has an internet connection and can browse to a real-time site. This takes all of ten seconds, so I inform him that there is nothing wrong with his PC and that it is just the site he is on.
He demands that I fix the problem.
I inform him that the content he is trying to look at is on a machine in Washington DC (he was pulling up facts on the US Census bureau site) and was well out of my jurisdiction. This is, of course, not good enough for him. He needs those figures NOW! I try to explain to him that this is kind of (obviously he is not tech-savvy...so I try to break it down) like doing research at the library and needing to read a book someone else has already checked out or has been misplaced. Yes, you know the information is there...but no one can get to it. He then demands (yes, that is the right word) that I inform the Census Bureau of the broken link and get back to him when it is fixed...in the meantime...can I dig up an abstract (the printed and published copy of the material) so he can do his work.
I inform him that I've helped as much as I can. In my scope of work, he has internet access and can reach the internet and my responsibilities have to be turned elsewhere...maybe his secretary might be better able to do those things. I then went on my merry way.
OH...did I mention that on the front page of the website, the census bureau had displayed an advisory informing of a scheduled downtime???
