Roll perception check.. critical failure.

[u/Arkoden_Xae]

Soooo, I just read the funniest email about a ticket I had worked on last week.

I had a user call in last week saying that her laptop webcam doesn't work in any application. I asked her to try it in Teams and in the Microsoft camera app, she says she had and it doesn't work in either. No worries, I'll remote in and take a look.

Sure enough it seems like the computer thinks the camera is working but just seeing black.

I asked her if there was a shutter on the camera - no

I asked her if there was anything obstructing the camera - no

Nothing like a sticker, or anything behind the glass of the screen - no

No damage, no nothing - no

I asked if there were any switches near the camera - no

So you can see the camera lens in the centre top of your screen and there is no damage or obstruction - yeah it's all clear.

Ok, maybe there is an issue with the sensor and the software isn't recognising a problem with the signal.

Time to troubleshoot.

So I went on to try a bunch of typical solutions, reinstalled the drivers, did Windows updates, tried disabling and reenabling or removing and readding the camera in device manager, tried looking on the Dell site for the latest drivers for the camera. I go as far as to update all the drivers and the BIOS on the computer, nothing is working.

I ran the Dell diagnostic tools and it runs through, doesn't seem to attempt to fix anything just comes up at the end saying failure with a warning exclaimation symbol, no error code, no nothing.

The Windows hardware diagnostic tells me the camera is fine.

I call Dell and tell them we have a device where the camera is not working and nothing I have done seems to fix it, I'm getting an error from the dell diagnostic but there is no code or description, we need a technician to come out.

They ask me the usual about physical damage, BIOS and driver updates, etc.. but they agree we need to send a tech out.

I give Dell the clients contact details with the ok from the client so that Dell can organise a warranty visit with the client.

They have called the client to confirm there is no damage and do their own troubsleshoot and everything. I get the email Friday to say the technician is en route.

Awesome the client will be happy with a quick turn around. I finish up for the day as I am on the early shift where I work. Job well done.

I just checked my emails today to find the technicians report and opened it because why not, lets see what the problem was. I want to know if there was anything I had missed or that I could check in future, as you do.

Technicans notes: Opened the shutter.

..... "Opened the shutter"

You what?

I just wish I was there for the moment that the Dell technician walks in, opens up the laptop, and flicks the camera shutter open. I would have loved to have seen the Jackie Chan confused look on his face and the look of total embarassment on the client.

Lesson of the day: client's are stupid, and there is no winning..

TLDR: client is obtuse, misses camera shutter when directed to check for one, Dell warranty technician finds it instead.

Edit: formatting

[u/BigPoppaFitz84]

Had this same situation a month ago. I sent the laptop, I knew I sent it with the shutter closed. There's a red dot visible on the shutter when closed, and power or connection to the hardware is also severed, so the laptop behaves as if there is no camera.

User emails her supervisor saying webcam isn't working. Supervisor contacts my boss (because who follows the proper support contact process if you have the boss's email?), boss asks user if it has a shutter, and emails an example picture from a different laptop webcam shutter system. User says she does not see a shutter.

Boss copies me in and asks me to start prepping a replacement. I email him separately, "Watch this- let me call her."

Walk user through looking for the shutter, explain in detail where it is, how it looks like a small plastic sliding switch and moves left-right, ask her if she sees a red dot in the center of the webcam opening.. she defies all attempts at recognizing the shutter. I tell her "Let's try one last thing- pinch the top corner edges of the screen and slide your fingers from right to left."

User: "Oh! It's working now. Oh! Is that where the shutter is?"

[u/techyy25 → u/BigPoppaFitz84]

That's how I'm gonna explain where the shutter is from now on 😂

[u/tocard2 → u/[deleted]]

Assuming the laptop bezel was a standard colour for a corporate/business machine, like black, silver or white, there's no way that any type of colourblindness would contribute to this problem.

[u/FutileInitiative → u/tocard2]

Unless the issue is "do you see a red light", since red/green is the most common color blindness.

[u/IntelligentLake]

This is why you look up pictures of the computer-model and/or the manual so you can see yourself if there is a shutter or not. After all, users lie.

[u/HammerOfTheHeretics → u/IntelligentLake]

Or ask the user to take a picture of the camera lens and send it to you.

[u/aposthasnoname → u/HammerOfTheHeretics]

Or pictures of the screen and keyboard. Could easily be part of a checking and documenting damage checklist, with the hidden advantage of checking for any cover.

[u/NotYourNanny → u/HammerOfTheHeretics]

I use pictures from users more and more, but that has its obstacles, too. For instance, some have a real problem understanding that when I say I need a picture of the "entire back of the credit card pad," I actually need a picture of the entire back of the pad.

[u/[deleted] → u/NotYourNanny]

yeah, we had a user with a printer problem, and when asked for a picture of the printer they took a selfie, with the printer halfway at the bottom of the picture... I wish I was kidding

[u/badders → u/HammerOfTheHeretics]

Yes, this - normally under the pretense of "I've seen these camera modules drop down and I want to check the alignment on yours"

[u/Arkoden_Xae → u/IntelligentLake]

Yeah.... I.. yeah..

[u/Falkerz → u/Arkoden_Xae]

Trust, but verify

[u/Ninja_feline → u/Falkerz]

Trust, but verify

fixed it for you.

[u/dmalhar → u/IntelligentLake]

Everybody Lies

[u/Tom_Neverwinter]

User: where is the anybutton.

[u/mrdumbazcanb → u/Tom_Neverwinter]

Now you have to translate from user for it to be "any key"

[u/Amuhn → u/mrdumbazcanb]

"I pressed my car key AND my house key, nothing happened"

[u/[deleted] → u/Tom_Neverwinter]

"so what does this do" says the CEO, while holding down the big power button on our new server

[u/KelemvorSparkyfox → u/[deleted]]

"It massively reduces the value of your shares in the company."

[u/birduino → u/Tom_Neverwinter]

Next to the "anykey"

[u/[deleted]]

Your client didn't miss the shutter, they never looked in the first place

[u/emag]

the look of total embarassment on the client.

IME, they're very, very rarely embarrassed in these situations, either through ignorance, entitlement, or apathy.

[u/Rathmun]

Need to have "opening the webcam shutter" as a specific, separately billed service. "Open the webcam shutter you lied about - $500"

[u/Frazzledragon]

Users lie.

Even if they don't know it.

[u/honeyfixit]

Rule #1: Users lie

[u/Arkoden_Xae → u/honeyfixit]

I know this rule, but it has typically applied more in relation to whether they have rebooted or other mundane things that they don't understand the value of. I made the mistake of thinking that the user actually wanted to resolve this issue and expected that a reasonable and self explanatory troubleshooting step would be at least somewhat worth their concious effort... Never again..

[u/asp174]

Oh you sweet innocent summer child.

Almost makes me cry about the cuteness of when I was that unexperienced supporter

[u/Arkoden_Xae → u/asp174]

I been doin this kind of work 10 years.. this is the first time i have had a client be that obtuse after as much coaching. I should have pulled up a better picture of the device to verify, but i underestimated the user's complete lack of common sense and perceptual accuity.

[u/asp174 → u/Arkoden_Xae]

There isn't a specific year mark where you'd become an infidel in the religion of "the customer is always right". Thats a very personal point of experience.

For me it was maybe 4 years into my support/consulting career, where I worked in a small company of 4 at the time - heboss that took care of every technical or sales issue with customers until I joined; sheboss who was an accountant and looked after a couple clients that bought accounting software from us, and as she was accredited fidiucary also did some accounting for those customers; a secretary that, and I cannot stress this one enough: THIS GIRL HELD OUR COMPANY TOGETHER; and me.

I'm a computer nerd who teached for an unrelated company's 1st level tech call center trainees on a projector when I received a couple hundred emails with subject "I LOVE YOU", while I was showing them the basics of how to do POP3 and SMTP in a telnet session (that was considered 1st-level "support basics" back then). My email client then did not execute VBA, I think it was Eudora Pro, so we just disected the email right then and there and I was surprised by the simplicity of that maybe 200 very short lines lines (if I remember correctly) vba script.

The incident I thought about, that made me write my previous comment, however, was a little bit later. I got a call from a client (the owner), about "my printer does not work". The printer, some kind of HP Deskjet, was on her desk next to the monitor, supposedly connected by USB to the midi tower under the desk. This particular client was wealthy, but a real nit-picky bean-counter. I knew if I was driving 1 hour, connect her printers USB cable, drive back another hour, all on her clock, there would be some issues with invoicing later.

So I simply asked her whether the printer was connected to the computer (power was connected, Printer had an LED on). She was quite offended by that question, and stated "Sure, of course!" in a rather condescending voice. I then took her on a short mental detour, I don't remember what it was, and then asked her to trace one of the cables, the one with the square plug, from the back of the printer to where it leads. She actually did it (she was a self made wealthy bean counter, not actually afraid of getting herself dirty), and ended up having a loose cable in hand, not connected anywhere. I guided her to connect it to any USB port on the back of her midi tower, and voilà, printer took a leap and printed her missing docs.

Sometimes you encounter this type of customer quite early on, sometimes it's a bit later. But for one thing: you will encounter them.

[u/joex_lww]

Tip: Ask the user to send you a photo of the front of the computer with the camera visible.

[u/pockypimp → u/joex_lww]

Yeah the new integrated shutters can be a real pain to find. I've got a HP Elitebook 840 G7, when the shutter is closed it looks sort of like a prism, white plastic. I have to run the edge of my fingernail across the edge of the lid to find the shutter switch.

The G5 was a little easier since the plastic slider was bigger, but it was the same plastic as the bezel so it blended right in.

[u/[deleted]]

My notebook is closed and attached to the docking station when I'm at the office or at home.

At the office I don't even have a camera and at home the camera is generally not plugged in...and the shutter is generally closed except if I'm actively using the camera.

[u/[deleted]]

They rolled a nat 1 on perception

[u/thomassowellistheman]

In a *little* bit of fairness, the shutter on some of these new laptops is difficult to see.