Tech support employee prevents major deletion of client's data despite being asked to remove their subscription, maliciously complies by faking the deletion of data to prove a point

Author image for Lana DeGaetano
Lana DeGaetano • "Show me to me please."
Aug 24, 2024 9:00 PM EDT

Why is it that people outside of our line of work tend to think that they know more about our jobs than we do?

It's frustrating when you're in a client-facing role and they assume they know what's best for them despite having gone to your company in the first place for guidance pertaining to specific information. When you have stable upper management, they have your back when clients try to get sour on you and ask you to do things you know will blow up in their faces. Simply put: don't request things on information you don't have.

The tech support employee in this story is recalling a time when he was asked to remove a client's subscription from one service as they were planning on switching to another mandatory service. He expressed to the client that they needed to wait for confirmation of the switch-off or they would risk major data deletion, but they insisted that he remove the subscription immediately.

The employee told his boss, who said to recover the data and keep it, but fake the deletion in a form of malicious compliance so the client knows never to cross his skills and intellect again. Scroll to read the entire story.

Advertisement
  • 01
    Microsoft Access Do you want to delete all of the selected objects? Deleting these objects will remove them from all groups. You cannot undelete forms, reports, and modules. Yes No
    via cimaware
  • 02
    Completely delete a client company's website and email services? Are you sure? Ok.
    via PineScentedSewerRat
  • 03
    This happened a few years ago, so details are a bit fuzzy and chat is paraphrased. I was T2 tech support for a company that handles my country's largest ISP's entire professional email services, all its DNS management services, and a
    via PineScentedSewerRat
  • 04
    large portion of its website building and web hosting services. This company is tiny, minute, not even a blip in the radar, but has power that I will likely never again hold at my fingertips.
    via PineScentedSewerRat
  • 05
    One day, a ticket comes in from ISP. Big client company is moving away from our proprietary email services and into Microsoft 365, or some such equivalent change. This usually meant I got to help the client through the process of
    via PineScenterSewerRat
  • 06
    changing DNS records, migrating inboxes or just backing up emails, and even actually setting up some stuff on the Microsoft side (technically not my job, but the ISP's T1 tech support was
    via PineScentedSewerRat
  • 07
    woefully untrained for anything even remotely technical, and terribly unprepared for most things merely commercial, and my company was awesome and treated me right). So, ticket: ISP: Client is moving from service X to service Y. Please remove their subscription from the database.
    via PineScentedSewerRat
  • 08
    Me: There seems to be some sort of mistake (which was very common). We remove them from there once the new service is set up and running. Otherwise, it will delete everything in their subscribed package, including all email storage, DNS records, and website. You likely want to
    via PineScentedSewerRat
  • 09
    change their subscription to not include email services, but keep the rest, since your Microsoft subscription doesn't include DNS and web hosting management. And even that change only after they have their new email service set up.
    via PineScentedSewerRat
  • 10
    ISP: yaddayadda confirm remove their subscription. Me: Are you absolutely sure? This process is not recoverable. All their emails, DNS records, and entire website, including database, will be permanently deleted.
    via PineScentedSewerRat
  • 11
    ISP: Request has been submitted. Remove subscription. At this point, it's been a couple of days since the first ticket, so I call my boss over (absolutely wonderful guy and extremely intelligent), and tell him what they're asking me to do.
    via PineScentedSewerRat
  • 12
    Boss: Alright, let's show them they pay us because we know things and they don't. Don't delete the subscription, but suspend all the services that would be affected. Keep those tickets at hand and expect a phone call. If they call you, tell them to talk to me.
    via PineScentedSewerRat
  • 13
    God that felt good. I mean, I felt bad for the client, because their entire company basically shut down for an afternoon, but when they called my work phone directly from ISP (uncommon, usually just for emergencies) and the nice lady asked me what had
    via PineScentedSewerRat
  • 14
    happened with Client in that tone that says "I'm doing my best to hear all sides before making a decision but I am freaking the hell out right now", and I directed her to the tickets where I very clearly stated what would happen if I did
    via PineScentedSewerRat
  • 15
    what they told me to, and then told her to call Boss, I felt so vindicated. Boss later told me to let them sweat for a couple of hours, because the process should have been "unrecoverable", and then turn the services back on.
    via PineScentedSewerRat
  • 16
    ISP was, yet again, absolutely thrilled with us, and my name kept coming up even more often as the person that solves things.
    via PineScentedSewerRat
  • 17
    Acceptable_Pain... 10h ago Got the MC and improved your rep. Top notch.
    via Acceptable_Pain_9213
  • 18
    enjaydee 9h ago • The good old scream test. Never actually delete anything, just shut it down or disable first. Wait to see if anyone screams, then turn it back on.
    via enjaydee
  • 19
    • harrywwc 10h ago yeah, I learned a loooong time ago, never "delete" delete stuff, rather "disable / comment out" delete stuff, as there is a good chance that sometime sooner of later they will want it back. the "want it back" has only happened a handful of times, and like your boss, I
    via harrywwc
  • 20
    sat on it for (in some cases) a few days while I "feverishly worked to recover their stuff" ;) of course, after 6 or more months, and I was confident that they were still operating ok, then I'd take a backup to store off-site, and then delete for real :)
    via harrywwc
  • 21
    . morgan423 4h ago The main lesson is, as always, that when a subject matter expert learns of your plans and then says, "Wait, are you sure you want to do that," you need to stop doing whatever it is that you're doing until you figure out what you're screwing up.
    via morgan423
  • 22
    Seems incredibly basic, yet an absolutely astounding percentage of the population does not understand this principle somehow.
    via morgan423

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

Like a Boss boss antiwork workplace-stories tech support malicious malicious compliance technical difficulties bosses work coworkers malicious-compliance-reddit askreddit reddit story workplace Tech reddit thread malicious compliance reddit workplace malicious compliance entitled people information technology
Scroll Down For The Next Article