28 Times IT Professionals Wanted to Just Pull the Plug and Walk Away

You might think working in IT means spending your days updating software, troubleshooting Wi-Fi, and occasionally swapping out a mouse that mysteriously stopped clicking. But the truth is so much darker... and dumber. Tech support isn't just a job—it's a psychological endurance test. Because nothing, and I mean nothing, prepares you for the things people do to their tech when left unsupervised.

We're talking about laptops that have been washed in the sink because someone was told to "clean their desktop." Or HDMI cables being jammed into USB ports like it's a round peg/square hole kind of puzzle. And yes, there are folks proudly carrying around phones with shattered screens and zero functionality, insisting "It's fine, I only use it for incoming calls."

It's chaos. Glorious, horrifying chaos.

These 28 IT nightmare photos are a tribute to the brave men and women of tech support who keep their cool in the face of unrelenting user error. They've seen it all—and now, so will you.

01
“The Switch Is Noisy And Reboots All The Time, Cannot Diagnose.”

via the Chive
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02
Surely, No one can be this dumb!

via the Chive
03
Oh great, another one!

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04
This laptop was left in the fridge overnight due to overheating.

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05
“I Had To Install A Gpu From 2012 In A 2018 Cyberpower PC And I Lost Screws So I Had To Improvise”

via the Chive
06
Dora the Tarnished

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07
I think I know what the problem is

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08
"It's fine! it works!"

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09
A little rusty

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10
“The Coax Cable Is Broken? No Problem My Dear, Just Raise The Router With Lunchboxes And Use A Needle (It Actually Works!)”

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11
It got a bit hot

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12
Ah yeah, the floppy disc drive…

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13
Great job there

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14
Just burn it

via the Chive
15
“My friend asked if I could recover her photos from this.”

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16
Yeah, that’s not right.

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17
What could go wrong?

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18
Ladies and Gentlemen - The iBench

via the Chive
19
Me: “Has Your Phone Had Any Contact With Water?” Customer: “Not That I Know Of…”

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20
What do you mean "a fire hazard"?

via the Chive
21
I am not touching that

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22
“Nothing Like A Little Game Of Chicken When You Need To Plug In Your Ethernet Cable”

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23
What seems to be the problem?

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24
Woman who “doesn’t trust technology” tried to photocopy her digital boarding pass off her phone. The tech support question was “what’s wrong with the photocopier”

via the Chive
25
Help...

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26
Someone ‘grandma-proofed’ their remotes.

via the Chive
27
“Spicy Pillow Becomes A Hot Pocket. Causes Evacuation”

via the Chive
28
“I was on vacation and my work tried to figure out why their WIFI wasn’t working!”

via the Chive