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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Outside Philly

    Most Embarrassing Tech Blunders

    Don't know why I thought about this and inwardly cringed today but I did. Thought I would post for the amusement of others.

    One of my first jobs was with a government affairs firm in DC. At the time, I was in the early stages of little office flirtation with a junior lawyer in another part of the business. Her last name was Rogers. One sunny spring day we hosted a very big potential new client for a pitch. One of the potential client's team members had the last name Roger. Immediately following the pitch meeting, we sent over a 'thank you' so the Roger guy logged in my Outlook. Later that afternoon, I thought to myself, 'it's a great day for margaritas and I should invite my lil miss work thang Rogers.' So, I sent a very flirty email to Rogers inviting her to join me at the end of the work day for a round or 7 of margaritas. It went to potential new client Roger ---- didn't realize it until I got a gracious declination from him.

    It was mortifying.

  2. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by bundabergdevil View Post
    Don't know why I thought about this and inwardly cringed today but I did. Thought I would post for the amusement of others.

    One of my first jobs was with a government affairs firm in DC. At the time, I was in the early stages of little office flirtation with a junior lawyer in another part of the business. Her last name was Rogers. One sunny spring day we hosted a very big potential new client for a pitch. One of the potential client's team members had the last name Roger. Immediately following the pitch meeting, we sent over a 'thank you' so the Roger guy logged in my Outlook. Later that afternoon, I thought to myself, 'it's a great day for margaritas and I should invite my lil miss work thang Rogers.' So, I sent a very flirty email to Rogers inviting her to join me at the end of the work day for a round or 7 of margaritas. It went to potential new client Roger ---- didn't realize it until I got a gracious declination from him.

    It was mortifying.
    I worked in a law office where an older woman had grossly overstated her comfort with technology in order to get a job. My desk was near the shared printer and on her second day I realized she was visiting the printer a LOT. Then I realized that it was running constantly. It seems she had intended to print screen something from our database for her training, but instead was literally printing the entire database. She was about 600 pages in to an 8,000 page print job when someone showed her how to cancel the print job.

    She managed to last about three more days.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    Winston’Salem
    Quote Originally Posted by bundabergdevil View Post
    Don't know why I thought about this and inwardly cringed today but I did. Thought I would post for the amusement of others.

    One of my first jobs was with a government affairs firm in DC. At the time, I was in the early stages of little office flirtation with a junior lawyer in another part of the business. Her last name was Rogers. One sunny spring day we hosted a very big potential new client for a pitch. One of the potential client's team members had the last name Roger. Immediately following the pitch meeting, we sent over a 'thank you' so the Roger guy logged in my Outlook. Later that afternoon, I thought to myself, 'it's a great day for margaritas and I should invite my lil miss work thang Rogers.' So, I sent a very flirty email to Rogers inviting her to join me at the end of the work day for a round or 7 of margaritas. It went to potential new client Roger ---- didn't realize it until I got a gracious declination from him.

    It was mortifying.
    Many years ago, we had a client who was not paying us. My colleague had been beating on the client to pay for a good long time, despite multiple unfulfilled reassurances that payment was forthcoming. One day, the client sent an email to both of us saying payment would come in by the end of the week. Wanting to express disbelief to my colleague, I hit Reply and said, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Soon thereafter I learned that there was no ability to recall external messages. BIG ooooops!
    "Amazing what a minute can do."

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    New Bern, NC unless it's a home football game then I'm grilling on Devil's Alley
    Quote Originally Posted by Tripping William View Post
    Many years ago, we had a client who was not paying us. My colleague had been beating on the client to pay for a good long time, despite multiple unfulfilled reassurances that payment was forthcoming. One day, the client sent an email to both of us saying payment would come in by the end of the week. Wanting to express disbelief to my colleague, I hit Reply and said, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Soon thereafter I learned that there was no ability to recall external messages. BIG ooooops!
    The person who invented "Reply To All" is the source of much tragedy and laughter. Shakespeare would be jealous at the all of the emotion they created.
    Q "Why do you like Duke, you didn't even go there." A "Because my art school didn't have a basketball team."

  5. #5
    I used to love it when once or twice a year someone would email 150K employees by using the wrong distribution list. The ensuing afternoon full of "reply to all" responses was always hilarious, with the best "reply to all" message being "Please stop replying to all!" Good times. At some point IT tweaked the email system to prevent mass "reply to all" emails...

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    New Orleans, Louisiana
    I can think of a few.

    March 23-25, 1993: The three days when Bobby Cremins was South Carolina’s coach

    Among the trove of triumphs, upsets and quips, too, is Cremins’ three-day exodus in which he left Tech for South Carolina and then, overwhelmed with second thoughts and regret, returned to Atlanta.
    October 13, 2018: Fumbles Doom Jackets in Homecoming Loss

    Georgia Tech fumbled on three-consecutive plays, which led to three Duke touchdowns in a span of 1:49 and turned what was a 7-7 game late in the third quarter into a 28-14 defeat on Saturday afternoon at Bobby Dodd Stadium.
    May 12, 2019: Tech Drops Series Finale to Duke 10-4

    Bats that finally went cold and three errors doomed No. 7 Georgia Tech baseball as it snapped its five-game winning streak, falling 10-4 to Duke in the series finale on Sunday afternoon at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.
    ETA: Oh, *those* kinds of Tech blunders. Never mind.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Richmond, VA
    I used to work as an A/V Tech. One day I was sent to a small bar/restaurant to figure out why they couldn't see anything on the large projection screen over the bar. The gear was in a closet under the stairs around the corner from the bar. After troubleshooting the satellite for a few minutes to no avail, I switched over to a vcr in the system. I just instinctively hit play and it never occurred to me that I hadn't put a tape in but it was playing something. So, just to see if I had picture and sound I popped back out to the bar area. There, in all it's glory, was Hot *** Babes #10 in full color and sound! There were maybe a dozen people eating lunch at the time. The bartender's eyes were pretty wide as I ran back around the corner and hit stop.
    "That young man has an extra step on his ladder the rest of us just don't have."

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Location
    On the Road to Nowhere
    Quote Originally Posted by Tripping William View Post
    Many years ago, we had a client who was not paying us. My colleague had been beating on the client to pay for a good long time, despite multiple unfulfilled reassurances that payment was forthcoming. One day, the client sent an email to both of us saying payment would come in by the end of the week. Wanting to express disbelief to my colleague, I hit Reply and said, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Soon thereafter I learned that there was no ability to recall external messages. BIG ooooops!
    Anybody we know?

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Undisclosed
    Quote Originally Posted by Tripping William View Post
    Many years ago, we had a client who was not paying us. My colleague had been beating on the client to pay for a good long time, despite multiple unfulfilled reassurances that payment was forthcoming. One day, the client sent an email to both of us saying payment would come in by the end of the week. Wanting to express disbelief to my colleague, I hit Reply and said, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Soon thereafter I learned that there was no ability to recall external messages. BIG ooooops!
    Quote Originally Posted by CameronBornAndBred View Post
    The person who invented "Reply To All" is the source of much tragedy and laughter. Shakespeare would be jealous at the all of the emotion they created.
    I went to a CLE years ago, and one of the topics was “how to prevent a bar complaint or legal malpractice claim.” His three keys:

    1. Return phone calls promptly.
    2. Calendar all deadlines.
    3. Delete or disable the “reply all” button from your email.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    Winston’Salem
    Quote Originally Posted by OldPhiKap View Post
    I went to a CLE years ago, and one of the topics was “how to prevent a bar complaint or legal malpractice claim.” His three keys:

    1. Return phone calls promptly.
    2. Calendar all deadlines.
    3. Delete or disable the “reply all” button from your email.
    Mine wasn’t even Reply All. Just Reply, when what I wanted was Forward ...

    And I can’t tell you the number of emails I have sent to Sam Stevens {not his real name, but his real initials} that were intended for Susie Smith {ditto} ...
    "Amazing what a minute can do."

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Asheville, NC
    When I worked at a university I had an email address that was one number off from a physics professor. Needless to say I got a few emails from some worried students about projects/papers/assignments. Sometimes I let them know, sometimes I forgot...

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Atlanta 'burbs
    Had a customer (he was both a doctor and a lawyer) on my speaker phone while I was driving in Atlanta traffic. He needed to look something up, and I thought he had put me on hold. While waiting for him to return, an idiot driver pulled over into my lane, going extremely slow in the fast lane. I proceeded to scream about the driver’s sexual habits, his slowness, his intelligence, and his ancestry, with some choice phrases that I perfected in the Navy. Needless to say, my customer had not put me on hold, but had the phone to his ear, and thought that I was upset with him for taking so long. Sheepishly, I had to explain that my very descriptive rant was not aimed at him, but was intended for the offending driver. Fortunately, he also drove in Atlanta traffic and understood, remaining my customer.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    Rent free in tarheels’ heads
    Not my story, but a friend in IT shared years ago how he got to work late one Friday morning, totally hungover, and the only chair available at the conference room table was next to the CEO who was 15 minutes into leading their weekly team meeting. My friend tries to gracefully walk in and sit down with as minimal disruption as possible. But apparently, and unfortunately, he had set his cellphone ringer the night before to a crazy chicken squawking ringtone, which he forgot about. Turns out he also forgot to turn off the ringer before entering the room. And of course it started ringing just as he sat down next to the CEO. At which point he was so frazzled that it took him a good 30 seconds as he fumbled to dig his phone out of his pocket and silence it. As soon as he turned it off, the room broke out into applause.
    “Coach said no 3s.” - Zion on The Block

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by brevity View Post
    I can think of a few.

    March 23-25, 1993: The three days when Bobby Cremins was South Carolina’s coach



    October 13, 2018: Fumbles Doom Jackets in Homecoming Loss

    .

    May 12, 2019: Tech Drops Series Finale to Duke 10-4



    ETA: Oh, *those* kinds of Tech blunders. Never mind.
    Took me a sec, but I totally support this. This is very much in the spirit of DBR

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Forest Hills, NY
    Quote Originally Posted by bundabergdevil View Post
    Don't know why I thought about this and inwardly cringed today but I did. Thought I would post for the amusement of others.

    One of my first jobs was with a government affairs firm in DC. At the time, I was in the early stages of little office flirtation with a junior lawyer in another part of the business. Her last name was Rogers. One sunny spring day we hosted a very big potential new client for a pitch. One of the potential client's team members had the last name Roger. Immediately following the pitch meeting, we sent over a 'thank you' so the Roger guy logged in my Outlook. Later that afternoon, I thought to myself, 'it's a great day for margaritas and I should invite my lil miss work thang Rogers.' So, I sent a very flirty email to Rogers inviting her to join me at the end of the work day for a round or 7 of margaritas. It went to potential new client Roger ---- didn't realize it until I got a gracious declination from him.

    It was mortifying.
    But did you get the client?

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Forest Hills, NY
    Quote Originally Posted by Tripping William View Post
    Many years ago, we had a client who was not paying us. My colleague had been beating on the client to pay for a good long time, despite multiple unfulfilled reassurances that payment was forthcoming. One day, the client sent an email to both of us saying payment would come in by the end of the week. Wanting to express disbelief to my colleague, I hit Reply and said, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Soon thereafter I learned that there was no ability to recall external messages. BIG ooooops!
    Some platforms now allow you to recall a message within a specified time of sending, I believe.

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Washington, DC area
    Quote Originally Posted by duke74 View Post
    Some platforms now allow you to recall a message within a specified time of sending, I believe.
    Generally only within an internal system.

    -jk

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by duke74 View Post
    Some platforms now allow you to recall a message within a specified time of sending, I believe.
    Quote Originally Posted by -jk View Post
    Generally only within an internal system.

    -jk
    Gmail lets you "undo" a sent email either 5, 10, 20 or 30 seconds later depending on your setting. It's not actually "recalling" the message though, it's simply a delayed send. Yeah, can't mess with somebody's else's inbox on a message that's already been sent unless you're on the same domain/system.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Tripping William View Post
    Mine wasn’t even Reply All. Just Reply, when what I wanted was Forward ...

    And I can’t tell you the number of emails I have sent to Sam Stevens {not his real name, but his real initials} that were intended for Susie Smith {ditto} ...
    I've experienced that. So I now REALLY check before hitting "send". Lesson learned.

    And... I LOVE this thread.

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Forest Hills, NY
    Quote Originally Posted by Bluedog View Post
    Gmail lets you "undo" a sent email either 5, 10, 20 or 30 seconds later depending on your setting. It's not actually "recalling" the message though, it's simply a delayed send. Yeah, can't mess with somebody's else's inbox on a message that's already been sent unless you're on the same domain/system.
    That was the system I was referring to. Thanks for the clarification.

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