Years ago, I use to work in the state police headquarters building as a IT helpdesk specialist on 2nd shift. I would take calls from officers, dispatchers, and other people that were having problems with their computers, printers, etc… One night, I receive a phone call from a woman and she stated that she was having computer issues. I started by asking some of the most basic questions like: what seems to be the problem? She answered by saying “well there is nothing on my screen it is just showing a black screen”. I asked her if she saw a light by the power button on the monitor. She responded by saying “I don’t see any light by the power button”. I asked if she would press the power button on the monitor to see if the light would come on. She tried that but still didn’t see the indicator light turn on. At that point, I knew the monitor just wasn’t getting power or the monitor went bad. I had her trace the power cable coming out of the back of the monitor down to the surge strip to make sure it was plugged in and to check to make sure there wasn’t a problem with the surge strip. However, she kept telling me that she couldn’t see the surge strip under the desk because it was too dark.

I told her to turn on some more lights or use a desk lamp if she had one. That is when she tells me, “the desk lights are not working because the power is out in the station due to a storm”. At that point, I was in complete shock that she didn’t make the connection to her problem she called about. I had to explain to her that computers and monitors required electric for them to function and if the power is out they won’t turn on. She replies by saying, “well that does make sense”. I could tell she felt really embarrassed for not understanding this simple fact. After hanging up it took me several minutes to fully grasp what just happened. I was still in shock that someone didn’t understand something that seemed common knowledge. It was a phone call, I will never forget.