cockups

Tom

I am a FH squatter
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
17,178
Whats the biggest cockup you ever made at work? Mine was a few years ago, we'd finished filming in this Nuclear reprocessing facility, and I drove the car across a pavement to facilite packing the equipment away (it was raining and the gear is heavy). I cracked the pavement, and the company went apeshit. Repair bill of several hundred pounds, but they paid it :)
 

old.user4556

Has a sexy sister. I am also a Bodhi wannabee.
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
16,163
Whilst in an admin job for a bank, I closed down someones account worth upwards of £13k and cancelled all 22 of their direct debits and standing orders. They never wanted their account closed .... at all. I closed the totally wrong one :(.

Thank god I don't work there anymore, although still in a bank ;).

G
 

old.user4556

Has a sexy sister. I am also a Bodhi wannabee.
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
16,163
me or Tom?

If you're asking me, no - it was totally fucked since direct debits can't be reinstated when an account is shut: it terminates them.

G
 

Xtro

One of Freddy's beloved
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
894
Smacked some wanker for being a general wanker. Was the boss's son, loved every second of it tbh.
 

Damini

Part of the furniture
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
2,234
Hrm... Just typed all this out, and then changed my mind because I think I'm already going to hell anyway.
 

Wazzerphuk

FH is my second home
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
12,054
Unfortunately, I am not a buffoon, so I cannot share anything with you!
 

Lazarus

Part of the furniture
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
2,874
at work - pissed off (Sunday when I should be at home with kids) restored PART of a database. Brought the facility (rather large computer manufacturer) to its knees.

How I missed the bullet for that is beyond me.
 

Wij

I am a FH squatter
Joined
Dec 23, 2003
Messages
18,185
I thought it was funny but I sent software out live where if they typed a certain kind of number wrong (one that they'd have to type all the time) a message popped up saying "YOU ARSE !!!!"

I blame the system testers tbh :)

The day about 10,000 staff kept getting a message to ring my extension number was quite good too :)
 

Summo

Loyal Freddie
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
355
At work once I accidentally deleted an entire DNS zone. It was the main one. I worked for Essex County Council and for a while essexcc.gov.uk no longer existed. There was no name resolution internally or externally.

I sweated. I made discrete but quick enquires and there was no secondary DNS server I could replicate with. I began to sweat, knowing that pretty soon the helpdesk would be going ape-shit. Fortunately my frantic Internet searches came up with an MS Knowledgebase article that said that the actual configuration files aren't removed when deleting a zone, so all I had to do was create a new zone called essexcc.gov.uk. Sure enough, once done, all the records within that zone popped back and everythig worked.

I shat my pants for 7.5 minutes.







I guess this is a story for nerds. :(
 

Whipped

Part of the furniture
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
2,155
<--- nerd. Very funny. :)

Worst one i did was when running the computerised exams at the uni. Used the package we use to do what is basically a zip file of all the results and then deleted the original results. Then manged to lose the disk with the zip on it.

On top of that the server has crashed and the original was corrupted. Poor guys had to redo their exam :D
 

dysfunction

FH is my second home
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
9,709
In my auditing days I was part of a small audit team that missed a fraud....

It wasnt really my fault and luckily all of my workings were filled with comments about the lack of info and the inability to conduct a proper audit etc etc.

And our audit report said that the Financials couldnt be relied upon...which is the main thing really.


This is how it went:

It was quite a medium sized advertising agency but had a smallish finance department mainly under the control of 1 guy.
The accountant was taking all the money that he was supposed to be paying the VAT revenue department...
The entire accounting system (if you could call it that) was in such a mess and he never let us see the whole system in one go. He just gave us the things he wanted to give us. There always seemed to be computer failures etc etc preventing us from accessing things and then he started being off sick so we couldnt speak to him. He was getting migrains...which I think were due to the fact we were on the verge of finding the fraud...

In the end it was the client that found the fraud and the guy went to jail.
 

old.user4556

Has a sexy sister. I am also a Bodhi wannabee.
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
16,163
Oh more recently I pointed some code at the wrong dataset and scrubbed the test environment. Luckily it was test and not production, but still a cockup all the same.
 

SawTooTH

Can't get enough of FH
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
819
Sent a print command I couldn;t revoke and accidentally printed an entire data base. A bad day for trees.
 

Cyfr

Banned
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
1,726
Not at work, but at school. I discovered our network allowed winpopup. I loged on to two pc's using my login, (ofc you can't send messages to yourself, so I sent it to the workgroup). I then showed a friend who proceeded to do lots of naughty stuff which got sent to all the pc's in the school. I remember my head saying to me 'No Andrew, I don't need a shit' :(

(Notices the post above this and adds that today we were looking at a database for maths.. we were not suppoised to print but someone printed 60 sheets of the database, they got shouted at, a lot. Then someone went and did 80 :p)
 

Cdr

One of Freddy's beloved
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
803
On my work experience while at school, I went to a pet shop. I killed one of the baby rabbits.
 

RedVenom

Banned
Joined
Jan 22, 2004
Messages
160
Cdr said:
On my work experience while at school, I went to a pet shop. I killed one of the baby rabbits.

Next you'll expect people to believe you're going to join the RAF :rolleyes:
 

Jonaldo

Can't get enough of FH
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
1,173
When I worked for the BBC I agreed to run My Hero for two seasons.
 

mank!

Part of the furniture
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
3,427
Jonaldo said:
When I worked for the BBC I agreed to run My Hero for two seasons.

You bastard!

I've done nothing insanely stupid at work, but then there's not a lot to fuck up when you have minimal responsibility.
 

Padwah

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Dec 25, 2003
Messages
127
Much worse than any mistakes so far I forgot to turn the cellar cooler back on after cleaning the pipes in the pub and served warm beer for the best part of the day :(
 

old.user4556

Has a sexy sister. I am also a Bodhi wannabee.
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
16,163
Great,

Judging by the avatars that've started appearing on these forums; it looks like i will no longer be able to view this site from work. Thanks. :rolleyes:
 

Jonaldo

Can't get enough of FH
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
1,173
You can turn avatars off, although then you might miss some good ones :(
 

SilverHood

FH is my second home
Joined
Dec 23, 2003
Messages
2,281
Once sent a customer support reply to the wrong people

so person A's got person's B's
and person B's got persons A's.

Very very embarresing. Hate saying sorry to customers, especially when it's deffo my fault.

Oh, and best one i've come across in my short life - cleaner unplugged our main router from the mains so she could use the vacum cleaner.... and didn't plug it back in. Think the boss had a word, since she enver did it again :)
 

ECA

I am a FH squatter
Joined
Dec 23, 2003
Messages
9,439
Screwed up BIGTIME.

order came in for 200 sovereigns.

I tubed em up packed em etc, i only sent out 100.

they turned up in person 2 days later ( like 150mile trip ) and the woman started crying.

Oops.
 

Padwah

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Dec 25, 2003
Messages
127
Big G you can also put me on ignore to avoid the avatars, you won't miss much cause I'm a boring bastard.
 

SoWat

Loyal Freddie
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
305
Some years ago, our American developer team refused to put a 'full speed' test mode onto one of our million-pound industrial mailers.

As I was on the developer list for the source code I decided to write it myself (I'd always fancied having a crack at controlling hardware via 8051 and Parallel Interface boards).

Only thing was, I misjudged the brake 'tap time' (which is what I wanted to test), and ended up fully applying the brake... at the same time as the motor was running at full speed.

£20k for a new motor
£7k for a new brake
£85k to get the twisted chassis fixed
£50 for a night on the piss for the 'witnesses' to help them forget what they'd seen (we blamed it on the yanks).

:clap:
 

Zarjazz

Identifies as a horologist.
Joined
Dec 11, 2003
Messages
2,383
Though I've made my fair share I can't quite work out how or which ones I can safely tell out of my own long list. However I do remember a classic one back at uni, I will call the culprit 'Student A'

  • Picture one experimental research lab.
  • Watch 3 doctorates working for 3 months building a new ultra sensitive measuring device.
  • Watch 'Student A' carry said device across lab to install into experiment.
  • Be amazed as £100,000 worth of kit smashes onto the floor.
  • See 'Student A' assisting in the 1500 man hours to build new unit.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top Bottom