The Empty Mailbox

It's the umpteenth attempt at calling her; I have been trying to get in touch with a user for over a fortnight after a fault was passed on to me from our helpdesk:

"A huge chunk of my emails are missing". It had claimed in big bold capital letters; providing lots of useful information to go on as usual.

The problem is urgent, and absolutely must be fixed immediately (apparently). As urgent as is may be, all attempts to contact the person who reported the fault have been in vain.

I hang up the phone again after the about the twelfth ring, and with everlasting regret, I send the user another email explaining that I was looking into their fault, and needed to speak with them about it. Finally a few hours later I get the returning phone call:


"My emails keep being deleted." The woman blurts outs in a gruff, no nonsense voice, when I ask her to explain the situation.

"When does this happen?" I ask.

"Every day!"

"I see, are you missing more today?"

"Um, well, no. But... my account is different from everybody else's." She tells me with a superior attitude that immediately puts me into backup mode. Simply said, she's starting to get my back up!

"Where do you access them?" I ask.

"On my laptop" she answers.

"Do you have any rules in Outlook that could be deleting them?"

"No, it's your server. It's been doing it for months." She insists.

"When did this start?"

Here is comes...

"It was fine before you lot started messing with the server. About four months ago."

I explain that all we did was upgrade the server software, not go through random users mailboxes, and choose to empty them of their contents. I also take great delight in informing her that we only performed this upgrade, just over a month previously: NOT Four! I then ask if she has looked for her emails in her archive.

"What's that?" She snaps.

I explain what it is, and I hear a bit of huffing and puffing as she tries to take it in. This is clearly a person who doesn't not like to be taught anything. You know the ones, they know how to type a word document, so PC support is just something they have to use as a matter of course. The 'people' on the other end know nothing, or significantly less than she does, according to her logic anyway.

"Oh I have looked in there" she tells me finally. "They're not there; they have been deleted by the system".

I explain for the third time that the system does NOT go through users emails, and eradicate them because it feels like it. I also tell her that I have been through her account, and it is set up identical to every other user on the network. This did not go down well, she still firmly believes that her account is unique, and to be told otherwise, she takes as a personal insult.

By now the woman is arguing, and telling me what the solution is without really offering any suggestions. If she knew how to fix it, why did she call us in the first place? I can tell that no matter how much I attempt to help this person, it's going to be more than a little 'trying'. Finally I ask her to bring her laptop to our office, so that I can take a look into the problem first hand.

"I can't get in until Tuesday" She snaps. She then very kindly takes me through her entire schedule for the next 36 to 48 hours, followed by another rendition of how her emails are "just being deleted".

I understood the user's frustration, but I would have been a lot more sympathetic if she would just shut up, listened to what I was saying, and let me help her. I finally get her off the phone, and I waited for Tuesday to roll around with more than a little apprehension.

During this time, I used the old system that we still kept for back up purposes, and pulled out all her emails from the old archives. At least I would be able to replace some, if not all of her missing content.

Tuesday arrived, and mid-morning the woman appears. The expression of stony silence, pursed lips, and crossed arms gives me an immediate sense of foreboding. I greeted her warmly, but got an icy glare for my troubles. The laptop is on the desk in front of her, the is screen blank, and she shows no sign of switching it on herself. Is this some kind of protest? She still hasn't said a word, and is watching me as if I were a convict on the way to the electric chair.

I switch the laptop on, and the office falls silent, except for the whirl of the hard drive as we watch the boot up screen. The jingle kicks in, and the log on box is ready and waiting. She just sits and stares at it, her arms still folded tightly, eyes unblinking, the temperature in the room dropping rapidly.

"Could you log on for me?" I ask politely.

From the change in her expression I may as well have asked her to buy me a three course lunch, but she logs in anyway without saying a word. I load her emails, the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end as her eyes bore into me.

First place of call I check her archive. It's full to the brim, but she still insists her main inbox 'keeps emptying'. I check the recover deleted items folder, and low and behold, there they all are. I pull them all back as she gloats.

"See they keep getting deleted. It's not like I would delete them myself." She finally says to me.

"I wouldn't put it passed you" I thought. However I said nothing, and checked her mail rules. They were empty too.

"Where else do you log on to your emails?" I enquire. The problem was obviously not on the laptop anymore than it was on the server.

"At home."

"On your laptop, or do you use web mail on you home PC?"

"No, on my laptop." She repeats.

"So this is the only computer you use?"

"No, I use my laptop at home"

"You mean a personal laptop."

She nods, and grunts her confirmation. Apparently I should have known that she owns her own laptop: Is it really that much effort to get a little cooperation here?

"How do you access them?"

"Same as here."

"You don't use web mail?" I ask.

A small flicker of an idea begins to germinate in my brain, as the woman shakes her head in the negative.

It's at this point here that she does two things. First of all she reveals that she was asked to come down two weeks previously to get her laptop upgraded (she had missed the appointment, and not bothered to let us know, or attempted to reschedule). Secondly she tells us that she has to leave.

I quickly arrange for her to come back in a few hours, and we will do the laptop upgrade then, this would at least eliminate her old laptop from the equation. She glares at me again, and leaves without a word. It's at times like these it feels so good to be helping people. Eugh!

In the mean time I copied the emails I had retrieved from the old archives, back into her mailbox.

She troops back into the office, in no better mood than when she left. We have the new laptop already for her, and I tell her that I have put her emails back where they belong. She checks ferociously, to ensure I have done my job properly. Upon not finding any fault, she seemed somewhat disappointed.

She then sits with a bored, you're talking crap, and I already know it all expression on her face, as I explain what is going on with her emails:

"Your laptop at home is pulling your email from your mailbox, on to your home laptop's hard drive."

"It can't be. Something is deleting them. They were in recover deleted items." She answers quickly, a look of triumphant victory in her eyes. It doesn't last more than a few seconds.

"The mail server is being clever" I tell her. "The client on your laptop is removing them from the mailbox, which is on the server, and keeping them locally. The server thinks they are being deleted, and takes a copy for recovery. This is happening every time you load your email client at home. It also explains why it is not happening every day, and is only affecting your inbox and not your archive."

I have to go through this about five times, each attempt seemed to fall upon deaf ears. The woman is adamant that the problem is server based, and that we are responsible. I finally get her to agree to remove her work email profile from her home laptop for a few weeks, and see if it cures the problem. I tried to explain to her how to do this, but of course, she already knew. Although before she left she had to ask us how: Twice!

I got no word of thanks; I think she was still sore at me for not being to blame for her predicament.

I found out later, that I had not been the first to deal with either this woman or her problem. Three of my colleagues had had exactly the same conversation with her in past two months. Both had come to the same conclusions as I had:

1. There was nothing wrong with the server.
2. There was nothing wrong with her laptop.
3. The problem was caused by her home PC.
4. She was one of the rudest people we have ever had to encounter.

Why do these people have to be so difficult? They come to us for help, and then treat us like we are  some kind of drooling incompetent idiots. They put no effort into helping us to help them. Worst of all, when we solve the problem for them: THEY DON'T BELIEVE US, and are very ungrateful!

I mean, after all, we are just the professionals...