The time traveling machine
Background:We're a distributor of CCTV products and everything IT related to it as well.
A customer called me and said that his device kept rebooting. I asked to check it out through Teamviewer but was soon met with a lot of "I don't knows" and "I don't think the company and their IT will let me set up a teamviewer."
So I manually run him through some tests and eventually ask him to export the logs and send those to me. He does so and I see his device has one specific error that keeps coming back.
I ask him when the device was installed and which firmware was installed on it currently. He said that the install date was around 2017 and that the current firmware is from 2021. I tell him to wait a bit while I check with the manufacturer. Manufacturer says that the firmware he installed has a known bug and had been removed from the site a long time ago, so they either did the update somewhere when the firmware was just released or they didn't get the memo.
I call the installer again and I notice he's in a car. 107
He says he didn't know when I'd get a response so he went home. I told him the firmware is the issue and that someone did the update go the faulty firmware. The solution was to update to the latest version.
He proceeds to tell me that this is impossible because no one's ever done an update on the system.
I asked him: "So, the device that was installed in 2017, which was never given an update according to you, has a firmware of the future?"
Dead silence. He then said he doesn't remember if he himself ever did an update on it and that it's possible that one of his other colleagues did it, but that it was too late to drive back anyway and do the test. Mind you, during the previous call he kept saying he was the one who did the installation and followed up on the installation so it was impossible that it was an user error on their part.
The call concluded with him saying he was so confused as to who could've done the update and that he was going to find out no matter what. I sent him the file afterwards and got a thank you as a reply.
Who was the culprit? We may never know. 498