Having worked for IT support services in London for many years I have accumulated a large network of friends and colleagues in the business. The other night my fellow IT support workers met in a London bar for a get together; as per usual on these occasions the conversation soon turned to some of the funny requests that we in the business of IT support have experienced.

The first came from one of my older friends who had been in the IT support industry from the beginning. He recalled a story of women who had come into his offices in London with a five inch diskette full of information; unfortunately the office had moved to the 3.5 inch diskette medium. On being told this the women swiftly reached for a pair of scissors and started to trim the diskette down so it would fit. My friend promptly explained the humour of this situation and the client left a little wiser.

Another of my friends who worked for a large company in the heart of the London financial district as an IT support worker bested that story with one of his own. He recounted the tale of one call he had received from someone in accounting claiming their computer had frozen. After joking that the computer was probably cold he headed the nine floors up to the accounting department. On his arrival his sides split as he saw the accountant had tried to 'warm' the computer by placing their jacket over the CPU.

Another acquaintance I had acquired during my time in IT support had owned a phone response unit based within the London area. The idea was to give phone advice to customers and if this did not work drive to anywhere within Greater London and fix the problem. The company experienced levels of success but the anecdotes that his workers came back with were priceless.

One worker once had a call from a frantic client who had claimed to have already called 999 but they had redirected him to the IT support service. The caller went on to claim the 'internet was under attack' as his computer was not working properly. The operator soon resolved the problem when he found out the client had installed a new web browser that day and had not enabled cookies. After the client had calmed down he told the operator 'never mind about the attack.'

Another worker got a call asking where the computer's other cup holder was located. The response from the operator was 'other cup holder?' Wondering if the man on the other end of the line had gone slightly insane; it was not until the caller said, 'you know; the one that pops out of the PC.' The IT support worker had trouble stifling his laughs as he explained this was for inserting CDs and not holding cups of coffee.

A friend who had a drop in centre providing IT support services in the London area was exasperated by one client who on being told that she would need to see a client's cookies in order to fix an internet problem; the customer brought in a tray of freshly baked cookies the next day.

No one can say that the IT support industry is a dull one to work in. with the often comedic problems that clients raise it is often a battle to contain your laughter. It does however prove that the majority of people have no idea how to fix a computer, even if it is a simple problem. This is why we all agreed IT support services is a lucrative trade to be in.