I had a user complain that she couldn’t get a dial tone on her phone. Since she was fairly new and we had just upgraded our phone systems, I figured maybe it was a configuration error.

I checked all the usual places – she was listed in the directory, she had an extension assigned to her in both AD and on the phone system, and her voicemail was all setup. She was complete from a configuration standpoint.

Since that’s the case, there are only two other possibilities:
1.) I just suck at my job and completely messed up her phone
2.) It’s a user error and she doesn’t know how to use a phone correctly

*Hint* It’s #2!

After the user leaves for the day, I go over to her desk and check out the phone. Headset gives me a dial tone. Speaker phone gives me a dial tone. Handset gives me a dial tone. Three for three – that’s a hundred percent correct if you’re keeping score.

So I email the user:
Jason: M***y,

I checked it out and it seems to be working fine.
Let me know if you have any other issues.

To which she replies:
M***y: Please come over. I just picked it up and every time I pick up no dial tone. Thanks.

I make my way over to her desk and pick up her phone. Dial tone. I explain to her that she needs to learn how to hang up the phone. Apparently she just sets the phone down, but it was requiring the handset to actually fit in the hang-up area. Apparently I’m bad at explaining that, but I told her how to fix it now.