The Classic “Unplugged Router” Mystery: Tech Support Tales from the Front Lines
We’ve all heard it before: “It was working fine before I left for vacation!” For anyone who’s ever worked in tech support, these words are the harbinger of another wild goose chase—one that usually ends with a sheepish confession, a plugged-in power cord, and a collective sigh from both sides of the call.
But beneath the surface of these seemingly simple cases lies a treasure trove of comedy, frustration, and a little bit of human nature. Let’s dive into a true tale from the trenches of tech support, and discover why the oldest troubleshooting questions are still the best.
Our story takes us back to the mid-2000s, where a small town’s Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP) kept the local military base—and its civilian neighbors—connected. With the owner distracted (two hours away, mid-divorce, barely present), it was up to a lone tech support hero (Redditor u/nightshade00013) to keep the network running, set up gear, and answer every “my internet is down!” call.
One fateful Monday, an urgent customer call came in from 20 miles away: no internet! Our tech, seasoned in the arcane arts of static IP pairings and 2.4GHz radio quirks, leapt into action. Pings to the tower? Check. Pings to the CPE (that’s “Customer Presence Equipment” for the non-nerds)? Check. But the customer’s router? Dead silence.
With all signs pointing to a problem on the customer’s turf, our intrepid support agent did what every tech support script demands: “Is everything plugged in? Have you tried rebooting your router?” The answer—delivered with that familiar mix of indignation and certainty—was a resounding yes. “It was working before I left for vacation. No one touched anything!”
Ever the professional, the tech offered an onsite visit—with a warning: if the issue was on the customer’s end, it’d cost a $100 service charge. The customer, convinced of his own innocence, scheduled the appointment but remained skeptical.
But just as our hero was about to embark on a 20-mile trek, the phone rang again. The customer, now sounding much humbler, called off the visit. The culprit? His wife, in a fit of pre-vacation tidiness, had unplugged the router and simply forgot to plug it back in. The internet—miraculously—came back to life once the cord found its way home.
The lesson? Sometimes, the most powerful troubleshooting tool is a gentle reminder to “go check the cables.”
This tale struck a chord with the r/TalesFromTechSupport community. High atop the comments, u/ol-gormsby shared a similar story from the holiday rental world: a guest unable to connect, confidently using her home Wi-Fi password instead of the rental’s. After all, Wi-Fi is magic, right? A quick fix—and a $120 invoice—later, order was restored. As u/nightshade00013 (the OP) dryly observed, “Sadly you can't fix those 10t errors.” Maybe a QR code for the Wi-Fi password would help—though as the commenters debated, even that isn’t foolproof if the default settings have been changed.
But why do people unplug routers in the first place? Theories abounded in the discussion. Some, like u/Neue_Ziel, wondered if it was a power-saving move (“Why did she do that? To not run out of wifi?”). Others, like u/ryanlc, shared tales of family members who unplug everything but the fridge—sometimes out of deep-seated (and occasionally justified) fears of electrical fires. OP chimed in to clarify: in this particular case, the customer’s wife wanted to avoid “getting hacked while away,” especially since they ran a small engineering office from home. But when it came time to reconnect, she simply forgot, and the internet’s vanishing act was blamed on the WISP.
Then there are those who believe in unplugging for security or frugality—u/Chocolate_Bourbon dated someone who unplugged her “internet” to “stop the criminals,” a ritual that, as u/UnkleRinkus wryly observed, logic could not dislodge.
The ritual of “unplug and replug” is so deeply ingrained in tech support that some professionals have developed clever tricks to ensure customers actually do it. As u/techsupportcalling revealed, he’d ask callers to “unplug both ends of the ethernet cable and plug it back in the other way around.” When challenged, he admitted it was just a way to make sure people really checked their cables. Genius? Perhaps. Effective? Almost always.
Of course, not every customer is willing to play along. As u/CaptainPunisher recounted from the world of small engine repair, some folks flatly refuse to check basics like the kill switch or gas tank, insisting on a service visit. And when the solution turns out to be as simple as flipping a switch or topping off the tank, embarrassment ensues—though a little empathy goes a long way. “I just politely explained that I understood why they were frustrated, but asked them to please just go through a quick diagnosis next time.”
If you’ve ever been on either side of a tech support call, you know the dance: the script, the skepticism, the eventual “aha!” moment. Sometimes it’s a power strip left turned off (as u/ArdvarkMaster shared), or a modem that’s simply not lit up. Sometimes, as in the most legendary cases, it’s a user trying to get Wi-Fi on a laptop in a hurricane-flooded house, convinced that battery power alone can conquer all (shoutout to u/deadsoulinside for that gem).
So what’s the real takeaway from these stories? Sometimes, the simplest questions are the most important. Is it plugged in? Is it turned on? Did you try turning it off and on again? These aren’t just tired clichés—they’re the frontline defenses against the chaos of technology and the quirks of human memory.
Next time your internet mysteriously vanishes after a trip, remember: before you blame your ISP, check the cables. You might just save yourself a service charge—and a little bit of embarrassment.
Have your own “it was working before vacation” moment? Tell us in the comments! And if you’re a tech support veteran, what’s the most ridiculous fix you’ve ever encountered? Let’s celebrate the unsung heroes who keep us all connected—even when all it takes is plugging something back in.
Original Reddit Post: It was working before I left for vacation.