When Blocking Your Own Number Breaks Everything: A Tech Support Tale of Self-Sabotage
You know that moment in tech support where you’re certain you’ve seen it all? Well, think again. Because sometimes, the biggest IT mysteries aren’t buried in code or hidden behind network firewalls—they’re right in your own contact blocklist.
Today’s story comes from the wild world of r/TalesFromTechSupport, where the only thing more surprising than the problems are the ingenious (and sometimes accidental) ways users manage to cause them. Buckle up—this is a tale of a phone that wouldn’t ring, a user who “didn’t change anything,” and the ultimate case of self-sabotage.
The Mysterious Case of the Vanishing Calls
Our saga begins with a user who relies on a trusty landline-to-mobile call transfer setup—a system that’s worked flawlessly for years. But suddenly, disaster strikes. Calls are transferred, the mobile even shows “call transferred,” but the phone never rings. Cue the classic refrain: “I didn’t touch anything!”
Enter our heroic tech, who methodically checks all the usual suspects. The transfer setup? Unchanged. The SIM card? Works fine in another phone. The phone itself? Still stubbornly silent. The network settings and APN? Reset and double-checked, to no avail. Even as they prepare for the nuclear option—replacing the phone entirely—they’re stymied by the user’s mountain of personal data clogging up the company device.
At this point, even the most seasoned techs might start questioning reality. But then, a colleague suggests saving the landline number as a contact and—eureka!—there it is, lurking in the phone’s long, long list of blocked numbers. Unblock the number, and like magic, everything works again. The culprit? The user had blocked their own landline, neatly severing the call transfer lifeline they so depended on.
Self-Blocking: The Most Human Tech Fail
Tech support veterans know this phenomenon all too well. As u/BoredAtWork32123 wryly points out in the comments, “having angry people ready to cancel services/complain to management/call regulators over their own number blocking ‘accidents’ wasn't an uncommon occurrence at all.” Turns out, self-inflicted wounds are a recurring motif in the tech world.
And it’s not just limited to phones. Take it from u/meitemark, who recounted a tale of a user so “smart and paranoid” that they managed to block their own ISP’s DNS server, cutting off internet access and then swearing up and down they hadn’t done anything. The kicker? They regularly reinstalled Windows every two months to fix the chaos they’d created. Sometimes, tech support is less about fixing technology and more about gently guiding users away from their own booby traps.
When Security Goes Too Far (And Loops Back Around)
Why do these mishaps happen? Often, it’s a side effect of users trying to protect themselves—sometimes a bit too enthusiastically. As u/Old-Class-1259 confessed, they once used an IP blocklist that accidentally flagged their own DNS servers as malicious, leading to a self-inflicted outage. It wasn’t until after raising a support ticket that they realized their mistake and sheepishly apologized.
Email filters can be just as unforgiving. u/CriticalMine7886 chimed in with a classic: “my super urgent emails stopped arriving—there in the personal block list.” The more tools we have to block spam and scams, the easier it is to accidentally block something (or someone) we actually need.
And sometimes, the block is deliberate—but quickly forgotten. As u/syntaxerror53 shared, “I didn’t want to be disturbed while doing some important work, so blocked the number.” Important work is anyone’s guess, but the outcome is the same: the very tools meant to help us manage our digital lives sometimes trip us up in hilarious, frustrating ways.
The Real MVP: Troubleshooting Like a Detective
What sets great tech support apart isn’t just technical know-how—it’s the patience and creativity to dig deeper when the usual fixes don’t pan out. In this story, swapping SIMs, checking portals, and resetting networks were all part of the process. But it was the extra step—checking the block list—that cracked the case.
As the community agrees, this kind of troubleshooting is invaluable. Testing hardware in different contexts, as u/BoredAtWork32123 noted, is essential. And sometimes, it’s the simple, overlooked settings—the blocklists, the filters, the DNS rules—that hide the real answers.
So next time your technology stops working and you’re adamant you didn’t touch anything… well, maybe, just maybe, check your blocklist first. You might be your own worst enemy.
Conclusion: Share Your Self-Blocking Stories!
Have you ever accidentally blocked yourself out of your own tech? Have you spent hours chasing a ghost problem, only to find the culprit was, well, you? Drop your tales of self-sabotage in the comments below, and let’s commiserate over the wild, wonderful world of tech support. Sometimes the greatest mysteries are the ones we create ourselves—and the best fixes are just an unblock away!
Original Reddit Post: Call transfer issue