My day at work

We had some fun at work today.
The stores called the helpdesk because sales weren't saving. Why aren't sales saving? They're taking forever! Like twenty minutes -- how is that even possible?
By increasing log levels, we identified that sales were hanging inserting into a particular table. They hang getting the next available ID, all because one particular sale has a lock on that. What is that particular sale waiting for? Ah-ha, someone has a discount coupon locked in an unrelated process, and that sale wants to use the coupon. Let's call them! They need to close that window.
I try to call the offending store from my work phone. It doesn't work. I try from my cell phone. It doesn't work. Somebody in Kansas City is holding up sales at all stores nationwide, and we can't call them!

In the end, I called the district manager, who called the store manager, who called the manager on duty that day, who called me back. The lock was released, sales started flowing again, and now he knows that their phone is broken. ("That's why no one has called us all day!")

Stuff like this is my favorite part of working IT.