We learn something new everyday

I have learned that when a spider claims the inside of a computer his
own, then decides to stand on the video card, it is enough to screw up
the video card.

I have learned that when the owner of the computer is informed that
their computer is not working because the video card has been broken by
a spider, they will not believe you.

I have learned that when you show that owner photos of the spider
standing on their video card, they'll still be skeptical deep down, and
think you're ripping them off for the cost of a new video card.

I have learned that I'm sick of desktop support.

 

here here...I agree and sympathise with you - as I too have to deal with
these nuff nuffs.

I say we tell em all to get fucked and fix their own machines.

 

Do I hear a job going somewhere?

 

Went to a woman a few weeks back who's machine was erratic on Internet.
Removed 3 different worms and a whole load of spyware, tested it and updated
her Nortons for about an hour (had to reinstall from the original CD so it
needed a lot of updating) and all was OK, not a problem. Checked her Win98SE
critical updates and there were about 20megs that needed to be done. I told
her that (which was the mistake I made) and then she said to start it. I
told her how to get back there if it all didn't work for any reason. She
rings up that night - cant get it to do it. The modem hung up on her. She
cant figure out how to get back there. So I tell her all I can do, then, is
bring it home, install them on my ADSL connection and bring it back. I did
that and returned the machine charging her 2 hours as I spent 2 hours at
home doing it all and an hour in total driving there and back to pick it up
and then return it. She was incensed that I had the hide to charge her and
told me I didn't do my job and she shouldn't have to pay. Then she up and
gave me the money, told me to get out and never come back. At that point I
didn't bother explaining anything further to her and just left. I should
have charged at least 3 hours but didn't.

You will not keep everyone happy.

 

it to a shop. I was going to rant and rave but you all have been there so I
won't say anymore.

 

i guess what i learned was that you bust ur butt for a client and
don't charge for everything to try and keep the price reasonable and
they still reckon ur getting up there skirt,,,so i now charge the lot
like yesterday had a client who couldnt install a firewire card so i
called around and the machine was trashed...spyware diallers and it
took 4 ever to boot so i took my time and finally got the card to work
and video ex the camcorder on the screen.......when i told her the
computer was a mess and it needed a format and reload she got really
cranky and said a friend of hers had cleaned it up last week and it
was just fine.....what can you say?.....i was trying to work on the
machine in a poky little area barely big enough to turn around in with
a barred entrance as a 3 year old kid was on the loose in the house
......she finally let the kid in with me when the kid started
screaming.....i was hoping the kid would grab my stanley knife out of
my case and spike herself with it...i would have been sued for
neglicence.....sad part is the, the adolescent daoughter was due home
from school with an important VCE project on video editing an i just
knew it wouldnt be possible on this flaky machine.....so i added up
the minutes and chaged her for every one....we all know hat with a
clean os the job of putting in a new card should be a 5 minute job but
after endless reboots and crahes her bill was over $100.00...because
she saw video from the camcorder on screen she thought it was fully
fixed.....so dont do no favours for nothing.....
relloman

 

Or even if you do happen to fix a friend's PC, they usually end up
stuffing the whole system and blame what it was you did.

Stuff 'em, I say. Maybe next time I fix a clueless friend's PC I will
just implement a policy that stops them doing anything.

 

I have learned that no matter how mutch you set up some DUMASS'S PC up for
them ( Reinstall (fresh)WIN updates, antivirus updates, Install new
Firewall) thell still find a way to completley stuff it up and then try to
blame you for nor doing there Virus updates blame you for opening that
suspect e-mail blame you for turning off the antivirus program because it
was slowing down the downloads. Blame you For their Shitty choise in ISP'S,
Blame you for them buying a shitty pc, ane the best Bleme you when they
have to drag ther slack asses in to thestall to get there pc fixed only to
find the reason for the pc stopping inthe first place WAS A SHITLOAD OF
DUst IN the ram slots ect( oh and they blame you for there dirty house
too)...... OH they blame you for loosing there information when there hdd
dies and they havent backed up What next

PS
Ever notice that when a customer comes in with a buisness pc that windows
has craped out they want there buisness files backed up and THERE ALL MP3'S
............

 

At least they could never accuse you of writing a coherent sentence.

 

Only a spider? wow - wait till you get a frog smeared across the drum of a
laser printer, a lizard or a baby red-bellied black snake in a computer
power supply, and a dozen dead and rotting mice inside a computer

Especially if the machine is still under warranty - after all, if it's under
warranty they should get it fixed for free shouldn't they? Viruses are the
worst for "i'm not paying because it's under warranty". Virus writers create
plenty of work for tech's (i'm a former tech now - hooray), but
unfortunately a lot of it has to get done for free because the arsehole
customer just absolutely refuses to pay.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people in the industry who really don't
have a clue, and a lot who do rip people off for services and products they
don't really need. Many customer's either have been ripped off in the past,
or know someone who was, so even when though your business ethics are 100%
honest, they still suspect you are ripping them off. Just one example where
a Dodgy operator got caught out: I had a customer who had bought a system
off me bring it back in to get it fixed properly after this other guy had
replaced their mainboard but still hadn't got the system working properly.
We noticed that the "new" mainboard had our serial # sticker on it, but
checking our database it didn't belong to that particular system. We
contacted the owner of the system that it belonged to, and it turned out
that they had also been sold a new mainboard by the same operator, and were
still having problems. We asked them to check it, and it had our serial #
sticker on it too, and turned out it was the one originally fitted to
"customer a"'s computer. The dodgy operator had basically swapped the two
customers mainboards, and charged them both for "new" mainboards, in
addition to his labour. His labour was $10/hr cheaper than our rate and that
was the reason the customer's took their computers to him, although both
ultimately brought them back to us to be fixed properly. The _real_ problem
turned out to be viruses. Amazingly though, both customers just accepted
his charges, and couldn't be bothered pursuing him for fraud, or even
pursuing him for a refund on the job that he didn't do properly.

Yep gets that way.
The ones I hate are the customers who get viruses on their computer, bring
it in to get it fixed, but refuse to buy a scanning program. a few days
later they are back again, because they have got the virus again, and this
time they are angry claiming that the job wasn't done properly the first
time, and absolutely refusing to pay (in some cases even demanding a refund
on the original job). In the end we decided to add $100 to cover the price
of Norton/McAfee/Trend into every virus removal job - when a customer came
in with viruses, we wouldn't even touch the job unless they were prepared to
pay us at least $200 to cover our time and the program. It did help reduce
the incidence of problems a little - the ones who were too tight to buy
virus removal programs went elsewhere, so they didn't keep bringing their
problems back to us. Of course it didn't help with the "my computer is under
warranty and it isn't working" jobs that turned out to be virus related (and
the customer still refused to buy A/V software). I've also had a number of
"please explain"'s from the office of fair trading, asking us to explain why
we have given the customer a refund because their computer needed to be
repaired 5 times in a month - thankfully fair trading do understand the
concept of "customer's computer had viruses, customer refuses to purchase
antivirus software", but it still gives you a bad name with the customer.
Basically computers are now a consumer item, but aren't simple enough to use
for the stupids that buy them. To someone who knows nothing about computer
operation, it should be as easy to use as their TV - if their TV won't show
them the program they want to watch it is faulty, so they don't understand
that if a computer won't do what they want, it is probably because of some
malicious software.

 

Now you know why I don't readily support micksoft . Nix rulez

 

I don't wanna start a windows/linux flame war, but realistically, if a
person isn't really smart enough to know how to use windows, how the hell
are they supposed to use a unix-based system? Providing *nix to a customer
is just asking for trouble...
"i can't get this printer working" - "sorry that isn't linux compatible"
"i just bought a new internal modem and it won't work" - "sorry that isn't
linux compatible"
"i bought [practically any game/program] from you and it won't work" -
"sorry that isn't linux compatible"
I'm afraid customers won't accept those answers - and you'd probably find
yourself in a situation where you are forced to refund the computer because
it won't run any common applications or hardware, either that or you are
subsequently forced to refund various hardware and software peripherals.
Linux is great for people who know what they are doing, for servers, and for
computers that have limited uses, but for the average schmuck who wants to
run consumer applications and who doesn't want to be limited in their choice
of printer/scanner/modem/etc, it just won't cut the mustard. And a user who
doesn't know what they are doing, but knows the root password is capable of
a hell of a lot of damage to the system.
Yes *nix systems don't have as many viruses, but that's only because their
installed base is nowhere near as big. If *nix represented the same portion
of the market that MS does now, then *nix would have the same portion of
viruses and other threats that MS does now. The system is just as
vulnerable (ever been the victim of a rootkit?).

 

Boy oh boy , do you byte well . check out e-smith . for all intents and
purposes for the customer base ( majority ) I have its a great sever ,
and very very much cheaper than the comparable m/s product...
What they use on the desk op other than win2k aint my problem..

 

Some of us are better with a screwdriver than with the pen. Being a Computer
tech i know whitch one i need the most. Becides you get the point.

 

Well some of us can be good at both, and no, I do not get your point.

Those customers you like to bag can provide your bread and butter, or
pay your rent. It doesn't matter whether they fuckup their own
computers and then have to pay to get them fixed. It is all part of
the job for those of us in the trade.

If you can't handle the job, then get out of it.

 

Dito! the same goes for research. We don't know everything, yet nobody
wants to pay for you to research how to fix their problem. But they're
quite happy for you to fix it.

 

the problem is there are so many dishonest rip off merchants out there
and quite a few are in the computer support industry

 

Why not put AVG on the computer or tell them about it ?

 

Nasty Nasty,
No Accusing BUT... You sound like the type of Tech that takes advantage of
People that have limited knollage of computers and their applications, Too
me it sounds like you'll rather always fix a problem rather than solve the
problem forever. Thus taking advantage of the small newbie to the computer
world. Let me guess when a person brings a computer in with a virus you
just remove the virus, rather then explaining to the customer the advantages
of antivirus, or even how to use/update their antivirus.


I'll repair any computer brought in to me. But when I repair a computer 12
times in 2 months I believe I have the right to tell the person off,
especially it the person is blaming me for their stuffup's, whether it be
from them disabling their Antivirus,using pirated and untested software,
Deleting files in the windows directory (to free up space for porn), playing
with fDisk or part programs when they don't even have the basics of DOS.
I'll fix anything if the person is guanine enough, But if they start to
blame the machine hardware for there own stuffups, Or even blame be I wont
put as much heart into it. It seems no Matter how many times you tell
People to backup data, update antivirus def and not to install illegal or
bodgie software they will always try it again and stuff their install all
over again then come in and tell you that you did repair it properly last
time. Now I Dare you to tell me that this has not ever happened to you!!

In my opinion to help someone to understand there computer and how it works
can save you a lot of time and gain you new happy customers.

A strict NO BULLSHIT way to keep customers happy.

 

because we would 2 or 3 computers every week that were freezing at startup,
and the problem was traced to AVG - remove AVG and they would work fine.