Family + Pc Nerd...

I find the most annoying thing is that when you get known as the IT person where you live, everyone else instantly becomes infinitely stupider, and problems they would have done themselves before are now your job permanently...
 
FNGsam said:
I find the most annoying thing is that when you get known as the IT person where you live, everyone else instantly becomes infinitely stupider, and problems they would have done themselves before are now your job permanently...
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Then you do what I do and charge £25 an hour for anyone apart from immediate family and maybe your best friend.
 
The thing is, I'm not that bothered about the 2 minging PC's my uncle has brought round, I have a backup which is rocking an old Athlon X2 and DDr2 RAM, his 2 are running intel Celeron D and DDR ram, so I'm goiing to rebuild it and then he wont have ay problems. Might even charge him, if he will stump up the money.
 
get them to drop it off, keep it for a few days, tell them you cannot work out whats wrong and send the off to the local computer shop.

when someone wants something configuting, go there fiddle for half an hour say you dont know how to fix it and send the off to the local computer shop.

NEVER build PC's for friends, get them to buy one from PC world, its not any cheaper if you try and cobble one together and its loads more hastle..
 
For me it's usually because they have installed 5 antivirus versions on the one PC and each version insists on scanning everything they do.... :D

When asked why they have so many versions the answer is

"computer told me to install it so I clicked install" :(
 
edscdk said:
get them to drop it off, keep it for a few days, tell them you cannot work out whats wrong and send the off to the local computer shop.

when someone wants something configuting, go there fiddle for half an hour say you dont know how to fix it and send the off to the local computer shop.

NEVER build PC's for friends, get them to buy one from PC world, its not any cheaper if you try and cobble one together and its loads more hastle..
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I don't have the OP's problem. Only with my direct family and its all fair game as they do enough for me.

I wouldn't go anywhere to waste 30 minutes to tell someone you can't do it, why waste 30 minutes of your time in the first place? :)

I agree, I wouldn't build PC's for anyone now as most shops do them just as cheap and cheerful to fulfill most average user needs. However, I would NEVER send ANYONE to PC World. As a self respecting I.T person I just couldn't do it. I'd rather send them somewhere local near where I live or online such as DELL as mentioned by the guy above.

In fact thats a good idea, go to Dell for a prebuilt machine, add on 10% and job is good :D
 
If *competitor* are competitive on price then I have no qualms about sending someone there for the purchase.
 
Even if you send someone to the purple shirt people, you are going to end up sorting their PC out after PC world fill it with all the crap when they sell pre-built systems. And oh when their Anti-virus expires, you are going to be stuck with a heavily infected PC because people have been running without an AV for x months.

Or you get people who install several AV packages at once thinking its (triple protection)

Fail
 
Think of it as a tiny drop in the ocean of a repayment towards being loved and cared for, for your entire life, it's family after all.
 
DJMK4 said:
Even if you send someone to the purple shirt people, you are going to end up sorting their PC out after PC world fill it with all the crap when they sell pre-built systems. And oh when their Anti-virus expires, you are going to be stuck with a heavily infected PC because people have been running without an AV for x months.

Or you get people who install several AV packages at once thinking its (triple protection)

Fail
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even if you build them a PC their AV will expire and need sorting.... it only takes 30mins to remove all the preinstalled crap... and you are not responsble for the hardware if they brought it from another company so thats less for you to have to fix if there is an issue
 
edscdk said:
even if you build them a PC their AV will expire and need sorting.... it only takes 30mins to remove all the preinstalled crap... and you are not responsble for the hardware if they brought it from another company so thats less for you to have to fix if there is an issue
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Even still - Norton is still a pile of rubbish and usually slows their PC down to an eventual crawl.

Something like AVG is harmless and is not bloated at all.

I always get calls from people who have bought laptops or PC's from PC world, asking me to uninstall all the rubbish they put on there.
 
I just couldn't knowingly send someone to that place to buy a new computer. I couldn't live with myself, it's implying to someone that doesn't know about computers, that a person with knowledge thinks its acceptable to go to PC World for their needs.

In turn they might go back to them down the line for "tech support" or to fix their computer which is going to bite them in the ass. Rather them than me, or rather I'd charge not as much as PC World and do it myself and earn.

I think you can get better deals elsewhere most of the time. All debatable as to what the user wants and what is a good deal at the time though I guess.
 
It all works the other way around for me. I would prefere more people to ask me to give them a hand but they are either stubborn in the belief that they can do it themselves (cue: Crash boom bang.... oh ****) or live too far away and dont like waiting a week extra for a new computer and would rather go get the most expensive one because the nice man in the shop gave them honest advice that it was the bestest ever.
 
Depends how much hassle it is to fix.
It's usually a good opportunity to put some remote access software on the PC incase they have more problems later on.

Sadly this does not protect against the machine being picked up and thrown across the room and the subsequent lies of "Oh I have no idea how it happened".

Edit: I can firmly say all of my extended family are useless ****s but that's no reason the kids should suffer for the sins of their parents. :)
 
I don't mind looking at someone's PC, but it boils my blood when they call you and expect you to give out phone support there and then.

Yes, I know exactly what the interface looks like for xyz.exe :rolleyes:

"Click the start menu.."
"What's it look like?"
*sigh* "Bottom left hand corner.. says start"
"Nope"
"Do you have auto hide?"
"errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmmm. Oh there it is"
 
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