Sometimes knowing about computers is a bad thing...

BUSH said:
i just stay away from things now, i've had enough of spending my evenings and weekends trying to explain to people that they've got a virus because av software needs updating. .............

Hehe, when they ask I just tell them they wouldnt understand.
Some smart***** claim that they might in which case I remind them that I wouldnt be thereif they did. ;)
 
i built a pc for my mum once.

i then had to spend SIX FREAKING HOURS teaching her how to use word, because she had neglected to tell me she had a stack of work reports to do for the next day.

then she wants to get on the internet, so i get broadband set up at her house, which she never used and continually moaned about the fact that it was costing her money

she moves house to where she cant get broadband, so she sticks an aol cd in the machine, and it wont work because its trying to use the usb broadband modem. so she calls aol tech support :rolleyes: . they tell her its because she doesnt have a modem. she rings me, furious because i have apparently "ripped her off" by not giving her a dialup modem, and demands i spend £30 on the train plus the cost of a modem and sort it out. i tell her that perhaps she should try uninstalling the broadband modem, and plugging the phone lead into the modem i installed when i originally built the machine.

"well yes, the plug is there for the lead, but the AOL man reckons there is no card in the computer, and its just an unconnected socket"

i told her that i hope she and the aol man will be very happy together, and next time she wants a pc built, she can buy a ******* dell.

oddly, she's never asked for help again.

TG
 
Know how you feel mate, I helped lots of people at school in Year 10 and even helped the teacher a few times :S Thats fine for me but always been asked for help by everyone is a headache, just tell them your busy tbh or say "go figure" lol
 
lol I feel for ya :D even with the best intentions I used to get fed up with people constantly asking for help/advice/to do stuff for them. I got it from my family, the ex's family, friends and even strangers reccommended by family :eek: Would get a phone call out the blue saying I know "x,y or z," and they gave me your number. I was wondering if you could help me :p WTF???

One word of advice.........never build someone a pc that you know too well because it will come with free lifetime technical support 24/7. Oh and if you don't build them a pc but just advise them about stuff..........expect them to ignore everything you just said :D Why ask me if you aren't going to listen to the advice? Quit wasting my time damnit :p
 
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SeanyK said:
Hiya,

Don't know about anyone else, but I am so fed up of people asking me about computers etc.
If its not someone phoning me up, friends of the family etc asking questions all the time, how to do this, how to do that, can you come help us do this?


amen -


currently working on 2 pc`s, one in Georgia, the other in new jersey, the one in georgia is infested with spywear, the one in new jersey is a new build with SLI problems,

have i ever met these people??? no, why am i helping them??? im not really sure, but hell, its something extra to stick on your C.V. :)
 
I wont touch anything apart from good mates. Due to being blamed for every fault after the fix tbh.

I only do fixes (+i'm not that good) for Beer. After they have signed a discalimer for no come backs! lol. :D
 
i stick VNC on any pc i build for friends or family now, (they chose the password so not even i know till its needed, then when im done i have them change it)

makes things much easier :)
 
SeanyK said:
snip
Anyone else feel the same in those situations?

the best one i have ad ( this on lives 15 miles away )

phone call " my printer wont print , i have tried 4 printer cartriges now they dont work . Ok i will call round next week "

gets there checks the printer it prints b&w ok passes its self test , checks his printer settings he had clicked posterise s/p . then followed about five mins of i have not touched it ect , then his wife came in and said you did, when you made that poster for me 6 weeks ago

people like that should not have a pc or lean to read the manuals
 
I'm not really into PC's now, my main priority since leaving university in June 2005 is getting my finances sorted and getting into a career.

I got sick of being treated like a mug with computers. I wouldn't mind but people ask you to take a look and if something needs replacing they go mental or just don't listen to your advice. I gave up trying to explain to somebody running a Pentium 100 why they were having problems ripping mp3's and browsing the internet at the same time. Those sort of people usually just don't heed your advice anyway, yet still expect you to fix the unfixable.
 
lol....

cos they bought it from the shop 6month ago it shouldnt break

i hate people that have that much carp installed on the computer and its all over the place and no organisation.

i tried to explain that it should be kept like a cupboard or file or something... i.e. clean it up and keep it sorted and organised...
 
At the end of the day PC professionals are just like any other, do you think that a doctor does'nt get asked all sorts of questions that he does'nt want to answer in his spare time.

You should always try to be helpful for friends and family and you will be rewarded, I help all the teachers constantly at the school I work in both for work and home. Nobody else went home with 10 bottles of wine and enough beer for 5 weekends of drinking at Xmas :)
 
I have a catch 50/50 on helping some mates as one of them works in a garage and gets my car fixed and sorted for free.

Can't really argue there for a mere, how do I download my photos off camera, install a printer etc etc :D

What may seem mundane on a pc and yet complicated with a car is a vice versa situation :)
 
I only do this for my parents laptop these days (it runs WinME :( ) as I got fed up of phone calls late in the evening with "friends" having problems. I decided to stop offering free PC support to friends when I was at a party and a mate asked me to fix his PC for him that night while everyone else was enjoying themselves around me. Funnily enough when I stopped doing this I never heard from certain "friends" again. :rolleyes:

My dad helped me out with my central heating and the loan I needed to get it sorted out so helping with the laptop is the least I could do (yes I'm paying him back @ 0% interest). :)
 
jegz said:
I wont touch anything apart from good mates. Due to being blamed for every fault after the fix tbh.
Same here, unless I make it clear that i'm not responsible for any problem that happens afterwards.

I built a pc for a mates parents 2 years ago, a few months ago there cpu fan stopped working but the pc still worked for 1 week without it. Then they called me to go out and fix it when the it broke. I got there and they said that they could smell burning for over a week but just left it. :eek:

I told them they would need a new motherboard, cpu and psu, which would cost them about £100. They expected me to pay for it as they said that I didn't build the pc properly in the first place. I was shocked that they expected me to pay £100 when they could smell the burning for 1 week and did nothing about it.
I didn't buy the parts to fix it and am never fixing or building a pc for them again.
 
I used to get asked all the time, at work, at home, by friends and family as well as friends of friends and so on and so forth. It got to the stage where I was doing that more than I was having my free time!

In the end if anyone called up (execpt close family) then i'd finish the conversation with .. "Well to be honest I'll have to charge you xxxxx for doing that as it will take me xxxxx time and I have things I need to do here." Or "[pc shop name] could do that for you. I think they are still open."
 
Old Turkey said:
What I found most revelating about being asked for help by individuals was, just exactly how little effort they themselves put into solving the 'problem' they faced before they came crying to me. In some cases simply reading the manual was all that was required.

The number of times someone has asked me a question and, right in front of them, I type what they asked verbatim into google...click the first result and then read the results off the screen to them.

Well..lets just say lots. I seem to spend a lot of time as an advanced google API.

Kev
 
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