typical "can you fix my computer" jobs from friends and family

The Dread Pirate said:
I believe it was yesterday I got a call that started with "Fallout 4*Thunk*...." after about 4 mins of silence I decided to go and investigate... found friend muttering to themselves in a corner "Won't work... won't work" after a quick Nvidia update the game ran perfectly and friend was released form their fallout 4 withdrawal induced madness.
Click to expand...

Is this your friend?
 
I built a new system for my other halves dad, installed o.s, anti virus etc, came to about £375 iirc , he only paid me what the parts came to, thought me might have 'bunged ' me another £20 or something but no. Not massively bothered as it was pretty straight forward, but a little extra would've been nice
 
Last edited:
I don't charge for friends and family, but I'll often get beer as goodwill :-) I'm also friends with a guy who does odd jobs during his retirement and he has tidied up my garden in return for PC repairs (I didn't have to ask him to).
 
My Mother came around the other day asking if I could go around to 'have a look at and fix' her mate's computer which was throwing up all manner of problems when browsing.

What I found was shocking. Windows XP, 800x600, and IE with 3/4 of the screen taken up by any number of those add-on browser search boxes (some from companies I'd never heard of) and at least two were Ask Jeeves. The thing was riddled.
 
Malevolence said:
My Mother came around the other day asking if I could go around to 'have a look at and fix' her mate's computer which was throwing up all manner of problems when browsing.

What I found was shocking. Windows XP, 800x600, and IE with 3/4 of the screen taken up by any number of those add-on browser search boxes (some from companies I'd never heard of) and at least two were Ask Jeeves. The thing was riddled.
Click to expand...

This would be the state of most PCs owned by the average user if it survived long enough.

Went away for work (just two days) two weeks ago and came back to find big search bar on my chrome!

My gf said 'I put it on because an installer said i needed it'.

'WTF, what installer?! Why would i need it? what did you install?'

'Iunno, a pop up just told me to, so i did it. How was i suppose to know?!'


\facepalmed to death
 
Last edited:
Family, yes. Friends, no.

Too much to go wrong where money and friends is concerned. Plus I die a little knowing you're handing them a fresh install/machine etc and it'll be riddled with bloat ware the minute you pull away.

That's always annoyed me too... "Can you have a look at my sisters pc, it's slow". Running malware bytes... 5000 results.... Sigh.
 
I think it isn't the amount of time that is the issue - it is that it is an activity, that to you, is something you relate to work and being paid for

for example - your mate is a solicitor, you're moving house - you'll probably find your mate is more than happy to pop round and give you a hand with boxes - put some extra stuff in his car etc.. if it doesn't all fit in the hire van

you'd likely do the same for him

what he'd likely be upset about is if you asked him to sort out your conveyancing - even if it took the same number of hours as giving you a hand moving some stuff - fact is helping a mate move some boxes is stuff mates do, doing conveyancing is 'work'

work being something he has studied for and passed hard exams to be able to do - so it isn't just his time spent doing the task you're benefiting from but also the expertise he's spent time and money acquiring - so yeah people will naturally be annoyed at being asked to do their line of work for free and that is the point you really need to make
 
^^^

Yeh but nearly all the IT related stuff you'll get asked to do (by family/friends) are basic things which people here will likely be able to do quickly and correctly.
 
Avenged7Fold said:
My gf said 'I put it on because an installer said i needed it'.

'WTF, what installer?! Why would i need it? what did you install?'

'Iunno, a pop up just told me to, so i did it. How was i suppose to know?!'


\facepalmed to death
Click to expand...

I used to make my ex do all her internet browsing in a VM, that way when she inevitably messed it up, I copied over a clean image. Saved a lot of headaches.
 
muon said:
^^^

Yeh but nearly all the IT related stuff you'll get asked to do (by family/friends) are basic things which people here will likely be able to do quickly and correctly.
Click to expand...

Not in my experience: Most tend to be virus or malware and the only real solution is a clean OS install followed by a shedload of updates. Even an 8-Pack special is going to be a while doing all that. Yes, its mostly leaving it to do its thing, but you still end up spending time babysitting.
 
peterwalkley said:
Not in my experience: Most tend to be virus or malware and the only real solution is a clean OS install followed by a shedload of updates. Even an 8-Pack special is going to be a while doing all that. Yes, its mostly leaving it to do its thing, but you still end up spending time babysitting.
Click to expand...

You don't have to sit there and watch Windows install or Automatic Windows Updates.

I've done clean OS installs for a few people (usually close family/friends) and I just ask take the laptop/PC and do it in my own time. It probably only takes 30 mins of my attention.

Windows 8 and 10 makes it even easier to just reinstall Windows.
 
Not IT related:

Mum in Law asks the wife if i could organise a visit to one of the specialist sections in the place i work as they are very interested in the role - 2 uni students and 1 is niece, other is her mate and i have never seen or met either before.

Yeah ok says i and i call in a few favours and the specialist section agree to host the girls for half a day and give me suitable dates. I go back to the girls and the dates aren't suitable! OK, give me dates YOU are available.

I take the dates back to the section and after a bit of reworking one of the dates is convenient - yey!

A week before the visit, the wife gets a call from the mum in law who says the niece isn't coming, it's her mate who is interested not her anyway. Is this still ok?

Er.........no. Family? Possibly, some random? No!

Yet i was the bad guy.
 
I put my foot firmly down long ago where PC repairs are concerned. Most people in this thread seem to have had the same experience with this as I have.

One thing that does seem to be creeping in lately though is people asking me to trawl through comparison and cashback sites for them to find them the cheapest car insurance / holidays / gas and electric etc.

And recently I was asked to sort out a mate's music collection to be put onto his mp3 player. I had a quick look thinking he just wanted the music ordering by category or artist etc, but no. He had about 4000 songs in there that had no artist info or album cover art. He actually wanted me to sit and manually create a folder for each artist, sort the songs into there, enter each artist name into the song info and download the album art for each one.

The reason given for these sort of things is always "Yeh but you're good at this sort of stuff aren't you I don't really know what I'm doing".

So basically the PC repairs have now evolved into donkey work that people expect me to do for them simply because they CBA to do it themselves. I don't mind doing favours for people at all but this sort of stuff is akin to me asking them to do my ironing for me and wash my car while they're on.
 
Last edited:
memyselfandi said:
I sort out immediate families machines (my Dad's computer is a hand me down from me anyway), and I'll give advice to technically literate friends (who know as much as me so it's normally along the lines of "what do you think about this ..." rather than fixing things).

Fortunately I managed to get my Mum to understand that I work with enterprise IT and don't do desktop support so I am not volunteered for things.

I don't really see the point of all the willy waving though on how quickly a system can be built ... if I am building a system then I am enjoying the process and hence I'm not going to hurry it as quickly as possible ... if it takes all day then so what.
Click to expand...

I think the point was decorating a lounge takes a week and building a PCs shouldn't take that long. I agree for complex and fun builds esp water I've taken a day or a weekend on and off.
 
EVH said:
Family, yes. Friends, no.

Too much to go wrong where money and friends is concerned. Plus I die a little knowing you're handing them a fresh install/machine etc and it'll be riddled with bloat ware the minute you pull away.

That's always annoyed me too... "Can you have a look at my sisters pc, it's slow". Running malware bytes... 5000 results.... Sigh.
Click to expand...

That's nothing. Mate asked me to help with their home PC in their bedroom. He tried to blame it on the son who had clicked something. Locked up and browser redirected to porn sites. Malware came up with 9800 issues.

Sorted it and tidied and cleaned things up and put some decent anti virus and protection on. Did a picture search to clear out all the downloaded porn pics etc.

That's when I discovered their home picture and movie collection. Couldn't look her in the eye again for a while after that. Since then discovered they always go the nudist places on holiday and go dogging but I was shocked at the time. Seemed a normal couple. :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom