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Sep. 13th, 2006 12:27 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
lillyflowers.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
techrecoveryNot really a tech support person. But I do enjoy reading this community since it's a geek version of ![[info]](https://stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif)
mock_the_stupid. I never thought I'd have anything to contribute to this community. Until last night that is.
Dad, how many years have you had that iBook? Six years? You would think that he'd be pretty self sufficient by now, right? You couldn't be more wrong.
Last night the phone rings. For some reason Dad won't use the phone, he makes Mom call, and she hands me over to him. *rolls eyes* I knew when she did this it would be some sort of OHMYGODTHECOMPUTERISNTWORKING!!1!! problem. Which almost always isn't - like getting a 404 page. He's not dumb. Not by a long shot. Hell, he's a retired Civil Engineer.
Last night, well, I got insight into how a Level 1 Tech Support person lives.
He was trying to print something from a web site he uses. It was two pages, but after repeated attempts at printing and getting just one page, he needed me to help. This is where the non-hilarity and so not fun ensues.
Me: "Dad, can you go to page set-up for me?"
Dad: "Uhm, where's that?"
Me: "Next to the blue Apple it says 'file', click and scroll to page set-up."
Dad: "But there's 'print' there and I've already tried it and it doesn't work!"
Me: "Yes, understand that. But I'm not doing that, I'm trying something else."
Dad: "Oh. What did you want me to do again?"
Me: (big mental sigh) "Next to the blue Apple …"
Some number ofdays seconds later we got the page set up options chosen.
Cue more confusion …
me: "Dad, go to file -> print."
Dad: "But it won't print page 2!"
me: "I'm trying a different thing. Don't think, just follow what I'm teling you, okay? Go to file->print and tell me if you see anything that says 'PDF'" [For the non Mac folk, the OS X software lets you rip PDFs without having Acrobat]
Dad: "A what?"
Me: "P-D-F"
Dad: (proceeds to read me the whole frellin print screen and finally stumbles on PDF*)
Me: "Good. Now click on it and choose 'save as PDF'."
Dad: "How do I do that?"
Me: (the first of many *headdesks* and *headexplosions*.)
So, we get thru that little part, and now I want him to open the PDF we just made. Pretty much you know what's going to happen - so I won't go into any more detail than this - Open it in Preview. What's preview? etc. with some go to the Finder, and how do I get there thrown in. Suffice it to say I gained a new level of respect for those tech support people.
We discover that yes, there is only one of the two pages. It appears that it is the site's issue and I tell him he needs to call them. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. But I'd had enough of this, it had been some 25 minutes of this so far.
I thought my torture was done. Ohhh no! He tells me he doesn't want to leave the document on his computer because he's afraid since it has an account number. And, since Mom is a total paranoid about the internets and how EvilTheyAre™, he needs to remove it before the evil identity thiefs hack into their computer — which is dial-up and generally not connected to the jack. So explain to me how that would happen?
Cue me telling him how to get to the Finder (Windows Explorer for you Gates peeps). Again.
I tell him to click the icon in the dock (which would be that bar at the bottom of your Windows which has icons, open docs and stuff). He says, yep you guess it, "How do I do that?"
After all this — and some "which file do I click?" — I finally get him to click onto the file. I tell him to drag it to the trash, and empty the trash.
Want to know what he says next?
"How do I do that?"
That's when I actually did a *facepalm*. And heard it. Inside my head. I hit my face so hard, I heard it. In my head.
The total time for this call? 32 minutes.
mock_the_stupid. I never thought I'd have anything to contribute to this community. Until last night that is.Dad, how many years have you had that iBook? Six years? You would think that he'd be pretty self sufficient by now, right? You couldn't be more wrong.
Last night the phone rings. For some reason Dad won't use the phone, he makes Mom call, and she hands me over to him. *rolls eyes* I knew when she did this it would be some sort of OHMYGODTHECOMPUTERISNTWORKING!!1!! problem. Which almost always isn't - like getting a 404 page. He's not dumb. Not by a long shot. Hell, he's a retired Civil Engineer.
Last night, well, I got insight into how a Level 1 Tech Support person lives.
He was trying to print something from a web site he uses. It was two pages, but after repeated attempts at printing and getting just one page, he needed me to help. This is where the non-hilarity and so not fun ensues.
Me: "Dad, can you go to page set-up for me?"
Dad: "Uhm, where's that?"
Me: "Next to the blue Apple it says 'file', click and scroll to page set-up."
Dad: "But there's 'print' there and I've already tried it and it doesn't work!"
Me: "Yes, understand that. But I'm not doing that, I'm trying something else."
Dad: "Oh. What did you want me to do again?"
Me: (big mental sigh) "Next to the blue Apple …"
Some number of
Cue more confusion …
me: "Dad, go to file -> print."
Dad: "But it won't print page 2!"
me: "I'm trying a different thing. Don't think, just follow what I'm teling you, okay? Go to file->print and tell me if you see anything that says 'PDF'" [For the non Mac folk, the OS X software lets you rip PDFs without having Acrobat]
Dad: "A what?"
Me: "P-D-F"
Dad: (proceeds to read me the whole frellin print screen and finally stumbles on PDF*)
Me: "Good. Now click on it and choose 'save as PDF'."
Dad: "How do I do that?"
Me: (the first of many *headdesks* and *headexplosions*.)
So, we get thru that little part, and now I want him to open the PDF we just made. Pretty much you know what's going to happen - so I won't go into any more detail than this - Open it in Preview. What's preview? etc. with some go to the Finder, and how do I get there thrown in. Suffice it to say I gained a new level of respect for those tech support people.
We discover that yes, there is only one of the two pages. It appears that it is the site's issue and I tell him he needs to call them. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. But I'd had enough of this, it had been some 25 minutes of this so far.
I thought my torture was done. Ohhh no! He tells me he doesn't want to leave the document on his computer because he's afraid since it has an account number. And, since Mom is a total paranoid about the internets and how EvilTheyAre™, he needs to remove it before the evil identity thiefs hack into their computer — which is dial-up and generally not connected to the jack. So explain to me how that would happen?
Cue me telling him how to get to the Finder (Windows Explorer for you Gates peeps). Again.
I tell him to click the icon in the dock (which would be that bar at the bottom of your Windows which has icons, open docs and stuff). He says, yep you guess it, "How do I do that?"
After all this — and some "which file do I click?" — I finally get him to click onto the file. I tell him to drag it to the trash, and empty the trash.
Want to know what he says next?
"How do I do that?"
That's when I actually did a *facepalm*. And heard it. Inside my head. I hit my face so hard, I heard it. In my head.
The total time for this call? 32 minutes.
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no subject
Date: 2006-09-13 04:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-13 05:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-13 06:16 pm (UTC)Maybe not, I dunno, but that was the first thing that came to mind when I read your story. Can you tell I do Mac support? :)
no subject
Date: 2006-09-13 06:55 pm (UTC)We tried that path as well. We tried "All" and "1" and "2". Mostly I wanted to PDF the thing to SEE if it would generate both pages, and eliminate the possibility that Epsom/OS X printer driver issue(s) weren't the cause.
BTW, I'm an old time Mac gal that started using Macs way back when System 6 was shiny and new.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-13 06:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-13 07:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-13 10:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-14 12:44 am (UTC)And even then, it's not enough.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-14 12:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-15 06:52 pm (UTC)EpsoN is a printer company.
I will now vanish into the shadows, having climbed off my soap box...
:)