(no subject)

[twistedsyx.livejournal.com]

This is a gripe that may or may not have been mentioned before.
And personally, I don't mind taking these calls, but.

I work for newbie/technofile software company. The software we make is supposed to help them do stuff that would otherwise be harder just using windows. Kind of a "I wouldn't use it, but my mom would totally need this," software company.

A call I got today
(L)user: So, I notice your software says that I have to have service pack 1 or 2 installed for me to install the program. I can't do that because it crashes my computer.
Me: ...
Luser: any way around that?
Me: Well... no.
Luser: Like I can't...
Me: No.
Luser: There isn't someway to maybe...
Me: Trust me, no.

I mean, is "minimum system requirements" a really hard concept to grasp? I'm seriously curious.

Comments

[jecook]

That's a zombie right there, as M$ does not provide updates for machines not running SP1 at a minimum. What a moron.

[wibbble]

It's not so much that they can't understand minimum requirements, as they can't understand that they can't get what they want, right away, with no further work.

I get this all the time, when I tell people that their phone isn't compatible with this, that, or the other, or that the PC software won't work on WinME or whatever nonsense they're running.

[agentdanak.livejournal.com]

i work in a game store. do you know how often people try to return pc games because 'my machine can't run this because it's a (insert some not up to spec part name here)'.

guess what? we don't take returns on pc games. because people can't understand why a minimum requirement is a MINIMUM requirement, and oh, if i buy this my crap ass machine will run it, i just know it will!

*headcashwrapcounter*

[eliz.livejournal.com]

Oh lord- I got a call the other day that the pc was SO far below minimum specs-- we've got some old machines around here to play with linux on and this machine was older than THOSE.

What drives me crazy is when they talk about how "other manufacturers product" is so much easier to work with, doesn't require x/y/z, etc. Because believe me, I'd MUCH rather be dealing with something that works better also!!! It's a pain when the only solution most of the time is to uninstall and reinstall-- and uninstalls have to include going into add/remove programs and removing 3 different things, then remove directly from the hard drive 3 folders, AND go into the reg editor and remove 3 things from there. I hold my breath everytime I have to tell some guy with very limited experience to type in "regedit"!!!

[geekgrrl-ca.livejournal.com]

always ask for their kid for regedit

[eliz.livejournal.com]

Kids don't work where these guys work. OSHA would have a heart attack if they did. ;)

[geekgrrl-ca.livejournal.com]

Ugh. My employer in their infinite wisdom has stopped including software, took away the download and took away our ability to send a CD that works with the minimum requirements on the box for some of our products. worse, the cd included installs but the installed software doesn't work.