Never *ever* let anyone know you work in computers..

[morningside.livejournal.com]

This is my first post to the community - good, albeit slightly depressing site. Sometimes I wish I hadn't picked a career in computers - or at least never told anyone about it. Why? Because on several occasions I've had people who aren't even friends, only aquaintances, ring me out of the blue for tech support, after I've just got home from being a tech at work. And these aren't simple yes or no questions either - one guy rang asking how to get pictures from the phone he'd bought just that day. WTF? What's wrong with ringing the company you bought it from?

It's also that these people don't actually bother reading manuals or what's on the screen on front of them. They think 'Oo.. Morningside knows about computers, I'll ring him, he'll be overjoyed to help me with my problem down the phone despite not seeing my PC.' Would these people expect to get calls outside of work about what they do? Sorry to bitch - maybe I'm just being mean, but I could do with letting off steam.. aaggh.

Comments

[oddball42.livejournal.com]

i know what you mena, i have a freind from acorss the country asking me if i can go to her mother place and to a once over on her system. and really i have some issues with this personally ebcause i can look, but if you want me do do something and im not getting paid there is no warranty, and then for someone i dont know i really have issues with that.

[miharu.livejournal.com]

Welcome aboard, we know your pain.

There are two sides to this, as I see my parents and other friends do the same all the time, to myself and others. They don't understand what we do, and they think that our helping them would be "no big deal" and that it wouldn't bother us to help them with such problems. It would be nice if they took the old automotive or medical comparisons in mind: you don't call your mechanic or your doctor at hom to describe a problem that you have no grasp of to see if they can fix it over the phone in under 30 seconds.
People just need to try harder. Read manuals, hell.. read your screen. You might learn something.

[tjernobyl.livejournal.com]

If your car has lain half-buried in a manure heap for 15 years, you don't ask him to come over and repair it gratis. You don't call up your doctor and tell him you've got your chest open, but forget how to get the liver back in. You don't call up your lawyer, say you've been arrested for 'some law that starts with a' and demand to know immediately how long it'll take to get out.

[dajeth.livejournal.com]

Ans as computers become more ubiquitous it's getting worse. Used to be that you'd go a party and the doctor there would get all of the "Gee, doc, does this look infected", or the "my does this , when I do ". Now it's the tech guy gettign all of the attention. "Hey tech guy(gal), my PDA/cell phone does ." "Does that sound like a virus to you?" etc....

I feel your pain. I find the only way to deal with the frustration is repeated banging of your ehad against hard surfaces. Or b33r.

[tjernobyl.livejournal.com]

I've actually gotten calls from people I don't even know. I don't know how they found my number...

[mashteh.livejournal.com]

I DO feel your pain here! What gets me sometimes is my parents started giving my number out to the people whom they go to CHURCH with, volunteering me, telling them, "Oh he'll fix you right up in no time.. He won't mind at all, just give him a call anytime.." doing this without asking or consulting me at all..

And nothing wrong with letting off steam here ^^ It's one of the reasons for this group! ^_^

OMG

[greeklady.livejournal.com]

Our parents are related!! I no longer even go to church but they want me to do free tech support and install a dos based program on a 98 machine that hasn't seen the light of day in years!! No service packs nothing! Not to mention I never wanted to set foot in the church again. It gets worse when they volunteer you to repair a lost cd rom drive on a computer that (and I shit you not here) had something like 12kb of ram on a 486 something or other. It took 20 min to boot up! I told her to go buy a new machine there was nothing I could do for her.

I stopped answering my phone. May the gods bless caller id! I also told my husband on no certain terms he needs to tell his mother to stop volunteering me for things. They got to the point the only reason they would call me would be for tech support. I said if they can't even ask me out to dinner or for a function they should not be calling me. I don't call them when I need money or anything else. They finally stopped. Thank the gods!

[glennarbor.livejournal.com]

hehe, i think we can all relate to that sentiment. I work the late shift and even the cleaning guy that comes around pushing his barrel in the evening has hit me up for support with his expired netzero account.

[avantlegion.livejournal.com]

Two words:

Caller ID.

If someone's calling that I don't need to talk to at that moment (basically, if it's not my girlfriend or "real" friends), it goes to the machine. This goes way beyond just avoiding "fix my computer" calls, and into avoiding all unwanted calls. Plus, anyone that actually needs to talk to me has my cell phone number, and anyone that doesn't, doesn't.

[fnordx.livejournal.com]

I normally ask the person who's calling me for tech support what they do for a living. If it's something interesting, like being a lawyer, or a CPA, or something like that, I ask them for something in return;

"Oh, you're a CPA? So, you wouldn't mind doing my taxes this year?"

You'd be amaized at how many people will stop calling you after you demand a 'simple favor' in return for their 'simple favor'.

[chickenfart.livejournal.com]

http://www.thenetworkadministrator.com/homecomputers.htm

Read that. Doesn't _directly_ apply, but it makes sense.

[rwmidl.livejournal.com]

Here is what I do. When people ask me to do something to their home computer I stop them in mid-sentance and say "my fee is $250/hour. If I work 5 minutes that is $250. If I work 1 hour and 3 minutes that is $500". I don't get asked questions much anymore :)