It took 5 minutes to install mine; 3 minutes were unwrapping it

[lolotehe]

Really, it's only funny if you've taken a call from one of these folk.

It is also terrifying. How many of us will be conscripted to help elderly relatives?

EDIT: It's been pointed out this had already been posted. Apparently, teh brain sleeps in on weekends later than I do.

Comments

[tx-cronopio.livejournal.com]

This is exactly like my dad, except he does not have a pink sweater.

[mouser.livejournal.com]

How many of us will be conscripted to help elderly relatives?

How many of us haven't been conscripted to help elderly relatives?

[hikari-neko.livejournal.com]

Me. They're all dead.

[anivair.livejournal.com]

that is technologically fortunate and personally unfortunate, I'd imagine. That is, sad about the family, but easier on your grey hair count.

My elderly family is mostly dead, but my mother keeps finding old people for me to help free of charge anyway.

[simoncion.livejournal.com]

*raises hand*

They're either all dead or senile.

(Hooray for being off of the tech support hook!)

[mouser.livejournal.com]

I have non-tech friends.


*sigh*

[simoncion.livejournal.com]

*chuckles*

If my non-tech friends come to me with a boring problem, I tell them that it'll cost them $100/hr with a three hour minimum to fix it.
I no longer get boring tech support requests. :D

[antikythera.livejournal.com]

I haven't. I don't live close enough to any of them.

[demented-pants.livejournal.com]

is this my new tv?

Yes. Allow me to show you the joys of Hulu.

[hikari-neko.livejournal.com]

No, that's pretty funny even if you haven't :)

[lolotehe]

Aye, true.

[goes-kaboom.livejournal.com]

Do I right click or left click?

[mix-hyenataur.livejournal.com]

What's a click?

[canray.livejournal.com]

I've done this already. I used to do Tech Support for TV and High Speed Cable Internet.

Trying to explain how to screw on a nut and bolt to a 90-something year old woman who had her Husband do everything "Technical" once upon a time is not fun.

Oh, by the by, one said that "Plugging in the hair dryer" was "too technical for a woman to understand."

My Feminist Great-Aunt weeped at that story.

[pisceandreamer.livejournal.com]

I am so grateful that my grandmother already has cable.

[doublefelix.livejournal.com]

http://community.livejournal.com/techsupport/1915613.html
:/

[lolotehe]

Ahhhhh! I fail!

[kostika.livejournal.com]

I didn't even notice the other one.

[luminousx.livejournal.com]

The other one had no context, gave no reason to follow the link.

[random-c.livejournal.com]

So... the funny is that this guy can't explain stuff worth crap? Surely the first thing we all learn is how to talk customer?

[caira.livejournal.com]

Yes, but imagine all the grandchildren who have half a clue how to plug stuff into the back of a TV but haven't ever worked helldesk . . .

[random-c.livejournal.com]

True... maybe I found dealing with the less technically able customers easy because I'd had to deal with my mother. Who last week managed to plug a USB cable into an air vent and lock the machine solid.

[mix-hyenataur.livejournal.com]

I usually just ask to talk to their kid to troubleshoot.

[random-c.livejournal.com]

Works less well when you hate kids. I always found the worst customers to be the single (or left to cope alone during the holidays) mums, who would be half listening to me, half yelling at the offspring. I had one terminate a call because little Damien had just set fire to the sofa.

[attackgypsy.livejournal.com]

I got mad at my dad.

He has cable TV, internet, and VOIP.

I used to do VOIP and Internet support for that company. Haven't worked there in a year.

He expects me to fix his TV.

After 30 times, I started yelling "Dad, I worked in internet and phone. Not TV. I don't know jack shit about TV. Call the damn cable company already!"

Then I went home.

He hasn't asked me to fix it since.

[benatwork.livejournal.com]

My dad routinely bugs me for desktop support on his now year-old Mac, as well as the new ubuntu install on his previously Vista-only laptop. He refuses to look up *anything* online before asking me for help, and refuses to use the CLI for anything.

The confusing thing about this is that he's been an embedded systems engineer for decades. He's worked with computers for longer than I've been alive.