Modem Driver

[thebigfella]

Jeez, it's a good job yis aren't doctors or something. Some friends.

If it was a good mate I'd go round to the house, ditto for the family and in-laws. It's the c***ts in work who think they can just drop the PC off at your desk, with the 'he's probably got nothing better to do with his evenings and sure those Techies just sit around fixing stuff all the time attitude' that start to piss you off very quickly.

I had a few issues with my brother dropping off his in-laws machines every weekend to get fixed out of the goodness of my heart. Was getting every weekend until I started organising him to put down floors, hang doors, put on a bit of skirting for my mates or in-laws for free. That soon put the fixing computers out of him

[TacadoirArdMhacha]

I'll give you an example from when I first started working in IT Support years ago in Dublin. When I landed back to my desk once, there was a PC left on my chair, no note or a quick email from the colleague asking that I take a look at it. Took it off my chair and put it under my desk - 3 days later a middle aged women came and asked how her PC was coming along.

Middle-aged woman - How is my son's PC coming along?
Me - What PC?
Middle-aged woman - the one I left on your seat a few days ago
Me - Oh, that was yours, an explanation of what the problem was and a simple request that I please look at your sons PC might have been nice?
Middle-aged woman - but he is in the middle of his thesis, he needs to have it working asap.
Me - Do you work here? I've never seen you before
Middle-aged woman - I work 2 days a week in accounts
Me - How is this my problem?
Middle-aged woman - You fix computers, it's your job!
Me - I fix computers for this company, I don't get paid to fix your sons PC
Middle-aged woman - I certainly wasn't expecting to be charged
Me - If you asked me nicely I wouldn't have charged you
Middle-aged woman - How much will it cost
Me - I don't want to start a new company, I have a job
Middle-aged woman - Well, if that's your attitude I'll take it elsewhere
Me - Good, I think that would be the best option for your son
Middle-aged woman - If my son doesn't get his thesis in on time it'll be on your head
Me - I couldn't give a f**k about your sons thesis, it's got nothing to do with me
Middle-aged woman goes to Managing Director to complain about me
Managing Director gives me a warning for using the word f**k - closes the door on her and tells me I was dead right, if there are people who have problems with their PC they shouldn't be approaching me, but if I don't mind helping people out that's my business.

The thing is, and I've learnt this through experience, once you do one little job on someones home machine, they will come back to you whenever anything goes wrong - and we're talking young families with kids who install any old shite and are constantly getting viruses. It's just not worth the hassle, but if you say no you're the biggest **** in the world, so I simply employ that method to keep them off my back whilst doing nothing - too much hassle in the long run

The irony is that her son was probably working away on his thesis on his university's computer happy as larry.

[carribbear]

Very rarely has anyone offered me anything (family excluded) for time and services. In fact it has been treated as an obligation, some havent even said thank you. One guy who was cabling the office I was in asked me to take a look at his computer, he said it had viruses as he was (and admitted) looking at po.rn. I basically told him that i wouldnt do it, that I try to spend as much time away from computers as possible. I gave him tips on what to do, software to load etc but that wasn't enough, kept at me for a couple of days and got a bit snotty when he realised I wasnt going to help.
Met him a month later, he said he was still having problems, I said that I won't touch his computer as I will only look at machines of family and close friends since I didn't want to be held liable for any problems. He asked me what would it take to be a close friend!! I again said no
Then met him 2 weeks later, still at it. He told me that he found out that there was some program that I could connect to his machine remotely and take a look at his computer...so...he wanted me to connect to his machine with my machine and try fix his virus ridden laptop with mine....I passed on the offer...

Thats only the tip of the iceberg...

[stephenite]

Friends and relatives I don't have a problem helping out, people taking advantage just because you work in IT I do have a problem with.

[mylestheslasher]

I don't even work in IT and at one stage this year I had 4 pc's in a room at home for fixing. Two for friends so that was ok (if still a pain) and 2 for people at work that barely know how to turn a pc on. I felt sorry for  them and said I'd help them out - now I feel sorry for me. I suppose at least they were greatful when I did get the job done. These days if i see anything older than 4 years I tell them it'll cost €300 to fix so they should buy a new one from Dell instead. Thats seems to be working!

[Billys Boots]

It's a lesson well-learnt that people have absolutely no respect for anything done for free (or anyone who does things for free).  Sad, but true.