Pet peeves in helping someone with their computer

[Frank the Tank]

OH MY GAWD!!! I just got the dreaded phone call from my father this morning. He can't get a document to print from MS Word. The bold copy at the top prints fine, but the body copy (non-bold) prints super-faint. I told him to choose the text and change the font to see if that was the problem. He had no idea what i was talking about. Its like I was suddenly speaking Russian. He then proceeds to start rhyming off everything in the drop-down menu bars.

Now this may not seem terribly annoying, but consider this: I use a Mac. I have ALWAYS used a Mac. I know NOTHING about Windows/Word/Excel/Powerpoint, all that crap. My father knows this, yet still calls me for help.

As well, I am a hands-on type person. If I sat down in front of his computer, I could probably figure it out, but over the phone, I'm hopeless. My father knows this as well.

He is hopeless. I'm thinking of revoking his computer rights.

[HOZ]

Originally posted by Frank the Tank@Jan 31 2005, 08:52 PM


He is hopeless. I'm thinking of revoking his computer rights.

When you get finished with your father...stop by mine and take his away too.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally posted by fotze@Jan 31 2005, 02:39 PM
I'm am not in any capacity of a computer help desk person or anything but being someone on the floor with a pretty good computing skills you get annoyed by some things.

List or describe the things that p*ss you off when you are called into a co-workers office on HOW TO OPEN A DAMN .txt FILE! Also list the dreaded 'helping your parents with their computer' peeves.

1. Slowness in finding things on the screen - You are standing behind them and you say 'goto the menubar, tools - options' and they start clicking all over the place until you press your finger onto the place on the monitor to show them and they still don't get it.

2. Double clicking things that require single clicks. - You don't have to double click everything and you can screw things up if you do.

3. Messy double clicks - People who move while the're SLLLOOWW double clicking, leads to problem 5.

4. Slow scrollers - When scrolling down a many paged document or spreadsheet they click and hold the little arrow while it scrolls for 5 minutes to get to the bottom. You can click in the bar, drag it or use menu keys/arrows to make this faster.

5. Losing a toolbar - Results mostly from the poor double clicker where they drag the tool bar off so it becomes a free-standing window, they don't recognize this then close it, you just want to cuff the guy in the back of the head.

6. Zero knowledge of file management - After how many years of windows based systems people still don't understand when they save something they should put it somewhere they can find it. (I could tell them how to search for files but that would take 40 years to sink in).

7. Dragging things - Some peopl just cannot drag something somewhere.

I'm sure there are more I can't think of.

Wow... that list is pretty much exactly what I go through with the parents, but even worse, the grandparents (who let them buy a computer!??!)

The only things I can think of are:

Calling me before they even look in the help menu or try a bit themselves

Getting friggen adware and viruses even when you tell them not to download programs etc, and then asking you if its safe to open a picture.

[habernac]

My parents used to ask me for help all the time. My brother-in-law-to-be set up their last PC about 2 months ago. I made sure they knew then that he's their support contact if anything goes wrong. If I didn't set it up, I'm not troubleshooting it.

[kdogg]

Working with people who don't know what Windows Explorer is
________
COLORADO MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARY

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Nothing p*sses me off more than having to show my mom how to do something every time she does it. Then she get's p*ssed off at me because I'm being impatient with her. Seriously, try to figure it out yourself, and if you can't give me a call. It wasn't so bad when I lived at home, but now it's really getting annoying.

[Mr. Ski]

First one's small.... when helping people in my office I nearly always hate how they have their mice set-up. They track sooooooo slowly you have to circumnavigate their desk just to cross the screen! Have you no dexterity people?

Second one I can relate to some of the other people here.... I sold an older, but well running IBM Win 98 PII 300 computer to my uncle for $100 (including 17" monitor, keyboard, mouse, everything) and a bunch of older software (Office 97, bunch of games, etc.) I go to his house, set it up and spend a day with him showing him how it works. He's amazed at this "Solitare" game that's been included with his new toy and spends the next few weeks playing nothing but (seriously).

A few months go by, and up to this point everything's pretty good. He's had a few issues, but I've been able to solve them over the phone without too much hassle (he can't remember where he saved a file, can't remember how to start such-and-such a game, etc.)

Then I get 'the call' from him around midnight one evening. He decided to try and make it run faster (apparantly Solitare was going too slowly or something ) and so he went into the BIOS to tweak it a little!

He changed nearly every setting in there and can't even get the machine to boot to C:\> prompt anymore, and since I sold him the computer, it's my job to provide 24hr system support and fix it! He reads through every menu saying, "is this right?", "is this right?", etc. Over the next two hours, I remained polite, but answered every question with "Sure, try that, but I have no idea". I'm windows savvy, and a wiz with Excel but the bios is pretty much beyond my area of expertice.......

Long story short after several months it's still not working (I'm sure its easily fixable, it just hasn't been done, and he won't take it anywhere because it might cost him a dollar or two). I'm pretty temped to just give him his $100 back and call it a day.

[TheyCallMeBruce]

This is actually more of a pet peeve toward supposedly I.T specialist. I've had I.T. people who have been working on Oracle servers ask me what a "Schema" is...the horror!

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Let me tell you the joys of building other people's computers for them out of parts.... Thought I was doing them a favor by helping them save a few bucks but I neglected to anticipate the world of Warranty / Tech Support I was getting into.

Next time, I tell them to get a $399 Dell...

[Mike__]

Pet Peeve: Setting everything up for friends/family. Since I know computers, it is automatically my job to set everything up that they buy. Even something as simple as a printer.

I got another one. Its not so much a computer problem but a slow typing combined with lack of english skills problem. Whenever my father needs something typed up, he ALWAYS turns to me. It drives me nuts. Ahhh...I hate being nice.

[lucid]

:biglaff: Oh man, I pretty much go through a lot ofthe stuff mentionedhere with my own parents.

Nothing p*sses me off more than having to show my mom how to do something every time she does it. Then she get's p*ssed off at me because I'm being impatient with her

Exactly!

- My parents often ask formy help (which I don't have a problem with), but insist that I talk them through it, instead of show them. I try to be as patient as possible, but it pretty much takes an hour to find "File", another hour tomove the mouse over there and click (and yes,they'll click twice), etc... A 30second operation can take 5 minutes, easily!

- My mother has a fixation with viruses and pop-up ads. Constantly warning me not to do anything that will wreck the computer... then she surfs the net, sees one of those "Warning, your computer may be infected" type pop-ups, proceeds to click on the ad, which usually sends a host of other ads our way... (Which reminds me, when I get back home, it's time for a pop-up blocker!)

- I've lost count how many times I've shown my father how to print something. I've offered to write it down,but he'll have none of that. Even if he could remember to do Step 1: Turn on printer, it would be an accomplishment, and I'd be quite pleased with his progress.

- How about needing to help them find the Explorer icon on the desktop. Repeatedly... and I don't even move it. It's been in the same place for a while now. And it specifically says "INTERNET Explorer." Where else would you go to get onto the internet??

Scary thing is, there's really no one in my family who "gets" computers. No specialists, no one naturally smart when it comes to this sort of stuff. I'm as good as it gets-- and most of what I know is from trial and error. So if they screw stuff up, it's always fun strying to straighten things out. Yeah, loads of fun. Good thing they only know how to use Word, check email and do a basic internet search!

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Originally posted by Bring_Back_Shantz@Jan 31 2005, 04:33 PM
Nothing p*sses me off more than having to show my mom how to do something every time she does it. Then she get's p*ssed off at me because I'm being impatient with her.

I think we all know the "Parental Computer Pose". Hand frozen over keyboard or resting on mouse. Head tilted upwards to allow Bifocals to focus. Confused yet determined look on face. Slow yet deliberate movement of the mouse.

I hope this is not in my destiny when they invent some newfangled technology in the future.....

[MolsonInBothHands]

Great thread!! I can relate to just about everything posted so far.

What drives me absolutely nuts is the in-laws will always call, usually when something good is on T.V. (Lost) and I spend the next hour on the phone instead of watching my favorite show.

You are trying to walk through a task with them over the phone, you do not have a computer in front of you so you can't go through the dialogs along with them, so you have to rely on their descriptions of what is on the screen. It usually goes something like this:

Me: "Right click on the desk-top, and select properties"

Idiot: "OK"

Me: "Now select the settings tab, and tell me what you see for a resolution."

Idiot: "OK"

Me: "So what is it?"

Idiot: "Just a sec, hey what's this?"

Me: "What resolution are you on?"

Idiot: "Oh oh maybe I shouldn't have pressed that...Oh sh*t, was I supposed to change my video driver? I can't see anything, what was I supposed to do again? Double right click what?"

Me:

For me, remote desktop has been a godsend. Sometimes tough to talk them through getting set up initially, but once you have it going, you can fix their screw ups in a fraction of the time.

[Otto-matic]

Originally posted by Bring_Back_Shantz@Jan 31 2005, 04:33 PM
Nothing p*sses me off more than having to show my mom how to do something every time she does it. Then she get's p*ssed off at me because I'm being impatient with her. Seriously, try to figure it out yourself, and if you can't give me a call. It wasn't so bad when I lived at home, but now it's really getting annoying.

I have the same problem.

But in another 30 years or so I'll be doing the same to my kids asking them many questions about future technolgy and getting on their nerves.

:darnkids: :biglaff:

[KevanGuy]

I got a call from my Mom not too long ago asking me (when she is typing a document) how to get the flashing thing to go onto the line below what she is typing. "See the button that says 'Enter' Ma? Press it."

[TheyCallMeBruce]

I don't provide tech support to my clients. I only provide high level support based on the issues of our software and database. The people I converse with are usually I.T. guys, not the users. But somehow, they manage to find my direct line. Keep in mind they have their own outsource IT person who would be the most appropriate person to assist them in issues like this.

Here are some of the things they ask me that make absolutely no sense...like:

Q: I think my computer exploded. Can you come and fix it?
A: What exactly do you mean by that? How can a computer explode?

Q: My computer doesn't work anymore, can you fix it?
A: Again, what the hell are you talking about?

Q: My computer is turned on...but I don't see anything, how come?
A: Did you turn the monitor on?
Q: Oh, how do I do that?
A: See the button on the front of the monitor? Push it.

Q: My microsoft word is gone!
A: What? (turns out the shortcut is missing from the desktop)

Q: I can't find the printer button, what does it look like?
A: Sir, shouldn't you ask the inhouse I.T. person that question? You did pay for their service.

[Mike__]

Originally posted by I-Hate-Hulse+Jan 31 2005, 04:41 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (I-Hate-Hulse @ Jan 31 2005, 04:41 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Bring_Back_Shantz@Jan 31 2005, 04:33 PM
Nothing p*sses me off more than having to show my mom how to do something every time she does it. Then she get's p*ssed off at me because I'm being impatient with her.

I think we all know the "Parental Computer Pose". Hand frozen over keyboard or resting on mouse. Head tilted upwards to allow Bifocals to focus. Confused yet determined look on face. Slow yet deliberate movement of the mouse.

I hope this is not in my destiny when they invent some newfangled technology in the future..... [/b][/quote]
LOL thats awesome. Man this thread is too funny.

[Buff]

When a client calls us with easily solved computer problems we'll walk them through the steps over the phone. The problem is, sometimes they'll recognize where you are telling them to go and start getting ahead of you. Then you have start over from scratch again, and tell them to don't do anything until you tell them to.

The easiest computer repair I ever had to do was changing the voltage on the power supply from 220V back to 115V. A great trick to play on somebody is to switch their power supply to 220V! (recommended only if their computer is off though).

I've got plenty more stories but I have to enter my time for the day an go home, perhaps I'll comeback and share them later, but I'll share a great one with you before I go. My friend had a client who heard about wireless keyboards and mice and thought it would be a good idea to have them. He called my friend and said that he can't get them to work. So my friend went over and found out that the guy cut the cords off of the mouse and keyboard!

[RougeUnderoos]

The loooooong click which goes like this:

Step 1: click and hold
Step 2: 1 Mississippi
Step 3: 2 Mississippi
Step 4: Release

Also typing things up for people because "oh come on, I'm too slow, it'll take you 5 minutes, it'll take me an hour".

Screen touchers as well. Don't touch the screen please.

[ricosuave]

im in this boat too.

i dont mind helping out family, well, because their family. most of the family knows enough to 'renumerate' me with dinner or something for helping out. i have to be very patient with my 70 yr old mother, and it is tough, but i just be as helpful as i can. its just the right thing to do.

on the other hand, i am NOT 24/7 tech support for other people, friends of friends/etc. i'll help out if i can, and if its not out of my way. i do have a life, and i tell them so. i have had to lay it on the line for a friends parents, as well as the friend.

the questions seem to go away when i mention my $40/hr fee for helping out. when they balk, i say, hey, its less than you would pay from fs or something, and its time away from my family, etc. its on my time, and you will pay.

but lately, ive been telling people, sorry, far too busy (which i really am!), cant help you. try someone else.

rico