Ahem! Consumer Affairs Is Not Your Personal Lacky.

[r00t|{it]

This is me venting ^_^ (this is not aimed at anyone in particular and doesn't apply to the majority of people in this forum)

I work for a small IT store and while there are a great many that are on the dodgy side I assure you we are not amoung them.
WE WILL NOT INSTALL ILLEGAL SOFTWARE FOR YOU. THERE ARE MANY FREE ALTERNATIVES THAT WILL DO JUST AS GOOD IF NOT BETTER. WE ARE NOT A FUCKING LIBRARY.
You cannot purchase an item from us destroy the packaging said item comes in and then return it when it does not solve your problem. If you bring your computer in because it is running slow and ask us to fix it. We WILL uninstall the 5 Antiviruses on computer to do so. If you wish to lag your system up again they are all FREELY downloadable from the interwebs. While you come and complain that you would like to get your hands on these idiots who attach viruses to the movie you just downloaded, I would hazard a guess that there is some fatcat producer in Hollywood waiting for the chance to get his hands around your neck for downloading his movie. YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING, if you did I wouldn't be the one fixing your computer. EITHER YOUR FRIEND IS NOT A GOOD FRIEND OR HE/SHE IS NOT SUCH A GOOD TECHNICIAN, once again if this were true I would not be the one fixing your computer. I suggest you listen when I give you advice. I do not charge for advice, I do charge for repairs.
If you have no intention of getting your computer fixed why bring it to me? is your life really that boring? and last but not least
CONSUMER AFFAIRS IS NOT YOUR PERSONAL LACKY! YOU ARE NOT GOING TO CALL THEM BECAUSE YOU KNOW YOU ARE WRONG. I HAVE TRIED TO BE HELPFUL. I HAVE TRIED TO RESOLVE THE ISSUE PEACEFULLY, SO STOP TELLING ME YOU WILL CALL THEM OR STOP BOTHERING ME AND DO IT ALREADY!

[Aegis]

as i'm sure is true in most industries, it holds true for IT in particular that the customer will NOT LISTEN

what you say: "Oh my god, this is horrible what's happened here. It looks, like there's a conflict between McAffee and Norton AV that's at fault here."

what they hear: "blah MY blah blah blah blah FAULT." and then commence rage.

[r00t|{it]

haha people hide behind antiviruses like they are some impenetrable shield. I'm sorry to burst everyones bubbles but the people who write the viruses are smarter than the people who write the antiviruses. If you can download more than the cost of a virus removal worth of movies before u get a virus then sweet if not just go buy the movies or at the very least rent and rip lol

[Brookie23]

Relax! If the goods and services provided were exactly as described, Consumer Affairs won't do shit. Also, the customer has to have made a reasonable attempt to resolve the issue themselves. Blaming the tech for doing as they said they would =/= reasonable attempt.

On another note: I don't know how many times friends/friends of friends have told me that they sent their computer in for repairs and it came back with a new hdd and fresh install with none of their data on it. Sounds like techies need to explain themselves better in this situation as none of these people were aware they were going to lose their data and these were all computers that still booted, i.e. the data was able to be saved/transferred fairly easily. I can see why they do it though. Save time mucking around trying to remove malware etc, make a bit of money off the new (albeit unnecessary) hdd, customer accepts that the loss of their data is worth the performance improvement.

[Aegis]

On another note: I don't know how many times friends/friends of friends have told me that they sent their computer in for repairs and it came back with a new hdd and fresh install with none of their data on it. Sounds like techies need to explain themselves better in this situation as none of these people were aware they were going to lose their data and these were all computers that still booted, i.e. the data was able to be saved/transferred fairly easily. I can see why they do it though. Save time mucking around trying to remove malware etc, make a bit of money off the new (albeit unnecessary) hdd, customer accepts that the loss of their data is worth the performance improvement.

i refer you to exhibit a) http://gamers-underground.com/genera...tml#post405633

[Harbinger]

Unfortunately the IT repair business caters to a subset of the community that sits in an unfortunate zone.

People who are too stupid to fix their own things, combined with being too tight to buy new stuff, while still being too stupid to compare economics of repair vs new.



So basically you're going to get a very high percentage of aggressive morons.

[Harbinger]

haha people hide behind antiviruses like they are some impenetrable shield. I'm sorry to burst everyones bubbles but the people who write the viruses are smarter than the people who write the antiviruses.

It's the same people.

[Brookie23]

"ALL your data will be LOST FOREVER if I do this" isn't something easily forgotten/misinterpreted by the customer.

[r00t|{it]

Relax! If the goods and services provided were exactly as described, Consumer Affairs won't do shit. Also, the customer has to have made a reasonable attempt to resolve the issue themselves. Blaming the tech for doing as they said they would =/= reasonable attempt.

On another note: I don't know how many times friends/friends of friends have told me that they sent their computer in for repairs and it came back with a new hdd and fresh install with none of their data on it. Sounds like techies need to explain themselves better in this situation as none of these people were aware they were going to lose their data and these were all computers that still booted, i.e. the data was able to be saved/transferred fairly easily. I can see why they do it though. Save time mucking around trying to remove malware etc, make a bit of money off the new (albeit unnecessary) hdd, customer accepts that the loss of their data is worth the performance improvement.

Yeah no stress about them calling Consumer Affairs, Like I said I haven't done anything wrong. I am just sick people saying it as if it's going to suddenly make them right. If they are going to do it I wish they just would and let me get on with it. We have never done a fresh install without consulting the customer first and we also offer Install + Data at an additional cost. What we do is uninstall any recognisably free software that may be inhibiting the performance of the computer. It is also explained before we perform the service that we will remove any existing antivirus software as it conflicts with our process.

[Jay]

as i'm sure is true in most industries, it holds true for IT in particular that the customer will NOT LISTEN

what they hear: "blah MY blah blah blah blah FAULT." and then commence rage.

Relax! If the goods and services provided were exactly as described, Consumer Affairs won't do shit. Also, the customer has to have made a reasonable attempt to resolve the issue themselves. Blaming the tech for doing as they said they would =/= reasonable attempt.

On another note: I don't know how many times friends/friends of friends have told me that they sent their computer in for repairs and it came back with a new hdd and fresh install with none of their data on it. Sounds like techies need to explain themselves better in this situation as none of these people were aware they were going to lose their data and these were all computers that still booted, i.e. the data was able to be saved/transferred fairly easily. I can see why they do it though. Save time mucking around trying to remove malware etc, make a bit of money off the new (albeit unnecessary) hdd, customer accepts that the loss of their data is worth the performance improvement.

Point proven true. End users are stupid.

They hear us say "Herp derpa blah blah derp." Then they nod their head as if they know wtf we're talking about, then they go home and start raging because they didn't understand one word we said.

With hard drives, there's nothing to lose if they had a backup. They had backups right? You can't lose something if it was gone already.

[r00t|{it]

"ALL your data will be LOST FOREVER if I do this" isn't something easily forgotten/misinterpreted by the customer.

You'd think so but I said that exact thing to a customer when I worked for Computers For You in Nightcliff and he still came back the next morning asking where all of his tax information had gone. This being said I think users really need to understand the importance of backing up.

[Brookie23]

Yeah no stress about them calling Consumer Affairs, Like I said I haven't done anything wrong. I am just sick people saying it as if it's going to suddenly make them right. If they are going to do it I wish they just would and let me get on with it. We have never done a fresh install without consulting the customer first and we also offer Install + Data at an additional cost. What we do is uninstall any recognisably free software that may be inhibiting the performance of the computer. It is also explained before we perform the service that we will remove any existing antivirus software as it conflicts with our process.

Yeah it's the same story in the phone industry. People don't understand phones so they blame the phone guy, and if the phone guy doesn't react as expected then they start threatening to go to the TIO. Just say "off you go then!" and politely ask them to leave the store

[Aegis]

"ALL your data will be LOST FOREVER if I do this" isn't something easily forgotten/misinterpreted by the customer.

and yet it happens. a lot. some customers are just devoted to misunderstanding.

get a job in tech support sometime to experience the joy firsthand.

[Brookie23]

he still came back the next morning asking where all of his tax information had gone.

Maybe you need to read out a list to them of things they will lose that they probably hadn't thought of? Could start with:
Sentimental photos
Tax records
Music
Movies/videos
Resumes/job applications and other work related documents
School/University work
Excel budgets/financial documents
iPhone/iPod/iPad backups, iTunes library stuff, as well as the highly likely possibility that their iDevice will be wiped when they try to sync it with the new hdd/fresh install

and yet it happens. a lot. some customers are just devoted to misunderstanding.
get a job in tech support sometime to experience the joy firsthand.

But my family/friends/coworkers already think I'm their tech support?

[psyave]

Customers that don't understand. Yay scientist meets marketer/businessman.