Are you your families Techsupport line?!

[mikester]

PPPPFFFFFTTTT!!!!

I'm tired of it! I live 3000 miles away yet still they ask, can you remotely log into my computer and magically make it okay?

I used to go to great lengths, mailing computers even...I'm tired though and just becuase I'm in the technical fields DOES NOT MEAN I AM THE FRIGGEN HELP DESK!

I'm not the help desk but how do you say this to people you love?

I've got my mom off of me, my dad is off but my Uncle....he's really the last hold out. Every damn time....



rant complete

[svandamme]

lol

been there, done that
i changed my phone number, blocked them in my mail program and stopped going on visits...

works like a charm.

[Moses]

Buy 'em all Macs.

[jyl]

Buy em Macs and/or install a remote desktop app, usually their problem is something trivial that you could fix in a jiffy if you didn't have to laboriously walk them through each step.

[slodave]

Yup, but I get paid (by my parents) with laptops and other stuff I need/want. I don't mind and they never really ask me to do something asap.

Dave

[RickM]

Done it for many years. Finally got tired or fixing things that they let the kids hammer or that broke because they didn't follow instructions.

Finallly my repair/upgrage visits turned into me saying "get a Dell".

[mikester]

I had my mom, Dad and others just buy Dells and that ended all technical support calls from them but my Uncle simply hasn't gotten the message. His ISP also uses private address space so I honestly can't help him BUT HE STILL ASKS!!!!

Changing them over to Macs would not help; then I'd get the calls "how do I...?"

yeah, thanks for THAT advice...Plus I work for someone who competes with Apple...

[dhoward]

Use remote assistance in MS Messenger.

[VincentVega]

Best thing is when I get calls from friends of friends. Usually something like "Joe gave me your #, said you were good with computers..."

[legion]

I have a simple response.

"So...you work on computers? I have a PC and it [does/doesn't do] [blank]...how do I [fix/change/correct/uninstall]?"

"I work on mainframes. I don't know anything about PCs."

"What are those?"

"Let me put it to you this way, a PC is like a scooter, a mainframe is like an 18 wheeler. You don't take your Vespa to a Freightliner dealer."

[mikester]

Yeah, I know - I don't do desktop support, I don't even work on mainframes - I do some Unix administration but my main focus is routers.

I f'ing hate windoz

[red-beard]

Yes. And I love the fact that my sister bought a MAC and she can no longer ask me questions...."Sorry, your tech support is no longer valid"

But yes, mom, dad, other sister, etc, call. And then I have to try to remember which verison of Windoze they are using on the Ancient machines!

[jyl]

Time to be authoritarian. Wipe their machines, install a common verison of XP on each, deny them administrative privileges . . .