Poll: Does this guy deserve a SMACK?

[Ben]

About a year ago I put together a 1GHz thunderbird PC for a friend of mine. MSI Pro2A MB, 512MB RAM, IBM HD, nice machine.

Well about two weeks ago he called me complaining that his computer was crapping out. I went over there and it was having all sorts of problems. Some of them I fixed, some I couldn't. Well, he kinda got an attitude with me and started accusing me of putting together a piece of crap computer. I apologized and told him that I would try and look into his problems and maybe we'll have to do a format/reinstall.

Then yesterday he called me all pissed off because his computer is dead. He says he was just playing and the screen went blank. He reset and it wouldn't boot. After A LOT of convincing, I get him to bring his computer over to my house to troubleshoot it, since I have all the spare parts here (he actually wanted me to bring ALL my spare parts over to his house so he wouldn't have to go through the trouble).

Well, we did the part swap dance and come to find out his motherboard is dead. Again, he gets ticked off and starts accusing me recommending crappy parts and wants to know what we are going to do about it. He starts taking smack about MSI and all kinds of stuff. I start explaining to him that the Pro2A had a good track record, that why I bought it.

Here's the good part.

About that time I hear his hard drive make a loud clunking noise, followed by a few clicks. Not a normal noise at all.

I said, "What the hell was that?"

He says, "Oh, it's been making that noise for about two weeks now. It started doing that when the lightening knocked out our power and fried my central A/C unit".

I said, "WHAT? Dude, the lightening fried your motherboard too. That's why you've had all these problems recently. How come you didn't say anything?"

He said was, "oh, I guess I didn't think about it".


Man, can you believe that?

I think he knew that the lightening fried his stuff and he was playing dumb to get me to buy him a new board. Then he slipped out the real story when I asked about the hard drive. What a jerk.

So does he deserve a SMACK!?

 

[gopunk]

screw the smack and make him pay.

edit: depending on how computer savvy your friend is (which isn't very much, from what it sounds), he might not have known. i know plenty of people who wouldn't jump to that conclusion. and how is this guy your friend?

 

[sohcrates]

doesn't sound like much of a friend! i always worry about people i build systems for coming after me. i make sure they have the utmost trust in me before i start. oh well, as long as he agrees it was lightening

 

[TimeKeeper]

Sorry Ben, I think you are the one who deserve a smack!
Didn't anyone tell you never assemble a system for your friends?

p.s. in few weeks, he is not just going to tell all his friends about your "crappy" suggestion, he is also going to tell everyone that you over charge him.

 

[bacillus]

yes but once is not enough!

 

[MWink]

This is why all the systems I build include an APC Surge Arrest. My policy is "No APC = No Warranty!"



<< So does he deserve a SMACK!? >>



YES!

 

[gsaldivar]

This is why it is a Bad Idea to mix friendship and business.

 

[gygheyzeus]

I always try to get a verbal agreement from my friends that I wont be responsible for anything bad that happens... I mean, I'll help them if there is a problem, but if a component has to be replaced, the money is coming out of their pocket, not mine.

 

[GremlinHater]

Hey, had a similiar situation, was on tech support for an ISP, this was about two weeks ago, some guy calls up, probably like 19 and starts complaining about his modem not getting connect at any decent speed like only 17000bps, so i start troubleshooting and i put him on &quot;mute&quot; instead of &quot;hold&quot; and he starts talking to his buddy and trash talking like &quot;bet that tech couldn't build a computer&quot; and &quot;i've been with them for 3 yrs and they don't know i know how to setup my modem&quot;. I had only begun working about a week before this call, so I'm laughing cause in this line of work you can almost expect it, well, i get down to last resorts, and started asking him more and more info since he thought he knew what was up, finally he lets out that it's worked just fine for the last 3 years and it worked fine until the lightning storm.....i didn't know whether to smack him or laugh at him, so in as calm a voice as i could muster after his verbal abuse i explained to him what lightning can do when your struck and told him he should replace his modem, he said alright and never called back. After which, me and my tech friends burst out laughing at his realization of his own stupidity. Why is it that all the stupid, irate, or technologically illiterate have to call OUR tech support? Sheesh, we've gotten calls about general computer questions even though were an ISP service, we've gotten tech calls from people who are with our competitors as well. And we've gotten &quot;calls&quot; that range from people wanting to know how we charge there gas bill to people who just want to chat. What has this world come to? I dread the day I become an &quot;adult&quot;. If it were up to me, I'd always my the speaker put on someone who's 12-17 years old and be done with it in faster time then taking that whole adult &quot;superior ignoramus&quot; crap.

 

[Ben]

Ya, I think I won't be doing much for him anymore. He only really calls me when he has a computer problem anyway.

And he's one of those guys that will ask you to help him upgrade his RAM and then call you two days later to bitch that you messed up his mouse. So you go over there and discover that his mouse came unplugged somehow and he never checked, he just called and bitched. That's the worst part about doing house calls, friends or not. You always get that special person who blames you for their microwave quitting because you installed a new CD-ROM in their computer.

Maybe he didn't know better but he kept talking smack about MSI the rest of the day to anyone who would listen, even after we determined the lightening was the problem. Actually, he seemed like he wasn't accepting the lightening theory 100% either.

But I'm pretty sure the lightening was the cause. He said when it hit, the computer shut off and he couldn't get it to turn back on. Finally he unplugged it from the wall and plugged it back in and it came on. Then, like I said, he was having all sorts of problems so he called me over to fix it (this was 2 weeks ago), and he never mentioned the lightening at all back then. Only today.

Whether it was on purpose or he just didn't make the connection, I don't know.

 

[travws]

With people like that i have come to realize that they don't know that computers are powered by electricity. They are run by magic. And you gave him bad juju. When something doesn't work they don't go...well, maybe something is loose or failed......To them the whole computer is a piece of crap.

 

[Shockwave]

GremlinHater
Ok, heres MY question, since your a tech support guru......I got RR cable modem, Win98 / Win2k Pro. Works fine in 98 (after they gave me a bad cable modem which *I* had to prove to the tech support was bad) but in Win2k Pro, I get an error. I can pull IP addys fine, ping'm, whole 9 yards. But! I get DNS resolution error, every time I try to load a web page. Any ideas?

I'm not sayin YOU dont know what your talkin about. But for me, in general, I have NOT been impressed with ANY tech support people. In fact, to try and resolve this issue, I had one person tell me it was the cable modem...Ya, sure, thats why it works in 98 huh? So, I'm not bashin you! I'm just sayin, this is a two way street here....

And I would like a fix to this issue if you know of one!

 

[gopunk]

<< GremlinHater
Ok, heres MY question, since your a tech support guru......I got RR cable modem, Win98 / Win2k Pro. Works fine in 98 (after they gave me a bad cable modem which *I* had to prove to the tech support was bad) but in Win2k Pro, I get an error. I can pull IP addys fine, ping'm, whole 9 yards. But! I get DNS resolution error, every time I try to load a web page. Any ideas?

I'm not sayin YOU dont know what your talkin about. But for me, in general, I have NOT been impressed with ANY tech support people. In fact, to try and resolve this issue, I had one person tell me it was the cable modem...Ya, sure, thats why it works in 98 huh? So, I'm not bashin you! I'm just sayin, this is a two way street here....

And I would like a fix to this issue if you know of one! >>


try going (in ie) to tools, internet options, connections, lan settings, and uncheck auto detect settings. no guarantees though.