Rant: tech support for in-laws

[AStar617]

...and at this point you haven't told them to go fvck themselves WHY exactly? They don't even sound polite, nevermind sensible.

BTW, you have brought your continued pain upon yourself by literally handing them a new piece of equipment. Have fun with your newfound support obligation extension. :beer:

 

[timswim78]

I bought my parents an external hard drive and connected it to one of their computers. I then mapped their other computer to it. Each night, a batch file backs up their "My Documents" folders to the external hdd. It feels good that if I ever drive downt there to fix their computers, I know that their stuff will be backed up.

 

[Kadarin]

Originally posted by: AStar617
...and at this point you haven't told them to go fvck themselves WHY exactly? They don't even sound polite, nevermind sensible.

QFT

 

[poopygood]

Originally posted by: QurazyQuisp
And when you go to fix it, install firefox and change the icon for firefox to the IE one and rename it, they'll never know the difference.

hahaha, I do the same thing!

 

[JMoore]

Originally posted by: PaulNEPats
My parents tell all my neighbors that i'll be happy to configure/troubleshoot their PCs. And for free! Aren't I lucky?

Sorry, but your parents suck

 

[KMFJD]

Dude get them Linux or tell them to get a Mac it'll be worth the effort since they wouldn't be calling and complaining their system is slow.

ROFLMAO

seriously, they don't seem to want to learn or listen to the OP at all and you want him to teach them Linux?

 

[CrackRabbit]

I thank god my parents have enough sense to listen to my brother and myself when it comes to stuff like that.

 

[imported_LoKe]

Originally posted by: KMFJD

Dude get them Linux or tell them to get a Mac it'll be worth the effort since they wouldn't be calling and complaining their system is slow.

ROFLMAO

seriously, they don't seem to want to learn or listen to the OP at all and you want him to teach them Linux?

No need to teach. First of all, they shouldn't be installing anything. With Linux, they'll have absolutely no idea how to do so.

 

[AmigaMan]

I'm lucky that I have semi-computer literate relatives except my father in law. But I'm also lucky that he's A) still on dial-up and B) doesn't install crap he doesn't know anything about. He can barely run Word and Firefox, but that may be a good thing. I did go through a phase with all of my relatives to get them to switch to Firefox, but it wasn't hard and none have had a problem since.
I tell you, the best defense for non-geeks is Firefox, Spybot S&D, and AVG. All free, all work well. Once I get that combination on a persons machine, rarely do I have to go back.

 

[kyparrish]

Wow, this makes me realize how awesome my 50 year old mother is with computers. She edits live audio recordings from concerts, extracts DVD audio from concert DVD's into mp3's, burns DVD backups of everything, and loads her own 30gig iPod up whilst keeping complete organization in iTunes.

Nice :thumbsup:

 

[Umberger]

holy crap. i would be DONE helping them. at least my family is smart enough to stfu and realize that i know more about it than they do.

 

[d33pt]

"I don't know what that crap is that you call virus protection. My son gave me better software and it found 3 viruses that your garbage didn't find."

as soon as they said that, you should've told them to get their own son to do it.

 

[DeviousTrap]

Originally posted by: LoKe

Originally posted by: DrPizza
cliffs:
In-laws don't back up their stuff...
They think I'm an idiot and only install "garbage" programs that are no good when I clean their computer.
They undo all the fixes I make...
They reinstall comet cursor, smiley faces, etc. because they like them and don't care how much it slows down their computer.
Deleted the cd-burning software, etc. that I installed for them.
I gave them a CD burner and 100 CD's, but they still won't back their stuff up.
Now have a new computer, need me to transfer the files for them. "Where'd the burning software go?" Deleted - it was "garbage" that I put on there.

Bleh. My dad has this AV software, "EzTrust" or something. I was about to remove it and put something I trusted in its place. "This is what we use at work and our computers never crash!"

Uh.. k.

"What's the firefox? I don't like it."
"I wouldn't delete that."
"Deleted."

"Ok, I know nothing."

I'm just gonna stop helping if they never take my advice.

I'm going to have to side with your father on this one. CA (makers of EzTrust) is a very big name in corporate security software. I know they develop their own business solutions and I highly doubt that they resell Norton for the home software.

 

[Jeff7]

Next question is, why do they keep asking you for help if they think that all you do is put "garbage" on their PCs?


I hope I never wind up having this kind of nasty in-law situation. My parents get along great with their in-laws. Christmas visits every year, hugs all around, just being friendly, like family.

 

[imported_Phil]

Originally posted by: DeviousTrap
I'm going to have to side with your father on this one. CA (makers of EzTrust) is a very big name in corporate security software. I know they develop their own business solutions and I highly doubt that they resell Norton for the home software.

Yep. I've never had problems with it, or any of the CA products like ArcServe, etc.

 

[alphatarget1]

Your in-laws sound like a$sholes.

 

[Ricemarine]

lol my parents won't let me do any tech support for other people...

Because they think I can't build computers or tech support correctly :laugh: *thanks the unstable overclocks*

Plus my uncle thinks Im a retard after I somehow screwed up his EMACHINE... He said I corrupted his files after I played like an online flash game at the kellogg cereal's website.

Then he bashes on my amd 64 computer saying his intel 3.0 GHz is better...

 

[j00fek]

Originally posted by: SampSon
Whenever I'm in that situation I just tell them, "sorry, your computer is broken and I can't fix it without wiping all of it out."
End of story.

add in there: deal with it

 

[njswift10141980]

Man they sound just like my one friend he's got hsi and no protection what so ever and this is going back at least 3 years.

 

[Shadowknight]

Setup an administrator and user accounts, then set it so they can't install new programs.

 

[Neurorelay]

Originally posted by: Shadowknight
Setup an administrator and user accounts, then set it so they can't install new programs.

Bingo, winner....linux has been doing it for years.

 

[ForumMaster]

i feel for you man. i know what it's like. my grandparents had this old computer that they only used for email. it ran Windows ME. it was slow as hell, but it worked. Now they baught a new computer (the israeli equivelent of dell or something like that.) and it already runs like a turtle. the "tech" guy that my grandparents called to set up thier comuter charged $30 and hour and gave them this ****** EzTrust AV and NO FIREWALL! didn't even activate the built in one for XP! so they asked me to help. i dl'ed some av and anti spyware apps to clean thier computer up. suddenly, it detects like 13 different viruses and whatnot. the stupid tech guy gave them both Admin level accounts. i wanted to reformat, but guess what? they never got a Wndows CD in the first place. i could extract the CD key from the reg, but without the Windows OEM cd, i can't use it. and when i turned on the built in firewall for starters and it started asking them about internet access for apps, they thought i ruined the comp. so now i've learned my lesson. i don't mind providing tech support, but if they constantly deviate from my instructions, let them pay this guy $120 every time he comes to fix thier comp. there's no point. and as gnumantsc said, a Macintosh might be in order. they would be able to ruin a whole lot less. plus there's less adware/spyware junk for OS X (for now).

 

[DaiShan]

Originally posted by: KMFJD

Dude get them Linux or tell them to get a Mac it'll be worth the effort since they wouldn't be calling and complaining their system is slow.

ROFLMAO

seriously, they don't seem to want to learn or listen to the OP at all and you want him to teach them Linux?

What's to teach? Power on the PC have it automatically log into an x-session with an icon on the desktop for Open Office and an Icon for Firefox. No anti-virus necessary.

 

[Stuxnet]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
cliffs:
In-laws don't back up their stuff...
They think I'm an idiot and only install "garbage" programs that are no good when I clean their computer.
They undo all the fixes I make...
They reinstall comet cursor, smiley faces, etc. because they like them and don't care how much it slows down their computer.
Deleted the cd-burning software, etc. that I installed for them.
I gave them a CD burner and 100 CD's, but they still won't back their stuff up.
Now have a new computer, need me to transfer the files for them. "Where'd the burning software go?" Deleted - it was "garbage" that I put on there.

Tell your in-laws to go fsck themselves. If they want desktop support, they can pay for it.

I had a HUGE problem with this when I started dating my wife about 7 years ago. They'd call at all hours wanting free advice. Her Dad would invite us over for dinner, and then conspicuously say "hey, btw, jbourne77, I'm having this problem with my laptop..." the moment we walked in the door.

Finally one day I just said "you know what, I don't do that stuff anymore. I don't perform those tasks at work, and I haven't kept up with 'the latest', so I suggest you find someone qualified to look at it."

They got the hint. It didn't exactly do wonders for our relationship, but at least I'm not working 20 hours/week for my in-laws as their computer BITCH anymore.

 

[Stuxnet]

Originally posted by: AStar617
...and at this point you haven't told them to go fvck themselves WHY exactly? They don't even sound polite, nevermind sensible.

AStar617 is right. When I was in this spot years back, I was hardly viewed as my wife's boyfriend/fiance/whatever... I was just their computer guy, who also happened to be tapping their daughter I suppose.

Rudeness comes in all forms. I was treated like a human being in that he didn't bark at me like a dog, but when I get home from work, I want to relax. I don't want to get a phone call from big-shot dickhead in-law and have to start fielding hundreds of questions, most of which I've answered before. I work because I need money; not because I'm so freakin in love with computers that I'm dying to perform these tasks after hours for no charge day-in and day-out.

Rudeness also comes in the form of calling me Sunday evening at 9pm asking me if brand Sh*tware or Poopstain are good computers to buy from Best Buy. After I explain the pitfalls of Sh*tware, Poopstain, and Best Buy, and further explain the benefits of a Dell or something similar, they totally ignore the advice they wasted my time getting, and buy a Sh*tware or Poopstain from Best Buy.

And then they have the balls to bug the piss out of you every freakin day afterwards because Poopstain isn't actually a good computer, it just leaves stains of poop everywhere, and Best Buy's Fsck Squad could give a sh*t.

I moved into software development back in 2000, and from that point forward, I answered every question with "Sorry. Don't do that anymore. You'll need to call their support line."

It felt so good every time I said that. It was a thinly veiled "Fsck you and stop wasting my time you igorant shithole."