*rant* This is why I hate people. (What do you think I should do about this?)

[moshquerade]

Originally posted by: Nik

Originally posted by: moshquerade
don't hate people, just those people

*bats eyelashes*

hey baby... how YOU doin?

that's better

 

[se7en]

man "F" that I have had to drop clients before just get that back to ground 0 up and running and maybe even draw something up on paper if you think it will help.

I know I have plenty of things to do without dealing with anal,complicated,unreasonable people so if you are in a position to move on then do so. Of course around here I am one of few who are in my category so I can afford to just pick some more buisness up later no biggie.

Sounds like you do this on the side and therefor A.) Should not have been contacted thry regular work and B.) SHouldnt have been called at all since you gave them notice. Thats me tho I have ZERO sympathy for ppl when I go out of my way for them and they dont respect that.Give em the peace sign and see ya later

 

[GeekDrew]

Originally posted by: Nik
I made it a point to call the owner when I was "finished" like I said I would and tell her what's going on. I also wrote it out for her and left a letter on her desk describing exactly what we talked about on the phone. While on the phone, she agreed with me and was like "oh yeah, sure. mhmm. Right. Understandable. How much for a new one?" blah blah blah. I just don't understand why all of last night's conversation seems to have gone right out the window.

It's even more fun when you're a full time employee of an organization, and that happens between you and your boss... even when your boss dreams up the idea.

Me: There is a blade offline in one of the CoreBuilders upstairs, and two computer labs are offline as a result. I temporarily placed a Cisco Switch in its place.

Him: Put the Cisco switch back. Power down the CoreBuilder, and then call our rep at 3Com to see about getting a loaner.

Me: You realize that powering down the CoreBuilder will disconnect all labs and room off of corridors 1A and 2A, right? I strongly advise that we leave it as is until we can find another CoreBuilder or enough switches to replace it - I don't have enough right now.

Him: I realize that. Do it.

Me: <initiates power down>

...two hours later...

Him: Are you aware that all of the rooms off of corridors 1A and 2A are offline? What are you doing about it???

Me: uhh...........

 

[thirdlegstump]

....why couldn't you just walk into a local store and get them a router?

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Originally posted by: GeekDrew

Originally posted by: Nik
I made it a point to call the owner when I was "finished" like I said I would and tell her what's going on. I also wrote it out for her and left a letter on her desk describing exactly what we talked about on the phone. While on the phone, she agreed with me and was like "oh yeah, sure. mhmm. Right. Understandable. How much for a new one?" blah blah blah. I just don't understand why all of last night's conversation seems to have gone right out the window.

It's even more fun when you're a full time employee of an organization, and that happens between you and your boss... even when your boss dreams up the idea.

Me: There is a blade offline in one of the CoreBuilders upstairs, and two computer labs are offline as a result. I temporarily placed a Cisco Switch in its place.

Him: Put the Cisco switch back. Power down the CoreBuilder, and then call our rep at 3Com to see about getting a loaner.

Me: You realize that powering down the CoreBuilder will disconnect all labs and room off of corridors 1A and 2A, right? I strongly advise that we leave it as is until we can find another CoreBuilder or enough switches to replace it - I don't have enough right now.

Him: I realize that. Do it.

Me: <initiates power down>

...two hours later...

Him: Are you aware that all of the rooms off of corridors 1A and 2A are offline? What are you doing about it???

Me: uhh...........

:laugh:

 

[Baked]

If they're constant violators, put them on your do not answer list.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Originally posted by: deathkoba
....why couldn't you just walk into a local store and get them a router?

Their company is in Banks, Oregon. That town consists of a Jim's supermarket, a church, a school, a gas station at each end of town -which is probably about 20 seconds drive apart, a restaurant, a few street lights, and a dog.

Plus it was 9pm.

 

[Geekbabe]

If you get as pissy with your customers as you do here they'd probably be glad to find a new IT person.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Originally posted by: Geekbabe
If you get as pissy with your customers as you do here they'd probably be glad to find a new IT person.

Hardly.

 

[shimsham]

Originally posted by: Nik

Originally posted by: deathkoba
....why couldn't you just walk into a local store and get them a router?

Their company is in Banks, Oregon. That town consists of a Jim's supermarket, a church, a school, a gas station at each end of town -which is probably about 20 seconds drive apart, a restaurant, a few street lights, and a dog.

Plus it was 9pm.

still doenst answer why you didnt leave them with access when you couldve. if its so simple as walking the closet and swapping some wires, why didnt you do it for them? thats what theyre paying you for, the get it back up.

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: Nik
*rant* This is why I hate people. (What do you think I should do about this?)

You should kill them. You should kill them all, and burn down the house.


Also, you should learn the unfortunate lesson that IT is 60% technical competence, and 40% the ability to convince your lusers that things are OK and you're on top of it.

I like to think I'm pretty good at explaining these things. After I explain everything about something I can't "fix" (&amp;%$# district is screwing up access privileges again, or hardware failure, or new policy), people tend to be disappointed but understanding.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Originally posted by: shimsham

Originally posted by: Nik

Originally posted by: deathkoba
....why couldn't you just walk into a local store and get them a router?

Their company is in Banks, Oregon. That town consists of a Jim's supermarket, a church, a school, a gas station at each end of town -which is probably about 20 seconds drive apart, a restaurant, a few street lights, and a dog.

Plus it was 9pm.

still doenst answer why you didnt leave them with access when you couldve. if its so simple as walking the closet and swapping some wires, why didnt you do it for them? thats what theyre paying you for, the get it back up.

Uh wtf are you talking about? How am I to judge who needs an internet connection and who doesn't? I don't know the responsibilities of every person there, and I don't have to. What do you want me to do? Stand there all day swapping the cabling when someone goes "okay it's my turn, I have to send an email"? :roll:

There's someone there who knows how to switch cables around and she's doing it while I'm at my job and waiting for the new router to arrive.

 

[DaWhim]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
That's why I don't volunteer to help anyone, (even or especially for money) and try to warn the dewy-eyed innocents in General Hardware about building computers for friends and acquaintances. Get them a Dell, dudes.

I learned it is a hard way. never build a computer to friend or acquaintances.

 

[thirdlegstump]

could've at least hooked them up with windows internet sharing.....

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Originally posted by: deathkoba
could've at least hooked them up with windows internet sharing.....

And how exactly would all the computers connect to the one computer that's connected directly to the dsl modem? You want me to install 7 additional NIC's into someone's computer? And where do you propose I get the NICs from?

 

[wheresmybacon]

I don't do side-project stuff like this because it ALWAYS turns out to be a big headache.

As far as what to do, the answer is simple: if you feel what they pay you justifies the grief they put you through and more than makes up for your loss of free time, stick with it. Otherwise, fire em.

 

[shimsham]

Originally posted by: Nik

Originally posted by: shimsham

Originally posted by: Nik

Originally posted by: deathkoba
....why couldn't you just walk into a local store and get them a router?

Their company is in Banks, Oregon. That town consists of a Jim's supermarket, a church, a school, a gas station at each end of town -which is probably about 20 seconds drive apart, a restaurant, a few street lights, and a dog.

Plus it was 9pm.

still doenst answer why you didnt leave them with access when you couldve. if its so simple as walking the closet and swapping some wires, why didnt you do it for them? thats what theyre paying you for, the get it back up.

Uh wtf are you talking about? How am I to judge who needs an internet connection and who doesn't? I don't know the responsibilities of every person there, and I don't have to. What do you want me to do? Stand there all day swapping the cabling when someone goes "okay it's my turn, I have to send an email"? :roll:

There's someone there who knows how to switch cables around and she's doing it while I'm at my job and waiting for the new router to arrive.

point is you couldve left one connected, then they would have a temp solution until you could fix it properly and they wouldnt have a reason to call saying they cant access the internet. why tell them they can still connect, yet leave them unconnected? you shoudlve seen that coming.

if they have someone that can do it, why didnt they follow your simple instructions?

 

[Nocturnal]

I feel for you. 9/10 calls I receive are very similar to that.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Originally posted by: shimsham

Originally posted by: Nik

Originally posted by: shimsham

Originally posted by: Nik

Originally posted by: deathkoba
....why couldn't you just walk into a local store and get them a router?

Their company is in Banks, Oregon. That town consists of a Jim's supermarket, a church, a school, a gas station at each end of town -which is probably about 20 seconds drive apart, a restaurant, a few street lights, and a dog.

Plus it was 9pm.

still doenst answer why you didnt leave them with access when you couldve. if its so simple as walking the closet and swapping some wires, why didnt you do it for them? thats what theyre paying you for, the get it back up.

Uh wtf are you talking about? How am I to judge who needs an internet connection and who doesn't? I don't know the responsibilities of every person there, and I don't have to. What do you want me to do? Stand there all day swapping the cabling when someone goes "okay it's my turn, I have to send an email"? :roll:

There's someone there who knows how to switch cables around and she's doing it while I'm at my job and waiting for the new router to arrive.

point is you couldve left one connected, then they would have a temp solution until you could fix it properly and they wouldnt have a reason to call saying they cant access the internet. why tell them they can still connect, yet leave them unconnected? you shoudlve seen that coming.

if they have someone that can do it, why didnt they follow your simple instructions?

The point is that they all need connections and I got bitched out by more than one person. It didn't matter what I did, they would have complained apparently.

How the hell should I know why they can't follow simple instructions? The person who's switching cables isn't the one that went into a calling panic. I spoke with the owner directly over the phone last night and left a letter for her to find this morning that said the same thing in case she forgot. It's not my fault that they're dumbasses, but it apparently is my problem, but not for long.

 

[TitanDiddly]

Tech support sucks. I learned that early on.

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: shimsham
point is you couldve left one connected, then they would have a temp solution until you could fix it properly and they wouldnt have a reason to call saying they cant access the internet. why tell them they can still connect, yet leave them unconnected? you shoudlve seen that coming.

if they have someone that can do it, why didnt they follow your simple instructions?

As someone "in the field", I can tell you that the ONLY way they wouldn't be complaining is if he had left another router over there (his own?) as a stopgap measure. However, when he then tried to get them to buy a router to replace their busted one, they'll say "why? Everything's working fine right now..."

 

[jpeyton]

Give them the number for The Geek Squad and watch them squirm as they spend $200 for a house call

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: shimsham
point is you couldve left one connected, then they would have a temp solution until you could fix it properly and they wouldnt have a reason to call saying they cant access the internet. why tell them they can still connect, yet leave them unconnected? you shoudlve seen that coming.

if they have someone that can do it, why didnt they follow your simple instructions?

As someone "in the field", I can tell you that the ONLY way they wouldn't be complaining is if he had left another router over there (his own?) as a stopgap measure. However, when he then tried to get them to buy a router to replace their busted one, they'll say "why? Everything's working fine right now..."

:beer:

 

[Phoenix86]

Originally posted by: RossMAN
Is the $ worth the hassle to you?

If it is, charge them more, even an "on call" or "you annoyed the living sh!t out of me" fee.

BINGO!!!

I'm sure this isn't contract work so slide your rate up until your satisfied for the amount of bitching they do up to the F-Off rate. If they *STILL* pay the F-Off rate, you should be happy.

This is a relationship, if your not getting what you want out of it (enough $ to keep you happy), get it or leave.

They can either deal with the service they are getting, pay more, or find someone else. Let the owner know calling you at a number you didn't provide, at your day job no less, is not acceptable. Calling you in a panic casting accusations is not acceptable. Calling you to re-iterate the problem YOU EXPLAINED TO HER NIGHT BEFORE is not acceptable. I would put it up to the owners, and expect them to say goodbye (at this point you either fix the problem with the customer for good, or you let them go).

All that being said, an written note would have solved your problems. IE communicate more with your customer, you can't do it enough...

 

[shimsham]

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: shimsham
point is you couldve left one connected, then they would have a temp solution until you could fix it properly and they wouldnt have a reason to call saying they cant access the internet. why tell them they can still connect, yet leave them unconnected? you shoudlve seen that coming.

if they have someone that can do it, why didnt they follow your simple instructions?

As someone "in the field", I can tell you that the ONLY way they wouldn't be complaining is if he had left another router over there (his own?) as a stopgap measure. However, when he then tried to get them to buy a router to replace their busted one, they'll say "why? Everything's working fine right now..."

thats when i would say: sorry cant connect at all until you get the router. i would imagine the reason they are pissed is because he told them they can connect, yet he didnt do it, but left instructions on how. theyre thinking "what are we paying him for?"

im not saying their "right" but this could have been avoided. the reason they call and pay someone else to do it is because they are "stupid". so why does he expect them to be able to do it it they are so "stupid"? thats stupid.