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

[Zebo]

They see you are weak or a punk and are taking advantage. Only very special customers (read high and frequent paying) should you take abuse like that from.

a) get and act more professional, this includes forms, contracts, terms of service in advance, clearly spoken, well dressed, well manered etc.

b) charge $75 an hour minimum, never undervalue yourself. Plumers charge $70 and hour, our IT support is $150.

c) no free phone time, get an answering service to make you paid appointments. Again no plummer will just shoot the sh1t and tell you what's up over phone, neither should you.

d)Parts = MSRP + time.

All you problems will be solved

 

[aplefka]

Nik, you actually do nice things for people in real life? I'm amazed.

I bet this has something to do with you telling someone wrong forum and them crying. Bad karma man, bad karma.

 

[yoda291]

send them a bill.

 

[IAteYourMother]

Charge them money for a new computer

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Originally posted by: shimsham

Originally posted by: Goosemaster
This is the way it works: For busines cutomers, give them excelllent support and charge through the roof to keep it worthwhile.

What you should have done is gone to the store, immediately bought them a new router, set it up, asked for $300 upfront for labor and $100 to be paid later for the device.
They would have been set, You would have been set, and you could have used theat money save 15% on your car insurance with Geico and bought an ENITRE PACK of delicious Oreo cookies at your local Wawa or local 7-11 store.

Instead look at the mess you are in.

My business customers know that I am expensive, but they also know that everytime I leave, their problem WILL be RESOLVED in some fashion or another. Either way, they are business customers and you made the mistake of having them depend on themselves, and leaving them hanging.

so what youre saying is do what youre paid to do? that just makes too much sense, and gives no reason to post a cool rant.

STFU and stop being a dick.

 

[aplefka]

These people sound like total n00bs, I would just let them know that and then leave. Then again if they're solid customers I dunno, maybe just tell them they're n00bs and then leaves without losing them as clientele.

 

[gutharius]

Originally posted by: Nik
...

told her that the router was bad and that I would look into prices for a better router tomorrow

...

Well duh, sh|theads, I told you that last night. I WARNED you that you'll have to go back to the closet where the dsl modem and router are and plug a single computer directly into the dsl modem if you want an internet connection, and you'll have to switch cables manually to share the internet connection. What happens? "OMG HOW DO WE GET ONLINE!?" Duh, I TOLD the owner this last night over the phone after I'd finished for the night. Come to find out it's the owner herself who's in a panic going "NIK DID IT! HE DID SOMETHING TO GET US OFF THE INTERNET. GET HIM ON THE PHONE RIGHT NOW." Yeah, lady, I'm personally responsible for the hardware failure? I don't think so. I'm responsible for busting my ass to get things fixed when they DO fail, which is what I'm doing, but christ...

Take a tip from me, I have over 5 years of customer service and tech support experience (3 in in home consulting work). Taking your situation as an example, since the users are computer chanllenged, I would have told them:

"I'm sorry, Ms. Doe but your router failed. You will not be able to connect to the internet until a replacement is purchased and installed. I will call you and let you know the price of the new router and how much it will cost to install it."

If she asks what a router is I would say, "Well you router is what allows all your computers to see each other and access the internet at the same time. That is really the best that I can explain it."

Somtimes the best way to handle these kinds of people is to be short sentenced, simple, and consice with them. Don't talk on and on about something just make is short and sweet. As a side note I NEVER do temp fixes for these kinds of users as they HATE sudden changes because they don't understand the reasons why and they never will be able to. Just tell them it is broke and it will not be functional until a replacement part is available. Leave it at that. And also when communicating this to them you have to think of their definition of functional. to them functional was everything they were doing BEFORE the issue occured. If you can't meet that expectation 100% don't try because if you do they will start calling you and asking, "Why doesn't this thing work!?!?" Then you are back at square one. I know you were trying to do them a favor by getting them partially online. But remember that you need to fullfill their expectations of functionality. What you did was get them on the internet. But this was probably at best a 25% solution to the problem. Because they want to do all they were doing before the break down occured even if they know it is a temp fix and not everything is going to work like it used to.

Well i am rambling at this point and I think i have made my point here. The problem as I see it was on both ends, they are morons and you should not have said they had a temporary fix option as they were not competent enough to implement the temp fix, heck to even understand it. So I guess that still falls on them. Tho you should have not underestimated their moronicness. That was my fatal mistake when i first started out, I only learned it by doing phone support for a few years and since then it is a lesson for all tech support peope to learn and live by and then cater too. You will find your customers are much more happy with your service because they understand what you are doing to resolve their problems not why their problems exist. People want satisfaction they do not care how they get it or why you had to do to get it for them.

</post>

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Solid advice.

 

[shimsham]

Originally posted by: Nik

Originally posted by: shimsham

Originally posted by: Goosemaster
This is the way it works: For busines cutomers, give them excelllent support and charge through the roof to keep it worthwhile.

What you should have done is gone to the store, immediately bought them a new router, set it up, asked for $300 upfront for labor and $100 to be paid later for the device.
They would have been set, You would have been set, and you could have used theat money save 15% on your car insurance with Geico and bought an ENITRE PACK of delicious Oreo cookies at your local Wawa or local 7-11 store.

Instead look at the mess you are in.

My business customers know that I am expensive, but they also know that everytime I leave, their problem WILL be RESOLVED in some fashion or another. Either way, they are business customers and you made the mistake of having them depend on themselves, and leaving them hanging.

so what youre saying is do what youre paid to do? that just makes too much sense, and gives no reason to post a cool rant.

STFU and stop being a dick.

awwww nik finding his own brand of callousness a little bitter?

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Originally posted by: shimsham

Originally posted by: Nik

Originally posted by: shimsham

Originally posted by: Goosemaster
This is the way it works: For busines cutomers, give them excelllent support and charge through the roof to keep it worthwhile.

What you should have done is gone to the store, immediately bought them a new router, set it up, asked for $300 upfront for labor and $100 to be paid later for the device.
They would have been set, You would have been set, and you could have used theat money save 15% on your car insurance with Geico and bought an ENITRE PACK of delicious Oreo cookies at your local Wawa or local 7-11 store.

Instead look at the mess you are in.

My business customers know that I am expensive, but they also know that everytime I leave, their problem WILL be RESOLVED in some fashion or another. Either way, they are business customers and you made the mistake of having them depend on themselves, and leaving them hanging.

so what youre saying is do what youre paid to do? that just makes too much sense, and gives no reason to post a cool rant.

STFU and stop being a dick.

awwww nik finding his own brand of callousness a little bitter?

No, I'd prefer that you keep a serious thread serious and stop being a troll. kthnxbye.

 

[aplefka]

Come on, I enjoy picking on Nik as much as the next person when he's in one of his moods (so pretty much all the time) but this thread was pretty serious and he was pretty polite in his approach at it. I'd have to side with him since he is dealing with some n00bs. Let's just take it easy.

 

[gutharius]

Originally posted by: Nik
Solid advice.

LIVE BY IT or loose your ass. I made the mistake of not and well my ass grew back thankfully. Now I am much more capable at supporting users as I can see that it is not problem with me but more of a problem of communicating on their level, both verbally and nonverbally.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Hey I could stand to lose a little ass.

 

[gutharius]

Originally posted by: Nik
Hey I could stand to lose a little ass.

hey your choice but this affects an other wise growing business that I assume and hope keeps you ass fed, clothed, and next to the hootchie every couple of nights a week.

So you better learn to treat these people as they should be treated, with respect and understanding. Otherwise, no hoochie for you!

 

[shimsham]

Originally posted by: Nik

Originally posted by: shimsham

Originally posted by: Nik

Originally posted by: shimsham

Originally posted by: Goosemaster
This is the way it works: For busines cutomers, give them excelllent support and charge through the roof to keep it worthwhile.

What you should have done is gone to the store, immediately bought them a new router, set it up, asked for $300 upfront for labor and $100 to be paid later for the device.
They would have been set, You would have been set, and you could have used theat money save 15% on your car insurance with Geico and bought an ENITRE PACK of delicious Oreo cookies at your local Wawa or local 7-11 store.

Instead look at the mess you are in.

My business customers know that I am expensive, but they also know that everytime I leave, their problem WILL be RESOLVED in some fashion or another. Either way, they are business customers and you made the mistake of having them depend on themselves, and leaving them hanging.

so what youre saying is do what youre paid to do? that just makes too much sense, and gives no reason to post a cool rant.

STFU and stop being a dick.

awwww nik finding his own brand of callousness a little bitter?

No, I'd prefer that you keep a serious thread serious and stop being a troll. kthnxbye.

my last post in this thread:

whos being a troll? i offered my advice and opinions as did many others. youre the on that started getting pissy. i basically said the same thing gutharius did in my reply to jagec:

thats when i would say: sorry cant connect at all until you get the router.

not solid advice enough for you? nah, we will just ignore that, like other comments and questions i posted.

you asked for opinions, and you got them. seems the consensus is you either deal with it, take steps to prevent situations like this (ie: its late tonight, so even if i could fix it, nowhere is open to get the parts. ill be over tomorrow. or, i hooked up this one comp as a temp solution just so you can at least get on the internet should you need to), or stop doing work for them.

oh, and thanks for the new nickname. you calling someone a "dick" is laughable with the way you have responded to many threads ive read.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

I typicall ignore your comments because you're typically an asshole to me.

 

[gutharius]

Originally posted by: shimsham

...

nah, we will just ignore that, like other comments and questions i posted.

...

While I am sure your intent to help was in the right place, perhaps it is best if we just ignored those who ignored us and save yourself the time and frustration of it all...

 

[xgsound]

Great advice from Zebo and Grutharius ! I've been in service for decades and for this situation, the first thing to do is fix the machine . Focus on that and nothing else until the machine is fixed. If it was me, I would arrive with 2 routers(sell them the spare or return it).

I have found that after the machine is fixed 95% of the "people problems" disappear or even reverse.

This will surely happen again from time to time (remember their whole company might be in their machine), so be crystal clear about downtime, minimum charges, and hourly charges; and NEVER quote a repair time you can't beat.

You also have to charge enough for 2 reasons. 1 to make it worth this stuff (Their apologies and praise helps alot too when it comes) . 2 To keep you valuable in their eyes.

Jim

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: Bryophyte

Originally posted by: Red Dawn
Hell NIK I think everybody that has done tech work has experienced the BS you did with these folks. I know I have. I got so tired of it that I gave it up!

Yeah, me too. I used to charge a different shop rate for good non-business customers, bad non-business customers/good business customers, and bad business customers (typically 20/40/60 per hour.) The bad ones either stopped calling, or paid well (and I'd tolerate them, well, most of them.) A few customers, I just stopped returning calls. The best customers I still have, all these years later. They wait for me to be down in their area (over two hours away) to do non-emergency work.

Yeah, thats a good way to do it. Thats what I would do in OPs situation. I'd just raise the rate until it was worth my time or they refused to pay it: whichever came first. If they want to make the job more difficult then it has to be, make it more expensive than it has to be. (In the future, you're probably locked into a rate now.)

 

[Geekbabe]

Nik,

I seldom take side work anymore and when I do I cherry pick.It's also usually a barter situation.

My cosmetics saleslady-I occasionally do work for her,she pays for my last order.I made a $48 dollar order,2 days later her PC dies, I take it with the understanding that she's ripping up my check.The HD is dead,I have to wait till a friend of hers gives her an HD,her computer sits on my bench for weeks.I get the hd in,swap drives and go to use the restore cd-all scratched,doesn't work.To help the client I install an old copy of Win98SE,obtain all the needed drivers and updates.

I log onto my bank account one day and see bounce charges in the amount of $50, this client who was supposed to destroy my $48 check from weeks ago did not,her husband (supposedly) just automatically put it in because she was away on a trip.

When I told her about it she wrote me a check for $48....

I ended up not only working for free it ended up costing me... no mention made of that fact by her at all.

The client had a working PC returned to her, my agreed upon contractual obligation finished,guess where that client is on my priority list now?