Who here is fed up of being everyone first port of call for techincal support

[Mark R]

And it's not just work time.

I was out walking through a nice lightly wooded region on the outskirts of town on a Saturday afternoon - when I randomly meet one of the senior people from work. "Hi Mark". "Err. Hi" "What are you doing here?" "Just walking like I always do on a Saturday afternoon" "You know I mentioned my computer is broken the other day. Well my house is only 30 yards that way. This could be a perfect opporortunity to fix it. What do you think?". Realising I didn't have a particularly good excuse, I kept my trap shut and decided to take a look.

Fortunately it was a straightforward fix. Although it was made a little more interesting because a lot of the relevant stuff was set up in Burmese!

I'm not so bothered about questions at work, as long as I don't have anything more important to be doing (which I usually do) - but sometimes the questions come at most inopportune times.

So, I'm in the catheter lab, ready to perform an angiogram. Everythings ready, I wearing full surgical gown and I've got the needle in hand just about to puncture a major artery. When in barges the professor. "Hi Mark" "Err. Hi Prof. We're just about to start" "I've got a problem with my new laptop." "That's unfortunate" "Yes I wonder if you could take a look at it, because it's just lost several hours work that I was doing" "I'm a little busy at the moment".....Loooong wait......"It's very urgent. It's a whole days work". "Hmm. Have you tried phoning IT" "Do you know their number?" "No. But I'd guess that the switchboard operator does"

I left the building pretty sharply after that. I don't really know what happened in the end.

 

[HannibalX]

I agree it can be a total PITA at times. I have in the last few years stopped telling people what I do for a living (IT Engineer). I just tell them where I work and say it's a technical job. If they ask me about PCs I usually say something like "I hear Geek squad is good for that."

Last year I had some snotty software developer come bother me in the server room about his home PC (we have since removed access for developers into the server room - WIN!). He asked me if I worked on home PCs and I replied "I work on my home PC" (the guy is a dick). He started to tell me about his problem so I cut him off and let him know verbal consultation is $50/hour. The guy looked at me like I just cut his nose off. I let him know that on site repair was $130/hour. He didn't seem to thrilled, that's when I snuck in my Geek squad line. And honestly, I know Geek squad probably does a shitty job, but I don't care. I refuse to be the "techie whipping boy" for people I know.

Sure certain close friends get free support but that's about it. Almost none of my family get support. They are the worst. They will call over and over until you fix something for them.

Edit: I realize some people actually LIKE giving tech suport to anyone who will listen to them... and that's fine, for them. Just not for me.

 

[squirtle24]

What kind of software developer can't fix his own computer?

 

[HannibalX]

Originally posted by: squirtle24
What kind of software developer can't fix his own computer?

Most of them. :evil:

 

[seemingly random]

Originally posted by: Pale Rider

Originally posted by: squirtle24
What kind of software developer can't fix his own computer?

Most of them. :evil:

Surprisingly true in my tiny sampling. Go figure.

 

[XxPrOdiGyxX]

Originally posted by: Pale Rider

Originally posted by: squirtle24
What kind of software developer can't fix his own computer?

Most of them. :evil:

Lies! They are probably shitty developers to begin with and don't know what they are doing with their development job.

 

[KaOTiK]

Thank god everyone I work with is very knowledgable with computes otherwise I would flip out. I got to a point years ago where I told my closes friends I will only help them and if they know someone is gonna ask me for help to tell them I charge xxx amount now. People stopped bothering me

 

[Fritzo]

Originally posted by: Pale Rider

Originally posted by: squirtle24
What kind of software developer can't fix his own computer?

Most of them. :evil:

Actually, I would say an even higher amount. It's kind of like asking a doctor to fix the X-ray machine.

 

[HaiBiss]

Favorite response when helping someone:

me: ok can you reboot your computer for me, we need to start with a clean slate, just hold on the button on the front of the computer for about 10 seconds and it will shut down.

2 seconds later

caller: ok it is off
me: ok hit the button again and we will wait for it to come back on let me know when you are ready to login

3 seconds later

caller: ok it is back on, wow I didn't have to log in
me:sir you turned off the monitor.

 

[seemingly random]

Originally posted by: XxPrOdiGyxX

Originally posted by: Pale Rider

Originally posted by: squirtle24
What kind of software developer can't fix his own computer?

Most of them. :evil:

Lies! They are probably shitty developers to begin with and don't know what they are doing with their development job.

Not necessarily. Some are pretty good in their narrow world. I think many don't know not because they are unable - but because of elitist fantasies. They treat it like many do with their cars - they don't want to get dirty doing a job beneath them. The irony is that they could be much better debuggers if they knew more.