stupid people and their stupid, expensive PCs

[horton]

I know this sort of thread has been here before, but do I care? I wish to rant.

I have had enough of stupid people asking me and my gf to fix their stupid PCs - neither of us work in IT, I'm an English teacher ffs.

I have always said to people I know who talk about buying a PC, shit along the lines of "I will go shopping with you and find you something nice" "dont buy it just because it's a nice shiny case" "dont go for the deal that gives you a free printer, plus 10 DVD-R"

but do these cunts listen? do they fuck.

they buy an extremely overpriced and very very SHIT PC....they fill it with spyware, and then they come to me and my gf, asking us why the PC that was sold to them as state of the art, is actually a piece of shit.

I have in front of me, about $3000 US worth of sharp laptop. it has a 60g HDD...a Celeron and 512mb oh and it came with a free fucking printer. It is shit...it came with 10 million shit pre-installed gay pieces of software..its infected with everything..and some prick they know has installed even more shit on it..and its up to me. a fucking english teacher, to fix it for them.

Im pissed. I would have very happily taken them shopping and got them something twice as good, for half the money.

in addition to that, when my gf and I went to collect their shit PC, the girl who owns it started flirting with me, putting her arms around me, and my gf busted my fucking ass.

I lose on every fucking level.

end of rant.

[Transient]

Start charging people to fix their computers. Problem solved.

[SOAPboy]

So stop helping them.

Simple

[SplEEb]

Same deal here too.
But I won't fix it.
I will reinstall windows without any regard
for whats on their drive. Its that or nothing.
Good luck man

[Dr_Watson]

Start charging people to fix their computers. Problem solved.

sounds like you should start by charging sexual favors.

[horton]

I am too nice to tell them to fuck off, or to charge them.

When I knew zero about PCs a friend of mine refused to install an OS and a new video card for me - he sat there and told me how to do it myself, so I could do it for myself in the future.

I just wish people would listen to me before they buy their PCs, rather than ignore my advice until the day they realise that they know fucking nothing

[Foo]

I am too nice to tell them to fuck off, or to charge them.

When I knew zero about PCs a friend of mine refused to install an OS and a new video card for me - he sat there and told me how to do it myself, so I could do it for myself in the future.

You'll grow outta this after enough people pull the stunt on you, it's only a matter of time. The best approach is to be frank 'It'll take me about 4 hours to reformat this for you and get your software loaded back on. You'll have to sit with me for at least an hour to start with (while we locate and burn off documents so you can't chew me out for losing something 'important') and in total it'll be a flat charge of £50. Once I've returned it to you and you've seen for yourself that it's working OK, I'm not responsible for it from that point on.

A speech along those lines works OK for me. It covers just about every base.

[plained]

i suggest putting the lappstop on the waaayyyy back burner ey

then break out ur rc car and a scotch out of ur pile and have a rc fest!

ey that lappy look kinda like a ramp eyy?

[horton]

I am too nice to tell them to fuck off, or to charge them.

When I knew zero about PCs a friend of mine refused to install an OS and a new video card for me - he sat there and told me how to do it myself, so I could do it for myself in the future.

You'll grow outta this after enough people pull the stunt on you, it's only a matter of time. The best approach is to be frank 'It'll take me about 4 hours to reformat this for you and get your software loaded back on. You'll have to sit with me for at least an hour to start with (while we locate and burn off documents so you can't chew me out for losing something 'important') and in total it'll be a flat charge of £50. Once I've returned it to you and you've seen for yourself that it's working OK, I'm not responsible for it from that point on.

A speech along those lines works OK for me. It covers just about every base.

Would you charge a friend?
This isnt a friend, but its my gf's friend.

Ive never had friends of mine charge me for doing favours, but then again, I would bring them some weed/beer for their time.

It just seems that I have too many friends when it comes to broken PCs

[horton]

i suggest putting the lappstop on the waaayyyy back burner ey

then break out ur rc car and a scotch out of ur pile and have a rc fest!

ey that lappy look kinda like a ramp eyy?

That sounds like a perfect idea.

I will get my mini-z monster truck charged up and Im gonna see how much air I can get off a $3000 laptop.

[plained]

heh nah i was jus kidding about the ramp thing.

i only wreck my own crap ey

ey i wasnt kidding about takeing ur time with the lappy-sort-out.

but i guess if the gf and the gf freind are involved what the fuck can you do anyways!

[l0g1c]

It just seems that I have too many friends when it comes to broken PCs

Fucking great quote!

I know just how you feel, man. I'm good with stereos, computers, and cars. I'm endlessly getting hit up for help on at least one of them. It's so hard to say no when you know it's a pud job and they're going to end up paying 3 to 4 times what it would cost for you to do it for them. Plus they don't have to leave their computer or car in the shop for the duration.

[Foo]

Would you charge a friend?
This isnt a friend, but its my gf's friend.

Ah then you're really doing it for your girlfriend. As long as she acknowledges that you're doing it as a favour to her, then you'd have got away with the touchyfeely awkward stuff and be earning some tangible brownie points.

Ive never had friends of mine charge me for doing favours, but then again, I would bring them some weed/beer for their time. It just seems that I have too many friends when it comes to broken PCs

Anyone who's competent with PCs has those 'friends'. Up the stakes a bit with a charge or some form of reciprocation that's actually valuable to you 'bake me a pie' or 'buy me a 6-pack' works alright from experience.

If they've got no reason to think twice about bringing their problems to you, they're going to keep on doing it. No sense being a doormat. I mean you're already indignant about it, you just need to guide your feelings a little and it'll start working out way better.

[MaCaBr3]

"I don't have the time" is my favourite excuse in these situations.

[Fender]

"Call support. You paid for support, right?"
That's what I told my own mother. She quit calling me w/ computer questions after that.

[Transient]

Fender, you're a bastard.

[Fender]

Fender, you're a bastard.

Yes, but I don't have to spend hours on the phone with my mother (painful) or make repeated hour long drives (each way) to fix her damn computer.

[scared?]

my pc cost 370 bucks and scores 6850 on 3dmark06...jellus?...

[+JuggerNaut+]

charge for your time.

[Foo]

Fender, you're a bastard.

You have to be cruel to be kind. If you don't do this, they'll not make an effort to learn and in turn will find themselves even more disadvantaged in a years time when technology moves on another notch and they're even less competent.

[Tsakali_]

Start charging people to fix their computers. Problem solved.

sounds like you should start by charging sexual favors.

agreed

[obsidian]

The only people I work for free for is my family and very close friends. Most of both categories are all pretty much competent with computers anyway, so I guess I'm lucky.

I'm scheduled to set up a friend's router. She bought a D-Link wireless, but is leeching off her neighbour's wireless because she doesn't know how to set it up.

But her boyfriend is a bike mechanic, so you guys know about me and my bike. So I can call on him to professionally tune my bike on occasion while he gets brownie points from her. Win, win, win. Everybody's happy.

So either start charging or feign stupidity. Like, "oh... networking isn't really my specialty. I once screwed up my router so bad that I had to go buy a new one."

[Berserker]

$25 an Hour.
Minimum Charge of 2 hours.

People WILL pay for what they don't know.

Like Foo said, it just hasn't gotten to you enough yet.

[horton]

I am not too comfortable asking for money from friends - however I might start charging a bottle of decent scotch, or to be taken out for a meal.

[S@M]

I am too nice to tell them to fuck off, or to charge them.

Sure. but if its true, the drink or meal idea sounds the win and if your gf catches someone flirting with you, that just shows how attractive you are or how drunk the chick was or something, so it shouldnt be your fault