Why some people should not have a computer.

I work in a computer shop fixing and maintaining PCs and more. Recently I had a customer bring there PC in to fix reporting that it would not start. I found most of the components blown up inside and the only solution was a new PC base unit. I reported this to the customer only to get told "Don’t worry about it as I will get a free modem form BT Internet when I sign up for Broadband". I was confused at this point until a short time in the conversation I released they believed that the PC base unit was the modem. I did my best to inform them this was not so but to no avail. They whent out of the shop thinking I was trying to get them to pay for an expensive modem when they could get it for free from an ISP.

I don’t think they believed me some how!!

They are now registering with BT Internet so they can get there free modem. I think there in for a big shock when it arrives and it’s over to BT Internet to explain that a PC is not a modem.

The worrying bit is there is more customers like this..

My brother actually works on the support desk at BT internet! He gets asked stupid questions like 'where is the start button?'

If they act like they were with me, I think BT will tell them where to go big time. I wonder if they will be back in the shop sometime soon asking for something like a word processor or box thing to go with there newly owned modem.

i just don't get why some people bother

a lot of ppl with 0-IQ who have just seen and used PC for surfing the internet consider it a machine which hooks ur up to the internet through the phone line via modem and modem is the base o all PC opreation (which is in their case only internet suring which cant be done without a modem) and they have no clue of all those other silion chips in the box.

i came across a guy whose graphic card went faulty and we went or complete PC replacement thinking the whole box was faulty

-boRg- wrote: I would love to be the person at BT Internet when they phone up asking how they plug the keyborad and monitor into their modem and why their modem is missing a CD drive to put in the installation disk.

as for that borg, my IT teacher was at technical helpdesk for the BT staff in about 4 years ago, and he just cant stop laughing telling stories of BT workers who asked him such amusing questions

michael wrote: I agree, if you go to a doctores office and he tells you some latin stuff. You may think you got Diarreah or something so Doctors laughs cause you actually got a ingrown townail. You always gotta see a little perspective and actually (to an extend) appreciate that especially older people still start learning Computers. Then again, if a pro aka Bolt, tells you something you should not try to overhear it but that is more of a general attitude problem lots of ppl have.

There are so meanly con artists out there to do with computers, I guess it is sometimes hard for a customers to define the difference between someone that is just trying to help. We can only but try...

Thank you for calling me a pro, but as most good computer technicians would say your always learning and being a pro dusnot mean you stop learning. I only wish customers did the same as all know more that you or have a Friend that is an expert that knows better, that is until you show them different.

ohh and how can i forget this

one day this really dumb teacher whom i belive never had much encounter with networked computers/shared printers came to the computer lab to print some files, she loaded the files into MS word and hit print, she actualy sat there hitting just the print button in MS word for abt half an hours till she finally gave up..

and the laser printer in the lab had a bunch of papers flying out and it wouldnt stop.. until the toner died..

she never found the printer under her desk which she firstly belived was faulty and wasnt printing

Mart wrote: How did it happen?

just let me give you a tip... don't let a 4 year old with peanut butter near your computer that's missing a cover

Everyone's technologically stupid in some area of his life. I used to do systems for telephone repair and we'd spend a couple of days a year working the 611 desk just to get the flavor of what was needed by the apps.

Got a call from someone who claimed to be an electician, who said that his phone didn't ring, but it wasn't an emergency. Said his dog could sense the electonic disturbance made by the attempt to ring and would start to howl. If he heard his dog howling, he'd just pick up the phone and someone would be on the other end.

Well, even I knew that was impossible so I sent a repairman out, The repairman called back and said that the dog was on a metal chain that was looped around the telephone drop coming into the house. The chain had worn away the insulation around the wire and every time the phone tried to ring, the dog got 80 volts.

I don't think I'd ask that electician to change a light bulb.
I had this vision of the dog being in the house one day when the guy reaches for the phone and the dog tears his arm off.

KCWebMonkey wrote: holy crap, is that a real story?

Yep and thers loads like it

KCWebMonkey wrote: holy crap, is that a real story?

Yup. got another dog story from the same experience that's not technically related though.

I sent a repairman out to a house and he disappeared. Didn't hear from him for half a day and had people out looking for him. He finally calls in and says he's at the emergency room because the dog bit him. The conversation went like this:

ME: How'd you let a dog bite you? You knew from the records to beware of the dog and you've got mace.

HIM: I didn't think he could catch me.

ME: You thought you could outrun a dog?

HIM: The dog didn't have any hind legs. It was one of those little mexican dogs and it sat in a tiny cart and pulled itself along with it's fron legs. I felt sorry for it until the little SOB came at me at 90 miles an hour and bit my ankle three times before I could say Boo.

one of my father's friend bought an internet suscribtion cars, (those credit card sized plastic cards for dialup which u scratch to reveals username and password) he wasted 3 days trying to figure out where will this card go into his pc until finally he called me up to ask and i couldnt stop laughing on his face

Here we go again....

I have just been trying to help a customer with burning a CD problem.

I asked the customer to explain the problem they where having to the response "I am trying to copy my pictures to a CD R/W disk". With this in mind I started the diagnostics by asking what software they where using, are they using a blank CD R/W disk to place the data on, that kind of thing. After a short time I asked the customer do they have a CD R/W drive in the PC "YES" informed the customer. Again I went into diagnostics but this time taking them into the settings of the burning software to see if there was a CD R/W drive NONE found. I was starting to think this was a fault with the part that was until I asked, "can you tell me what it says on the face of the CD R/W drive?" To the reply of "YES 56x". This is a CD ROM dirve I reported and not a CD R/W drive where did the burning software come from?. Customer I downloaded it had no burning software on the computer. My reply "You had no burning software as you have no CD R/W drive in your PC ".

This stuff is by far and aways NOT limited to the "old and useless". It happens with the pros as well.

I had a guy trying to get some tech support from me on how to use our product with his other one - a high-end professional media post-production workstation - the kind that starts at $10,000 for the el-cheapo version... He uses this everyday as well. Turns out that he's completely got the wrong software for what he wants to do (the workstation) and is totally confused about what it can and cannot do.

But, then again, if you look at MOST documentation for almost any technology product (especially computer products and software), it is laughable how pathetic it really is. The toaster makers usually do a pretty good job though 

Bluefrog wrote: This stuff is by far and aways NOT limited to the "old and useless". It happens with the pros as well. I had a guy trying to get some tech support from me on how to use our product with his other one - a high-end professional media post-production workstation - the kind that starts at $10,000 for the el-cheapo version... He uses this everyday as well. Turns out that he's completely got the wrong software for what he wants to do (the workstation) and is totally confused about what it can and cannot do. But, then again, if you look at MOST documentation for almost any technology product (especially computer products and software), it is laughable how pathetic it really is. The toaster makers usually do a pretty good job though

You are correct on that statement after all a professional is only in name and not evidence in being competent. We all make mistakes but I must admit it’s still funny when I get customers like this.