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Forum: General Stuff Topic: Painfully stupid tech support started by: GORDON Posted by GORDON on May 15 2010,18:02
Friend of mine just called me. She uses me for free computer help/advice. I was the one who told her he should have a router between her cable modem and computer for, if nothing else, the hardware firewall.Well she has been having intermittent internet problems, so she called Time Warner. When she told them she had a router in there.... one she didn't get from Time Warner.... the tech person told her that routers serve no purpose besides wireless access, and all they ever do is cause congestion and that is why her internet isn't working, and no one should ever have a router. I just had to share that. Posted by thibodeaux on May 16 2010,07:32
To be fair to tech support, I bet 95% of their "teh intarwebs is broke" cases are because somebody had a router that wasn't configured right.
Posted by Malcolm on May 16 2010,11:54
(thibodeaux @ May 16 2010,09:32) QUOTE To be fair to tech support, I bet 95% of their "teh intarwebs is broke" cases are because somebody had a router that wasn't configured right. Sounds about right. Of all the times I've heard, "My connection's down..." at least 90% of the time (in my personal experience), their shit could have been working and something on their end was set to "maximum insanity." Posted by GORDON on May 16 2010,13:07
But the lies and/or bad info they gave her.... it angers me.
Posted by Malcolm on May 16 2010,18:51
Tech support is a shit job no one wants.
Posted by Troy on May 17 2010,07:00
Fucking Internet Explorer, which I never ever use, managed to fuck up Steam somehow.I had to pour over tech support forums to find out that some windows update turns on IE's proxy settings, which makes it so you can't access Steam webpages. Damn Microsoft. I don't care if this was thread relevant, it seemed the best place to put bitching about technology. Posted by Malcolm on May 17 2010,08:40
(Troy @ May 17 2010,09:00) QUOTE I had to pour over tech support forums... What did you "pore" over it? Posted by Troy on May 17 2010,09:14
Ba, sorry English professor, wrong verb!It was the steam forums. Posted by Malcolm on May 17 2010,09:48
(Troy @ May 17 2010,11:14) QUOTE Ba, sorry English professor, wrong verb! It was the steam forums. I just wanted to beat thib to the punch. Posted by GORDON on Jan. 15 2014,07:29
Wife is acting as a go between between a woman she works with and me, for the free tech support advice. These are exact quotes from the email exchange:Woman: Could you please give me links to some laptops I can afford? Me: What, is google broken? Woman: I just need a good laptop that has Office because my son (who is 9) needs it for homework. Me: You need Office so a grade schooler can do homework? Woman: Yes. Me: Ever heard of Wordpad? Woman: What? Me: How much can you "afford?" Woman: I just need a good product at a good price. Me: That means absolutely nothing. I can spec out $300 or $3000. Haven't heard back from that one yet. ++++ JUST got the response, big spender wants to keep it around $300. Sigh. Time to throw back some amazon and newegg links. Posted by TPRJones on Jan. 15 2014,07:32
< http://www.woot.com/plus/laptops-6 >
Posted by GORDON on Jan. 15 2014,07:33
I wish it were that easy. If I just shoot her that link she will want an executive summary of the pros and cons of each... you know how end users are.
Posted by Leisher on Jan. 15 2014,07:44
I fucking HATE that question. "Tell me what to buy!" They might as well ask me to also decide who they should marry. Posted by GORDON on Jan. 15 2014,07:50
What do you need to do with it?I JUST NEED A GOOD PRODUCT AT A GOOD PRICE. Has there ever been any less useful description of anything, ever? Posted by TPRJones on Jan. 15 2014,07:52
Direct her to a cheap linux laptop, tell her to install OpenOffice.org.
Posted by Leisher on Jan. 15 2014,07:56
QUOTE Direct her to a cheap linux laptop, tell her to install OpenOffice.org. I hope you're not being serious. Posted by TPRJones on Jan. 15 2014,07:59
It's for the kid's own good, IMO. He'll learn to use a real OS and be able to better hide his porn from his clueless mother.
Posted by GORDON on Jan. 15 2014,08:00
Gave her 1 amazon link, 2 newegg link, and just for the funny a walmart link. The walmart machine actually had the best specs for the price.
Posted by Leisher on Jan. 15 2014,08:21
(TPRJones @ Jan. 15 2014,10:59) QUOTE It's for the kid's own good, IMO. He'll learn to use a real OS and be able to better hide his porn from his clueless mother. "Real OS" might be accurate, but it's a Windows world. It'd be like buying someone a Mac to prepare them for computer use in the business world. And recommending anything that isn't as user friendly as possible means nothing but grief, complaints, and more tech support calls. Posted by GORDON on Jan. 15 2014,08:23
1. This isn't a kid I would expect would have enjoyment from figuring out a new OS, or the persistence to do so.2. Looks like she is going with the walmart one, because it is in her local stores. 3. I don't think she even clicked the link, because I was called and asked how much it cost. My end user could not be bothered to click the link I provided. Posted by TPRJones on Jan. 15 2014,10:04
All the more reason to make the kid do it, because his mother sure won't and we need to stamp out the Luddite idiocy in this family line.
Posted by Malcolm on Jan. 15 2014,10:11
QUOTE "Real OS" might be accurate, but it's a Windows world. It's a GUI/WYSIWIG world. *nix has windows managers. MS Winblows is just the most common engine under the hood. Posted by TPRJones on Jan. 15 2014,10:16
This is true. Linux still isn't quite as "user-friendly" as Windows yet, but some versions are getting very close.
Posted by TheCatt on Jan. 15 2014,10:35
Well, if the laptop has windows 8, the kid may kill himself.
Posted by Leisher on Jan. 15 2014,11:15
QUOTE 3. I don't think she even clicked the link, because I was called and asked how much it cost. My end user could not be bothered to click the link I provided. Perfect, I'm sure she'll pick it up, and they'll be fine with it out of the box. You'll never hear from them again, and they'll get years of enjoyment and use from it. Oh, and I have a bridge you might be interested in... Gordo's future holds me annoying support calls from this person. By the way, the types that aren't interesting in learning or doing anything themselves are the absolute worst kind of user. Fuck them. Fuck them in their narrow minded goat asses. QUOTE Well, if the laptop has windows 8, the kid may kill himself. I still do NOT understand why they didn't call that Windows Tablet, and simply left Windows 7 alone. (Side note: Windows 7 still out sells Windows 8...by a LOT.) |