[F1grandprix]

I would, literally, have paid to see that. [rofl]

Now, a recounting of idiocy.

A gentleman dropped off a laptop, about 4 years old with a load of virus infections. After the basic clean up was done I noted his Norton Antivirus was out of date, to put it mildly. It was the 2006 version that had expired in 2007. Virus defenitions were 3 years old so I did the sensible thing, I uninstalled it and loaded Microsoft Security Essentials so at least he had some protection. Note that we also sell Norton at work for about £19.

Me: "OK sir, infections have been cleaned, mostly basic malware. I've removed your expired Norton installation and loaded a free Anti-Virus to cover the system for the time being."

Customer: "What? What did you do to my Norton?"

Me: "We uninstalled it since it had expired."

Customer: "I paid for that! Why would you uninstall it?"

Me: "Well sir it was 3 years out of date with virus deffenitions, antivirus that out of date is basically useless. We've loaded you on a free antivirus in the meantime and we also sell the 2010 version of Norton."

Customer: "That's ridiculous! I paid £40 for that norton! How dare you uninstall it! What's going to stop virus's getting on my PC now?!"

Me: "As I said sir, we've loaded a program called Microsoft Security Essentials. I use it myself and it's a perfectly effective antivirus. If you prefer I can remove that and load the latest Norton for you."

Customer: "That's not the point! I already paid £40 for the norton that was on there!"

Me: "Sorry, perhaps I'm misunderstanding. Have you renewed your subscription with Norton for this year? Or did you pay £40 back in 2006 when you bought the laptop?"

Customer: "I bought it with the PC and I'm paying you rip-off merchants for something I already paid for!"

Me: "Sir, you have to renew a subscription to Norton every 12 months."

Customer: "No you don't! My friend told me you buy it and that's it! Don't try to trick me! I build computers! Anyway, what's this Microsoft Essential crap? Never heard of it! My friend says Norton is the best, that's what was on my PC and that's what I want on it!"

Me: "OK, sir, these are the options you have: I've uninstalled the expired norton, regardless of what you may have been told a 3 year old, non-updated version of any antivirus is about as effective as a tissue paper condom. This is evidenced by the fact that your PC was full of Trojans. So: 1: I have already loaded a free antivirus aswell as some free malware removal tools for you, they should be sufficient to keep your PC clean. You can take it away as it is. However if you insist, 2: I can load the latest version of Norton which has a 12 month subscription and will cost an additional £19."

Customer: "BUT I'VE ALREADY PAID FOR NORTON!"

It took the director stepping in and explaining in serveral different ways that antivirus programs like norton are a yearly-sub and finally a call to his friend who told him the same thing before he finally twigged. It was funny hearing him go "but... but... yeah but you told me... no you deffinately told me it was.... *shuffles out of sight*" whilst on the phone. [rofl]

[Petwrenny]

Some people have too much time! The rage brought him closer to heart attack and all that for some 40 bucks he payed 4 years ago.

Some people... [no]

[F1grandprix]

I fully appreciate he probably thought I was trying to rip him off and that I'd be defensive if I'd paid for something and thought somone was trying to sell it to me again, but you'd think the constant "Your antivirus is out of date" & "Your norton subscription has expired" warnings and the fact his PC had the electronic version of herpes would have been a clue.

[viepedorlella]

I guess the moral of the story is, people don't like their computer's setup touched. Even if it's doing them a favour. Sometimes it's prudent to just do what they paid for and leave the rest for them to sort out. This way you might even get more repeat business.

[Haremporblape]

I guess the moral of the story is, people don't like their computer's setup touched. Even if it's doing them a favour. Sometimes it's prudent to just do what they paid for and leave the rest for them to sort out. This way you might even get more repeat business.

QFT, my dad's been doing PC repair for about the last 8 years and I help out whenever I'm back from Uni (and need some cash) even in that situation if they have paid for something we'd always call up first and just explain "You're computer is full of viruses BECAUSE your anti-virus is so out of date, I'd recommend getting rid of it and we'll put a free one on (MSE)"

99% of the time they are fine with it.... every now and again you'll get the conversation like that and we've just said "No problem, but we are warning you, it WILL get infected again"

2 weeks later they are back again.... we say "Told you so" and take another £50 off them to repair it again. They generally are happy to go with what we suggest the second time around [rofl]

[UltraSearchs]

I guess the moral of the story is, people don't like their computer's setup touched. Even if it's doing them a favour. Sometimes it's prudent to just do what they paid for and leave the rest for them to sort out. This way you might even get more repeat business.

The real moral of the story is, don't ever, ever help anyone with computer problems. I used to "help" people by building them setups cheaper than the OEM counterparts and thus, saving them money. When they came back to me with the problems they've caused and expected me to fix them, I couldn't take it anymore and stopped being that "computer guy."

I sympathize that it's your job. I would have probably gone ballistic on a customer as obtuse as that.

[Petwrenny]

The real moral of the story is, don't ever, ever help anyone with computer problems. I used to "help" people by building them setups cheaper than the OEM counterparts and thus, saving them money. When they came back to me with the problems they've caused and expected me to fix them, I couldn't take it anymore and stopped being that "computer guy."

I sympathize that it's your job. I would have probably gone ballistic on a customer as obtuse as that.

Actually I always liked being that "computer guy", but thats the downside of it, yeah. Some people think that you gave some kind of lifetime warranty on the stuff you built for them, even though it was just a favour.

[UvgpXK0J]

The real moral of the story is, don't ever, ever help anyone with computer problems. I used to "help" people by building them setups cheaper than the OEM counterparts and thus, saving them money. When they came back to me with the problems they've caused and expected me to fix them, I couldn't take it anymore and stopped being that "computer guy."

I sympathize that it's your job. I would have probably gone ballistic on a customer as obtuse as that.

100% identical to me. I stopped for those exact reasons

[LClan439]

Now, a recounting of idiocy.

In this case, I think you made a mistake.

It's kind of like if someone opened you up to fix your appendicitis, and then saw that you have a stone in your gallbladder, and removed that also.

A good 1/2 the people would sue, even though you just saved them another trip to the OR.

The appropriate course of action would be to explain what you were going to do BEFORE you did it. I know it's stupid, but people are not to be trusted to behave rationally... and to be fair, you DID uninstall something without express permission to do so... unless your repair contract disclaims such actions.

[Alice_Medichi34]

Yeah I agree with most folks here. It's a sad situation these days when going beyond the call of duty can actually get you in to trouble, or worse: sued.

I also agree that being the go-to guy for computer related issues is for chumps! Put simply: I am tired of putting an effort into areas where other people would not give a crap. If they actually paid me for my help it would be a different story, so count yourself lucky that if you do decide to just cut your losses and do what is asked of you (even if it is not the optimal solution) you still get paid.

[PNCarl]

The real moral of the story is, don't ever, ever help anyone with computer problems. I used to "help" people by building them setups cheaper than the OEM counterparts and thus, saving them money. When they came back to me with the problems they've caused and expected me to fix them, I couldn't take it anymore and stopped being that "computer guy."

So true it's funny.

[pouslytut]

I don't get it..my dad fixes a few computers now and then for people and they're always nice. I've never heard a customer complain or even sounding uninterested. They even ask what words like hard drive or CPU means or how to avoid viruses even though you've AV installed.

How do you not go nuts after having to deal with someone like that unless it's more funny than annoying of course..

[RadcliffXX]

The real moral of the story is, don't ever, ever help anyone with computer problems. I used to "help" people by building them setups cheaper than the OEM counterparts and thus, saving them money. When they came back to me with the problems they've caused and expected me to fix them, I couldn't take it anymore and stopped being that "computer guy."

I've avoided building computers for people for this very reason. The moment something goes wrong, be it faulty hardware or a faulty user, it's immediately your fault.

A good 1/2 the people would sue, even though you just saved them another trip to the OR.
.

Honestly, these days, I think people would also sue if you saw it and didn't remove it. They'd probably sue after waking up from a five year coma only to discover they hadn't been provided their favorite pillow while they were under.

But phoning a technical support client is a lot less problematic than waking someone up from surgery!