I thought we were here for Help and Support

Pollycat

RAS wrote: »

I do not care how bewildered newbies are.

Even when a question has been asked a thousand times, newbies are often in a very new and frightening place when they come on here, for them.

Often it is a huge relief just to discover that they are not the only pillock to have made the same financial errors and that life will be OK eventually.

If I am not feeling patient, I might not respond to the thread. If I feel like helping, I will try to extract some sense from the original bewilderment. Even if it is not an area in which I have any expertise, if I can get the OP to explain their problem in terms that others can understand, it is worth it.

Newbies may not know the jargon whilst those with longer histories just think - "statute barred" or "Equita fees" or whatever and go off and hunt for the link.

I appreciate that sometimes people do not get it immediately, that having spent years not realising the consequences of their spending patterns, they may take more than a few hours to get their heads round the changes that are needed to make a difference. So it may take several exchanges before the penny drops.

In the end all we can do is give them the choice. If they choose not to take our suggestions, it is not worth expending the energy getting upset about it.

I think RAS has pretty much hit the nail on the head on this one.

I find the DFW board very polite and helpful generally.
I'm not sure what posts Handyman was referring to but I've sometimes seen someone post a whole string of appalling replies to threads on the DFW board - obviously a troll - and I've always reported them.

I recently found the Techie board very helpul in trying to decide whether a compatible battery for my new Panasonic TZ7 would work.
I made a point of thanking everyone who replied to my question as well as posting whether the batteries worked (they did).

What does annoy me is those posts that rant/bleat about being conned, scammed, ripped-off, duped, tricked, swindled or any of the other terms usually mentioned by people who don't read what they are signing up for.

Ironically, it's quite often people who claim to be "internet-savvy" but usually they have, in fact, been careless and haven't read the T&Cs.
Even after members point out they are wrong, they refuse to accept it and quite often turn abusive.

Amazon Prime Member Fee is a good case in point.
Regardless of how many times someone posts the screenshot of the order process, somebody pops up and insists they've been scammed.

I think if someone comes on and says "Whoops, I've slipped up and signed up for Amazon Prime, it was my fault for not reading the T&Cs, but can anybody give me some advice about how to get a refund" - they'll get a totally different (helpful) response.