I give up

wakandem

When you ask if they have a backup and they do not then it is ££££ time.
Tell them it may be possible to recover their data but it is pricey. Also ask them for their original windows disk, as a reinstall might be necessary. When they look at you with 'what the hell is this guy talking about' look then more ££££ . Don't rip them off but a little scare normally makes them more responsible so on your next visit they will proudly tell you that they have backed up and found their windows disk.

cheapopete

kwikbreaks wrote: »

So you make your living from the technically incompetent and then moan that they are idiots.

If they weren't you would either have to do something else for a living which would proibably pay less and is an option open to you anyway or go grubbing in bins for partially eaten burgers.

Now given those options do you still want to whine about your customers?

What you'll find, in my opinion, is that a lot of them are deliberately ignorant with their computers, because they like the attention. Let's hope they don't treat their pets the same way!!

cheapopete

wakandem wrote: »

When you ask if they have a backup and they do not then it is ££££ time.
Tell them it may be possible to recover their data but it is pricey. Also ask them for their original windows disk, as a reinstall might be necessary. When they look at you with 'what the hell is this guy talking about' look then more ££££ . Don't rip them off but a little scare normally makes them more responsible so on your next visit they will proudly tell you that they have backed up and found their windows disk.

Do you actually get a disk with a new computer these days? I didn't get a Vista disk when I bought a new machine 2 years ago.
But I know what you mean. I've lost so many system disks, then found them years later when they are basically useless!

isabel.h

Why don't you put your company name here so we the customers can avoid going to a whinning business who obviously does not want trade. I would have thought that no matter what the work was you would charge for it so a long job was more money or have I got the business payments wrong. It is amazing the feedback you would get for constructive advice and increase in work as the best advertising is word of mouth

fiddiwebb

I believe it's the nature of the beast hammy, some people are lazy, others not interested, some don't have the time, we become blase about the everyday objects that surround us, technology moves ahead so fast that most people can't keep up to understand it's so called secrets.

We still live in a throw away society where it is just as easy to buy a new piece of kit or get someone else to sort it than to have a tinker with it ourselves and see if it can be repaired.

We don't place the same kind of pride or value on items that our parents, grandparents used to do, where if they bought something with their hard earned cash (and remember back then new techology was very expensive compared to what people earned ) it had to last untill the end of days, not that it had to be changed for the latest version a year later because it was fashionable to do so.

How many people know the inner workings of a computer these days apart from the few who are interested, come to that how many know the inner workings of a car these days which are fitted with computer systems.

To a lot of people it's a mystery and it's easier not to bother to try and understand the inner workings, for example the all dancing ,all singing antivirus suite that does everything for you so you don't need to bother your pretty little head about how it works, it may be carp but because it says it makes your life easier then a lot of people will use it rather than a much better single dedicated av programme that you can control and which you have to read the simple instructions/manual.

Anyway enough of my Sunday ramblings, I do agree with you if people valued the items they had and took care of them then your job would be a lot easier and pleasanter.

DCFC79

isabel.h wrote: »

Why don't you put your company name here so we the customers can avoid going to a whinning business who obviously does not want trade. I would have thought that no matter what the work was you would charge for it so a long job was more money or have I got the business payments wrong. It is amazing the feedback you would get for constructive advice and increase in work as the best advertising is word of mouth

exactley my thoughts, work is work as long as you get paid for it form the customer

spud17

We still live in a throw away society where it is just as easy to buy a new piece of kit or get someone else to sort it than to have a tinker with it ourselves and see if it can be repaired.

Which is how I ended up with a 3.0GHz P4/80GB HD (4yo), and a 2.6GHz P4 Tosh laptop, in return for getting off all the data, no backups at all.

In each case it involved connecting an HD as a slave and searching.

Why do people have to install all that mobile phone crud? Which then saves photos in it's own custom location.

Got them to sign over the 2 machines, to avoid complications.

Upped the RAM, formatted and reinstalled from scratch, both ran better than new.

I passed one machine on and sold the other.

candtalan

Quote:
IN recent weeks I've seen 2 DRIVERS using their laptops whilst sitting in traffic, :eek: and I don't do much driving during the working day.


What is the harm in that? As long as they are careful not to spill their coffee on the keyboard?

(I'll get my coat....)

aliEnRIK

I do get frustrated when I sort people computers out, then they do exactly what I asked them not to (installing dodgy toolbars, downloading from limewire etc).
And so the cycle continues........

kwikbreaks

There is a difference - you don't do it for a living so far as I know.