Hate Fixing Other People's Computers

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 9:10 am

Win ME

526 adware/spyware

87 invalid reg keys

38 items set up run at startup

Just got the modem properly installed, so now if i can get IE working I can hit up trend micro's free scanner LOL

zooner · Post by **zooner** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 9:18 am

i charge now. got sick of people using me.

$30-$50, even for casual friends.

Bastid · Post by **Bastid** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 9:19 am

um damn!!!

ReLL iZ HeLL · Post by **ReLL iZ HeLL** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 9:25 am

LOL

For real! I have friends callin me up to so called "chill" - have a few drinks or whatever... when I get there--its all about that virus they just downloaded, or why their programs stopped running, or "this program asked me to to reboot... wtf is reboot?!? I don't wanna mess it up"

its cool though... but sometimes they whind up blaming you for a permanent error they've caused themselves from dling pr0n.. lol

deleted_acct · Post by **deleted_acct** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 10:48 am

Originally posted by zooner
i charge now. got sick of people using me.

$30-$50, even for casual friends.

Yep i know,Every time i talk to a friend they ask me a questoin about there pc,Damn RTFM!I just tell them i dont know how.

CiscoKid · Post by **CiscoKid** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 12:06 pm

yeah, I jokeingly told my cousin for me to fix her PC, it'd cost her a pizza. A few weeks later, she came over for thanks giving and gave me a thank you card, inside the card was 20 bucks for a pizza

TonyT · Post by **TonyT** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 1:04 pm

Sitting on my desk right this minute is a customer's brand new Dell Inspiron 5100 Laptop. Cleaning it up and ridding it of the bloated oem installed crap and all the Dell crap is almost as bad as fixing a virus ridden system!

Blisster · Post by **Blisster** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 1:09 pm

Originally posted by TonyT
Sitting on my desk right this minute is a customer's brand new Dell Inspiron 5100 Laptop. Cleaning it up and ridding it of the bloated oem installed crap and all the Dell crap is almost as bad as fixing a virus ridden system!

Thats a regular part oof my job these days. Recieve and "prep and process" new dell desktops for deployment to useres. tat basically means format and reinstall.

9mmprincess · Post by **9mmprincess** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 2:55 pm

my friend fixed my old desktop when i thought it was dead already-hes really good at it-but i offered to do something for him or pay him. i dont like freeloaders and im sure ppl ask him to fix their puters all the time. god knows how much it would have cost me at a puter repair place. we settled for me taking him out for drinks

brembo · Post by **brembo** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 3:01 pm

Originally posted by TonyT
Sitting on my desk right this minute is a customer's brand new Dell Inspiron 5100 Laptop. Cleaning it up and ridding it of the bloated oem installed crap and all the Dell crap is almost as bad as fixing a virus ridden system!

When a new comp rolls into the office, the first thing I do is rip OEM install out and put a fresh CLEAN OS intall in its place. Bloatware can reduce a zippy P4 2.8 to nothing.

Annalysa · Post by **Annalysa** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 3:06 pm

My family always has issues. I live so far away, it was like 2 hours to go fix a printer issue. I came up with a solution, I taught my sister, shes a wiz and a natural at it. She even built one for a friend and only called me once. The solution is to teach em how to fix it themselves.

koldchillah · Post by **koldchillah** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 3:27 pm

My friends & relatives that have broadband know the drill.. I taught them all how to look up their IP's and enable remote desktop.. Now all they do is call and give me their IP and I go in and do the rest.
If it takes physical access, they are pretty much on their own and have to wait till the next family gathering in order to hand over their PC for a $50 labor charge AND they have to wait till the next family gathering to get their PC back.

I'd say 80% of the time, remote desktop does the trick, unless they've really screwed things up or can't get online.

Norm · Post by **Norm** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 4:11 pm

I love fixing other peoples computers.

Beats the heck out of fixing other peoples cars that for sure

Joint Chiefs of Staff · Thu Feb 26, 2004 4:25 pm

Originally posted by zooner
i charge now. got sick of people using me.

$30-$50, even for casual friends.

I don't charge but I do ask for coffee or tea. If I'm offered food or such I may or may not take them up on it, depends on the mood.

Diver012 · Post by **Diver012** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 4:54 pm

I work for beer. Only thing I really ask upfront from them is 2 things...

1. I am doing you a favor. Do not hassle me or blame crap on me or I will leave.
2. Buy me a few cold ones when im through and Ill edumacate you on what happened to your PC.

Works out nice!!

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 6:20 pm

Its my dad's friend's son's daughter's comp LOL

I'm ok taking these in cuz it gets me some experience dealing with different problems that my comps dont have.

Nice too cuz I work on it till I get tired and just stop lol

P3 800mhz 133fsb and it was down to a crawl with all the adware, running slower than a 200mhz P1

Now its showing life, got avast scanning for more fun stuff, then need to use AOL and a 56k connection to repair IE

Win ME, AOL, 56k, random bloatware, bleh!

Norm · Post by **Norm** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 6:44 pm

Originally posted by YARDofSTUF
Win ME, AOL, 56k, random bloatware, bleh!

OUCH!!!!

4 of the very best in computing enjoyment lol

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 7:38 pm

How about an accountant that kills her computer on a bi-weekly basis? Lol, I litterally reinstall windows in her machine twice a month... gotta love being an IT guy...

(My favorite shirt... http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/frustrations/388b/)
Kyler1

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 8:20 pm

WOW, only 1 virus! LOL

Grimson · Post by **Grimson** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 12:37 am

Originally posted by Blisster

Thats a regular part oof my job these days. Recieve and "prep and process" new dell desktops for deployment to useres. tat basically means format and reinstall.

Have you been drinking ??

Blisster · Post by **Blisster** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 1:37 am

Originally posted by Grimson
Have you been drinking ??

But of course!!

qball15j · Post by **qball15j** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 6:14 am

Originally posted by YARDofSTUF
Win ME

526 adware/spyware

87 invalid reg keys

38 items set up run at startup

Just got the modem properly installed, so now if i can get IE working I can hit up trend micro's free scanner LOL

I cleaned up a machine like that a bit ago. It also had over 300 viruses along with the 550 or so adware/spyware.

zooner · Post by **zooner** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 6:33 am

Originally posted by Joint Chiefs of Staff
I don't charge but I do ask for coffee or tea. If I'm offered food or such I may or may not take them up on it, depends on the mood.

I built a computer for my best friend last week, free of charge. I'm also building a computer for my wife's cousin for a minimal charge as well. Often times in situations like this, I merely charge acceptance of the parts I'm replacing. I'm setting up a p2 266 server next week for emule from recovered parts.

I always did it for free and still offer help over the phone. I decided to start charging when people started to take advantage of me. The funny thing is, they really dont mind paying me. They'd much rather pay me $40, then pay crapusa quite a bit mroe. Plus, they know I'll FULLY fix the problems.

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 6:41 am

i don't know enough to charge people money, i just offer what little advice i know for free

in other words i know just enough to be dangerous

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 6:44 am

Got a good thing going here, maybe I should begin to lay out some prices.

ReLL iZ HeLL · Post by **ReLL iZ HeLL** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 8:44 am

Sometimes there are problems not even I can fix... that's why I bring it to the computer technician store down the block (it sells hw and sw... but also does "jobs")

Fresh install too.. now I dont have all those virus files in Quarantine--no slowness... I can delete huge files and it wont even take a second to do so... almost instantaneosly

zooner · Post by **zooner** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 9:47 am

Originally posted by YARDofSTUF
Got a good thing going here, maybe I should begin to lay out some prices.

I helped out the business my best friend works for a while back in selecting the perfect dell. A couple of weeks later, they asked me to troubleshoot. No problem at all, I drove out there for about an hour. I expected an offer of at least enough to cover gas.

A couple months later, they asked me to come out again. I said I wanted $20 to cover my expenses and time, a SMALL price. They never asked me again, how pathetic is that. I spent about 3-5 hours helping that loser out.

It was then I decided to charge. I feel even 30-40 is a small price and that people actually respect and trust me MORE because I charge. It's not so much about the money, I dont want to be used on a regular basis.

i do freebies for CLOSE friends and telephone support, but I definately have a LINE drawn and everyone is happier as a result.

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Hate Fixing Other People's Computers

Hate Fixing Other People's Computers

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