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Every IT person I’ve ever met has at least one nightmare story about being roped into fixing somebody’s home PC/network/broadband and everything going wrong.
A friend roped me into fixing his friend’s Windows 95 PC that his kids had managed to kill by installing all manner of junk onto it. Naturally, as soon as I had fixed it, I was on point duty from then on. If the PC merely hiccuped I was expected to drop everything and hurry round to fix it. Eventually, I went round after the PC went wrong again, and the friend of a friend had one of his mates round. He was completely out of it and throughout my stay repeatedly threatened to beat me up. My host didn’t do anything to stop him either. Suffice it to say, I never went back and swore that I wouldn’t do anything like it again for anybody but direct family members.
It never ceases to amaze me how much complete strangers expect from IT people. Consequently, a lot of IT people lie about what they do when they meet new people.
What’s your story? If you work in IT you’ve gotta have one. 
Better yet, do you have a strategy that doesn’t piss people off too much?
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I now tell people I don’t know about IT because I was sick of friends of friends of family calling me at all hours of the night to diagnose their PC problems. Can’t their pr0n surfing wait until day time? I don’t know these people so calling after midnight is just not on! Just because you shared a bus with my father in law doesn’t mean you get free tech support at 1 am for your 486dx 33mhz mean machine!
*Sigh*
Rant over
@Chris: I feel your pain
I bet they used to get upset when you pointed that out too?
Yeah. Apparently I owe these complete strangers something. Of course the same people wouldn’t fix my plumbing, wire my house, do my tax return or bake me a cake for free. No. That’s different.
It’s interesting that once you scratch under the surface of most IT people there is a deep seated resentment that others don’t view our job very highly.
Most IT people work bloody hard to acquire the skills they have, so I don’t understand why our skills are taken so much for granted.
I think the assumption is “they love this stuff, it’s a hobby” so rather than being something we should be paid for they are doing us the favour giving us a fun puzzle to figure out. Also its not like it is “real work” (I have actually been told this), as if real work involves lifting heavy weights or something
Yep, you’re right with the “real work” thing. They wouldn’t say that if they were trying to fix some software with somebody screaming down the phone 3 times a day. That’s “real work” to me!
I make it clear to family and close friends that for them I’ll gladly do the favor of helping with their computers because most of my close friends and family have helped me in other areas like Home Improvement. However I told them that if they refer me to anyone else that I’ll charge those people. What I hate is people who expect m to fix the problem over the phone! I’m sorry but if I can’t get my hands on it and you don’t know how to describe the problem we’re going to have a problem.
@Cigar Jack: looks like you’ve got it pretty well locked down.
Fortunately I’m a pretty big guy so no one has threatened to kick my butt if I don’t fix their computer.
@Ciger Jack
“I’m sorry but if I can’t get my hands on it and you don’t know how to describe the problem we’re going to have a problem.”
Ha! Try troubleshooting while in a text medium! I would always have friends IM’ing me or sending me private messages in game asking me some computer related question — “Yeah, something happened and popped up a window. Then things fell down. I totally know what’s wrong: how do I fix it?” Oh yeah, those are the fun ones.
I was also a auto electrician in my past life and I never tell anybody I know anything about cars either. These days I tell people if I didn’t sell them their machine take it back to the place of purchase.
Not an IT’er, here, but it does come up in many other professions (and in private life, too) — any where that a valued skill exists, no doubt. I approach the ‘favours’ thing the same way as lending money to someone, not sure if you’ll get it back.
Think of it as a gift:- Am I happy to do this job for this person with no hope of seeing a return on the time/expertise invested?
If yes, I do the favour.
If not, I’m too busy to do it in the timeframe that they need it done — or else I’m quoting my rates.
And a fairly diplomatic way to do the latter, I’ve found, is to say something like, “Let me save you some money on this, if I can. It would probably cost x-amount less if you {went somewhere else for help / did it another way / didn’t bother / etc.}, because I’d have to charge for {short notice / retail price on supplies / whatever)…”
With a sweet smile.
@Jen: you’re right. As Chris said, if we allow ourselves to be taken for a ride that’s our fault.
One of the problems with computers is that as soon as you show even the smallest amount of interest, you will then forever be the first port of call for any help they require however tangential to the computer it is.
None IT people seem to have a bizaar concept that every IT person has an intimate acquaintance with Bill Gates. And ol’ Bill sorts me out with every flavour of Windows & Office ever produced so I can troubleshoot anything on a Windows machine. It ain’t so folks…we have to buy it just like you do.
Another thing is, you’ll get the blame whenever anything goes wrong. The hard disk needs formatting, so you say *repeatedly* that everything is going to be lost on the machine, so please tell me what you need saving. Of course, you then go ahead and they suddenly remember that their child’s course work was on there that really has to be handed in tomorrow. They won’t remember that they said it was ok to format the disk. Guess who’ll get the blame?!
There is something about PCs that brings out the worst in people…don’t know what it is.
Ah, it’s the mystery of the scarey little electronic box. Everyone has one; very few have much of a clue what goes on inside the case… recipe for trouble! Jack, you’ve written a dandy (and justified) rant here — caused me, for one, to take a closer look at how I treat my computer-whiz pals. They would no odubt thank you, if they knew…
@Jen: it was kinda funny the other day. I went round my sister’s place and my brother-in-law comes in and says, in a tone that suggests he thought that I am personally responsible for all of the spam emails he gets, that I should set up something for him so he doesn’t have to delete all of the emails himself. And I did precisely that. His ISP was already marking the spam as spam so I just had to do a Outlook Express filter on the email title. No big deal, but it would have been a lot nicer if he hadn’t basically accused me of causing the problem in the first place.
I’m glad my little rant has had some positive effect anyway
I am not IT by profession. I can fix some things with a computer as long as I have enuff time to do it, as long as I am given complete leeway to do what I feel like I need to do to the computer. However, I find the biggest problem is that people won’t follow my after-fix advice for keeping the computer fixed. They won’t do Windows updates. They won’t run virus scans. They won’t stop going to questionable sites to download illegal copies of songs and software.
@Michael: Thanks for dropping by. The questionable sites issue is a huge problem. It can be a nightmare to remove a really nasty virus. Quite often the only option is a re-format.