[RESOLVED] Clients you hate to see coming !

[jimmr13]

Did you ever have a client that you hated to see coming?? Well I got One (Opps) Two, First: there is the lil ole guy who lives down the street. He kept coming by the shop and bugging me till I built a desk top for him, out of an old Gateway 486 I had in the shop
It's now a PIII 450 W/256 Mb of ram,OS is Win 98se. and he loves it but he has a problem,like twice a week! Today it was See it won't do nothing. (Have to connect to your ISP for your E-mail to work and No you still have to Connect to your ISP to use the Bowser.) Second: is the nice school teacher who lives in Bonsall about 15 miles from here, She has been a royal pain from the day I first saw her, Set up my cable modem and install this new sound card on Sunday, No problem, well take out the modem they charged me for two months & I don't like them messing up my account like that.No problem, Install this new modem and hook up my account. Two weeks later They messed up my account, Hook up this new account cause my son has been surfing places he should not be and Mayberry.com will keep him from doing that. That Mayberry messed up my Win/95 and my word don't work no more you got to fix it! No problem Now put on this free isp blue light. A week later I can't connect or get my e-mail. well I installed more ram Now it's a PII W/128 Mb ram, Installed Win/98se, Office 2000, and Netzero. And I haven't heard from her in Three weeks ! The funny part is She is the lil ole guy down the streets Step-Daughter.

[AlienDyne]

One or two????
I have more than 10!!!

Some of them think we're friends, or something. They are trying to make me work for free!

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"Matter is passive. In spite of its power, it can't be controlled without the human mind." Sokrates

My Hardware Info, Hardware Media and Computer History page

[This message has been edited by AlienDyne (edited November 07, 2000).]

[procrastination]

Where is that line anyway. People think that because I work with them, (or sometimes even just in the same building as them) that I owe them a favor. "Hey, could you take a look at my computer? I installed this $400 Video card and now it wont work." Seems to me that if you purchased a $399 card, you should have spent the extra money to get it installed. Now you expect me to do it for free? Hmmm. Somthing is not right here...

"Oh look at this, right in the !@Readme@! file it says you need a new AGP driver... Oh look at this it even has a link."

Sometimes I think that people just dont pay attention, or REFUSE to look at the documentation. I will sometimes say: "I need to see your motherboard manual." The answer is most times right there, but they havent even broken the plastic wrap around the damn thing.

ARGH@!!@

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Tell me; Future-Boy, who’s president of the United States in 1985?

[3fingersalute]

I have about 4 or 5 of them that I hate to see coming.

One guy comes in every couple of weeks to look around the store, b*tch about our prices, what we don't have in stock, and anything else he can find to complain about. He come in once ranting about Compaq screwing him over for weeks on a set of drive rails he needed, then after going through all this, told me he was going to show them because he mail-ordered his new computer from elsewhere....a Packard Bell.

I told him he will probably be much more pleased with there customer service!!

Isn't there a polite way to tell people like this that I can't afford to sit out in the storefront and baby-sit them when he has spent maybe $20.00 here in his lifetime? I mean honestly, he wonders around for like 45 minutes to an hour complaining to me while I got paying customer's machines in the back that need fixed!

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WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO TODAY?......Not that it matters, because Micrsoft will crash on the way there!!!

[LORE]

We have had so many people like this It is imposible for me to pick out any one of them for a story. However, the one big thing that gets me is how people will come in often with simple problems, and next thing you know they are talking to you like you are there best friend. They see you on the street, and come and talk to you, and it is always about some dumb crap the downloaded or saw on the web. That realy burns me. I am curdious to them at work, i help them with there problems no matter how lame(because i am paid to help, and be curdious) and being nice to these people makes them think i want to be part of there family or something.

This one lady, afte half a day of helping her buy and set up a new computer for her collage student daughter, asked me if I could deliver it to her dorm room 10 miles down the road because I was the kind of man her doughter should marry!!!!!! I explained to her that I had a Fiancee and couldn't posibly leave the shop, but she was persistant. She gave me her daughters Phone #, and tried to set us up, I AM LIKE LOOK LADY, I AM KINDA TAKEN, SORRY! She did bring her daughter in to meet me the next day. GOD how dense can somepeople be.

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We may be through with the past, but the past is not through with us.

[gren]

Was the daughter a hottie?


Er.. uh. I know whatcha mean.. The moment you actually offer anyone any kind of personal attention, you'll become #1 on their speed dialer. "You were nice enough to come over my house, I told my brother you'd stop over and see him.." or "When you set up my computer, you used the same powerstrip as my Pioneer DVD player... and it won't work now"

Sometimes it's hard to tell when someone's trying to take advantage of your goodwill, or if they're honestly in a bind and have no-one to turn to. I usually try to nip it in the bud and refuse ANY in-home repair/setups.

[jimmr13]

Sorry dude totaly not a Hotie ! More like a 190 lbs. High School Gym Teacher, w/ really short hair,and a face that would stop a speeding train. Hay come to think of it she is a 190 lbs. High School Gym Teacher ! Also a royal pain, and she always wants to tell me all her personal problems, I have told her a dozen times I'm just here to fix your
computer ! But that don't stop her. And her kid the computer wiz ? don't know the diferance between a CD Rom and a hard drive
but dont get me started on Know it all kids ! And have a nice day !

[Pogi]

Years ago when I was a field service rep for Dictaphone, there was one law firm that I hated to hear from because the firm's administrative assistant (or whatever his title was...he was a prissy liitle guy) would ALWAYS and WITHOUT FAIL ask me "what could have been done to prevent this from happening" after standing over me during the repairs. That's REPAIRS, plural... they'd wait until they had a stack of broken machines before they'd call us, so they could get their money's worth out of an hourly service charge.

Anyway, their building burnt down almost to the ground. When I heard about it on the evening news, I thought, "we'll be hearing from them tomorrow". Sure enough, next day is a service call. I meet the guy in the parking lot next to this burned-up shell of a building and he hands me huge box of melted Dictaphones. Asks for a estimate to repair (not replace, repair) these melted, backened and water-logged machines. The kicker was he asked his favorite question..."What could have been done to prevent this from happening?"

That was the last call I ever had to take from that law firm, because he called my service manager and complained about me because I laughed so hard at him I almost squirted my britches.

[This message has been edited by Pogi (edited November 03, 2000).]

[JKSteger]

Yea, several
Like the ones that call you all the time because their computer is slow...
Pentium 75 with 16MB RAM and a 450MB HDD running Windows 98 with Office 97 and Desktop themes, NEVER closes programs just minimize them and only reboots the computer once a year...YEA ITS SLOW!!! I go out reboot and clean up all the temp stuff, defrag, etc. and the customer says GREAT, get paid and then in 1 week the phone rings and I have to do it all over again.

Also the ones who just bought a 750MHz PIII machine and now expects the internet to be as fast as a T1 because they bought a NEW machine. Keeps calling me because they "bought a new machine and its not any faster than their old PII 266". Go figure! This is about how all of my customers are. Someday I'll get good customers like my co-workers that only call them out to configure the Checkpoint firewall or Cisco Routers, until then, I'm screwed!
JKSteger

[clascomp]

Do any of you live in a small town?

They chase you around the stores... bother you in resturants... leave messages on answering machines at midnight.

We can't go anywhere anymore, now reduced to hermits, unless we want to go out in public and deal with the brain suck!!! Gets to the point sometimes where we hate to see everyone coming!!

I'm getting tired. Thanks for letting me blow of steam!

[jimmr13]

Ya I live in a town small enough to be called a village, Most people say hi, or ask minor questions ( Major for them ) And yes when I go the store ( Albertsons ) It's Hay Computer man did you see the game friday, or hay Computer man I have this little problem, At which it's come by the shop, See our H/S
Football team is #1 in the League, #2 in the County, and #14 in the state of California
So if it's a computer question come by the shop, If it's Warrior football Well Did you see Friday's game ! One win from league title, And back to Div.I CIF. Answer machine, E-mail, stoped on the street, It's all the same Come by the shop.

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If all else fails read the directions !

[This message has been edited by jimmr13 (edited November 06, 2000).]

[theBeast]

I really really really hate it when they call me at home. I had that happen once. It was around 10:30 at night, I was laying in bed, watching TV, and waiting for my girlfriend to call. The phone rang, and I answered, expecting it to be her.
"Um..hi...I can't get my joystick to work."
"EXCUSE ME?" I was a little irratated.
"Well, we plugged our joystick into the computer, and it's not working.'
"Bring it into the store tomorrow." <SLAM>
You also have to love the pleasures of driving the company vehicle...with markings.
The last store I worked at, I got complete access to the company van. Not a bad deal. I could use it whenever I wanted, and I only had to pay for gas and the store paid for repairs, etc.
Well, one time I was out with my girlfriend, and we went downtown to go out for supper, or something. Well, it was fairly busy downtown, and the only parking available was behind the local strip club.
The next day, the boss gets a call, "What were you doing at the strip club last night? I saw the van parked there."
A little later, we went camping with some of her friends. Well, the park was practically empty except for one other group who decided to camp right beside us. It was a holiday weekend, so the people we were with got a little drunk. We went to bed early, but the others stayed up talking until 3 or 4 am.
They bitched at us because we were talking all night, and I told them that I went to bed at 11pm, and if they had any complaints, talk to the others out there since I wasn't involved.
Well, when I went into work, my boss said that someone called and complained about what I was doing on my own free time!
The boss just laughed and called them an idiot.
There was another time a customer wanted a USED computer for her mother. She said that she would be in at 6pm and we closed at 6:30pm. I said, "Fine, but I have a meeting out of town at 7pm that I can't be late for."
Sure fine.
6:30 rolls around...still no customer, so I decide to stick it out for 10 minutes. Still no customer, so I lock up and leave.
I go home, grab a quick bite to eat, change, and head off. I had to drop some mail off, so I did that along the way. I was now running late, as it was 7pm. The customer calls to me from across the parking lot, "Hi, sorry we're late. We were just over there, and it was locked. Can we pick up the computer? We're lucky we saw your van!"
I told them that I was already late for meeting, but they whined and complained and bitched about how they really wanted this computer tonight. So, I gave in, and let them in the store. They were there for about 15 minutes looking at software, and asking dumb-assed questions like, "Is it hard to plug in?"

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***the Beast
- Fate drove me here...then told me to get out of the car...

[Jallentino]

Oh man, I have a customer that is the worst, I think I would trade him for any of yours. I sold him a nice custom built system, and he calls constantly asking me about his AOL or WORD or Excel. I am supposed to be an expert on every software he uses and support them. I try to explain to him that I can't spend an hour on his phone explaining to him how to create a document, and he acts like he is being mistreated.

[CREEPINGDEATH]

Originally posted by jimmr13:
Sorry dude totaly not a Hotie ! More like a 190 lbs. High School Gym Teacher, w/ really short hair,and a face that would stop a speeding train. Hay come to think of it she is a 190 lbs. High School Gym Teacher ! Also a royal pain, and she always wants to tell me all her personal problems, I have told her a dozen times I'm just here to fix your
computer ! But that don't stop her. And her kid the computer wiz ? don't know the diferance between a CD Rom and a hard drive
but dont get me started on Know it all kids ! And have a nice day !

Hey come on man be a little easy on us kids im 15 and i realize that my knowledge is probably nothing compared to what some of you know but i built my pc and i maintain it myself. I even have a bond with it ,its my baby, though you may be right about some know-it-alls.

[if you can't walk the walk don't even try to talk the talk]


[This message has been edited by CREEPINGDEATH (edited November 06, 2000).]

[Art_Vandelay]

Bad clients are the specific reason I stopped going into business. Alot of people at work ask me computer questions and all that so I figure why not get paid for it. So I'm in the planning mode thinking about it or rather thinking how great it will be. I happen to be in Staples and overhear this guy who needs help with his computer and the staples salesperson is clueless. So I offer to help, turns out this guy owns one of those brother typewriter things and wants to connect to the "inta net". Ok I look up a modem for him which I didn't even know they had ones for these things, I call the guy tell him it'll be like 50 bucks and he explains to me that he's going to have to "save up the money" and he has his own lawn mowing business and business is slow right now (its the middle of the summer). I quickly come to the conclusion that I'm going to have to deal with annoying people all the time so before I even started my new business, I ended it.