bratty kids...

one day, this guys brings in his kid in along w/ their computer to get it upgraded.
he wanted a USB card, a usb webcam, and a scanner.
i get everything working fine. the guy comes in with his son and i begin to give them a quick run down on everything to show them that it works. they expected me to know the software in and out and provide them with a full tutorial on this stuff. i showed them the basics of scanning and taking a webcam pic.
sure enough, two days later, the guy brings his kid in. why? b/c this brat didnt pay attention the first time, and secondly, they didnt read the user software. so i go to show him again...he asks me "can i stream video with this?"
i told him yeah, but he needed a lot of bandwidth and some other mods, but i didnt go in depth. of course he has to challenge. "well my friend told me i could stram video into IMs and chat rooms over AOL." WTF kid? i told him he could take a pic w/ the camera and insert the pic into an email.
the funny thing is how this dad bragged about how smart his son was and how good with computers he was. so that only gave the kid more reason to argue with me. a cooperative effort shut him up. i talked over his head and my boss told him theyd have to be charged for lessons.

anyone else run into customers that dont back down? i know A+ wants a courteous tech, but there comes a point when everyone gets pushed to their limits...

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prompt $p$g [dos = elite]

There was this one guy who came into my shop and he wanted us to install a modem, so we did, no problems, tested it, worked fine. About a week later, he calls and says that we swindled him because we sold him an AGP modem. I calmly explained that that could not be possbile because AGP was a technology used in graphics cards not modems. He stubbornly insisted that his "computer guy" said that he should return his modem imediately and the reason it didn't work was because it was an AGP modem. SO, I said to bring it in because I would definately like to have a look at this "breakthrough" technology. Turns out what he meant was it was an ISA modem, and the reason it didn't work was his password was in all caps. Anyways, the moral is that everyone has SOMEONE who always know WAY more than you do and no matter what you say to try and convince them of the right thing, they don't want to hear it. BTW, I told him to get another computer guy!

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A ship in a harbor is safe, but that's not what ships are built for...

There's kid around here I deal with a lot. Is family is pretty well off, so they can afford all the work he brings me. Not that I like doing it. It's more like babysitting.

First off, the father thinks his son is a compute genius. The kid has the father convinced that each time something goes wrong it's the computer maker's fault. The son can do no wrong. Even when he screws up the computers at his father's business.

So far the kid has:
1) Installed two network cards without turning off either computer (Oddly enough they wouldn't boot after that. Those pesky computer manufacturers!)
2) Tried to install Intenet sharing and "lost" every computer he touched on the network.
3) Has fould-up drivers countless times.
4) Has deleted "unnecessary" (we in the computer buisness call them "essential") Windows files several times.
5) Has introduced two viruses to the network.
6) Has messed up the internet connection on his father's computer and on his grandmother's computer.

These usually happen after he sees me working on something. I guess he figures that if he watches me do something to their network, he becomes and expert and can make it run better.

Despite the father/business owner's disapproval I put a CMOS password on the secretary's computer to keep the boy out. The kid would mess is up constantly when she was away. I figured that little password has saved them a ton of money in unnecessary service calls and potential lost work time. Even though the father/business owner didn't like it, it was in his best interests. Besides, it made me the secretary's hero.



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A humble (hahaha!) computer tech uses booze and a scorpion to create science!http://savagepenguin.ontap.com/scorpio.htm
The sequal is now up!!!

Had one kid come in one time with his Dad. Kid said that he knew all about computers, he had been working on them for years (he was the better part of 12), etc. Really cocky. Anyway, he brought in an older system to be fixed, and was thinking about buying a new one. I asked him what he had in mind, and he replied he didn't need my help, he was "down" with all the new technologies. Next question to me? Does Windows 98 support VGA. I lost it. Laughed for 20 minutes. https://forums.windrivers.com/ If you are going to profess greatness, at least know what you are talking about.

[This message has been edited by wgbjr (edited October 30, 2000).]

About 7 months ago I was at the bench when this kid came in, alone, and plopped this POS compaq on my desk telling me how it didn't work and what an idiot we (me and teh other techs there) where. He was all of 15. anyway. After this little **** (parton my language) got done i discovered it was his dads work computer that he wasn't supposed to touch, EVER! I had put a new HD in it about 2 months earlier, well teh kid installed some game on it and it fried the OS. All his dads stuff was gone, and it had nothing to do with the HD. The dad came in, paid for a new OS install, but never chewed out the kid infront of me. GOD I WISH HE HAD. but even till the end, that little bastard contended that he had nothing to do with it, that it was all our fault. I wish i coulda put that brat over my knee, and punched him in the back of the head!!!!

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

A couple of weeks back, this rich dude bought his spoiled 8 year old brat of a son a brand new 1GHz Athlon with all the works. Voodoo 5000, 75 GB HD, SB Live Platinum, you get the picture. Anyway, they signed up for DSL through the ISP we work with, and I had to go out and set it up on the computer last week, after the phone company did all the necessary line clean-up.

This kid was the spawn of Satan! He hung around while I was trying to work, and argued with EVERYTHING I said or did. His mother asked him to leave me alone and let me work, but he told her to shut up, and she did!

After I got the DSL set up, the kid started to whine about everything that he had screwed up on the computer, and how it was my fault. "The DVD player doesn't work and my games won't run." It turns out he had set the color depth down to 256 colors because "256 colors is more than 32 bit. 32 bits is 4 bytes. 256 is way more than 4, dude." Yet he had no explanation for the fact that by changing the color depth to 32 bit, everything was magicially much brighter and sharper.

Then the little punk wanted me to explain EVERYTHING his computer could possibly do. And then he whined that it takes FOREVER for a CD to spin up in the DVD and CD-RW drive. (3 entire seconds) "It's a 1GZ computer! It should come up as soon as I insert it."

Anyway, this brat turned what should've been a 15 minute job - if that - into an hour because of his whining and arguing. I was ready to pull a Fist of the North Star and punch him so hard his head exploded....maybe next time.

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Clatu...Verata...nnnn...necktie...nectur...nickel. ...it's definately an "N" word...