Why I sigh...

**El_Squid** · July 7th, 2010, 02:51 PM

The entire concept of "leasing" software and having to license it, is such a colossal cash cow! When I first heard of the outrageous licensing fees being charged, I could not stand it. Why any corporation would pay such outrageous blackmail, rather than maintain an in-house IS Development Team, was totally beyond my conprehension! It still is, but for other reasons, like ownership of the source code, control over the product, timely support, and unlimited customization to name a few. But, what do I know?

**slgrieb** · July 7th, 2010, 06:46 PM

Originally Posted by El_Squid

The entire concept of "leasing" software and having to license it, is such a colossal cash cow! When I first heard of the outrageous licensing fees being charged, I could not stand it. Why any corporation would pay such outrageous blackmail, rather than maintain an in-house IS Development Team, was totally beyond my conprehension! It still is, but for other reasons, like ownership of the source code, control over the product, timely support, and unlimited customization to name a few. But, what do I know?

I'm a bit off topic here, but I had a friend who, many moons ago, wrote a bunch of programs in COBOL that were used extensively by the State of Texas and several insurance companies. Made him enough money that he spent the next decade or so doing nothing but drinking and playing golf.

Anyhow, as the Year 2000 approached, he was offered yet another heap of dough by the State if he would update his original software to use 4 digit years. I visited him about a month after he signed the contract and asked how the project was coming. He told me that it was nearly finished.

Frankly, I was amazed. Until he explained that he still had all the original source code, which was written using 4 digit years. The State had him truncate the years to 2 digits to save memory in their old mainframes.

**Guts3d** · July 9th, 2010, 12:13 PM

Latest E-mail:

We have to have this fixed for tomorrow! ( It is now 1 hour and 45 minutes before quitting time )It has been not working for months!!! ( It takes about 3 hours to get a machine imaged to our standards. )

**Niclo Iste** · July 9th, 2010, 12:27 PM

oops you didn't get the email?

**Ferrit** · July 9th, 2010, 03:58 PM

I got this compaq given to me by my aunt. Man she must have looked at some awful stuff. Can you clean it up for me?
Nod Nod Wink Wink Say no more!

**Guts3d** · July 10th, 2010, 06:21 AM

Hey, you have obviously never met my aunt....

**Ferrit** · July 10th, 2010, 08:40 AM

Did she give you a compaq too??????????????????
No one ever really owns a compaq

**Niclo Iste** · July 11th, 2010, 12:22 AM

Went to a customer for the company that I strangely still subcontract to. System won't load. All points lead to overheating critical failure so proc and MB need to be ordered. It's a company that needs this exact machine running no replacements. So I get things in order with the customer and take the machine. I take it to the companies shop explain the situation. First thing out of the owners mouth is.
Them:"You should sell them a new PC".
Me: I explain the situation where they need this exact machine.
Them: "Well we don't fix problems we sell new things here."
Me: I indicate that's not what the customer wanted or agreed to.
Them: "Fine order parts from newegg"
Me: We can't it's a dell and it's a high end machine so we have to get the MB at least from Dell or a reseller of Dell parts
Them: "Well is it better than what we sell?"
Me: Yes it's a custom high end system
Them: "OK then because it's nicer all rates are doubled since they won't buy our machine"
At this point I tell him I'll "try to convince the client"
I leave the shop call from my phone and tell them I'll do it on my own companies ticket since he's so far more than doubled the original quote from 400 to 900+ dollars. Oh and yes when I told them how much he wanted for the service due to "costs" she went nuts and THEN I offered my services.

**Guts3d** · July 11th, 2010, 09:02 AM

It's guys like that that give us techs a bad name... Thumbs up!

**Guts3d** · March 29th, 2011, 07:42 AM

And today's zinger:

Customer: I want to sell my desktop computer that you built for me and buy a laptop so I can have portability.

Me: Ok, I built that 5 years ago, it has seen a few million miles, what were you planning to ask for it?

Customer: ( Baffled ) Well, I paid you $500, I want $500!

Me: Sigh...

**slgrieb** · March 29th, 2011, 01:56 PM

I have a Dell Inspiron 530S (and I don't think the "S" stands for "special") sitting on the bench. It has a dead mainboard. OK, so I found some guy in Hung Long China that says he's got one for $74, but everybody in the U.S. wants $200 bucks for a used mobo with a 90 day warranty.

Called customer and explained the cost of repairs and told them that the machine just wasn't worth the money. After some deliberation, he decided he really wanted the machine fixed. "Fine," I said, "but I'll need to have the cost of the board paid upfront before I order it."

So, the customer replies, "Well, we're pretty short on money. Can't we just pay you when the computer is finished? Would you take a postdated check?"

**Niclo Iste** · March 30th, 2011, 10:34 AM

Makes you just want to say "sure I'll take a post dated check, do you take post dated repairs?"

**BOB IROC** · March 30th, 2011, 11:35 AM

And I sensed Attitude in the text

User: Per "Supervisor", she would like Adobe Professional added to my computer
Me: Adobe Acrobat Professional is already installed on your computer. Check in your Start/Programs Menu and look for Adobe Design Premium CS3 program folder and there you will see Adobe Acrobat Professional
User: Yes I saw that but I said Adobe Professional, not Acrobat Professional
Me: Excuse me but Adobe does not make a product just called Professional. Professional is the level of the program just like there is Adobe Acrobat Standard. There are other companies that do the same like Microsoft Office Standard and Microsoft Office Professional for example. Professional is referring to the features and capabilities of the program.
User: Whatever. I will let you know if that is what I need.

Of course I get people that tell me their modem doesn't work or they need Word for email installed. One of my favorites is that many people call our LCD projectors "One Beams". Now keep in mind I work in education with many teachers and administrators having masters degrees and some with doctorates.

**slgrieb** · March 30th, 2011, 01:45 PM

Originally Posted by Niclo Iste

Makes you just want to say "sure I'll take a post dated check, do you take post dated repairs?"

Even funnier is that fact that the same vendor with the motherboard will sell refurbed Optiplexes with 1 year warranties for about what the 530S mobo with the 90 day warranty goes for.http://www.discountelectronics.com/i...duct_list&c=21

**Niclo Iste** · March 30th, 2011, 08:09 PM

I guess it's my turn to sigh.

So my new job has me being part of 24/7 internal help desk. Today is my first day taking calls and my first call is a very irate client. He had one of our techs remote into his home pc over the weekend for him to set up citrix and get it ready to be used for work, today the client tries to log in and citrix pukes all over his pc. So I ask his name and look up his service history. His last service ticket is over a month ago for nothing related to this. Keep in mind our ticket system will not let you enter a name that doesn't match a current user so there is no chance of a typo ticket in limbo. So I ask what tech set it up and he tells me, I check their logs and still nothing. So naturally I have to ask all kinds of questions such as versions of softwares, when things were done or updated and so on. He of course is getting very agitated, I then follow up with needing to remote in, he said the previous tech used some crossloop program. This isn't our internal software and I never heard of it. I ask for his e-mail so I can send a webex session invite and he blows up on me asking me why do I need any of his information and insists that I just start this crossloop program. He then tells me he wants to talk to my supervisor who is incidentally listening because I'm in training. They go over the details and inform him of how I'm not at fault and so on. In the end it turns out we have a tech on the weekend who habitually never logs his calls, and likes doing things his own special way without following any protocol. Furthermore I'm not the only one who had to field calls about his inept abilities today.

It just blows my mind how someone can't log a call, I can understand if it's something simple like telling a user that opening a browser and typing www.google.com is how you google something but when you're doing a 2-60 minute install of software AND remoting in to do so especially on someone's off site system you'd think making a note would be a good idea.