I received a telephone call from a customer on the 25th Jan stating that their system (NET-22) kept shutting down after approx 5/10 minutes of use. As I was very busy until the weekend, I could not do anything about it. She rang again on Monday stating that the O/S wouldn't boot up, so went to see her that evening. Could not find anything wrong regarding the shutdown problem & stayed there for nearly an hour & it did not shutdown once.

As for the O/S problem, a file in the system32 folder was corrupted. Ran the repair console & used fixbot & fixmbr. Rebooted & rig booted up with no problems. As far as I was concerned, job done.

Received a telephone call early Tuesday evening with nothing but ranting down the phone - it kept shutting down & she constantly stated that she wanted a replacement as it wasn't up to scratch. Went to see her & before I could check the system out, she demanded a replacement - As it was over 60 days since she purchased it & I did not like her attitude, I informed her that I had the legal right to have the machine checked before I can either replace it or refund her the money. At this point, her father came in & after explaining the situation, he understood & told her to shut up! At hearing that, I told him that I would replace it & will be back within the hour.

Brought back NET-22 & took NET-24 to them, set it up & then told her in no uncertain terms that any more problems with the O/S that can be proven to be end user errors & my time WILL be paid for & that any future problems the rig is to be brought to me rather than repairing in her home - that way any monies owed & the rig will be kept until payment made (Told her this as she is attending college to train as a commercial lawyer & I really didn't like her attitude).

Her father, who is a regular customer of mine & a very decent guy appreciated the replacement & also understood what I was saying - problem solved & returned home.

Unpacked NET-22 & booted up at 18:35 & left running continuously. I shut it down this afternoon. No problems could be found regarding the mysterious shutdowns. This bugged me no end!

Totally stripped it down & rebuilt, then booted it up. Someting still bugged me about this (had several issues previously to this problem & had listened to several rants, one of them being that she was annoyed that MS Office was not installed on the machine, & complained to me that rigs bought from the likes of PC World did - Until I pointed out that those were only 60 day trial versions). On checking what programs were installed, I found that several programs that I had installed were deleted & that numerous pirate programs were. Took snapshots of everything before deleting them.

After cleaning up the system & still feeling miffed off about the whole situation, someting entered my mind & I went to my main workstation to check my customer logs - sure enough, there it was, purchased on 3rd Dec 08 - Tuesday was 3rd Feb 09 - Well I be miffed - 60 days!!! Went back down to the rig & checked the event logs - My-oh-My - Throughout the 19th Jan to 24th Jan MS Office had caused no end of errors.

Saved the logs & printed them out - I've just returned from the customer. Totally ignoring her, I spoke to her father & requested a look at the replacement which he allowed.

I could not help bursting out with laughter!!! She had tried downloading MS Office 2007 trial again, but it would not let her. She wanted to know why it wouldn't & I just told her that Microsoft is nobody's fool!!!

As I was leaving, I told her & I wished I had a camera handy, her face was a lovely picture!!! The ONLY difference from NET-22 & NET-24 is the case!!!! Everything else including the bios is exactly the same!!!

I also told her father that she had refused the offer of Microsoft Works (unopened with a genuine product key) as she wanted Office 2007 & here's the catch - She only uses Word. The offer was for £30.00 & I told her father because of the deception, if she wanted a copy, it will be at the full price - as far as I'm concerned, no more discount for them - He was not very pleased with his daughter!!!

Anyone else had anything like this happen to them? It would be interesting to hear the stories.

I've had several people try similar things, but can't recall any specific one at the moment. As far as dumb calls from customers, I've had several in my years of computer consultation. Here are a few I remember as being exceptionally dumb...

The first was someone calling to complain that their computer wasn't turning on. After several minutes of trouble shooting over the phone I eventually discovered that the power was out in their building and had been for several hours. I'd heard of this type of call happening before, but always assumed it was an urban myth or someone making up a stupid story - needless to say I was somewhat shocked to actually experience it first hand. To be somewhat "fair" to them, they were under the mistaken impression that a UPS would last "forever" during a power outage. I explained to them that a UPS was for short term use and essentially only good for gracefully shutting down a PC during a power outage. I also had to explain that the battery doesn't last too long when you try and run your computer, speakers, monitor, and printer all off one small battery. I think they felt somewhat ripped off for having bought one, but since I didn't sell it to them, and they didn't consult me before buying one, I wasn't too concerned.

Another client had a little difficulty in understanding what an emergency consists of (even though their phone sheet described it in detail with red ink and lots of highlighting). One day a clients new receptionist called my Emergeny pager (not an email, or a voice message, but an Emergency page) sometime before 7:00am (I was asleep so can't remember the exact time). The emergency pager message indicates that it's for Emergencies ONLY (with a brief description of what constitutes an emergency - all systems down/etc), that additional costs will be incurred for using it, and even provides alternative contact information for non-emergency situations. Their issues:

1. "When I log on I get a box that pops up and says "scanning for viruses". Should I be concerned?"
2. "When I leave my PC for a while text scrolls across the screen." (the company name in this case)

The answers to these concerns are fairly obvious to even my most computer "illiterate" friends.

1. Have you ever heard of anti-virus programs? That's Norton's daily virus scan - just like the pop-up box says...
2. Have you ever heard of a screensaver?

Needless to say, this person was only able to enjoy a week or so of employment - oddly enough they were terminated shortly after the client recieved my bill...

The most annoying problem I've had though turned out to be internet related. I had a client who used to complain that their internet connection would go out for long periods (30-60 minutes) at periodic times during the day. I spent quite a bit of time with their ISP and doing bandwidth/connectivity tests, cable run testing, swapping out network cables/routers/switches/modems/etc all to no avail. I also never seemed to be on site when they had the issue so I couldn't personally test resetting things or trace the problem directly. Obviously the client was getting quite frustrated with the whole situation and started hinting that a replacement computer guy was in their near future if I couldn't get this sorted out for them ASAP. As luck would have it a few days later I got a call fist thing in the morning with the client complaining that the network had been down since late afternoon the day before, but hadn't come up as usual. When I got on site I tried numerous things and eventually discovered the issue - it turns out that one of their staff members just couldn't miss their daytime TV! When the network cable for their "portable" TV (27" TV on a rolling stand used for presentations/meetings) started getting flaky they simply unplugged the main cable line from the splitter and attached it directly to the back of the TV - thereby cutting out the cable internet connection. Luckily the staff member ended up going home sick after their afternoon break the day before and forgot to switch the cables back before they left. As it turned out I got an "apology" (not much of one though!) and the staff member got a serious reprimand and a shiny new network cable. Don't you love a story with a happy ending?

Daytime TV - I'm surprised they weren't caught in the act. Where NET-22 is concerned, I've had a bet with Andrea - I'm pretty certain that I'll get another call from her on or before 3rd April (Replaced rig on 3rd Feb). After completely stripping down & rebuilding, just in case I may have missed something, it's up & running with no problems whatsoever.

Aaaaaaaah, computing, lovely industry

Once upon a time, quite a few years back, i was taking classes to work in the IT field.
One of the guys in the "class" was ahead (having started earlier) from the rest of us by about a couple of months.
So he completes the course, gets a "diploma" and the "school" helps him land a job. How nice.

Soon after that, i get a (another but the others werent as bad) call from him, at home no less.
He's obviously frantic, but babbles about all sorts of unrelated stuff to make it appear that everything is a-o-kay.
I eventualy get him to tell me what the fuss is about. He's at work and he's got a major problem.
Everytime anyone boots up their "brand" new computers, it reinstalls the OS.

Now, this was odd, even for all the qwirks thats IT had "back then".
And what the frak was i supposed to do about it, i mean the guy graduated from school with flying colors.
Since he was a decent enough guy, who was obviously on the verge of a nervous breakdown, what with his boss breathing down his neck.

So i though about it for a few seconds, considering the what's, why's and how's.
There was only one thing i could think of really, but i mean, he couldnt be "this" dense, could he?
So i told him to take out the install CD out of the drives....
Turns out i was right.

Never heard from him again.

That's a good one

--- sounds like things you would see on one of my favorite sites - http://www.rinkworks.com/stupid/cs_calls.shtml

Well, if it's a 60-day trial version, you might lose your bet because February is only 28-day long, which could let her until 5th of April to call back.

Maybe you should re-negociate this with your wife, or I hope you didn't bet too much anyway

Naw, 3rd April..........3rd Dec to 3rd Feb is 63 days.

NET-22 still bugs me. It's been running 24/7 since Friday & not shutdown once. With it being a cube & boinc running 100%, it is running a little hotter than normal, but not hot enough to shutdown. Her brother has enquired regarding a desktop for himself & I'm sorely tempted to purchase another different case & transfer all the kit into it, just to teach them a lesson & make a tidy profit for myself. Unfortunately, I can't really do that as I've built a great rep in the area (but there is nothing to stop me thinking thoughts!).

This customer really is unbelievable - either the most naive person I've ever come across or the most cunning B***h I've ever met!

I did get another call within the 60 days (30th March) but I ignored it (checked boinc & it was reporting in regularly & gaining credit).

The estimated date was 3rd April. Didn't think anymore about it.

Until recently

Received the following text on 2nd July........

"Hi, this is ******** daughter. Could you give me the network security key for ****** Belkin? Trying to connect my laptop to router. Thanx."

WTH? I didn't set up any router

Received a call on 3rd stating that the rig is having the same problem as the 1st one..... Checked boinc......I don't think so! ignored (60 days again, anyone? ).

Some people just never learn.


I wonder....3rd October..............?

ok let me get this straight- this woman is a law student using pirated software? Does she know about OpenOffice?

Of course- it sounds like she has a great future ahead of her- NOT!!!!

Have to edit and add in- reading these stories of adventures in IT- these customers make me sound like a dream-client.
I've been known to spend 6 to 8 hours trying to figure out what's wrong and or repair BEFORE calling some one.

BTW Sirius- did she call?

Yep & I told her to go to pc world as the warrantly has expired & I don't want her custom....i wish i had a camera handy at that point...