No, I Will Not Fix Your Computer

[LazyLion]

This might come in useful for some of us!

The real reason your company’s computer guy doesn’t want to work on your personal PC.

“I’m sorry, I don’t work on personal PC’s. It’s nothing personal, I promise”.

Have you ever heard these words come from the lips of your company’s in house IT guy? Have you ever asked and been rebuffed? Well don’t fret. Rest assured dear user, it really isn’t personal. A lot of us computer guys just don’t work on personal PC’s.

“But why not?” you ask. A computer is a computer right? If it’s broke you can certainly fix it and maybe make a little money on the side. It shouldn’t take you long, you’re an expert.

As tempting as tax free money on the side sounds, it usually just isn’t worth the hassle. That’s right, I said it. It’s a hassle for us to work on personal PC’s. The laundry list of why it is a hassle is long, but I will try to just touch on the most significant aspects of it.

First off you have to realize that people that work in a corporate or government IT dept are used to dealing with standardized hardware and software configurations and being in total control over the goings on of their network. We know the hardware and software inside and out. We are in control of the inventory, we know what types of printers we have, and know what the most common problems are that occur with our standardized hardware and software. We like to be in control. When you bring us your personal PC from home, we don’t know what kind of software you have installed, where it came from, or what kind of hardware you may have connected to it that may or may not be causing your issues.

Secondly, we don’t like to have to “overlook” stuff you may have on your computer that may or may not be “legal”. Is that copy of Office 2007 you have installed on your PC properly licensed? Did you pay for the thousands of mp3’s you have in your “My Music” folder? It honestly bothers us to work on somebody’s computer and see software like Limewire or the likes of it, because we then know you are illegally downloading music. Honestly we want no part of that. We don’t want to know because many of us possess professional technical certifications from Microsoft and others, and with those designations come ethical responsibilities and the like. These companies are our bread and butter if you will, and we don't like to see them ripped off. Plus when you get sued by the RIAA, we don’t want to be called on to testify against you.

Thirdly, we honestly can’t charge you what our time is actually worth. When you bring in your PC loaded down with viruses and trojans, we could literally have to spend hours cleaning it up, and even then we may not be able to successfully clean it. Nasty infections are generally very difficult to get rid of and usually require that the operating system be reinstalled from scratch, which just adds time to our task.

Fourthly, (is that even a word?) we don’t enjoy working on computers as much as you might think. You know those guys you see on TV that are always messing with computers and talking about the latest whiz bang graphics card that renders a bajillion polygons per second? Guess what. We’re not them. We are IT professionals. We are usually highly specialized in our fields and concentrate on one area of expertise. We usually don’t know about the latest graphics card unless one of our AutoCAD users is getting a new machine and it requires a high end graphics processing unit. To us computers are just a job, a way to make a living. When we go home at night, we want to spend time with our families, chilling in front of the tube and eating dinner. We don’t want to spend all evening trying to figure out why your ipod won’t talk to your computer.

Please understand I’m not trying to be rude. I’m just trying to make it easier for you to understand that it’s really not personal, it’s not that we don’t like you. We really just don’t like to work on personal PC’s.

http://www.broowaha.com/article.php?id=3671

 

[Gnome]

Dude, what a dick, that article writer sounds like the typical a-hole you meet that only helps himself.

When he started with ethical code I already knew he was just fishing for excuses. Seriously sounds like the type that expect you to lick their buts for them to help you and act like they are doing you a huge favor after which they expect payment

/rant

my 2c.

 

[Messugga]

I can sympathize with him, to an extent. Recently, someone from work asked me to fix their personal computer at home. Being nice, I agreed. Driving there, I find a fried modem (internal) and give the diagnosis and notify them that they need a replacement. I was then asked, at a later date do go over to their house again, only to install the newly purchased modem. These two trips set me back around R40 in petrol and an hour of my time (The jobs took me 5 minutes, the traveling didn't). They promised to reimburse me, but I'm still waiting and it's been a few months now. If I billed them what I'm actually worth, it would cost a LOT more, but because I'd feel bad about that I didn't and the result was money coming out of my pocket - money that I don't really have to waste.
It's easier to just say you don't work on personal computers

 

[d0b33]

I usually just lie and make excuses, I feel bad about it but it's necessary when you have your own things to take care of.

 

[The_Techie]

The guy that wrote this doesn't like computers, he just works with them

You don't ask people like that to help you, you ask the people with a passion for IT Those are the guys that blabber on about the latest graphics cards

 

[orin76]

I agree with the general gist of the article. Fixing people's personal computers is a thankless task that is best avoided. The "customers" seldom pay and they are mostly ungrateful and expect you to provide 24/7 PC support for the lifetime of the machine. All for free.

 

[chiskop]

The guy that wrote this doesn't like computers, he just works with them

You don't ask people like that to help you, you ask the people with a passion for IT Those are the guys that blabber on about the latest graphics cards

Yeah, don't know what someone who doesn't like computers is doing in that industry.

But, I like my computers, I have no interest in other people's virus-riddled windows computers.

 

[Gnome]

The guy that wrote this doesn't like computers, he just works with them

You don't ask people like that to help you, you ask the people with a passion for IT Those are the guys that blabber on about the latest graphics cards

Enthusiast

Personally I've found enthusiasts to be better on average than most "professionals" of these types of industries anyway. Take for example cars, I tried getting help to fix my car from a for real Opel Mechanic who overcharged me and in the end did nothing, when I eventually stumbled upon a online forum another guy helped me for no charge and fixed the problem, he knew his sh*t (his day job wasn't fixing cars tho).

Not sure how the IT tech's in positions at companies are but I've seen some seriously dodge ppl at computer stores, went to Matrix the other day and the guy removes CPU's with the heatsink still attached no anti-static measures, it's like the PC version of a backyard mechanic (scary version).

 

[Keeper]

I can sympathise.

One oak asked me to help him, cause his CD's wont play.

I asked him what program he used to use: "U use Winamp?". He replied:" Uh, I don't know...whats winamp?" ..he couldnt even tell me anything!

Also, this was a slooooooow PC, and thats what I hate most - to spend an hour on a guys stupid problem, cause he has a slow and unresponsive Pentium 1..WTF?!

 

[Picard]

I agree with that article.

 

[pjjdp]

i Usually Just Lie And Make Excuses, I Feel Bad About It But It's Necessary When You Have Your Own Things To Take Care Of.

+1

 

[Glordit]

I can sympathise.

One oak asked me to help him, cause his CD's wont play.

I asked him what program he used to use: "U use Winamp?". He replied:" Uh, I don't know...whats winamp?" ..he couldnt even tell me anything!

Also, this was a slooooooow PC, and thats what I hate most - to spend an hour on a guys stupid problem, cause he has a slow and unresponsive Pentium 1..WTF?!

LOLMAO!

 

[kaaskop]

The problem I had at work was a person's pc is full of crapp, software that they dont even use and viruses of every kind. U spend hours trying to clean the system, uninstalling stuff they dont use and i the end the prob doesnt go away. Now u have to start from scratch reloading the OS and make a backup of 200gig worth of movies, music, docs and emails. We can do it for say maybe 5 clients but 20 clients x200gig is getting rediculous.
And you have to give the pc back exaclty as the customer had it. All the sortcuts and programs (which they cant supply).

In the end we told customers to make a backup of stuff for themselfs or loose it.

 

[Gnome]

In terms of software I agree with the top, I'm talking more in regard to fixing hardware problems, usually if someone asks me to fix software problems I give them 2 options: 1) Do it yourself, 2) I'll help you but we format.

 

[LazyLion]

Oh man, that's the worst... looking for drivers for every component, cos they lost their CD. These days if I set up a new PC for someone I just keep all the CD's and write their name on the CD with a black marker.

I also usually tell them that they are gonna lose all their info. I can't be bothered to make backups for them.

 

[Turiko]

Where I worked previously, the IT guy had this exact same attitude. Then when it came to light that I knew more about Linux than he did, his attitude changed to avoidance of me completely.

Nonetheless, what I do agree with is that invariably they bring you a computer that is a piece of crap to begin with i.e cheap crap motherboard with a celeron!!!! and they cannot understand why the computer is so slow and cannot run this and that game at a decent speed.

Since having a rather bad experience 4 months ago with a customer I now refuse to work on computers that are virus infected unless the customer provides own backups and signs indemnity.

 

[greggpb]

yeah i know what you mean....... I hate fixing personal pc's



as for the cd's.... I normaly duct tape them to the inside of the case...

 

[d0b33]

I can sympathise.

One oak asked me to help him, cause his CD's wont play.

I asked him what program he used to use: "U use Winamp?". He replied:" Uh, I don't know...whats winamp?" ..he couldnt even tell me anything!

Also, this was a slooooooow PC, and thats what I hate most - to spend an hour on a guys stupid problem, cause he has a slow and unresponsive Pentium 1..WTF?!

LOL, I was asked to fix a Windows 95 PC a few months ago and the person wanted me to make her a bootable floppy disk to run the installation CD, unfortunately for her the last time I came across a floppy was 3 years ago.

 

[quik1]

I gave up on making backups for clients long ago! and if you full of s**t and ungratefull ill soema format ur drive just for the fun of it!

Just joking, but sometimes i really feel like doing just that. Ppl tend to be ungratefull for pc services if they pay for it. If they dont pay for it they act like they own you. Calling you up at all hours just to ask you how to switch the monitor on.

So in a sence ill have to agree with the article. Sad but true

 

[Moederloos]

ethical code!
bread and butter!!!!

good lord - what a prat.