Why being a computer technician sucks sometimes...

[merkerguitars]

This is an IM conversation with my customer.....it's kinda funny yet i learned a lesson....some people can't assume responsibility for their own actions...

wendy-putting up my christmas tree says:
when, you came to our house and copied pictures to a cd, and then deleted them off the desktop, can i ever get them back? somehow when you did that i lost a bunch of pictures and i can find them,. and i haven't copied them to a cd, it was only done when you did it. so im hoping that there here somewhere

Merk.. says:
i put them all in one folder

wendy- putting up my christmas tree says:
ok cause there not on the disk

Merk.. says:
and i think i burned them to a cd for you
cause i know i didn't delete them

wendy- putting up my christmas tree says:
ok..well they didn't save then, cause there gone...

Merk.. says:
hmm can't help yah
double check that cd cause i checked it when i burnt it and it did work

wendy- putting up my christmas tree says:
well there are not there i just did
and i haven't done anything with the cd

Merk.. says:
hmm

wendy- putting up my christmas tree says:
well between the virus pop ups, the slow start up, taking up to 3 minutes after i click the print button for the print screen to come up, and me not being able to work on a flippen picture without it saying low memory, or system error all the time, this computer isn't fit to use.....i haven't had good luck with it yet....
im tired of trying to work on something that just plain doesn't work

Merk.. says:
well you need more memory

wendy- putting up my christmas tree says:
no i don't
it isn't a memory problem

Merk.. says:
yes it is

wendy- putting up my christmas tree says:
urr ive already had someone else look at it and i have plenty of memory in it

Merk.. says:
who mike?

wendy- putting up my christmas tree says:
you told me that i would have more than enough memory to use my photo shop, and i cant
i cant use anything

Merk.. says:
it is a memory problem
i had a customer last week had the exact same problem
upgraded the memory and it fixed it

wendy- putting up my christmas tree says:
well maybe your doing some thing wrong then.. , like i said you told me i had more than enough memory , so i don't like being lied to
we got this computer expecting it to work

Merk.. says:
you do need more memory
it's not my fault
i'm sorry but mike didn't diagnose it correctly

wendy- putting up my christmas tree says:
i never said mike looked at it,

Merk.. says:
well who looked at it?

wendy- putting up my christmas tree says:
none of your damn business. thats not the point, point is, you screwed me over with this piece of shit knowing what i would be doing with it, and now you expect me to pay more money for you to put more memory in it? i dint think so

Merk.. says:
i didn't fucking screw you over...i sold that to you for cost
i have to pay over $80 on taxes on it for you
thats how generous i was

wendy- putting up my christmas tree says:
and im suppose to be generous to you because it doesn't work? i should spend extra money taking it other places because you didn't make it work right? i don't think so. ill tell you what. you can have this back then,. you think you can make it work? go for it. refund the money and take it back then
putting up my christmas tree says:
i don't wanna and cant use this when it doesn't work

Merk.. says:
i can fix it it just needs more memory

wendy- putting up my christmas tree says:
urrrrrrrrrr

Merk.. says:
i didn't know you needed that much it would of cost more if i put more in when i first built it

wendy- putting up my christmas tree says:
then why did you say that? we would have payed more, but we talked about what i would need in memory, im not smart about computers, so thats why you said that everything was fine and i shouldn't have to up grade for a long time
not a couple months after we get it

Merk.. says:
i thought thats what you needed...i can't exactly know how much you would need....with some people its a hard thing to determine....every little program and nick nack you install takes up memory.....i didn't know how much every little detail would take up

wendy- putting up my christmas tree says:
well thats your job

Merk.. says:
well i can't be fucking perfect!!!

wendy- putting up my christmas tree says:
in a business you have to be, you have to know your shit, people expect you to, and if you don't then maybe you shouldn't be in business

Merk.. says:
fuck you if you want me to i'll buy your fucking computer and give it to someone that appreciates it
i have over 80 customers and they all love the work i do

wendy- putting up my christmas tree says:
fine

Hope you don't mind Merk. I edited it to make things a little more readable.

[oberon]

Heh, man, I feel for you.

Some customers are just stupid. This is true for every business.

[glytch]

Sheesh! That warrants a telling-off at least. Are you related to or know this person or have prior relations with them? If not, you should have just told them to go to hell and walked out. (Which it sounds like is basically what you did, just a little nicer about it than I would have been.)

On a side note, the person probably just installed a bunch of useless shit and made them ALL startup. I'm sure the computer is riddled with spyware as well. Anyway, I'm sorry things have to come to this sometimes.

[merkerguitars]

Actually this person I made a computer for at cost with no tax cause her husband is gonna build a deck for the house i live in for free (minus materials)

[GakFace]

talk to the husband then... He is bound to be more compitent than this lady is.

[Bloodslick]

Strike a deal. Fix things for recommendations to others. Unhappy customers are bad.

[merkerguitars]

An email she just sent me
I didnt want things to get like this, im not that kinda person, but when i cant run anything on my computer without a "system error" or something im pissed. im trying to run a business too with the photos and i cant have a computer that doesnt work. You dont even try to make it better, you just automatically say "you need to upgrade". How come it is that anyone else that looks at the computer says that i have more than enough memory to run everything, and you say that i need to spend more money to upgrade it? How can that be? first of all im pissed off that you lied to me about my old computer. you said that i could never put any more memory or anything into the computer. So thats the reason that i had you build me this one. then what happens? You take my old one, and UPGRADE the memory in it. What the hell is that? So you build me this computer, for cost because jason promised george that he would work on the deck. I asked you for enough memory to be able to run my scanner, printer, photoshops, games, and internet. You said no problem. When you e-mailed me saying my computer was done, you told me that i wouldnt have any problems with the computer and that i wouldnt have to upgrade for a very long time. When we got the computer things were fine with it. the only problems then was al the extras that you put in, you never showed us how to use. I couldnt get ahold of you half the time , and when i wanted to know something, all you could say was "ill have to show you another time" you can do that in a business, people are waiting on you to do things. peope rely on those things to be done. you could have sent instructions or something with the computer so i knew what to do and how to do it. Another thing, you would say you would be down a certain night to work on the computer at 6 or 7. We would wait for you and you would never show up, and then late that night yuou would show up for about 10 minutes and leave. you would never go throught the computer and look at things. all you would say is/....hmm i dunno, going to have to upgrade it. at one time inour conversation you said" i might have built somethign wrong, if so, ill have to take it home and redo it". so how can you go from that to jsut have to upgrade without even looking at the computer. like i said i really feel bad that this has come to that, but as a customeer i want service, and i want a good product. if i knew the problems that i would have with this computer, i would have never bought one from you. i trusted you as a friend, not to screw me over. you could have told me when we sat down, how much memory it would take, you just told me that what you have put into my computer would be pleanty enough to use all my programs. Maybe 500.00 isnt alot to you, but it is to me. we work hard for our money and when myself/ or anyone pays any money for something, i expect it to work. and if it doesnt , expect it fixed. ive had nothing but errors. i cant finished projects for people, and im loosing money that way. How can i gaurantee that if i dish out 70.00 for memory plus time for you to fix it , that it will actually be fixed? than im out more money. Also, it doesnt matter who or where i take my computer to get it looked at, that has nothing to do with you. At least, they actually look inside the computer instead of just saying "hmm just going to have to upgrade". There has to be another reason why this computer works the way that it does and its not the memory. According to others, my memory is just fine. i have more than enough, so then whats the problem? Im having another person look at it tomorrow, and if the problem is the memory, than fine, ill upgrade. But if i find out that it is something else, something that you didnt bother to take a look at, ill be upset, and i will want a refund, and you can come and pick up your computer the next week. like i said if you wanna be in business, you have to have a litle more customer satisfaction. you have to take the good with the bad,your not always going to have pushover customers that dont mind having a computer that doesnt work, but thats not me, and i shouldnt have to settle for any less.

My reply to the email she sent me
Ok......to resolve your problems step by step.

1.You dont even try to make it better, you just automatically say "you need to upgrade". Well I did stop over, I did some quick checks and there is a little tool in windows that tells you how much memory is being used, and yes all your memory was being used.

2. How come it is that anyone else that looks at the computer says that i have more than enough memory to run everything,: Well that is because you have more memory than most normal people would need. Your using all sorts of photo application so that uses more memory than normal. If you would of bought a dell or gateway for a similar price you would of gotten only half the memory and hard drive space you currently have.

3. and you say that i need to spend more money to upgrade it. Well parts cost money, simple as that, nothing is free.

4. first of all im pissed off that you lied to me about my old computer. you said that i could never put any more memory or anything into the computer. I never told you that you couldn't upgrade the memory. However you couldn't upgrade the processor or put more than 1 hard drive in it, or upgrade the video card. It wasn't worth dumping a bunch of time and money into.


5.So you build me this computer, for cost because jason promised george that he would work on the deck. Yes I did that cause I knew you and Jason really well. I did it as a favor. Even if Jason wouldn't help us with the deck i still would of gave you two a discount. I know that you two have a house and other bills to pay off so I did as cause your my friends.

6. I asked you for enough memory to be able to run my scanner, printer, photoshops, games, and internet. You said no problem.: Yes but I didnt' expect you so have many multiple things open and so much other programs installed.


7. When you e-mailed me saying my computer was done, you told me that i wouldnt have any problems with the computer and that i wouldnt have to upgrade for a very long time. Yes after you upgrade the memory you shouldn't have to upgrade for a very long time.

8. When we got the computer things were fine with it. the only problems then was all the extras that you put in, you never showed us how to use. Sorry about that I showed you some of the stuff. If you would of asked I could of came down and shown you.

9. I couldnt get ahold of you half the time , and when i wanted to know something, all you could say was "ill have to show you another time" you can do that in a business, people are waiting on you to do things. peope rely on those things to be done. you could have sent instructions or something with the computer so i knew what to do and how to do it. Well you rarely called me. I stopped down a few time and you two where out of the house. I wish I could sit around all day waiting for phone calls but I had school, other customers, and a life to tend to. And if you ever need help with any of the programs they all come with help settings.

10. Another thing, you would say you would be down a certain night to work on the computer at 6 or 7. We would wait for you and you would never show up, and then late that night yuou would show up for about 10 minutes and leave. you would never go throught the computer and look at things. all you would say is/....hmm i dunno, going to have to upgrade it. at one time inour conversation you said" i might have built somethign wrong, if so, ill have to take it home and redo it". Ok all the time that I have canceled when I was going to come down I never canceled it the same day. I have said many times that I will be in Elmwood so I might have time to come over and help you. And the redoing part is reinstalling, sometimes people mess up windows so bad that it might need to be reinstalled to fix the problems.

11. so how can you go from that to jsut have to upgrade without even looking at the computer. Well I did stop over, I did some quick checks and there is a little tool in windows that tells you how much memory is being used, and yes all your memory was being used

12. like i said i really feel bad that this has come to that, but as a customeer i want service, and i want a good product. if i knew the problems that i would have with this computer, i would have never bought one from you. Trust me you would of had the exact same problems from Dell or Gateway or any other computer manufacturers out there. It is a good product.

13. i trusted you as a friend, not to screw me over. you could have told me when we sat down, how much memory it would take, you just told me that what you have put into my computer would be pleanty enough to use all my programs. Well I underestimated on the memory. Thanks for trusting me as a friend . I didnt' screw you over, I swung you a deal.

14.Maybe 500.00 isnt alot to you, but it is to me. we work hard for our money and when myself/ or anyone pays any money for something, i expect it to work. and if it doesnt , expect it fixed.ive had nothing but errors. i cant finished projects for people, and im loosing money that way.:I have offered to fix it but you never agreed to upgrading the memory.

15. How can i gaurantee that if i dish out 70.00 for memory plus time for you to fix it , that it will actually be fixed? than im out more money. Cause I am a computer technician that I was I do for a living. I fix and troubleshoot. I know what I am doing.

16.Also, it doesnt matter who or where i take my computer to get it looked at, that has nothing to do with you.: Actually I control the warranty if someone I don't approve of works on it I can void the warranty.

17.At least, they actually look inside the computer instead of just saying "hmm just going to have to upgrade". Looking inside a computer has nothing to do with it. I can find out all the specifications without opening the case. You can tell when you neeed to upgrade when you start having problems with windows.

18. There has to be another reason why this computer works the way that it does and its not the memory. Well it works like the way it does cause of all the programs you have running and probably cause some of the stuff you have installed. But to run it the way you would like it it would need more memory.

19.According to others, my memory is just fine. i have more than enough, so then whats the problem? Your must be running way more programs than they are that suck up more memory.

20.Im having another person look at it tomorrow, and if the problem is the memory, than fine, ill upgrade. Ok you can have them do that....fine by me.......thank you for trusting my judgement.

21. But if i find out that it is something else, something that you didnt bother to take a look at, ill be upset, and i will want a refund, and you can come and pick up your computer the next week. Ok that will work out.

22. like i said if you wanna be in business, you have to have a litle more customer satisfaction. you have to take the good with the bad,your not always going to have pushover customers that dont mind having a computer that doesnt work, but thats not me, and i shouldnt have to settle for any less. Well I told what was wrong...exactly what was wrong...sorry it's not my fault that you won't believe me. Like I have said before I have lots and lots of customers and they are all fully satisfied with my work cause they are open to my suggestions.

Thank you for your concerns and have a nice day.

[GakFace]

Aside from some grammatical and mis-spellings... thats a pretty good reply. I would have spaced out question from answer though. Just makes it a bit easier to read. You might just have to go over there and explain to her why the memory is filled up, and maybe root around and find out what doesn't need to be even installed on there.

[Bloodslick]

That was a pretty good response. You held the high ground and maintained your position without being rude. I hope she listens.

[Stargazer01]

You SWORE at a customer .... dang u have balls sir

[krazykemist]

I would say that a business transaction has taken place but I would not call this person a customer, more of an associate.

This is the reason that I do not build systems for anyone other than myself and my parents. Simply because they and myself are the only ones that I can acurately build a system for knowing what it will be used for.

Reminds me of my old computer back in '96 that my uncle had built for us. It had a whopping 4G HD and he told my parents that I would never be able to fill it up. Which was pretty accurate considering at that time fileswapping was not the rage and games did not have an install size of over 1.5G, which is not uncommon these days. (heh at that time Phantasmagoria was on an unheard of 7 CDs and only required an install size of 10M). Two years later when I switched from midis to mp3s the HD filled fairly quickly and my mom was completely dumbfounded by this because "i could never fill it up".

Basically if you are not prepared to upgrade to suit your needs then either work with what you have or find alternate means (ie. cameras, paper, pencil and other pre-computer items).

[Holo]

How much RAM is in it? If it was at least 512MB then she should be ok if she would not run everything under the sun at once. She sounds like a typical n00b...stories like this are exactly why I never get into computers for a living. If ANYTHING goes wrong after you work on it, even unrelated stuff, you are expected to fix it since you fucked with it. I help ppl free here and there but I won't take money so they can't throw that at me if something goes wrong.

[Kaos]

I love it when someone who has NO CLUE about computers asks you what is wrong, and you tell them what it is, and they immediately say, "No, it's not!"

Or my favourite, "Well this guy I know at work says it's probably this" when they haven't even looked at the computer.

I'm betting she starts one program, then instead closing it when she's done, she just starts another program. I'm not sure if you mentioned her having any virus protection, but if she doesn't and is a Noob like it seems, she has probably gotten a virus from an e-mail that is sucking all the memory.

[Conclamo Ludus]

This job would be great if it weren't for all the damn customers!

I can feel your pain. Your response was pretty good, but in many ways she is right. Why? Because she is always right. She's a customer. The only way to deal with a customer like this is to very slowly and very gently guide her through absolutely everything that you do. If you educate her, the ignorance will go away and she'll be happier and so will you. This isn't easy, but it always seems to pay off. Show her with both words and actions how you came to the conclusion that it needs more memory. Show her how much memory each one of her programs is eating up. Explain to her the difference between memory and storage, surprisingly lots of users still don't know. It takes time, but it will make her happy. Some customers need a lot more attention than others.

[The_Dude]

what a biatch......obviously, she doesnt know shit about pc's and doesnt like to take advice ither.

and oh yeah, she has bad spelling.

[cheerios]

he said "you'll be fine" and she's not. I'd be pissed, too. of course, I would build my own box and be pissed at me, not him, but :shrug: it's up to you now, Merk, to kiss ass, show her WHY you're right, and square things up. good luck.

[Conclamo Ludus]

Originally posted by The_Dude
what a biatch......obviously, she doesnt know shit about pc's and doesnt like to take advice ither.

and oh yeah, she has bad spelling.

[Mr.Deflok]

I haven't yet had a client be a bitch at me yet, they've all accepted that they know nothing about computers and let me do my thing.

Originally posted by Conclamo Ludus
This job would be great if it weren't for all the damn customers!

I agree, one hundred percent.

[portwineboy]

They say there are jobs where sometimes you don't ever have to talk to the customers, you just get to fix the crap. I think I might like that.

Almost every home I visit has their machine running like a one legged dog due to virus activity, p2p, spyware, and poorly written programs that place items to launch at startup. It is almost impossible to educate someone that the happy little toolbar they just installed came with smiley faces and 17 other programs that have now eaten all of the available RAM. I love explaining Backdoor CoreFlood.

"Well Ma'am it's like this. Your computer has this little program on it that goes out on to the Internet and tells Hackers that your computer is ready for them to control. Then the Hacker uses your computer to attack other computers on the internet, and tries to shut down web sites."

Usually they figure the FBI is going to be at their door any minute.

[Bloodslick]

I love that explanation, portwineboy.

Perhaps next time you should direct her to buy an AlienWare computer.

[Cynthetiq]

it's one of the reasons I don't charge friends for fixing their computers.

which then leads me down the path of.... i don't fix computers for free either....

[merkerguitars]

Originally posted by Cynthetiq
it's one of the reasons I don't charge friends for fixing their computers.

which then leads me down the path of.... i don't fix computers for free either....

heheh I didn't even charge her a cent over cost she's glad i didn't charge her for the house call I did when I drove to inspect it. She's luck she didn't have to bring it to my house to look at it. Heh most tech charge $150 for the first hour of a house call...she's lucky i'm a nice guy but it's time to get firm....yet fair.


Thanks you guys for all your support....this is why why i love the tfp I talked to her brother-in-law and some of my friends....I guess all she does around her house is complain about everything...even her marriage. Also I would told she is one of those people that always has to have their way no matter what and if not mommy and daddy will make it better. I know for a fact it's nothing I built wrong....it's funny cause it's kinda hard to screw up a windows installation and if it was a hardware problem the thing would be working way worse.....But for and end result this will probably happen......within a few weeks i'll probably by the computer back for what I sold it for $500 (I just sold her a tower, keyboard and mouse) she had a monitor and speakers. It's really funny too...within 1 day I found about five people willing to purchase it off me.....Then she will buy a dell or gateway...that will come with half as much ram and half the hard drive space....and running xp (yay more memory being consumed and she won't know how to tweak it )And pay a little more for what I sold the first one for and then wham she will get to pay the nice heavy shipping charges....or dell will tell her a bunch of stuff to buy that she won't need too.....Then she has to set it up all herself If she does that she's gonna have fun talking to dell or gateway tech supports cause 128mb of ram won't cut it ...and she might come crawling back

[billege]

You said "running XP."

Did the box you built her run win98, or less?

98 does not effectively address large amounts of ram, XP does a better job with up to 512mb. After that one reaches the point of diminishing returns. Unless, I say, Unless the user is playing in photoshop. In which case it will inhale the RAM.

Either way, I'm wondering what os she's using.

[skinbag]

So she has problems, are you willing to hold her hand while she learns to be a better, more efficient user? Sounds like that would be no fun with her. So unless she's willing to learn how to control her RAM usage from someone else, or you feel like enduring her attitude just to patch things up your right to just buy back the unit as amicably as possible.
Just a tip- it helps to proactively spot a pissy customer's problem and delicately resolve it without challenging them. Once challenged, their hackles rise and things get divided as they did in your situation. Customers are wary when they don't understand the machine they are using. (I've been an auto mechanic, so I sympathize with your experience.)
It takes a lot of people skill to help a customer like her see how to enjoy her computer more as it is. It would take a commitment, and it sounds like you were just doing a favor and had no intention of re-educating them as a part of the deal. I can't blame you, and I see why some of the above posters don't help friends with computers...It's just too damn bad we do business with strangers rather than friends!

[merkerguitars]

Here are the the specs AMD XP 1800 processor running at 1.53Ghz 256mb of PC3200 DDR Geforce4MX440, 52x cd-burner Gigabyte GA-7avxp motherboard. Windows 2000

[scoobydugan]

not to be mean or anything. With those specs you definitely shuldn't have told her she would be fine. 256 MB of ram is not enough for photoshop at all! You could've built a muchg better computer for $500.....You could've thrown a Athlon XP 2400+, Gigabite MB, 512MB pc2700 ram(no need for 3200) 52x burner, and a radeon 9600 in there for a little less than $500....so I'm taking her side on this one...sorry dude

[ratbastid]

It's always a bad idea to do business with friends. Even worse to "make deals" for them. I've never ONCE done that when it didn't come back to bite me.

Keep business and friendship separate. That's my advice.

[merkerguitars]

Originally posted by scoobydugan
not to be mean or anything. With those specs you definitely shuldn't have told her she would be fine. 256 MB of ram is not enough for photoshop at all! You could've built a muchg better computer for $500.....You could've thrown a Athlon XP 2400+, Gigabite MB, 512MB pc2700 ram(no need for 3200) 52x burner, and a radeon 9600 in there for a little less than $500....so I'm taking her side on this one...sorry dude

Hmm...i doubt I could of built it for that much...I used PC3200 cause it's only about $3 difference in price....And there is no way in hell she needs a 9600 radeon.....and also i realize I built this about a month ago so the price were WAY different. I told her it would be enough....to run her stuff and not a bunch of spyware shit and millions of different things at once......she would of been fine if she knew what the fuck she was doing...

[Mephisto2]

Sheesh... I don't know.

Doesn't sound like good customer relationship management to get prissy because they looked for a second opinion and then start cursing.

You won't go too far in business with that attitude.

Mr Mephisto

[saltfish]

Yikes, 256 megs of ram is not good for an idiot who doesn't know the first thing about a computer.

To go idiot-proof, running XP, I would suggest at least 512 megs, maybe even 768 megs; at current prices you can't go wrong.

---

On a side note.

Are both the HDD and CD on the same channel? or, are they both Masters on seperate channels?

Do you have an ATA 100/133 compliant cable? Are the drives set up for DMA access?

I'm assuming you're running XP, with NTFS?

How big is the VMEM (swapfile)?

How large is photoshop's cache file?

Is she using USB 2.0?

Is XP set to accellerate programs or background processes?

Some of these things can make HUGE differences in performance, as I have learned from experience...

-SF

[Vanquish]

I am going to side with her on this one too, But both of you could have handled yourselves better. I can see your side with the "it should be enough" but if you knew photoshop you would know that if she does anything with digital photos, changing the 1600x1200 JPEG (2mega pixal at high quality) would be running photoshop in a PSD file that would be HUGE (around 30mb for me) it dont take long to eat up 512mb let alone 256mb the way that XP likes memory.

[merkerguitars]

Originally posted by Mr Mephisto
Sheesh... I don't know.

Doesn't sound like good customer relationship management to get prissy because they looked for a second opinion and then start cursing.

You won't go too far in business with that attitude.

Mr Mephisto

Trust me i'm good with customers I got so pissy and mad at her cause she's a friend and she turned my back on me. It's been an on going problem. She can't assume responsibility for her action and has to blame ME.

Originally posted by Vanquish
I am going to side with her on this one too, But both of you could have handled yourselves better. I can see your side with the "it should be enough" but if you knew photoshop you would know that if she does anything with digital photos, changing the 1600x1200 JPEG (2mega pixal at high quality) would be running photoshop in a PSD file that would be HUGE (around 30mb for me) it dont take long to eat up 512mb let alone 256mb the way that XP likes memory.

If you where in my shoes...trust me you would think different It's not like she uses photoshop hard core...she rarely and I mean rarely uses it. She is just saying that stuff about photoshop to try to have a way to bias against me.

[damhna]

Please take this as constuctive not critical.

I ahve no evidence of how you handle your other customers but ....

Originally posted by merkerguitars
Trust me i'm good with customers ...

I gotta say there is no evidence of that in the above.

You say she's a friend ?
No Difference , that relationship changed when she paid you money in return for goods.

Lets take a step back here and think.

You've got someone who is pissed with you bigtime and you are having tantrums and slanging matches with each other.

Not good business.

Look at it from her point of view.

Everyone seems to agree that she has no idea what she is doing (i dont see evidence but what the hey..) ,
but get this........
shes not a technician ,
she doesnt NEED to know what she's doing.

She wanted a box to do X,Y & Z. She told you she wanted to do X,Y,Z , you said "here's a box" that will do that , she hands over the cash.

Now things are going left on her , all her fault ...fine fine... it is... we know that..... but SHE Doesnt) , what she is thinking is that she's been sold a dud by an incompetent.

From HER point of view. You seem to have a solid enough technical grounding to me (grammer does need some work though). But from her side you are coming off surly , incompetant and greedy. Are we surprised she is talking to some other technician ?

There is a huge chasm between you two now in terms of her perception of the kind of person you are and how you really are.

You can wave your A++/MCSE/GSEC/Whatever at her .
You can tell her that noone else has a problem.
You can call her dumb , but in the end of the day this customers experience is a negative one. She feels she has been sold a dud by an incompetent who is trying to get more money.

I dont care if she paid 500 or 5000 for the box. There is no point in telling her about the great deal she got.

Why ?
Because she wanted a box to do X,Y & Z. She told you she wanted to do X,Y,Z , you said heres a box that will do that , she hands over the price you set. (dont bitch about tax or costs , you said $500 and that's what you got)


So the way forward.

Forget the snipping and sarcastic emails. Its accomplishing nothing but generating more bad feelings.

Arrange to call over.

Install and test her new stick of memory which you are providing FREE. (You have 80 customers ? with custom built boxes ? I know you have at least 5 gig lying on a desk somewhere.)


Run a few clean up utilities , tidy the box , defrag , scan and clean that bitch and get it up and running squeaky and new.

Sit her down and explain a few things.

This is the important part. Education is needed here so that the gulf between you two can be lessened. You need to change her perception about the level of service she has recieved.

You have that system up and running as best it can be and that she can now do her photoshoping.

Advise her on the perils of too many apps , downloads , whatever.

Inform her that for 500 bucks she gets a Box , if she wants a support contract and expect you to call out or advice on upgrades , or whatever then THAT is a paid service.

(If she does go for that make sure you get there on time ? Its about service and giving people what they pay for non ? )

She wanted a box to do X Y Z for $500. She now has one. Whatever happens next is up to her

Tell her you are sorry about how things all went down and thats why she is getting the goodwill gesture of a free upgrade.

Go home feeling good and knowing you will have a customer who might well have more respect for you & maybe recommend you to others. Look forward to some new decking and generally feel good because you have a Happy customer. .


Everyone is having a good 'ol "hah ...stupid bitch doesnt know crap " little laugh here and thats just fine ,
Damn stupid bitch probably couldnt ever find this anyway
Right
Right guys ?
Yuk! Yuk! Yuk!

but if you are serious about your busineess and are looking for opinions you might consider what I am saying.

Im not being critical , Im trying to help.

80 satisfied customers means that you ARE good at what you do
It means you are technically proficent and have good customer handling skills and no small amount of business Saavy.

The only thing I'm suggesting that needs a bit of attention is the lack of skill in dealing with unhappy customres no matter how dumb they are.

[Holo]

blah missed a post.

[merkerguitars]

Originally posted by merkerguitars
Here are the the specs AMD XP 1800 processor running at 1.53Ghz 256mb of PC3200 DDR Geforce4MX440, 52x cd-burner Gigabyte GA-7avxp motherboard. Windows 2000

[billege]

Your customer service skills notwithstanding, her attitude likewise, and I have one thing to add:

128mb is a machine I'd not take seriously. Some Comcrap or some AOL users machine.


256mb is a passible box for someone that doesn't intend to do much. But, I'd have to consider it a bare minimum.

Telling someone they are totally safe with that little RAM is a mistake. Your mistake.
If you were unsure how much she'd need based on use, you should have looked into it more. Excuses do little for me, they tend to do less for customers. Always keep that in the back of your mind when helping someone.

I built my box last August. Half a gig of DDR 2700 was about $85. Now it's about $75 for that. (I just looked) Cost pressures can be intense, I understand that. You can try and make her understand that she did get more for the money than if she'd gone commercial.

However, she does not have enough RAM. How you intend fix that is not any of my business.

Good luck.

[aarchaon]

I have an old PIII 450mHz with 256mb of ram and i never had any problems with Windows XP. I keep my system clean as a whistle though, and thats with a younger brother who installs any kind of dumb shit.

[irseg]

wendy- putting up my christmas tree says:
in a business you have to be, you have to know your shit, people expect you to, and if you don't then maybe you shouldn't be in business

Merk.. says:
fuck you if you want me to i'll buy your fucking computer and give it to someone that appreciates it
i have over 80 customers and they all love the work i do

I have extensive experience with computers, I run a business, and when I worked in tech support I despised 98% of the customers I encountered. The vast majority were complete dumbasses who I had a hard time believing could feed and clothe themselves.

HOWEVER, that said, this woman doesn't strike me as one of those typical dipshits. She brought up a very good point above and you responded in a highly unprofessional manner. It's not her job to know the specs for a computer that will do what she needs done, it's yours. And while nobody's perfect or can predict a customer's usage with 100% accuracy, telling her a computer with those specs is more than good enough to use Photoshop was a bad call.

[JohnnyRoyale]

Having done the TS thing, I know there are always some customers who are looking for someone to blame, someone to fix their problems for free, and who completely refuse to take responsibility for their own actions. If your right, your right, and she's not.