Appreciating your tech

One of the more saddening parts of being a computer tech is how little your skills are really appreciated.

A good example was yesterday, the first job had been locked out of her computer. The fix for this is usually quite easy and it only took twenty minutes to reset the admin password. When that was fixed she asked to setup a new profile which took another half hour.

So the total time was an hour. Her response?

I didn't expect it to be that expensive?

I mean, FFS! Thanks lady for the appreciation.

In the afternoon I did another job, this was for a client I hadn't seen for years. It took me ninety minutes to fix the spyware infection that had crippled her wireless connection.

Her thanks?

I hope I don't have to see again.

Gee lady, thanks.

One of my staff told me yesterday about the client who thought the three hour job he did on Monday should have been simple to fix in half an hour. It reminds me of the Dilbert principle that anything you don't understand must be simple to do.

On a related topic referring to yesterday's rant about Symantec I was delighted to note the first client's computer was almost new and the Norton, which was supplied with the computer, was defective.

Just to prove it's not just Norton, the afternoon job had a fully subscribed and up to date McAfee Internet security suite which had let a number of spyware packages on and allowed them to damage the TCP/IP stack.

Dealing with ungrateful customers and incompetent software vendors is why it makes this industry such a challenge.

If you really want to cultivate a good relationship with a computer tech, don't whine about the bill, time or insult them if they've done a good job.