The majority of problems are self-inflicted, that's for sure. When somebody doesn't listen to the very people they're paying to solve their problem, it makes you wonder why you bother sometimes.
Kaspersky anti-virus software is not a bad program for what it is. It, like in conjunction with most other malware protection programs, is designed to be used on its own. No matter how many times you tell people, "one system protection software per computer", there's always one that thinks they know better.
This person has Kaspersky on a computer. They then decide to put AdAware on it, the newer version with real-time protection. Computer freezes. Individual removes AdAware, computer's fine. Individual then decides to put AdAware back on again, computer freezes again, and the invidiual doesn't quite seem to understand that the problem is being caused by AdAware fighting with Kaspersky. This conversation is repeated three times over in two days over the phone and they still don't get it now.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Telephones
When you provide phone numbers, please provide phone numbers that actually work.
Many a time work cannot start on customer PCs because we cannot get in touch with them, then they have the audacity to phone back saying they've heard nothing from us when it turns out the number was either wrong in the first place or was disconnected six weeks ago.
It's weird how people don't know their own mobile number. They'd have had to give it out to friends and family enough times, you'd have thought, or rang their own number to find out where they'd left it on occasion. This concept never happens with landline phones and people rarely forget their house phone number which, ironically, they'd have had to give out just as many times as their mobile.
Many a time work cannot start on customer PCs because we cannot get in touch with them, then they have the audacity to phone back saying they've heard nothing from us when it turns out the number was either wrong in the first place or was disconnected six weeks ago.
It's weird how people don't know their own mobile number. They'd have had to give it out to friends and family enough times, you'd have thought, or rang their own number to find out where they'd left it on occasion. This concept never happens with landline phones and people rarely forget their house phone number which, ironically, they'd have had to give out just as many times as their mobile.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Software Solutions
Problems with software are usually caused because the user is thick (deliberately or otherwise) or doesn't properly read what is on the screen.
If you have a need to activate a piece of software over the Internet (pretty much the norm these days) and it asks you for a piece of information that you don't have, please tell the software you don't have it, otherwise it'll constantly badger you for something you don't have. The back button is your friend. Surprisingly the problem is solved if you click the Back button and click the "I do not have a client number" option followed by Next. Some people wouldn't get it if it came in a large bag marked "It".
Complaints of "faulty software" are common. Very rarely is a problem caused by the software, for what most people use it for anyway, and 99.9% of all computer problems exist between keyboard and chair. The other 0.1% of problems occur because the computer gets bored waiting for Joe The Plumber to figure out what on earth they want to get done today.
Microsoft Office tends to make matters worse with some people. Word is easy; load it up and start typing. Excel tends to stop people in their tracks until they think of it as a big fancy calculator. Powerpoint makes people think they have a flair for design and talent (which they don't), Publisher is the best thing since sliced bread (until they take their file to work and find out their Publisher 2007 file won't work in Publisher 2003) and Access is the only Office program that everybody asks, "can you show me how to use Access?".
If you have a need to activate a piece of software over the Internet (pretty much the norm these days) and it asks you for a piece of information that you don't have, please tell the software you don't have it, otherwise it'll constantly badger you for something you don't have. The back button is your friend. Surprisingly the problem is solved if you click the Back button and click the "I do not have a client number" option followed by Next. Some people wouldn't get it if it came in a large bag marked "It".
Complaints of "faulty software" are common. Very rarely is a problem caused by the software, for what most people use it for anyway, and 99.9% of all computer problems exist between keyboard and chair. The other 0.1% of problems occur because the computer gets bored waiting for Joe The Plumber to figure out what on earth they want to get done today.
Microsoft Office tends to make matters worse with some people. Word is easy; load it up and start typing. Excel tends to stop people in their tracks until they think of it as a big fancy calculator. Powerpoint makes people think they have a flair for design and talent (which they don't), Publisher is the best thing since sliced bread (until they take their file to work and find out their Publisher 2007 file won't work in Publisher 2003) and Access is the only Office program that everybody asks, "can you show me how to use Access?".
Friday, March 6, 2009
Wireless Woes
If wireless works in the computer repair place but doesn't work at home, kindly be advised that it cannot be a driver error because if it was a driver error it would have done the same thing in the shop. And it doesn't, therefore as far as we're concerned there's nothing wrong with it. Flicking the front button probably isn't going to solve anything and the problem is usually caused because something else that uses the same part of the Spectrum (electromagnetic, not the ZX81) is also in use, most probably next door.
Wireless is a very fickle thing; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It's no more dangerous than cordless telephones, satellite signals and TV signals and its very prone to atmospheric conditions, in the same way you can sometimes pick up ITV Yorkshire on terrestrial TV when you live in Oxford. One customer came in before Christmas and proudly decreed they didn't want wireless anything as it was dangerous. The fact that they were practically living in a world of wireless transmissions anyway didn't seem to occur to the customer - even cable TV is essentially a relay of satellite broadcasts.
Wireless is a very fickle thing; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It's no more dangerous than cordless telephones, satellite signals and TV signals and its very prone to atmospheric conditions, in the same way you can sometimes pick up ITV Yorkshire on terrestrial TV when you live in Oxford. One customer came in before Christmas and proudly decreed they didn't want wireless anything as it was dangerous. The fact that they were practically living in a world of wireless transmissions anyway didn't seem to occur to the customer - even cable TV is essentially a relay of satellite broadcasts.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Priorities
People attach a sense of urgency to a computer. Businesses use them day in day out, generate lots of money through them and understandably get a little upset when their computer keels over one day and dies. People who need a computer non-urgently will bring the PC in first thing as soon as it dies wanting it back ASAP, while those who's lives depend on it will bring it in as three days later and want it back yesterday.
As soon as they are notified, those who need it urgently you don't see them again for three days, all sense of urgency having evaporated. Yet Joe Public wants it back now so he can stick Limewire back on it and finish downloading Nickelback, not realising this is what screwed it up in the first place.
As soon as they are notified, those who need it urgently you don't see them again for three days, all sense of urgency having evaporated. Yet Joe Public wants it back now so he can stick Limewire back on it and finish downloading Nickelback, not realising this is what screwed it up in the first place.
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