WOF: Do you provide tech support to friends and family?

Being the tech-savvy guys in our families, we're always willing to give a helping hand when needed -- that is until you find yourself constantly spending weekends or spare time away from doing computer-related work as part of your job to, well, do more computer-related work only for free. They know you're the expert and they need help, so it's only natural that they'll pick up the phone hoping for a quick and easy solution to their woes.

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All the time.

"A friend in need, is a friend indeed". What did Ben Franklin even mean by that nonsense? I'll bet he never had friends and relatives with broken computers. He'd be singing a different tune! Probably something more like, "a friend in need is a pain in the a**"! I suggest using caller ID in case of, "friends in need". Or maybe setting your answering machine to "announce only".

But a friend with weed is better...

A typical payment and always welcome.

You best be trollin.

Yah I do. Just had to build my parent's pc today. Turns out the mobo has a ****ing dead ram slot that causes it to not post. Even funnier is I tried not using that slot 2 hours ago and it still didn't post. tried it now and POOF now it posts every time. FML

So I was trying to help a friend in another state try to figure out what was wrong. He called me from his cell phone and told me the pc would not come on at all. I asked him if he heard anything when he tried to power it up and he said no. I asked him if the pc was plugged in and everything was connected ok, and he said yes. I told him to look at the power supply and check the voltage switch and make sure its set correctly. He responded and said he tried to look but couldnt see because it was too dark under the desk where the pc was so I told him to get a flashlight but he didnt have one so I suggested a lamp. He told me he plugged in the lamp but he still couldnt see because the power was out.
0_o

I'm studying IT at university, and in our dorm orientation I was pointed out as the person to see about any computer problems... (everyone else at dorms is doing a musical theatre type course..) I have two funny stories from this year.

My friend plays quite a lot of games on his laptop, and is studying multimedia. His knowledge of IT isn't anywhere near mine, but I have seen a little and assumed he knew how to look after his laptop. After complaining for a whole day about apps that wont open fast etc, I decided to look. Windows 7, 80 processes running at once.. Cleaned that, then proceeded to clean with CCleaner. 6500 registry issues, 16GB of crap removed. Poor laptop.

Recently a girl came to me saying her LAN adapter won't work. It was confirmed faulty, and she had to find a wireless connection to use internet. A couple of days later, she comes to my room, saying "I went to electronics store to buy an adapter so my LAN would work, but I can't take off the back of my laptop." I had no idea what she meant, but I went to investigate. I first asked to look at what she actually bought - it was a PCI expansion card! Her reply was "oh no I'm such a noob!!"

There's also a funny vertical-comic-strip titled somethign along the lines of 'Why you should never let anyone know you have IT skills'. Maybe someone knows of it and can link?

I was going to ask if family seems to be the most ungrateful even when they dont pay a thin dime, but that answers it nicely.:wave:

Wow, if you're a straight male, and it's a coed dorm, you're in for four years of pure heaven. This of course is predicated on whether or not the ladies are, "experimenting in college", as it were!

All the time, most of the times for free. Infact i'm helping a pensioner with setting up his computer and upgrades so that he can chat with his family overseas using skype and the lot.

To me the satisfaction comes not from the payment (i usually don't ask for any) but a job well done and a smile on the other's face. Call me simple and naive, but maybe thats what i am then.

If asked, I do, of if they are close friends.
Mostly, I try to pretend to be clueless that way I get off easy and don't have to screw around with *****ic mistakes, especially through the phone or IM where people lack good description.
Oh and no payment.

Does a cat have an ***? Hell yeah I provide tech support to family and friends. If it wasn't for me, they'd still be on 10 year old machines, loaded down with 493 trojans wondering what the heck was going on. In my group of family and (older) friends, I'm the only one with any IT experience whatsoever. I'm glad to help out, but it does keep me busy.

BTW - that's a killer dogbert cartoon.

As long as they don't have your personal information on said 10 year old, trojan infested "computurds", I really don't see the down side.

Do I mind ?
I have no choice in the matter...
Wife/life partner: "Hey, hon, mom can't get photo's onto that (massively overpriced) digital picture frame we got her last Christmas...oh, and she tried to plug the cable in and now the computer doesn't work...can you drive over and fix it....pleeeeeeaase"
Me: "Yeah right !, You do know the game starts in an hour, right?"
Wife/life partner: " Please, for me...."
Me (answer #1) : "Sure, ok "
Me (answer #2): "No way, they break stuff all the time, and you know she'll get me to wire the Satellite TV into the guest bathroom or something equally ridiculous"

Answer #1 ...a modicum of domestic bliss......Answer #2...frostbite

And of course, if you're helping out the in-laws, how do you justify not helping people you care about ?

Yes, since age 10. And considering all of them use computers in their work, its very frustrating. So while my mom can design things on various CAD programs, I need to burn a music CD for her. Anything outside of the comfort zone of those programs I need to write down the formula on what to click and in what order to accomplish other tasks.

Not too many funny stories, but I did discover my magic ability to fix a computer just by being near it. I get a call that so and so doesn't work, I drive over, duplicate their actions, and accomplish whatever they were trying to do. Then I hear " it didn't do that when I tried it ". I guess its funny now.

my friends and family make sure to take full advantage of my tech skills... but no more free reformats

Recently i sold my grandmother my old desktop. reformatted fresh with xp cause its the only workin os i had layin around.. 2 days later she calls me saying she forgot her password, and i couldnt log into the admin account to do net user, so i had to reinstall again.. the next morning, she calls me saying she once again, forgot her password... which is why i set it to 123456 that time.

I enjoy tech work mostly when its with a tech friend, and its something advanced that i havent learned yet, i enjoy learning new abilities, tricks, tweaks, and programs all the time, but i dont mind helping friends and family here and there they know they can rely on me.

Did I just hear you correctly? You said you >>SOLD<< your grandmother your old computer...! Wow, that's cold.