Family tech support

[AlecWest]

Perfect timing (grin). I just got a call this morning from my girlfriend. Her computer can't access the net anymore. Hmm. Last time I encountered this problem, one of her step-siblings "deleted" the browser (I kid you not - not uninstalled either, deleted). I told her that if I found the browser deleted again, they'd have to call "Geek-a-Knockin'" (a pro service that charges $90 just to walk through the door).

Well, her step-siblings didn't delete the browser this time. This time, it was a combination of an ISP problem and her step-siblings' attempts to "fix" it. They have dialup internet. And in their area, there are 8 access numbers to choose from. For some reason, one of those numbers no longer recognizes their logon/password ... the other seven do. I bitched to the ISP about it but have heard nothing back.

Oh, yeah, the "fix." Confronted by an inability to connect with the dialup number, one of the step-siblings opened up dialup networking properties and changed the ISP's access number to my girlfriend's home number (snicker). Hehe, he was probably saying, "Hey, that's why it won't work ... that's not our number!" And yes, he's blonde.

Anyway, they're hooked into one of the other numbers and can now access the net again.

[edDV]

Perfect timing (grin). I just got a call this morning from my girlfriend. Her computer can't access the net anymore. Hmm. Last time I encountered this problem, one of her step-siblings "deleted" the browser (I kid you not - not uninstalled either, deleted). I told her that if I found the browser deleted again, they'd have to call "Geek-a-Knockin'" (a pro service that charges $90 just to walk through the door).

Well, her step-siblings didn't delete the browser this time. This time, it was a combination of an ISP problem and her step-siblings' attempts to "fix" it. They have dialup internet. And in their area, there are 8 access numbers to choose from. For some reason, one of those numbers no longer recognizes their logon/password ... the other seven do. I bitched to the ISP about it but have heard nothing back.

Oh, yeah, the "fix." Confronted by an inability to connect with the dialup number, one of the step-siblings opened up dialup networking properties and changed the ISP's access number to my girlfriend's home number (snicker). Hehe, he was probably saying, "Hey, that's why it won't work ... that's not our number!" And yes, he's blonde.

Anyway, they're hooked into one of the other numbers and can now access the net again.

Next time have them detail your car or mow the lawn while you struggle with their problem.

[AlecWest]

Next time have them detail your car or mow the lawn while you struggle with their problem.

I doubt if I'd ask her to "mow" anything ... but I might ask her to give me some serious "trim."

[edDV]

There you go.

In my experience, fixing plumbing or banishing vermin is more likely to be rewarded by the ladies.

[AlecWest]

There you go.

In my experience, fixing plumbing or banishing vermin is more likely to be rewarded by the ladies.

Hmm ... maybe that's where I went wrong with my ex-wife when I said, "Oh, c'mon honey, it's only a garter snake." Our cat always brought them into the house to show off. She wasn't impressed. I always thought it was great fun. Cats love to run after a string when people pull it. To a cat, a snake is just a string that pulls itself (grin).

[somebodeez]

OMG my cats use to go down by the water and bring back "strings" to me - sometimes black ones (not poisonous but still icky) sometimes brown ones - NOT good! (We have water moccasins here.) That's another area where my sis would help me out if DH wasn't home.
And I'll go take care of the spiders & camel crickets for her.

[rallynavvie]

BTW anybody care to share what they charge to assemble customers parts, no software. We charge on volume customer $45. OTOH I do wiretie everything up nicely. check to be sure it will boot from the floppy and CD, the reset works and the hd & power lights work. Supply any odd cable needed, extra SATA data or power converter cable. if they are over I hold em and under I supply em.

I would usually quote a flat fee over an hourly whenever possible. For instance a simple single-chip desktop with onboard video and a single optical would run maybe $50 since it took all of about an hour to complete. I was usually assembling SMP workstations and small business servers and those would run anywhere from $200-$500. I did my own hardware evals using Bart PE with those installs and did all the cable management to the best of my ablities (split tubing, heat shrinks, mesh cable management sleeves, routing cables along the chassis to help airflow, etc.).

I rarely did OS or software installs because of the issues that could come up with having to train people on their new system. Most of the high-end systems were built for software-savvy folks who just didn't want to spend $4000 on a Dell system that would cost them $2000 in hardware plus my $500 build fee. The only workstation I did the OS and application installs for was another video business who was willing to drop lots of money up front for good equipment. All told I think I walked away from there with $2000 for two days' work. And honestly it was a bit of fun getting to install and configure some of their peripherals like their VTRs and Rimage replicators

[Nelson37]

The local assembler and parts warehouse here, last one of three left, charges $45 per hour to assemble and Install Windows and drivers, assuming you buy the Windows from him.

I charge $75 per for setup, networking, whatever customization is needed. Scale here runs from $45 to $115 per hour. Most customers purchase Dell or other major brand, few purchase local anymore. Aside from standard parts and easy availability, it is difficult to justify the price differential. The warehouse does some bulk sales locally, and lots of parts. I'm on the labor side anyway, once Walmart started selling PC's I realized there's no money in sales anymore.

I do a lot of freebies for family and friends, depending on rate of return service, I often use the magic words "Sounds like I would need to come over and do a Service Call on this", which is almost always followed by "How much do you charge?"

I'll never forget this friend of a customer, RICH dude, got freebies several times and wanted to take me deep see fishing on his 50-footer in return. I don't WANT to go deep-sea fishing, once I told the cheap SOB it was billable or call somebody else, he left me alone. Turned out to be a shyster who left town in somewhat of a hurry.

[TBoneit]

Yup, Sales has been taken over by the big boys. When I started with DOS based systems the firsrt one I built was a dual floppy Turbo XT Clone. 8Mhz 8088 with 256k to start.

[AlecWest]

Yup, Sales has been taken over by the big boys. When I started with DOS based systems the firsrt one I built was a dual floppy Turbo XT Clone. 8Mhz 8088 with 256k to start.

You've got me beat. My first was a 16mhz 386SX with a whopping 4 megs RAM and a brand new (expensive) VGA monitor ... when everyone else was using EGA or worse. I started with DOS 4.2. But when I upgraded to 6.x, then to Win3.1, it ran a Quarterdeck Mosaic browser (Netscape/MSIE required 8 megs RAM) over an external modem at the blistering speed of 2400 baud. It usually took five minutes or more to totally resolve a good graphical page ... and you could "watch" it resolve, line-by-line.

P.S. I can't for the life of me remember its name but there was actually a graphical browser that worked in DOS 6.x. But by the time I heard about it, I'd already gone to Win3.1 and Quarterdeck Mosaic. Prior to Win3.1, I connected to my ISP like you would to a BBS, then browsed the web with the Lynx textual browser. Hehe, if I'd heard about the graphical browser for DOS earlier, it may have delayed my upgrade to Win3.1.

[pstedman]

HA HA! What a cathartic thread!

I'm an IT Manager so I not only get the requests from my family, but get an endless stream of people in my office everyday asking 'Can you help me with my home PC?"

I only do immediate family support, but since we live several States away from the family it's all phone support. My father drives me nuts. He was a pretty savvy user in the DOS days, but he refuses to accept that the computing world has moved on. I got him a new machine with XP for Father's Day last year and now he whines about how his DOS programs from 1986 don't work.

Even worse, he'll call me with a real technical issue and then attempt to describe it using the word "thingie" eight or nine times. Yeah, that makes diagnosing the issue easy When my response is "Hmm, Dad I don't know off-hand, let me think a minute" I usually get a disappointed sigh that translates loosely to "Humph, I thought my son knew something about computers".

Family! What are gonna do?