Customer of the Year
For the last two years I have been dealing with Customer X. I have been to his house to fix his pc 5 times, 4 of which were for spyware. Normally I charge $65 to come to someones house and diagnose a pc problem but because this was the father of a good friend, I think I may have charged him one time for slightly over my normal charge for one visit. And his pc repairs were more than just a visit, usually it involved more than 16 hours of removing spyware and adware and cleaning his pc.
Well, finally about a month ago, I refused to do it anymore. I had informed this person that there were websites that he was visiting that were causing all of his issues yet he still continued to visit them. And not only did this person infect his computer over and over but he refused to upgrade his RAM, and I am sorry folks, but 256 Mb of RAM just isn't enough anymore.
Warning: PC Technicians will not be held responsible for their reaction to computers having less than 1 Gb RAM!
So, at that moment I decided that I would not only not clean this specific pc anymore, but I would not accept any computers for work if they did not have at least 1 Gb RAM. An upgrade of RAM must be part of the deal or there will be no deal.
My advice to Customer X was at this point to buy a new pc. I gave him other places to shop for his new pc because the normal pc user can get a much better deal than I could ever afford to give them at a place like Sam's Club or Best Buy or on-line at Dell.com.
Well this customer calls me on New Years Eve to inform me he thinks he has another virus - on his brand new computer, that he has had less than a week.
Sigh...
Published by B.J. Rychener
B.J. Rychener is a programmer/analyst in Maryland and has worked in the computer industry for over fifteen years. She is a Comptia A+ Certified Technician and is fluent in several programming languages and w... View profile
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12 Comments
Post a CommentI used to work customer service and had those "eternal customers" that decide to call you with everything even when it's only peripherally related. Your tale brought back many memories...
Is he always visiting porn sites? My Daddy did and that was disgusting and he denied it . . . and got viruses on the PC all the time. Then he blame my sister and me for HIS viruses!
The Booby Prize to that customer!
if you charged him the going rate for all these repairs perhaps he would learn to be a little more careful where he points his mouse.
@patricia - viruses and spyware are not the same thing. yes he has virus protection and a couple different spyware protections but they aren't always enough. the rate that spyware and viruses are being developed would blow your mind. also i have found that many people don't allow their protectors to run and they don't update them which also causes a lot of viruses and spyware to get by.
the variance in your ram could be spyware or virus; it could also be out dated bios settings and/or physical issues with your machine. hard to tell with out actually having the machine in front of me.
as far as being fair - do you think it is fair that i spend four to ten times as long fixing your machine because it is so far behind today's standards for RAM and still have you expect to pay the same price? do you want to work your job 1 1/2 times as long as everyone else? besides, RAM is extremely cheap now and would not set someone back more than 40 to 60 with my discounted price.
hope this helps!
I understand your frustration with this man constantly infecting his computer, but doesn't he have virus protection? I do take exception with the RAM thing. My computer, I swear, used to be 256, now it says 240. How can this be? Plus, I tried to install McAfee last week, only to be told I need 1 GB Ram. I had to uninstall it because my computer was slower than a dead snail! And I've paid for it already. So my question is this - why are computer companies even making computers with less than 1 GB! Now I have to go out and buy more Ram this week, my Verizon people just called yesterday to say they're coming out to check my computer because I don't fit their requirements. Hello, I've had Verizon for two years now, why don't I fit their requirements anymore? Many people only use their computers casually, don't need a lot of RAM, and refusing to service them because they don't have 1 GB is just not fair.
Some people never learn huh!
Sounds very fishy!
Some people never learn!
LOL. I'm sorry, but that is funny.