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Also known Teching Down Under. A new thread for a new job. And after 2 weeks, this promises to exceed even my cynicism and sarcasm levels.
I've always been a bit of a professional idiot with technology, and a gadget freak. I can happily spend hours wandering around stores in their 'bright, shiny things' department. My clothes are never fashionable and I always but what will keep me warm and all important parts covered, but I MUST at least know about and look at computer stuff.
So, after the last job and the 4 1/2 months of injury recovery, I was chuffed to get something where I get paid to fix computers, deal with customers, and do general tech-type stuff. I do it well, and I know the majority of the tricks of the trade. Those I don't, I can look up.
I did, however, leave a small but vital consideration out of my equation. Namely -- all customers are idiots, for a given value of customer. The past 2 weeks I've had 8 customers come in with a certain type of tablet, and the only problem was either they a) hadn't recharged the battery and it had run out of power, or b) they had the machine set to go into standby mode after 30 seconds.
Naturally, neither of these issues could be the fault of the customer, but were obviously due to faulty tablets! I ended up giving driving lessons for tablets for 3 days running.
And then I've had the usual customers who have had their computers for only a few weeks or months, and have downloaded every program they could find, and who wonder why their machine takes 5 minutes to open the control panel. I've done 12 'scorched earth' resets in 10 days. One machine I had on Friday was so slow I was able to heat up my lunch before the settings window opened. It took 6 hours to factory reset the HDD.
And on a lighter note, we had one poor guy come in and buy a brand new machine on Tuesday, but the Young Idiot Male Salesman (hereafter called a YIMS. I have 8 of them to choose from!) sold him CD copies of Office and Norton, then shoved the machine at me and said "just install this software for him will you?" and vanished back to make more commission. The computer had no CD player built in.
I already had 4 machines on the bench, and politely aplogised to the customer that there would be a wait while I got them doing stuff and then could start on his. He cheerfully sais that was fine and would come back in about an hour, then wandered off to the nearby coffee shop with a paper tucked under his arm.
Before I could get it going however, the YIMS hustled back up and said he'd get it ready, so I left him to it. He deals with customer that day, and all seems well. Except customer returns Thursday VERY angry. The software doesn't work, things aren't as he was told they would be, couldn't get internet connection, etc.
Turned out the YIMS had installed the wrong Norton software off the net, hadn't properly installed the Office package, had failed to tether the computer to his phone for a mobile hotspot, and about 8 other issues. I placated the customer, put 3 warranty repair assessment machines to one side and got stuck into sorting it out. Finally had it all done 3 hours later after I undid the mess the YIMS snarled it into.
So, I can't complain about a boredom factor, I'm busier than I expected. But I'm seriously starting to consider electric collars to train the salesmen properly.
I shall post updates as and when I can.
I've always been a bit of a professional idiot with technology, and a gadget freak. I can happily spend hours wandering around stores in their 'bright, shiny things' department. My clothes are never fashionable and I always but what will keep me warm and all important parts covered, but I MUST at least know about and look at computer stuff.
So, after the last job and the 4 1/2 months of injury recovery, I was chuffed to get something where I get paid to fix computers, deal with customers, and do general tech-type stuff. I do it well, and I know the majority of the tricks of the trade. Those I don't, I can look up.
I did, however, leave a small but vital consideration out of my equation. Namely -- all customers are idiots, for a given value of customer. The past 2 weeks I've had 8 customers come in with a certain type of tablet, and the only problem was either they a) hadn't recharged the battery and it had run out of power, or b) they had the machine set to go into standby mode after 30 seconds.
Naturally, neither of these issues could be the fault of the customer, but were obviously due to faulty tablets! I ended up giving driving lessons for tablets for 3 days running.
And then I've had the usual customers who have had their computers for only a few weeks or months, and have downloaded every program they could find, and who wonder why their machine takes 5 minutes to open the control panel. I've done 12 'scorched earth' resets in 10 days. One machine I had on Friday was so slow I was able to heat up my lunch before the settings window opened. It took 6 hours to factory reset the HDD.
And on a lighter note, we had one poor guy come in and buy a brand new machine on Tuesday, but the Young Idiot Male Salesman (hereafter called a YIMS. I have 8 of them to choose from!) sold him CD copies of Office and Norton, then shoved the machine at me and said "just install this software for him will you?" and vanished back to make more commission. The computer had no CD player built in.
I already had 4 machines on the bench, and politely aplogised to the customer that there would be a wait while I got them doing stuff and then could start on his. He cheerfully sais that was fine and would come back in about an hour, then wandered off to the nearby coffee shop with a paper tucked under his arm.
Before I could get it going however, the YIMS hustled back up and said he'd get it ready, so I left him to it. He deals with customer that day, and all seems well. Except customer returns Thursday VERY angry. The software doesn't work, things aren't as he was told they would be, couldn't get internet connection, etc.
Turned out the YIMS had installed the wrong Norton software off the net, hadn't properly installed the Office package, had failed to tether the computer to his phone for a mobile hotspot, and about 8 other issues. I placated the customer, put 3 warranty repair assessment machines to one side and got stuck into sorting it out. Finally had it all done 3 hours later after I undid the mess the YIMS snarled it into.
So, I can't complain about a boredom factor, I'm busier than I expected. But I'm seriously starting to consider electric collars to train the salesmen properly.
I shall post updates as and when I can.
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