Wherein we argue with the tech and can't follow simple instructions (long)

[Bob The Random Boy Wonder]

Here's one from today.

I had to go save someone's computer from a situation similar to the one Marmalady talked about in her thread over in Sightings. Basically, these people call you up and tell you that they're Microsoft partners and they detect your computer is on the brink of death, and you need to let them have some money and access to your machine because your Event Log has errors. In all reality, there's nothing wrong with your machine, and you're paying them to steal your personal information. End backstory.

After I freed their machine from the hell wreaked on it by the scam artists, I recommended to the client that they change every password they use to do anything. You know, for security purposes, since that's why I was called in the first place.

"I don't want to."

Well, guess what? You told me you don't want to have your personal information stolen. If someone has compromised your system, you need to change every password you have so they can't jack your accounts.

"I don't know how."

Tell ya what. You tell me what online services you use, and I'll show you how to reset your passwords.

"That takes a lot of time."

It's a small price to pay to save your private information. I'd rather spend an hour changing all my passwords than have to deal with the bank for months when someone tries to buy a private yacht or a mansion in Bermuda with money I don't have.

"But my computer's never on!"

That doesn't matter. If you gave them access to your machine for an hour--which you plainly told me you did--then they have your passwords. It doesn't matter if your computer's on or not. They can do just as much damage from their location with the information they phished as they can from your machine.

"But my computer did have a lot of errors! I saw them!"

Even a virus-free machine will show errors in the Event Log. Just because your Event Log shows 894 errors doesn't mean you get a dialog box for every error. Some of them are silent errors that take place deep within the code of the program. Hell, I've never had a virus on my rig, and my Event Log currently shows I've experienced 1194 errors in the past week. That doesn't mean my computer is going to die; it just means part of the code in a program didn't like the action it was asked to do, and the system flagged it.

"How do you know they were scammers? They have a website!"

Anyone with a copy of FrontPage can make a legitimate-looking website, buy the domain for that website, and publish it on the Internet. On top of that, Firefox flagged the site as malicious when I tried to visit it. Yep, I'm pretty sure the people you talked to were scammers.

This conversation went on for about an hour. Before I left, I told the client to leave the computer on so I could finish installing their Windows updates remotely.

Me: "Would you be willing to leave your computer on? I'd like to access it when I get back to the office and make sure it's up-to-date."
Client: "Okay."

When I got back to my location, I looked at the list of PC's I manage and saw the client's system wasn't on. Finding it strange that the system appeared in the list before I left and disappeared in a span of 20 minutes, I picked up the phone and called the client.

Me: "Hello. I just got back to the office and saw your computer wasn't on. Did you happen to turn it off? I'd like to get that updated for you. If you could turn it back on, I could get everything as updated as possible for you today."
Client: "I thought you said to turn the computer off! You don't know what the hell you're doing!"
Me:

*wait five minutes for the client to power on the computer*

Client: "What the hell does this mean? It's telling me to do something!"
Me: *remotes in* "Ma'am, I'm not seeing it. Could you point to it with your mouse? I can see what you see right now."
Client: "No! You should know what I'm talking about!"

Yes, I should know what you're talking about. There are only tens of thousands of error messages in Windows, on top of tens of thousands more error messages for every other program you use. I should definitely know which error message out of the potentially hundreds of thousands of error messages that was on the screen a split-second before I remoted into your machine.

By the way, the only error messages popping up when I rebooted your machine on-site were the ones associated with the adware and spyware I removed. After the crapware was told to hit the road, your machine booted up error-free. So unless this error is in your mind, I don't know what error you're talking about unless it's a PEBCAK or ID-10-T error. I'm gonna go with one of those.

Me: "I'll take a look at the errors when I reboot your system."
Client: "You damn well better!"

I rebooted the system. There were no errors. How many of you want to bet I get a call about a magic error that doesn't exist in the next few days?

The moral of this story:
1) Don't talk to scammers.
2) When you call in a technician to fix the mess made by the scammers, don't argue with them when they try to help you.
3) For the love of all that's holy, when the tech gives you simple instructions even a five-year-old could follow, listen to them!

This was my day today...

[Sonoma]

I shut down that same scam when they called my Mom's house last week. Never gave them any information, she just handed me the phone. I said 'hello', the woman asked if I owned the computer, to which I answered 'no.' She disconnected the call in record time

[gerund]

The last lot of those scammers I got I said, "Listen to me very carefully...

Warning NSFW!

Hidden text: "You should have your lips sewed to a cow's arse so it can shit down your neck three times a day"

He said, "You ... you ... you" Stuck in a loop. And then hung up

[raudf]

Okay.. so this idiot didn't argue with the ones that called him, but argued with the one he called? Whaa?

Someone lives in Backwards World. That unless you call them, you ain't interested. Covers a broad area of phone usage and works equally well with emails.

[Polenicus]

Okay.. so this idiot didn't argue with the ones that called him, but argued with the one he called? Whaa?

Someone lives in Backwards World. That unless you call them, you ain't interested. Covers a broad area of phone usage and works equally well with emails.

It's a phenomenon I like to call "The First Tech is Always Right"

Person will talk to someone... this person doesn't even have to be an expert in whatever field of inquiry it is. They could be speaking out of their ass. However, this is the first person the customer has gone to for advice, so they are mentally flagged as the 'First Tech'.

Some customers will RABIDLY hold onto every piece of information the First Tech gives them, and refuse to believe otherwise. Even when faced with vastly superior knowledge and understanding. Even if the First Tech themselves tells them they were wrong, some people will still cling to that initial info dump.

Therefore, you get stuff like:

"But my friend Jimmy said you guys could provide wireless over the whole city!"

No, currently no ISP in Canada does this. Jimmy doesn't work for us, and three of our techs have told you this. This combined with your repeated efforts to access your wireless from the other side of town and failing still have not convinced you?

"But he said he was from Microsoft, and said my computer had serious errors!"

By your own admission, this person has already maxed out your credit card, and you are scrambling to secure your other accounts. Why would you continue to believe ANYTHING they told you?

"But my husband said that the noise was probably nothing, and just to keep adding oil to it if it got low!"

Your car is visibly leaking oil, and no will not start. The noise was obviously not nothing, and there is quite obviously something wrong with your car, yet you are refusing the diagnosis of the person you brought it to and paid to determine what that problem was, in favor of a previous diagnosis by your husband, an accountant, made over the phone, which we already kno to be incorrect because the car WILL NOT RUN.

And so on.

People do not like to be wrong, even if the source of that wrongness was incorrect information that was no fault of their own.

[emax4]

But how do you rightfully approach this? If you were an outsider looking in and you knew the tech was wrong (generally not the case), what is a caller supposed to do? I'm reminded of some posts over at Computer Stupidities where the tech was outright wrong. Again, it doesn't happen often, but it does happen.

Whenever I call for tech support where I know it's going to be pretty involved, I'll tell the person that I'm experienced with so-and-so and know the ins and outs, but that I will follow every direction they give me. This is to alert the person the level of tech I do know, but that I'm not above anyone or claim to know more than I say. As a former tech support person, I can say that knowing the level of experience the caller has is a big help. This prevents being patronizing, but also not speaking like a scientist.