Two of my side jobs are petsitting and computer repair. Generally kept separate, although some of my pet clients will ask me to look at something with a computer if I'm over for a multi-day stay anyway. One or two of them will even insist that I use their computers if I need to (I'm always very careful with other people's machines, what I use can be run from a flash drive and I make sure said flash drive is squeaky-clean); if I'm there anyway and have their okay, I will run the usual scans and make sure everything's kosher. If someone tells me not to use their computer, I won't.
One petsitting client is paranoid about a lot of things, and I stay far away from her computer. She has some tech from a cliquey 'professional networking' group of hers that she pays $100/hour (he's taking her to the cleaners). I wouldn't want to work for her on a regular basis anyway. This is a case of liking the animal far, FAR more than the owner. So I finish up a job with the pooch and am thanked profusely.
Two days later*, I get a call from her "what did you do to my computer? The screen is a swirl and I can't get anything up!"
I know that she has Windows 7, same as we do. I also know that my desktop updated itself that week, so hers likely did too. If she had a password set, the computer would have rebooted and asked for the password again. I told her that this is probably what happened, keeping it simple and saying nothing that could lead her to believe I used her computer (I did need to bring my tablet into the office to pick up the wireless signal when it flaked out once, but I did not touch anything--I did not tell her this as I knew it couldn't have affected anything).
She explodes "That's why I gave you my wireless password! How dare you use my computer when I told you not to? You have violated my trust! scream yell rave"
At that point I was glad she hung up on me before I said anything else. I knew that any attempt at defending myself would be construed as guilt. Of what, I don't know.
I cashed the petsitting check before she changed her mind (doubtful, but one never knows with her) and am not sure I want anything else to do with her. I haven't gotten any other calls blaming me for anything, so I have a feeling she either forgot her password or never set one in the first place. All she had to say was "did you use my computer at all?", but she decided to start off by accusing me.
* If something had really happened to it, I would have expected a call later on the day I left her place, not 48 hours on.
One petsitting client is paranoid about a lot of things, and I stay far away from her computer. She has some tech from a cliquey 'professional networking' group of hers that she pays $100/hour (he's taking her to the cleaners). I wouldn't want to work for her on a regular basis anyway. This is a case of liking the animal far, FAR more than the owner. So I finish up a job with the pooch and am thanked profusely.
Two days later*, I get a call from her "what did you do to my computer? The screen is a swirl and I can't get anything up!"
I know that she has Windows 7, same as we do. I also know that my desktop updated itself that week, so hers likely did too. If she had a password set, the computer would have rebooted and asked for the password again. I told her that this is probably what happened, keeping it simple and saying nothing that could lead her to believe I used her computer (I did need to bring my tablet into the office to pick up the wireless signal when it flaked out once, but I did not touch anything--I did not tell her this as I knew it couldn't have affected anything).
She explodes "That's why I gave you my wireless password! How dare you use my computer when I told you not to? You have violated my trust! scream yell rave"
At that point I was glad she hung up on me before I said anything else. I knew that any attempt at defending myself would be construed as guilt. Of what, I don't know.
I cashed the petsitting check before she changed her mind (doubtful, but one never knows with her) and am not sure I want anything else to do with her. I haven't gotten any other calls blaming me for anything, so I have a feeling she either forgot her password or never set one in the first place. All she had to say was "did you use my computer at all?", but she decided to start off by accusing me.
* If something had really happened to it, I would have expected a call later on the day I left her place, not 48 hours on.
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