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I know it's annoying when you buy a new computer and some of the software you had doesn't work any more.
For instance I handled a call today from a fellow who just bought a new computer with USB ports and found out the software he bought from us around 1985 doesn't work well with USB ports.
Up until today he had been using some third party program to make his setup work but that program didn't work on his new computer.
Of course he felt it was our responsibility to hold his hand and find a way to make it work again.
I disabused him of that notion and suggested he buy software that was designed to work with USB ports and that newfangled OS, known as Windows.
No dice. He didn't need anything that fancy.
No skin off my nose. Not everyone feels an update is worth the purchase price; that's fair enough in a free market economy. So I told him I understood and was getting ready to say my good-byes.
And get, "So you're just going to leave it like that? You're not going to help me if I don't buy something I don't need?"
Whoa there! I think we need to clarify a few things here:
1. By offering to sell you something that will get you up and running, I AM attempting to help you.
2. If you are dead in the water *without* the new version and won't be dead in the water *with* the new version, I wouldn't call it "something [you] don't need."
Gimme a break.
So I told him I was trying to help him and if I didn't think he needed the new version I wouldn't have mentioned it to him.
Then I got the ever dreaded, "Well it's worked fine for me for over 20 years. I don't see why you can't fix this. You must be getting a lot of calls about this!"
Sigh. I guess it's time for Round 2 of things we need to clarify:
3. If a peice of software has worked fine for you for 20 years, then you should consider yourself pretty gosh darn lucky. That's very, um, unusual.
4. Nope. You're the only one to ever call about this. Our other customers just aren't as *dedicated* to not buying things from us as you are. I guess they must be some kind of weirdos.
I responded to that by assuring him he was the only one to call about that and that most of our customers were running our software on Windows.
He mutter something unintelligible and sarcastically thanked me for "at least answering the phone."
And time for Round 3:
5. If it were *normal* for our customers to wait over twenty years between updates, my answering the phone wouldn't have happened at all. So don't thank me, thank our other customers who have kept us in business these past 20+ years by buying things.
I respond to sarcasm by cheerfully letting it go over my head. I warmly told him "You're very welcome." And sincerely wished him a good afternoon.
For instance I handled a call today from a fellow who just bought a new computer with USB ports and found out the software he bought from us around 1985 doesn't work well with USB ports.
Up until today he had been using some third party program to make his setup work but that program didn't work on his new computer.
Of course he felt it was our responsibility to hold his hand and find a way to make it work again.
I disabused him of that notion and suggested he buy software that was designed to work with USB ports and that newfangled OS, known as Windows.
No dice. He didn't need anything that fancy.
No skin off my nose. Not everyone feels an update is worth the purchase price; that's fair enough in a free market economy. So I told him I understood and was getting ready to say my good-byes.
And get, "So you're just going to leave it like that? You're not going to help me if I don't buy something I don't need?"
Whoa there! I think we need to clarify a few things here:
1. By offering to sell you something that will get you up and running, I AM attempting to help you.
2. If you are dead in the water *without* the new version and won't be dead in the water *with* the new version, I wouldn't call it "something [you] don't need."
Gimme a break.
So I told him I was trying to help him and if I didn't think he needed the new version I wouldn't have mentioned it to him.
Then I got the ever dreaded, "Well it's worked fine for me for over 20 years. I don't see why you can't fix this. You must be getting a lot of calls about this!"
Sigh. I guess it's time for Round 2 of things we need to clarify:
3. If a peice of software has worked fine for you for 20 years, then you should consider yourself pretty gosh darn lucky. That's very, um, unusual.
4. Nope. You're the only one to ever call about this. Our other customers just aren't as *dedicated* to not buying things from us as you are. I guess they must be some kind of weirdos.
I responded to that by assuring him he was the only one to call about that and that most of our customers were running our software on Windows.
He mutter something unintelligible and sarcastically thanked me for "at least answering the phone."
And time for Round 3:
5. If it were *normal* for our customers to wait over twenty years between updates, my answering the phone wouldn't have happened at all. So don't thank me, thank our other customers who have kept us in business these past 20+ years by buying things.
I respond to sarcasm by cheerfully letting it go over my head. I warmly told him "You're very welcome." And sincerely wished him a good afternoon.
I'm not quite at that mark, but i still fiddle with my 10 year old PC and I've been putting off upgrading my 8 year old PC (which I use for gaming incedently) because I keep managing to get a little extra juice out of it...
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