My mom is unsupportable.

[Bandit]

2 PCs and one iMac later, I don't let my dad even touch a computer.

Now, he's not a dumb guy - far from it, but when it comes to the keyboard - or even worse, the mouse, fuggedabout it.

He's a lot safer not being on the 'net in the first place, the way it is these days.


B

[Pagan]

Those fake Paypal emails are annoying. I swear I get around 5 a week.

Easy way to show your mom if one of those is fake is one of two things:

Then there's the 3rd way to tell that they're fake:
You don't even have a PayPal account!

[Shironu-Akaineko]

... Is your mom Ozzy Osbourne?

She has a bit more braincells and SELLS drugs instead of consuming them. (Pharmacy technician)
She also has a better singing voice. But no british accent.

[HawaiianShirts]

Will your grandmother adopt me????

It wouldn't surprise me. She's already adopted two of my friends individually and one whole family of another friend.

[technical.angel]

Will your grandmother adopt me????

[HawaiianShirts]

Reading this thread makes me all the more proud of my grandmother. She asks me tech support questions all the time, and that can get tedious. But she takes notes, and when I'm not there, she consults those notes first before calling me. When I do have to help her by phone, she follows my directions to the letter, repeating back what she does not understand and listening carefully to my explanations. When I'm at the computer with her, I usually show her how to do something (while she takes notes), then she'll have me undo what I did so she can do it herself while I walk her through it, hoping she'll remember for next time.

Now if only she could teach everybody else how to be a good tech support consumer...

[Rapscallion]

I thought I'd finally gotten my father to act properly when it comes to tech support. Since I got him set up on wireless broadband through my connection, he's not been too bad - or has he?

I found out yesterday that his printer only works intermiitently. I find this out by trying to print something.

"Oh, it's not worked properly for a while," I was told. Why the beggary didn't you tell me sooner? I could have tried to fix it for you!

Sheesh!

Rapscallion

[Delphae]

My grandfather is fairly unsupportable. Grandma knows how to handle a computer in the basic ways, but Grandpa likes to reset things and move things around and doesn't have any previous experience with computers. He didn't even know he could use the mouse to move the curser around in Word. If he made a mistake, he would erase everything in between to get to it. My mom is their tech support. Every now and then she will get a call from Grandma saying "Your father did somthing to the computer." At least he's trying.

[Imogene]

NM= SHAAAAAAAARON!

... Is your mom Ozzy Osbourne?

[ArenaBoy]

My mom is clueless when it comes to computers of any kind. I am far from a computer whiz like you guys or my dad, but when my dad is out of town I am often subject to some VERY stupid questions such as highlighting. Thankfully, my dad doesn't go out of town as much so I am left to my devices. As for my dad, he's helpless when it comes to Macs. PCs however, good lord we have 5 of them sitting in his basement.

[Dreamstalker]

I would say there are some companies where being power of attorney means jack to them. If you call my cable company, and the account is in your mothers name, and you're not authorized anywhere on the account, there is a line they can't cross.

I may have misspoken, there were a few memorable cases where even when my mom had full control over the accounts and they knew it, they still demanded to speak to my grandmother who is largely clueless about this sort of thing. So even though my mom could prove she was authorized on the accounts they were being jerks about it (I forget exactly how the worst offender got set straight but it wasn't easy).

Woof. Been 5 or 6 years mom has my first PC (I bought both my pcs myself) and she still calls me over when confronted with the demented INSTALL WIZARD! This is how it goes.

The Vista "user account control" is worse. if anything, it's more of a security risk as it "trains" joe user to keep clicking yes.

[TechSuperGirl]

I too, am TechSupport on my Off Days!

I have the same story, but in our family's defense, a lot of them just did not grow up with computers in their laps like some of us may have, so we can understand that. The thing I like about my parents however is, they know they are not too tech savvy, so when I speak, at least they do listen. So many technically dead people, love to call in and tell us how to fix their problem, or tell us our methods don't work, but funny thing, you called us! I tell my parents, computers are here and they are not going anywhere, take at least one hour a day, to practice some things I have shown them, and before they know it, they are better. I am proudest of my father on this one. They just received a router and the peripherals to set up their wireless network at home, and he did not have to call a soul!!!! And it works!!!

They both purchased iPod Nanos, immediately, I know I will have to do EVERYTHING for these devices. From loading the music on them, to downloading the Apple software to each of their computers, and getting them to understand, in order to manage their music, they will need this software.

[Shironu-Akaineko]

Woof. Been 5 or 6 years mom has my first PC (I bought both my pcs myself) and she still calls me over when confronted with the demented INSTALL WIZARD! This is how it goes.

NM=Nervous mom. Everything she says is in a rattly, nervous tone. Note that she's fairly young.
Me= Self-explanatory.

NM= SHAAAAAAAARON!

Me= *grumble grumble* What?

NM= COME HERE!

Me= What's the problem?

NM= COME HERE!

Me= *goes there* What is it?

NM= *points at screen. Instructions says to click here* What do I do?

Me= "Click there."

NM= "I'm not gonna Flock up the computer?"

Me= "No."

NM= *click* *new window with same basic instructions pops up.* "Now what do I do?"

Me= "Click there."

Do that daily for 6 years.

She actually made me cry one day when she yelled at me that she could reduce the size of her own pictures on the computer, but not the size of other people's pictures.

[BravoOrig]

I would say there are some companies where being power of attorney means jack to them. If you call my cable company, and the account is in your mothers name, and you're not authorized anywhere on the account, there is a line they can't cross. From their standpoint, that account is your mothers, and she'd be charged if any changes were made, etc. Thats over the phone, and if you could verify her last four of her SSN, or have her do it and authorize you, then they'd be free and clear to talk to you. The way around that is to visit the local office and present some kind of documentation to that effect. Just pointing out how some companies don't take power of attorney into consideration, atleast not in person.

[Dreamstalker]

One of my banks recently instituted a "passphrase" to be entered via an onscreen keyboard (I seem to remember reading something about how that system had been broken). I was nagged to set one up, then I never get asked for the thing.

My mom uses the same password (or very easy-to-guess variations) for all her online banking, credit card websites, etc. The password itself could be guessed fairly easily.

Setting up the home network, I got complained at for making the router password "too complicated". Enabling WPA (which needs to be done at some point) is going to be real fun then...

Now, I have power of attorney AND I'm a legal signatory to all his accounts (like joint checking). This cuts no ice with the IT departments of theses places. They will only unlock the account if my dad gets on the phone. Two problems: He's nearly deaf, and like the OP's mom, he gets rattled and can't follow what they are asking him to do.

Sounds like what my mom has gone through with my grandmother. Power of attorney means nothing to some agencies...my mom handles my grandmother's affairs because my grandmother cannot hear or understand that well. A few years ago, she lost one credit card. My mom had that card cancelled. My grandmother found the old card three months later and yelled at my mom when she couldn't use it. Thank $diety my grandmother was never interested in computers, or there'd probably be a real mess.