Providing technical support for friends and family?

[Optic]

How far do you go when it comes to providing technical assistance for your friends and family?

 

It can be as simple as setting up their new HDTV, from setting up their new Internet connection or as complicated as fixing a major computer issue.

 

Personally, only my parents will get a free pass for technical support. Friends I will generally point them to the right direction, but won't go all the way unless I get some form of payment. Payment for me could be in the form of a future favour or money.

[drill]

I don't really ever have friends ask me for technical support, since most of my friends are online.

 

As for my parents, they always have issues with their computers. My dad is technical enough to set simple things up like a new TV or such, but I'm the one that fixes their problems with printing, speeding up their computer, etc. Its really time for a reinstall of Windows for both of them, but they wont hear of it. I also tried to push them onto linux, but they were completely against that too. Although, mom wasn't against it once I told her that she would still have all her files, and can still run firefox. Unfortuently, I haven't had the time since then to install linux on her computer. Windows was not made to run 5+ years without a reinstall, and it is very frustrating when people cannot understand that.

[Orius]

My parents pay the bills, so I don't really have a choice not to help them with the technical aid.

 

And boy, do they need help. They are uneducated, so machines that have English instruction manuals, when they break down, I'm usually the one they seek help from. My dad knows that I'm lazy and usually doesn't put up with my attitude, so he would choose to get help from his students instead (he's a teacher). Normally, they would get me to help with the Internet connection that I share with my dad, or more commonly, my dad would get me to help with his iPhone because he doesn't really know how to use it (it's not really an iPhone actually, it's some kind of Sony Ericsson imitation... I think). You know, technology stuff like that.

 

I don't even have a phone right now, so it does bug me when he asks me for help with something he bought but does not know how to use.

[Yuuki_Radosian]

I help as much as I can and I am always happy to do so though most of my friends either don't use much other than their phone and a television or their a lot better with tech than I am (with regards to repairing / building computers) and my mother and grandparents are relatively good with electronics so I don't need t help them too often (other than my grandmother with her tablet).

[Cy~]

How far do you go when it comes to providing technical assistance for your friends and family?

 

I avoid it at all costs. I was Family IT for almost all of the early years of my life, and it was unfortunately quite thankless. These days, I pretend to be excessively stupid when it comes to IT stuff so that people leave me alone, hahaha.

[zoop]

I managed to avoid doing IT for friends/family, for the most part by just being an anti-social shut-in as a teenager and young adult. People would try to enlist my help, only to be met with complete and utter laziness. Even the most desperate pleas could not move the immovable!

 

... then I went and got an actual IT job, which included overlooking every IT related thing in the company, and providing support and help to every single idiot employee. With zero formal training. I still have legit nightmares about that.

[brycec]

I kind of hate helping friends and family with these matters, as they tend to cut into my busy time.

[Nectar]

I actually really don't mind it, and because I'm fairly young, it's basically fate that I'd end up as the family techie consultant.

I help my grandma with her laptop and phone very frequently, in fact I have it set up so that I can sort them both out remotely from my own computer or phone wherever I am, so I don't have to walk around.

 

Because of my young age, I have long since accepted the truth that nobody in my family knows what the hell they're doing and I have to either do it for them, or fix it when they try and fail.

 

Sorry family, but you all really suck at tech xP

[Kohloo]

Fortunately I've never had to do it too often. My parents have always been the sort to try and figure something out on their own. They won't bother me to help them unless they haven't figured it out on their own. And when I do help, they actually pay attention to what I show them, so they can do it on their own.

[Greeneyes]

Hmmm, yeah I help basically everyone they all use the damn internet but there all over 30 so they don't have a damn clue what there doing so I am basically called upon every day for something whether it be fixing the tv fixing the wifi so it will actually produce any signal to connecting to the signal, fixing Ipads, phones, pc's etc...

[zoop]

but there all over 30 so they don't have a damn clue what there doing

 

 

... but I'm over thirty. Cy~ is over thirty. WE HAVE CLUES ABOUT WHAT WE'RE DOING. :'(

[Greeneyes]

[ATTACH=full]32012[/ATTACH]

 

... but I'm over thirty. Cy~ is over thirty. WE HAVE CLUES ABOUT WHAT WE'RE DOING. :'(

Lets just say I know there over thirty but don't know how further I know my dad has 8 other siblings so I had to find the minimum sorry!

[brycec]

[ATTACH=full]32012[/ATTACH]

 

... but I'm over thirty. Cy~ is over thirty. WE HAVE CLUES ABOUT WHAT WE'RE DOING. :'(

 

They probably means in the typically sense, as in people born in the 50's or earlier. People born in the 80's that know this stuff are nearing or have passed age 30 just this decade.

[zoop]

They probably means in the typically sense, as in people born in the 50's or earlier. People born in the 80's that know this stuff are nearing or have passed age 30 just this decade.

 

I'm aware! I was being playful.