Then you should probably listen to what they have to say. When a techy takes this kind of mood or tone with you its because they are trying to help you for your own good. When they seem to preach or give you information that you don't care for. You should still listen because its something that can make your computer life easier, and make their life easier by not fixing simple issues you have with your pc.
In my experience, technical advice can all too often be given in ignorance. One should be careful to give advice based on the expressed needs and wants of the customer, and not distorted by your own needs and wants, say if it were your computer. It can be condescending to make subjective remarks like "Most people think X is loads better than Y, but a lot of people like Z now. But why anyone would still want to use Y, I don't know. Just go with Z."
Yeah, but when people get annoyed with you for telling them repeatedly they need to back up their files, they need to get an anti-virus, they need to update their drivers, they shouldn't click flashy links, and my personal favorite is you need to plug the desk top in for it to power on.
A lot of that stuff people already know. Most people don't need to be told these things. They do what they do because (like most of us) they either can't be bothered, think it's too much hassle so put it off for another day, or click it accidentally.
This is probably what irks them the most. Don't give out unsolicited advice. If you're fixing friends' and families' computers as a favor, then tell them if they break it again you're not fixing it anymore. If you're doing it for your job, well be thankful people are still doing dumb things. It just means job security for you.
No. Because when your helping maintain a network you have a lot more problems to worry about then just the simple mistakes that people make. Repeatedly. Having to maintain an Active Directory can be a pain on its own, but then you have people who make the stupid mistakes like making sure the power cord is plugged in before complaining to the Network Administrator to fix it. While that administrator can work on the servers which host hundreds of computers hes stuck telling someone to plug in their machine. You'd be surprised how many people don't know about these things. I used to work for a computer repair center and one day we got this call. It was a customer asking how long should they keep the computer in the bath tub to cool off. Guess where they went when they found out the computer was done for? They tried blaming the store, and to get several of us fired. You'd be surprised working in a firm how many lawyers don't know how to use a computer except to launch word pad. They expect the IT staff to make time to fix their lap tops and put the rest of our work load on hold. Then when we try to explain ways to prevent stupid problems they get defensive.
Sometimes people will do stupid things deliberately, and plead ignorance afterwards. It's a scam tactic, done in the hope that they can talk their way into having you accept blame, make a claim on their warranty, or get new for old. If you go into a situation like that with your tech head on, you're playing into their game.
What I'm wondering about is why you guys haven't locked down the work computers yet and restricted people to running select applications. Block non-work related websites while you're at it. As for the lawyer-types... Well, can't help you with that.
To some extents this is true but more often then not people just don't make any effort to learn how to be responsible with a computer. They get annoyed when admins put password requirements on a network like forcing new passwords every few weeks. They think we are just being control freaks when we force the server to log them off automatically after the computer has been idle for so long. We are expected to be polite after explaining to half a dozen employees to back up their files even though we've told them to do so fifteen times before hand. When a tech doesn't give any pleasentries when fixing a computer because we are trying to get something done so we can move on to the other five thousand tasks we have to do for the day. They call us rude for doing our jobs. Just the other day I was in a computer store listening to this lady insult a computer repair man because the warranty she had didn't cover damage by lightning. The techy asked her if she remembered to use a surge protector, and she responded as if he asked her to perform open heart surgery. The sad part about situations like this is that you think when you get into a professional level job they go away. However thats not true and in fact these situations become more frequent the higher you get in a tech job. Even guys with Cisco Architect level certifications are expected to handle these situations while designing a company's infrastructure.
Many people don't know what a surge protector is, it's not really an IT thing as much as it is an electricity thing. And this problem is likely to go away in twenty to thirty years(or change to other continents at least), so within your lifetime, you might get rid of it.
I doubt someone like that owns a surge protector which would actually work as opposed to those cheap ones which just make you feel safe. Unless they've progressed in the past few years? I'm not an IT man but working casually in a pool store we get exactly the same problem. If the pump isn't working BACKWASH BACKWASH BACKWASH (Did you backwash? No could you send someone out. Just try backwashing it'll save you money, Oh its working now good bye). The biggest problem are bad businesses which install pools and don't warn the owners of all the work they require and teach them nothing. Then they shout at us over the phone when we try to explain to them everything which is required. The common complaint is i've had this pool for 5 years and i never had to do that with the old system...yes thats why your old unit ruptured and this one exploded... Not to mention people suing us when their pool turns green when they go away on holidays, no we can't stop rain from washing your garden into your pool! And our backup server lost peoples details last week.... those blasted IT guys.
Things like that sound very much like condescending "told you so" remarks, or the ways that insurance companies try to wriggle out of making payments. I'm not surprised by her reaction.
I had a tech support experience recently when I needed help getting my router to work, and my only complaint was the tech support person became frustrated with ME when I became overly literal/simple with HER. To explain, she was issuing instructions in an overly simplified manner (i.e. step by step, including things that are painfully obvious, etc). And that's fine, I understand trying to provide tech support over the phone is very difficult and the best policy is to assume the person you are talking to knows nothing. But then she made a mistake and interchanged router/modem. I knew she had made the mistake, so I kept repeating back to her the instructions and that I did not understand (i.e. I can't do X to the router because, do you want me to....). She became upset at that.....and in my view she shouldn't be upset if the customer follows the very approach to tech service they are using. Annnnnyway, this thread seemed to serious, so to add some humor:
