Are you the "tech support guy" in your family?

[kn1ghtnsh1narmr]

It depends. If we're at home, I'm the tech support guy, if at a store they tend to listen to the sales people more. Also, if it involves spending money they typically don't listen to me.

lol don't get me started.  I'm in the US and I don't mind if my family listen to the guys at fry's because if I do disagree with them its usually a subjective thing.  But when I drive out of my way to go help a family member and we go to best buy to get something and they take the advice of a blue shirt bitch over me, I feel like the hulk about ready to smash everything and person in the store.  I get so pissed having wasted my time and have to listen to some asshole that doesn't know shit about anything.

 

I remember a long time ago, my mother wanted to buy a laptop for my sister.  I go over all the different companies, cpus, gpus, ect. ect.  As soon as we walk in I look at all the computers they have(she wanted to buy it in person and no frys near by) narrow it down to 3 laptops and let her pick.  She than insists to talk to someone that works there and he picked some overpriced pos.  As I'm standing there I ask how much RAM it has and his response was yes I believe it has some.

 

Really pissed me off when it broke a couple month after and I had to fix it.

 

I think this more has to do with the relationship you have with the people that you're helping.

[thechez99]

Printer Cartridges. Email Attachments. Photos from phone to Email. Fix the Router. Get rid of the Virus. Make sure my computer is off. Is my phone off? Can I move files from one computer to another? How do I scan? Why is the internet broken? Why does this video buffer? I don't know how to put the DVD in the DVD Player. How do I change the Input on the TV? Why can't I get the internets so far away from the router, I am only on the other side of the house through 2 thick brick walls. Is that good is it? Why is our internet soooo bad?

 

You name it. I have to do it.

[bcredeur97]

yes... and omg when the entire church learned my tech skillz and started using me for the simplist things... was driving all over town just to help people delete all the stupid stuff they downloaded on their PC's that prevented web browsers from launching....

 

 

No more Mr. Nice guy though, you call I go over there and im demanding $20 or more depending on how long i have to be there.

 

cause driving across town just so you can get on facebook is a waste of my time.

[violetspectrum]

It's funny. My dad was always the tech god of the house, but I've surpassed him and now work as a technology services assistant at my school. The birth of my interest in computing started when the only computer I could use was my dad's 7 year old system that only had half a gig of RAM. Imagine trying to run Photoshop CS3 on a system like THAT! It was just BARELY possible, but it forced me to learn the bare minimum for optimizing computer performance. Since then, I've taken apart three different models of laptops to salvage parts and switching them out, fixing driver issues and registry problems, and I'm looking into shell customization and the sort, though I don't really have a good system quite yet for that. Pretty soon I'll have my dad calling ME to build him a system! It's been good fun.

[violetspectrum]

It depends. If we're at home, I'm the tech support guy, if at a store they tend to listen to the sales people more. Also, if it involves spending money they typically don't listen to me.

I like to know more than the sales person to ensure I'm not getting cheated out of my money It's not easy finding a trustworthy, unbiased vendor, in my opinion.

[thehardwarehacker]

yep. both me and my dad (he's taught me most every thing i know, but i tend to have more 'available rite now' timing) are the comuter techs for both imediate and extended family. i will say this though, my poor eldest sister, its a good thing i help her for free. but i also get the odd call from my aunt, who is quite tech literate herself, asking for an extra hand.

[Umair]

Family?  Pfft... I somehow became the "tech support guy" in my immediate neighborhood.

[darklighthim]

I am the tech support of the family and usually it's fun most of the time. A problem I hate is the need to fix someones PC or laptop without much info if any at all to go by.

 

Not that long ago I was brought a laptop from an extended family member who was like "Here's the wifes laptop, they said it's corrupt and can you fix it please",

I turn on the machine, It boots into Win 7 and in a quick test works just fine to which i explain but they have no idea as it's not their laptop. Eventually I'm like can you call home so I can speak to the wife and find out what they say about it as they experienced a problem and know what they did before hand. In the end as they were smart enough to use a external HDD for storage and allowed me to format the device If needed so I booted into the recovery partition and factory reset it to just out of the box configuration saved me a lot of time in the end.

[Guest DollarPC]

Yeah i have to help my dad download apps on his galaxy s5

[Toadboy]

Yes

[BLCT]

Yeah, I'm always "that tech support kid" even if i don't find a solution, they will not accept it back. They think im a mastermind behind electronic devices.    

[Blade of Grass]

I am definitely the family tech support guy. I maintain the network, server, computers, mobile devices, television, surround sound, home phone... Pretty much anything that has electronics in it and needs fixing/maintenance.

[cam_96]

Yes, I know more about apple products since my mom and grandma got iPhones. My grandma is upgrading from the 4 to the 6.. Can't wait.

[theghettosponge]

in my family, no. but my friends family................. they called me over to their house last week for me to find out why the picture was so bad on their new TV, they had plugged it in to the cable box using component cables. when i said they needed an HDMI cable they said what's that?

[Suika]

My dad is. I typically make the argument that my dad knows networking better than I do, but I'm much better with hardware.

[JAW96]

yep, built a new PC for my grandparents, and installed zorin 9 on their old one and gave that to my mother as a early Christmas present!

[Adreyu]

I cant express to you how much i wish i wasnt

[JAW96]

My dad is. I typically make the argument that my dad knows networking better than I do, but I'm much better with hardware.

that way with my buddy at school, I can make a fool of him with hardware, but the moment software is involved (expect with things like the BIOS) it is all him 

[Albatross]

Yes, I am. Wasn't always, but now I must remain vigilant when it concerns tech.

[sperkowsky]

of course

[Gamer1406]

I am. I am constantly helping my dad in doing stupidly basic stuff on his Galaxy S5 (he is paying £40 a month for unlimited everything on Three) and i help him use my mum's rusty old laptop with WIndows XP. I am so glad that my mum got rid of our 10 year old Dell Dimension 3000 as that thing BSODed like crazy in its last month of use before we got Red Rampage built and they would always ask me to "fix it" even though i knew that the desktop was done for. I help my parents when they want to use my iPad as well (dont have it this week as i am sending it off for screen repair)

So, are you the "tech support guy" in the family or do your family members mostly cope without issue, and what stuff do you always help with?

I would like to know

Thanks

Yes

[marioo1182]

I am. I am constantly helping my dad in doing stupidly basic stuff on his Galaxy S5 (he is paying £40 a month for unlimited everything on Three) and i help him use my mum's rusty old laptop with WIndows XP. I am so glad that my mum got rid of our 10 year old Dell Dimension 3000 as that thing BSODed like crazy in its last month of use before we got Red Rampage built and they would always ask me to "fix it" even though i knew that the desktop was done for. I help my parents when they want to use my iPad as well (dont have it this week as i am sending it off for screen repair)

So, are you the "tech support guy" in the family or do your family members mostly cope without issue, and what stuff do you always help with?

I would like to know

Thanks

If you buy them a Mac you'll never have to help them again.

Tech Truth

[shadowblitz3]

yep. every time there's a problem with their computers and even smartphones. and my mom asks me what her password is every time she logs in on facebook

[Guest]

Yes I'm the "tech support guy" for my wife, parents, sister and brother-in-law, friends and work colleagues who should know better given their skills, knowledge and line of work! :-)

My support calls range from my wife asking me why the printer isn't working (it wasn't switched on, I kid you not) all the way through to trying to sort out my Dad's laptop as he was so stupid to fall for one of those "Hi, I'm from Microsoft Support" cold calls from offshore (but thankfully refused to give his credit card details).  My parents live 400 iles away so not so easy to pop over to take a look, still debating whether to buy a subscription to logmein.com as this has saved my bacon a good numberof times, any alternative suggestions?  I would use Remote Desktop but don't fancy talking my Dad through setting up port forwarding on his router.

 

 

I'm going to try this with my wife and see how far that gets me!

Teamviewer? It's free

[Thoric]

Yeah i am