People who don't know their limitations

I got a friend, not one of my closest friends – but a friend none the less.

He do not have any computer skill worth talking about, so he always call me if something goes wrong, and expect me to drop everything I have in my hand and come running to his aid.

“Oohh, are you at work – I forgot that, but it will only take you 5 minutes” - who can forget that people work from 0800 to 1600? – and even though it maybe take me 5 minutes to fix, it will actually consume about 20 minutes on the phone, because I have to explain everything step by step to the moron on the other end.

This guy decided to upgrade his computer, and after some surfing he found out that it was much cheaper to build/upgrade it himself than pay about 100$ to a technician to do it. He walks down to the local computer shop, gets himself a new main board, CPU and memory.

Riiiiiiing, “Hello, it’s X”, “I’ve just bought an upgrade kit – how do I do it?? Can’t you come on over and help me??”

Me – “Sorry, it’s Friday night, I’m tired after a week of work, and we are having friends visiting this weekend. Can’t it wait?”

X “No, I’m going on the wall here – I just begin to do it myself, and call you if I don’t get it right. It is not hard to do is it?”

Me “Well, not really, just RTFM and do it step by step and you should be fine”

5 minutes later “ The main board don’t fit”

Me “Don’t it? Have you changed the little metal piece on the back of your casing?”

X “No, should I”

Me “Did you read the manual?”

X “No, I though I just should begin, and look it up if I came into trouble”

Me “But you didn’t – you called me instead”

X “he he he – It’s much easier for me”

My patience began to run seriously low – “Don’t to anything more, I’ll come over tomorrow when lady of the house and the visitors are going shopping – it will be a nice excuse for me not to go shopping”

X “OK”

Another 30 minutes or so Riiiiiiing

The number display warned me, so I just said “What!!”

X “I’m screwed, I totally fucked up – I’ve destroyed everything, can’t you come on over, I’m desperate”

Me “No way, I’ve told you that several times. But if you are really desperate, take the pieces over here and I’ll have a look”

X “I don’t have a car”

Me “Not my problem, grab a taxi, or wait until tomorrow”

X “I guess I can go begging my x girlfriend to borrow her car”

20 minutes later he is at my door, with the pieces.

Hmm – One socket 754 main board, memory correct inserted... One Socket 939 CPU…That’s a No Go – but not for this guy, what he lacks in computer skills, he take back in pure stupidity. And after applying some force he almost got the CPU to insert, put a fan on top, apply more power – and you get a nasty looking CPU...And I guarantee you, it will not work...

The day after, he went down to the computer store (he actually called them morons for giving him parts that don’t fit together) – they gave him another main board, and they was able to bend all those 939 pins into position, and inserted the cpu for him, so that he couldn’t destroy it anymore.

After a few “support” calls more – I said that I would be over at 1400 (2 pm)... At 12 he began ringing about every 20 minutes asking for me to come. “He just couldn’t wait to get he’s new machine up and running”

At 1400 I came over, 1425 computer assembled and 1500 XP installed.. All he had left to do was to install drivers. I said bye, and told him not to call because I was of to a restaurant to eat with some friends.

Guess what – it took less than 30 minutes before the call came “It’s destroyed, it doesn’t work”…. Me “It is not destroyed, it worked perfectly when I left, did you install the latest drivers?” “I installed with the cd’s that came with my last computer”…Ohh, so you installed 3 years old drives into a brand new system and expect it to work? You have to install the new chipset drives, and the chipset you got was not even invented when the drives you installed was made”… 10 minutes later, and SMS “It works, thanks, I’m good – I knew I could upgrade it myself. Did I not tell you that when you told me to get a technician”

So because he did not know his limitations (or was too cheap to pay that technician) He more or less ruined my weekend. As if my time doesn’t cost anything. If I had worked overtime this weekend the same about of time he “used” I could have paid for his damn technician, and still have a few bucks leftover. This No Go goes to people who don’t know their own limitations. You are free to do whatever you want with your money and time – but please, don’t abuse your friends.

I’m not a computer technician, I’m just a regular guy who over time have learned the basics, and have build a few systems – but that don’t make me a public free it support call board. Every friend, family (well, that’s ok), and friends of friends that have heard of me keep calling for help. And I’m too polite to don’t help people who ask for my help. I usually spend a few hours each week helping people with computer trouble. They don’t think much about it – it’s usually only 10 minutes, but 10 minutes times X number of peeps can ruin what I have of personal time.

Is there anyone else who has the same status as “free support” that has a good advice to limit the time spent on support without looking like an asshole?