Just gets under my skin when people find out im in the i.t. field especially relatives they automatically assume they can come to me with there computer problems. I dont have time to deal with my crap let alone your crap. Especially crashed computers from virus's wouldnt ever have had an issue if you laid off the porno . When I do extend the favor dont rush me especially if your not paying me.

Suggestion....If someone is wearing out their welcome, then next time don't make it easy for them to ask.

When they do...be somewhere far away, you've locked your keys in your car, need $ for gas, whatever, and they have to come get you. Then when they show up magically find your car keys, a 5iver or what not. Raid their fridge, there alkie stash / etc... clog their toilet up. hmmm running out of ideas..................

/.02

It's the price we pay for being in this job. Whenever I visit my mother I spend at least half of one day fixing PC/Laptop problems.

I'd rather do that though then let her get ripped off by sharks

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www.mellowd.co.uk/ccie/

lol, happens every time my parents go to the USA visiting the family. have to do every thing over team viewer

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CCNA, CCDA, CCNA-SECURITY

When i lived in Portland Oregon i did not have this problem. Everyone in my circle was in the IT field. But after moving home I get hit up all the time. But the nice thing is two of them own their own business so I set pricing and expectations with them up front. They know my time is slim and valuable so if they need some of it they will pay. Everyone else kinda picked up on this and stays away unless its an emergency.

My parents are the exception. They are the ones who raised me and delt with all my shit when I was a teenager so I kinda owe them

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http://blog.movingonesandzeros.net/

It is perks of being in the field. I just broke down and turned away most of the people who randomly hit me up. I still do some stuff for family and very very close friends, but everyone else gets referred to another local guy in town. Fixing peoples stuff for food and beer just wasn't paying off

Its a mix of my relatives and my girls relatives. Especially my cousin and his brother they get a crippling virus every 2 months. They admitted they were on a porno site and clicked a link or picture and voila virus city. Its either trying to recover from safe mode or doing a fresh install. If I give you a working computer dont give me back a broken one. Tell me how i never got a virus on my 2 computers in the last five years and these nimrods get it every other week. My little brothers computer was so virus ridden performance was slowed to a crawl. I still cant believe how he surfed the web on it. I went on and it was painfully slow hes been using it like that for the past year and a half.

You should have them buy an external hard drive of some sorts. build the laptop from scratch and then take an image of it with clonezilla or something of the sorts. Could cut your rebuild times down to next to nothing

My parents are computer literate so I don't have to help them too often. My brother actually comes up with interesting issues so I don't mind trying to help him. For friends, and others if they don't pay me I don't try to save their data. Fresh install from their original disks.

-Otanx

Works out pretty well for me. Father in law is a machinist, Brother in law is a mechanic. I get free mechanical labor for car/lawnmower, they get free IT support.

Lol I was going to say the same thing my dad breaks his computer and phones me for help and when I break my car I phone my dad for help. It's usually him phoning me more often though lol

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Networking is much like making love to a beautiful woman
Slide your equipment in to the rack, Stick your plug in the socket, and if you have done it right at the end everyone is happy

I don't get asked much anymore but when I do I just usually tell them I'm an enterprise server/network guy and I don't work on PCs. If that doesn't work I tell them my hourly rate and suggest Geek Squad or something since they are cheaper.

ETA: Did side work years ago but stopped after charging to clean up a PC and remove viruses and then two weeks later they were calling with the same problem wanting me to do it for free saying I didn't do it right. I said fuck that. I can't control what sites they go to and the links they click on. Just not worth the time.

I like to tell people I'm in Air conditioning/Refrigeration repair or maybe small motor (ie lawn mower) repair. does the trick.

AWSOME, I got a TroyBilt Pony tiller, I replaced the drive belt a while ago and I need to adjust it, somehow the
engage and disengage are opposite, How can I fix this???

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"If you're good at anticipating the human mind. It leaves nothing to chance."
-Jigsaw

pls help! My new refrigerator is too loud and has swirling blades that chop up any food I put in it. Also it's not even cold!

Also my air conditioner is too large and leaks water and only the inside part becomes cold.

If you have a hard time turning people down for something you don't want to do for free, just do a horrible job at it or pretend you're too busy to get around to it. I now find it's easier just to be up front and turn them down from the start.

Sorry, my license was revoked after I showed up at a clients building drunk last week and spilled dichlorodifluoromethane into a classroom full of 3rd graders.

I'm exactly the same. Although fair play to her, when I come to Aus a RAM module gave up and she managed to swap over some new ones by her self. I'd never let anyone I know take their computer to a "computer" repair shop.
Although you do get the odd person that finds out and seems to have issues every week that take all night to fix.

I just remind people I dont work with computers. I need a computer to do my job but that's as far as it goes.

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"Right actions in the future are the best apologies for bad actions in the past."

After answering my dad's question 'Now what do you do, exactly?', he said:
- 'So... you connect computers all day long'
° 'Yes'
- 'So you are not the expert that knows everything to fix my printer'
° 'Exactly'

Like Darren said, I still help, otherwise they'll have to pay someone else a lot for half work.

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http://reggle.wordpress.com