Why do customers always turn into idiots...

[jinjuku]

I have a Dr's office that I have been doing work for 6 years now. It's my personal Dr and I even though I don't do break fix or network engineering since I started software dev I came out of retirement for them because their last guy while $85/hour was 'cheap' he never seemed to fix anything and took twice as long.

FF to present. Old doc has sold the practice (retiring) and new doc has now purchased a 2nd office. Everything is now a struggle. I managed to get the new guy to bite on a project quote for a router to router VPN between the sites.

Now what I want to do is give him some exclusive access to a machine on the net work w/o another computer. So they have a machine that can do Virtualization.

I explicitly instruct him to pick up Win7 Pro 32 Bit. He picks up Windows 7 Ultimate UPGRADE. I get on the phone with him and asked him WHY he didn't get what I EXPLICITLY asked for... His answer, 'I'm a computer guy too'.

No, no you're not by a long shot you idiot. Case in point: They have an HP 4050 hooked up to an ancient Unix box. They have Optiplex desktops. He purchases a $50 usb to parallel adapter.

Optiplex machines have a native parallel port. $2.99 10 foot parallel cable buddy.

Time to get rid of a doctor and a client.

 

[j_garcia]

What can I say? You can't explain this stuff to people who don't get it It is no different than for audio. Everyone thinks they can install their own gear correctly and in the vast majority of cases, they are wrong.

 

[Rmassey]

it's all the same, people don't listen and act without thinking. They want our help and continue to not listen to advise.

I help a neighbor with tech stuff (mostly because I can't seem to get rid of her, long story, divorced, friend of my wife, blah, blah)

She needs portable harddrive, I suggest she get a WD Passport at Costco, she buys a SimpleTech' at Sams and now it won't work on Windows 7, only XP.

She needs an HDTV, I suggest a 42-46" given the seating distance, she buys a 37" and sits 14 ft away. I mention that she may want to upgrade her DirecTV service to HD and stop feeding the HDTV an SD signal, she ignores me and continues to feed it SD.

perhaps not quite the same as your paying client, but similar situation. Tech advise requested and ignored, results not met.

 

[Alex2507]

'I'm a computer guy too'.

I'm a guy that has a computer ... but at least I know the difference.

 

[lsiberian]

I'm a guy that has a computer ... but at least I know the difference.

I am a computer guy that has no problem letting someone else do all the hard work.

 

[jamie2112]

I am a computer guy too......and I like turtles

 

[GO-NAD!]

I am a computer guy too......and I like turtles

I'm not a computer guy. But, I like turtles!

I may use one at work, but my skills are pretty basic. They'll probably remain that way, as I have very little interest in the minutiae of the cursed things.

So, when somebody who does know computers gives me advice, I listen to it.

 

[Warpdrv]

Thank the lord for Turtles... !!!

I'm a computer guy and have been for a long time, but I will certainly let ya know when I'm out of my element... I'm really glad that Krzywica was there to spoon feed me through my server build... that was a nightmare, but is so clean and smooth now...

Thanks buddy...

 

[krzywica]

I'm curious jinjuku why you didn't just order it and bill them for it? Thats par for the course when doing small office stuff in my experience anyway. Certain fields of people can be a nightmare to work for. Like doctors, lawyers, ect. You know the people that think they are smarter than everyone else. The best policy in this case is to tell them as little as possible and send them the bill. If they really are worthy of doing the job themselves then they will look over the parts and labor manifest and tell you could have done it another way or with cheaper materials.....but we all know that would never happen because they aren't that smart to begin with.

 

[gholt]

I'm a computer guy too!! I mean, I play on one at work, or rather find ways to break them. Customers, sometimes, just don't get it.

 

[jinjuku]

I'm curious jinjuku why you didn't just order it and bill them for it? Thats par for the course when doing small office stuff in my experience anyway.

Because EVERYTHING is about price for the new guy. He thinks he can always get the best price. That is why I switched from hourly to project rate for anything I do for him. If I sell him a copy of software I am sure as **** going to mark it up. He doesn't go for that. I will probably dump his azz and let him be his own 'computer guy'.

The retiring Doc just wanted stuff to work and his staff productive.

 

[Warpdrv]

Yeah, its all about price - what kind of car does he drive ?

I wonder what his house looks like - and whats all in it..?

I would imagine that after losing control of his wallet to his wife, that he's got to cut corners everywhere he looks...

 

[gmichael]

I used to be a computer guy, but I can't figure out where the punch cards go anymore.

 

[krzywica]

Because EVERYTHING is about price for the new guy. He thinks he can always get the best price. That is why I switched from hourly to project rate for anything I do for him. If I sell him a copy of software I am sure as **** going to mark it up. He doesn't go for that. I will probably dump his azz and let him be his own 'computer guy'.

The retiring Doc just wanted stuff to work and his staff productive.

Yeah I've passed on contracts for such behavior and will continue to pass forever....its never worth the PITA clients like that bring to the table.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I'll keep my profession a secret

But yea, I have a full time job. In addition to what I'm happy that I have only one permanent client, which always pays on time and doesn't argue with my very reasonable hourly rate

Bonus:
http://clientsfromhell.net/

 

[markw]

Amen to that.

Certain fields of people can be a nightmare to work for. Like doctors, lawyers, ect. You know the people that think they are smarter than everyone else.

I had a friend for thirty years who I knew before he was a lawyer. I finally had to cut him loose a few years ago.

The more money he made as a lawyer, the more "uppity" he got. He bought some flooring for a good price and then complained that he can't get any professionals to install it for $10/hr. He called a mutual friend who is a fireman and asked him to put in a french drain. Why did he ask him? He thought that he would know how even though he's never done one in his life. He even had the cojones to call and have the secretary interrupt me during a meeting with the people who just bought our company claiming an emergency only to ask me questions about a fargin' stereo stand he saw on sale!

The final straw was when my mom had major sudden health issues and we needed some papers drawn up quickly in order to protect her (and my) assets. He did it, and billed me at his normal rate. I was a bit miffed at that but, since the funds were "in transit" for a few days, I asked him if I could pay him next week.

He said no. He did the work quickly and expects to be paid in the same manner.

I don't need people like that in my life. The funny thing is that just befor ethis appened his wife was complaining that they have bno friends. Anyone wonder why?

Oh, it turns out that later we discovered several "loopholes" that we had to pay another lawyer to correct.

 

[lsiberian]

I still remember the guy who had medical record "disappear" from his database even though the auto counter had no gap and the weblog showed no movement to the screen. We check all the backups and nothing. Yet somehow we lost them even though 1000 other customers had zero problems. It was beyond him that his employees were lying to him and not doing the work he assigned.

We all have bonehead customers, but sometimes those boneheads can become great references. You just have to know when.

 

[darien87]

I am a computer guy too......and I like turtles

Somebody watches Tosh!!!!

 

[j_garcia]

A lot of somebodies watch Tosh

 

[krzywica]

Somebody watches Tosh!!!!