I have a similar one! I did house calls. I got called out on a warranty call, someone said a coworker of mine didn't fix the problem. I look in the notes and the coworker says he did a standard virus removal, suggested virus protection but was turned down.

I get there and sure enough it's riddled with viruses again. Coworker was legit, notes all in order, I tell the client that this isn't a warranty issue, the work was done, and it has now been reinfected and will need another removal. He seems fine with this, but his wife flips out and demands I prove it got reinfected.

I suggest that we can check the web history. Since it was popping up ads, we'd see when the pop-ups started, and more importantly we'd see if they had stopped after coworker left. Guy says that's unnecessary, it definitely got reinfected, and this time he'll buy an antivirus. Wife is having none of it, says go ahead and check and I'll see the problem was never fixed. I ask if they're sure, guy kind of resignedly says to do it.

I'm not one to kink shame, but when all the trans porn site titles came up, the dude was clearly mortified. I didn't get very far into trying to figure out if I can prove it's related before the wife says "just fix the damn thing" and stormed out. I hope it wasn't too bad for him, she seemed a bit difficult to deal with.

[–] llama@midwest.social 2 points 2 years ago

This reminds me of the time in HS when a letter broke off my laptop keyboard and my parents insisted on taking it to the shop for a repair. Turns out they really just wanted the shop to turn over my search history and chat logs. I already knew my parents were nosy so I would always delete it anyway.

One day I came home from school and they said the shop fixed the keyboard but just needed my password to test it and do updates. I said no it's fine if he can type in anything into the password then obviously the keyboard works, and I already did the updates regularly.

They literally had to beg me for the password and they were like pleasssse just give the shop the password so they can finish their checklist and you can get your computer back, and I was like fine if it's the only way I'm getting it back. Of course nothing came of it because there was nothing to discover.

Then my parents got the computer back but kept it in the trunk of their car for a week, and I accidentally saw it when we were leaving Old Navy which started a whole "I don't believe this!" discourse in the mall parking lot.

Moral of the story just talk to your kids instead of spying and lying, because they know and it won't work!

[–] FiskFisk33@startrek.website 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

She was rude ans annoying, but I still don't like that you took advantage of her.

[–] anotherandrew@lemmy.mixdown.ca 1 points 2 years ago

It’s called the asshole tax. Don’t be an asshole and you won’t be charged.

[–] DudeDudenson@lemmings.world 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

You've never worked retail have you

[–] FiskFisk33@startrek.website 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I have, actually.
A scam is despiccable in my book, no matter how deserving the victim.

[–] exocrinous@startrek.website 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The son scammed her. He told her she needed to disinfect peripherals. The tech is just allowing that to happen and charging a not listening to the tech fee.

[–] FiskFisk33@startrek.website 1 points 2 years ago

The tech is just allowing that to happen

Yes, the tech, who is also in a position of trust on the matter, is therefore part of said scam. Twist it all you want, the tech lied and benefited.

[–] HatchetHaro@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

what scam? the customer wanted them to work on their computer, so they did, and charged the customer accordingly.

[–] FiskFisk33@startrek.website 1 points 2 years ago

they lied to the customer and charged for work they didn't do

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Oh my god reminded me of a story when I worked computer repair. Busy day, line of people waiting for me. Similar, mother came in and brought her sons computer. Apparently it had "just stopped working" and only showed a black screen. Plugged it into the monitor behind the desk facing out.

I did the ol' pop the ram out, press the power button a couple of times and pop the ram back in. Booted up like a charm.

The computer came out of hibernate - to the most ball slappinest porn ever, and I'm talking like, super hardcore. Anal, bondage, the whole sha-bang. It was only up for about 3 seconds but everyone in line knew.

Said "Well looks like it's working now have a good one", and oh man have I never seen such a combination of utter humiliation and pure rage at her son. Whoever you were kid, I'm sorry - but there's your lesson. If you're doing the dirty and the computer stops working, never have your mom take it in.

[–] Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I witnessed something like this once. I worked for a pawn shop, wiping and reinstalling Windows on computers they were selling, but occasionally working on one of the counters if they were short staffed.

One day a regular customer brought his PS2 in to trade, so it had to be tested first. The manager took it as a training moment for me and and a few others, and connected it to the main TVs around the store so that we could all see how he checked the system.

The customer had left a rather hardcore DVD in the drive and completely forgotten about it, until it started playing on the big screen, and everyone in the store learned about his preferences.

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Something tells me that DVD was never retrieved...

[–] Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 years ago

Oh, no, one of the guys took great pleasure in taking the disc out and handing it to the customer in front of everyone :D

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Scamming the customer because they don't know any better, nice

[–] raindrop1988@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I write the code: $400 an hour

I write the code and you help me: $800 an hour

You write the code and I help you: $1600 an hour

You write the code: $3200 an hour

[–] zurohki@aussie.zone 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I wrote a bit of python earlier, do I have to send you a cheque?

[–] puppy@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Of course not! Cash is also acceptable.

[–] meathorse@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago (2 children)

My dumb arse used to do this to win 98/me when I was a student. "Optimising" everything and deleting anything I would never use, trying to squeeze every mb out of my limited 2gb disk space but the damn thing was so unreliable I was constantly reinstalling windows.

After one reload, I finished late at night and just left it alone, forgetting to perform all my "power user customisation" until I remembered a week later when it suddenly dawned on me that it was running fast AND stable - I hadn't had a single crash that week. As a final test, I applied all my "optimisations" again and "oh, look! It's crashing constantly again". I was a slow learner and turns out I don't know better than the people that built the system!

I always think of this when I see threads about win7 - 11 being unstable, because it just isn't. As you dig through the thread, the op reveals more - they've chopped out all sorts of system components with registry hacks and third party tools or blocked updates and then bitch about windows being garbage - don't get me wrong, they simultaneously make it better and worse with every release so I sympathize why people try chopping out edge, copilot etc - but just don't.

Disabling services and uninstalling functions the non-hacky way 'should' be fine (and likely reversable) but if someone wants to bare-bone their OS or be data gathering-free, they'd be better off learning Linux.

[–] WormFood@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

the biggest causes of bsods and other crashes on windows up to xp were drivers. after xp, Microsoft required drivers for windows to go through their signing and verification program, which was controversial but it did solve the problem

modern windows rarely crashes outright but in my experience it does break in small ways over time, without the user doing anything

in terms of disabling windows components, it's true that this can break your system, but I would argue this is still Microsoft's problem. there are many windows competents that are deeply coupled together when they have no reason to be

[–] Wirlocke@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 years ago

If you want barebones Windows I'd suggest you cough cough obtain Windows 10 LTSC.

It's got most the bloatware cut out, you just have to reenable the old style picture viewer.

Though when I eventually make a new PC, I'm probably just gonna use Linux Mint because I hear running Windows games/software isn't nearly as bad nowadays, thanks Steam.

[–] AFaithfulNihilist@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

My hourly rate for tutoring is actually about 50% higher than my hourly rate for on call support which is about 100% higher than my hourly rate for work.

I'm trying to afford groceries here, It's not 90 days payable It's pay-per-play. I'm tired of trying to finance an inhaler while the boss's favorite child can't decide on a font color and thinks that 5 minute phone calls at 7:30 on a friday are free.

[–] quaddo@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

I have a friend who is graphic designer for a small shop. Customers drop off work at the front desk, and depending on how much effort it works out to be, it can land on his desk.

Some customers insist on explaining to “the designer directly”. They get told/warned that it’s more expensive (hourly) and that the clock starts as soon as he walks up to the counter. And some customers agree to these terms.

It’s always entertaining to hear his stories.