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I will never do telephone tech support again......


ninjageek

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  Conversation between me and my son. Son lives 2 hour drive away. He is 18

Phone rings.....

Hey dad computer is acting funny, ran virus scans but nothing comes up wrong.

No problem kid reboot the computer hit f8 and select start windows safe mode with networking.

Thanks dad see ya......

Hour later

Hey dad I hit f8  and I can not get windows to boot into safe mode. I don't see the screen you told me about.......

Huh?? Ohhhhhh hit and hold f8

Ok Thanks dad

Last call before I head to bed to check on my son

Well kid did it work??

I can hear the frustration in his voice, he is stressed

No dad. Darn thing still won't work. There is something wrong.....I give up......I tried for another hour......HELP!!

Me laughing.....settle down kid I will come over and fix it......

Im off to bed.........

Next morning im in the bathroom shaving.........gf comes in and I tell her I gotta run to kids house after work and the problem. He can not get computer to boot into safe mode with f8.......It just makes no sense, what could be the problem..........

GF asks.........is he hitting both keys at the same time?? Now ever have a dog look at you and tilt its head like he is trying to understand you........thats what I did.......

After a few seconds I just started laughing....I assured her I was not laughing at her or my kid......I was laughing at myself I am such a dork!!!

Call my son back........

Son tell old dad where the f8 key is please....

Well duh dad........the f is between the d and the g and the 8 is on the number pad

I just laughed and said son......f8 is a single key at the top of the keyboard.......he pauses for a second (looking for that f8 button)

Ohhhhhhhhhh that key......then he tore me a new one for not explaing it better. What can I say........he was right.....I was wrong..........i will take my butt chewing..........

Next time I think I will just make a road trip and see my kid and leave the telephone tech support to somone who is better at it than me.........I feel stupid..........

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well i agree this IS a great story and one that others might appreciate...the next time they r trying to explain this to someone...like me...computer deaf/mute...so i'm moving this to general discussion...there might even be a tech support guy out there that can appreciate this...and be able to keep it in mind the next time he tries to tell anyone to hit the f (anything) key...

good story...but definately NOT off topic...

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ROFL! How can you not know about the F keys at the top.  :2funny: Lol I know what you mean though. My grandpa asks me for help about his computer all the time. I haft to explain to him where the start button and the task bar is!!! "It's that perdy little shiny button right there at the bottom" Then whenever I am trying to explain something to him I get:

That's not here.

Yes it is.

No its not.

Then a few minutes later...Oh there it is!

Ah thought you said it wasn't there. Guess it magically appeared all of a sudden lol. *wink*  :uglystupid2:

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I will always keep this story in the back of my head while helping others. I just gotta make sure to explain things to someone like they can barley find the start button to turn on the computer.

That is NOT a insult to anyone. We all had to start and learn. Always rember, your question may seem simple, its the ones us geeks love to answer the most.  But I will disagree with the person that said it was my sons fault. It was my fault for not explaing it better.  Just because I know it, I can never assume someone else does.

Your average user can be super intimated by the computer. Freaked out about hitting the wrong button. So if they are unsure, most the time they will not hit it.  Its how I became a geek.

I have hit the "oh well sh@# button" lots of times. "Are you sure you want windows to change these settings?" I click the yes button. Then scream "O well sh@#!" Time to reload windows again. Where is my disk.

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That's one to remember. I was talkin' with some coworkers on how to describe a usb cable in laymans terms. Analogies don't come easy! I once had a call from a lady in Sun City for 20 minutes on her cpu only to find out she was holding the mouse upside down. All I can say is, it takes a photographic memory if you're in tech support.  :laugh::cry:

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'f' is short for 'function'...function 1...function 2...function 3...etc...hehe :)

Ok Thanks that makes sence but i still like my interpretation of it cause they do more to harm your computer sometimes than to help

and when u do use the f keys you are usually Screwed

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That's one to remember. I was talkin' with some coworkers on how to describe a usb cable in laymans terms. Analogies don't come easy! I once had a call from a lady in Sun City for 20 minutes on her cpu only to find out she was holding the mouse upside down. All I can say is, it takes a photographic memory if you're in tech support.  :laugh::cry:

:haha: :haha: :haha: Never heard that one before.  :uglystupid2:
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That's one to remember. I was talkin' with some coworkers on how to describe a usb cable in laymans terms. Analogies don't come easy! I once had a call from a lady in Sun City for 20 minutes on her cpu only to find out she was holding the mouse upside down. All I can say is, it takes a photographic memory if you're in tech support.  :laugh::cry:

Lol. I wouldn't make a very good tech support. My problem is I am not good at breaking it down for the non computer literate people. I can help people that know what they are doing all day, but somebody that doesn't know up from down on the computer...urg...I'm not a very patient person when it comes to that lol. I was trying to show my grandma how to use gmail because her ISP's e-mail was being rejected by MSN. So I tell her to go to gmail.com. She asked me where she types that in at. I told her the address bar. She goes....where's the address bar...*sigh* About 30 mins later I finally taught her how to log in to a gmail account that I had already created for her! lol :uglystupid2:

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Oh I can understand the frustration as well. When you have a loved one or friend calling and asking for help. Well I just go fix it. And show them what i did, how I did it, how to undo it. Doing it over the phone is hard!! I have much respect for thoes guys and gals.

I just have a hard time keeping a strait face sometimes. I am not laughing at them, I am laughin at myself. I mean really, why is I can not explain something simple in terms they can understand, whats wrong with me. The story about the usb cable and explaing in non geek lingo, I can respect that. Most the time, I send them to radio shack and tell them "exactly" what to buy, keep the recipt. If its wrong I will go give the guy a bad time.

My brother got himself a computer just recently, I called him several months ago and told him. Man buy one now, you don't even want vista. Sure enough his ol lady cons him, they wait, get one with vista, I get a call, sorry big brother, with vista, I warned ya man. Now he is gonna buy a copy of xp pro, and I am gonna be makeing a road trip. Beeing the geek of the family can sure be a peta sometimes.

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