Are you good at informal tech support ?

[Guytronic]

I ask because a few neighbors, friends and former bosses of mine were clueless about anything to do with phones or PC's.

• So do you like to help others outside of the web or these forums when it comes to their confusion about today's technology?
• Are you good at it if it's not your actual day to day job?
• Does anyone you help catch on quickly or do they have the "blank stare"

 

[raycpl]

I'm strictly on WP, but colleague keep coming to me with the bloody problems on their Androids & iPhone.


... !!

 

[libra89]

With my phone switching, I can try to help somewhat but my parents expect for me to help them haha.

For PCs, I'm useless. I generally just search for what I don't know but a soft reset for phones (and even PCs) generally fixes the little things.

 

[jmshub]

I am an IT professional, and occasionally that includes some help desk work. I find that it makes me worse at trying to help friends and family with their IT problems. I increasingly lack the patience to try to talk people through any IT calamity...with help desk, every time I get a call, I wind up remoting into their system. Trying to explain things to people over the phone is extremely taxing for me

 

[Josiah23]

I would say so! I have a neighbor, the kindest lady you would EVER meet, she's maybe in her mid to late 50s I could be completely wrong but let's proceed, she didn't know how to work a smart phone completely (like remove apps, setup her email address for the mail app, and just relative stuff) she also didn't know how to use some of modern day technology, so anytime she needs help, i'll kindly assist her ANYTIME, she doesn't use the phone that often as she works at home, I can't remember what she does exactly but she works from her own house. Probably making a lot of money as she has a really nice house and car! She does catch on pretty quick, but I would stop what I'm doing to give her a helping hand. Plus I've known her for 6 years.

 

[a5cent]

No. I hate it. I refuse to be the PC fix-it guy for anyone but my wife. I do enjoy being the IT teacher though.

I won't give anybody a salmon, but I will teach anyone who is interested how to fish. That's also how I approach IT problems. It's also how I justify not helping most people though... few want to put in the effort to learn why something doesn't work and how to troubleshoot systematically based on a sound understanding of computing technology. They just want their problem fixed. I don't consider that worth my time.

 

[Guytronic]

I refuse to be the PC fix-it guy for anyone but my wife.

I used to have a lot of patience.
Not bad showing someone if they catch on...if they refuse to remember then it's a no-go...

 

[Ryujingt3]

My day job is IT support so I enjoy helping people navigate around technology.