At 10PM, I get two messages on AIM from “friends” (I use that term *very* lightly with these two) who need help with their computers. We’ll codename them Matt and Joe for the sake of their privacy.
Matt’s XP Pro install is screwed because he has somewhere between 10 and 20 different viruses, and at least 600 instances of spyware on his machine. Let’s just say he likes to view sites that are inappropriate (read: porn). His user accounts won’t work properly, his login is messed up somehow, and he can’t change his screen saver. I help him do some things in the command line that forces the user accounts window to display, try and help him fix what’s wrong – his viruses and spyware – as well as the 50 other questions he randomly demands that I help him with. No, it’s not a polite “Can you please tell me how to do this?” It’s more like “TELL ME HOW TO DO THIS NOW!”
About five minutes after “Matt” starts asking his slew of questions, Joe starts to ask about why only IE will work on the internet and not Firefox, Opera, or Mozilla. The troubleshooting I run him through is long and drawn out, checking everything from viruses to HJT logs. Eventually, we determine that there was something wrong with his proxy settings, but we couldn’t figure out exactly where the problem was. So, we go through the steps to format and reinstall Windows on his system. After we get all done, I take a look up at the clock and its 3AM. Time sure does fly when you’re helping everyone fix their computer! I have an appointment at noon the next day with Ali, so I decide its time for me to hit the hay.
I woke up at about 11AM, so I was in quite a hurry to get ready to go. I take a shower, get all ready to go, and suddenly my cell phone rings, just before I leave. This time it is Eric, a good friend who contracted an AIM virus, and can’t send a message to anyone. I hurry through instructions on how to fix it, hang up, and head out the door, going over to Ali’s to see if I can fix her BSOD problems.
Once I’m over there, the troubleshooting tells me that her hard drive is corrupted. I decide the best course of action is to pull the hard drive out and slave it into my new system to try and get it working again. I use the Windows Recovery Console to fix the corrupted sectors, and then test it out. Thankfully, it works on the first try. I take it back over, install it, and boot it up, and again (thankfully) it works. Like I mentioned earlier, this is a customer: I got $20 out of the job. Now it’s time to head over to my Aunt’s and install a spare power supply.
As I start to walk into the door, I am met with my Aunt’s frantic explanation of what happened. After already having a 95% sure answer to her problem, I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to her. I go in, install the new power supply, turn her system on, and am out the door in 10 minutes.
I think its time for a vacation!
To Charge or Not to Charge
So, after two days of non-stop computer troubleshooting for other people, I have to consider a very serious question. I can’t live my life at the grip of other people’s problems, yet it’s not in my personality to say no to a request. I came to the conclusion that I would start charging for unreasonable requests – say fixing porn-viruses and spyware, or things that can be easily found on Google – as well as requests that would take over 10 minutes of my time to help fix. If I can answer the question in less than 10 minutes, I decided I could afford, both monetarily and mentally, to help friends. This would be my final answer to people unless they returned my favor in some other way.
That’s the great thing about a place like PCMech. The place isn’t necessarily a help-only forum – but a help-exchange. I help you with something I’m knowledgeable in, and you would help me out when I needed it in your area of expertise. It equals out in the long run, and it’s a fair way of doing business.
This week’s Official Discussion can be found here.
I’d really like to hear your opinions on this subject!
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