If you want to start a PC business...

[Bugbait]

...go and read the Scan support forum and see why it can be a pain in the rear . Dealing with obtuse, pig headed, self involved people with poor comprehension skills is not my idea of a "fun job". Scan aren't perfect but sometimes people just can't take responsibility for their own shortcomings. Sorry, didn't want to rant in their forum so stuck it here.

[Phage]

Aye.
I did wonder if it was a cultural/language issue. Reading the posts it would seem that there is a fundamental comprehension mis-match between the OP and the staff.
Not that it helps...beer anyone ?

[jim]

To be fair, that's a pretty good description of what it's like for anybody working on the front-line of a firm. I was nearly punched in my weekend job because we didn't have a cartridge in stock and the gentleman was under the impression that I should have let him know just a tad more rapidly.

Tis all fun

[Bugbait]

Glad it wasn't just me being super-cynical!

I have one rule when I build systems for people (friends only, never strangers any more): "Must be computer literate". The majority of my post-sales issues in the past have been from building systems for computer illiterate people.

A couple of memorable examples: (para-phrasing to condense the story)

Client: "The PC rattles after 6 months."
Me: "What kind of sound is it?"
Client: "It clangs as if something is bouncing around inside when I move it. The PC is broken."
Me: "So it's not booting?"
Client: "It runs fine but it's noisy. Something is broken."

So I spend 40 minutes driving to their place to have a look. Turns out their young son had been "loading" CD's into the gap between the optical drive and the 5.25" drive bay blank. I fished 7 CD's out from inside the case.

Client: "The printer you sold me stopped working."
Me: "What are the symptoms?"
Client: "When I print the page is blank."
Me: "Is it out of ink?"
Client: "I don't know but I can't print."
Me: "Have the print outs been getting lighter recently?" (Was an inkjet based printer)
Client: "Yes, I think it's been faulty for a while."

I try to guide them through checking ink levels over the phone at which point they start to get angry and accuse me of selling them a bad printer. So I hop down to have a look and guess what? It's out of ink. I show them how to change the cartridge (I brought spares in case) and they grumble that the replacement cartridges should be free of charge from me...doh!

[Disturbedguy]

I was going to reply to the thread that I am guessing you are talking about, but I heald back.

No offence to this turner bloke, but for goodness sake. No where in what Wesley said did he say he would ignore what was put, he said he would have missed some questions, which granted isnt worded as clearly as it could have been, but it is obivous what is meant.

On top of that he is going on about the staff twisting his words, from what I have read he has twisted what Wesley put. And completely ignored the fact that SCAn are going out of there way to help this guy. Wesley didnt have to get PeterG involved, he could have said you didnt research the components therefore its your issue, but he hasn't.

It almost seems as if this person wants to get something out of his own mistakes/ lack of research. I have never heard of people having problems with every component in there PC's. Maybe a problem with the builder?

To me it seems SCAN are trying to help, but this Turner bloke seems to be attempting to antagonise the situation or make it seem as if he is the completely innocent person here.

I work on a service desk, so I deal with users pretty much all day long that explain a problem or a series of problems and then it either turns out to be something completely different or so simple a monkey could do it.

[shaithis]

It goes both way though. If you honestly think the customer is always wrong or too demanding, then you have a lot to learn.

I myself have had problems with Scan.....in fact my £300 motherboard is faulty and scan could not replicate it.....funny how I can every time and I know its the NF200 chip on the motherboard which is over-heating like a lot of other NF200 chips are.....so I have to have an extra fan blowing on the heatsink because scan could not (or would not) replicate the issue.


So, I preume you will be starting another thread entitled "If you decide to buy something from a PC business......" which slates the companies who provide bad service?

[Disturbedguy]

No one has said the customer is always wrong have they?

[Bugbait]

It goes both way though. If you honestly think the customer is always wrong or too demanding, then you have a lot to learn.

So, I preume you will be starting another thread entitled "If you decide to buy something from a PC business......" which slates the companies who provide bad service?

I hear what you're saying shaithis, there's no need to be condescending. My dig is at people who think they're 100% right to the point they get on a soap box and start banging drums. Can't comment on your motherboard issue but I've returned a motherboard to Scan in the past due to compatibility issues. Everything was installed but it would crash constantly in Vista. Searching around on the forums it was a known issue with this motherboard + BIOS version (all 6 versions exhibited various problems) and Vista. It would run fine on XP but that's not what I was after. Scan accepted it on full refund (I paid for return postage though) under the DSR.

[Phage]

No offence to this turner bloke, but for goodness sake. No where in what Wesley said did he say he would ignore what was put, he said he would have missed some questions, which granted isnt worded as clearly as it could have been, but it is obivous what is meant.

On top of that he is going on about the staff twisting his words, from what I have read he has twisted what Wesley put. And completely ignored the fact that SCAn are going out of there way to help this guy. Wesley didnt have to get PeterG involved, he could have said you didnt research the components therefore its your issue, but he hasn't.

To me it seems SCAN are trying to help, but this Turner bloke seems to be attempting to antagonise the situation or make it seem as if he is the completely innocent person here.

This is why I though it may be a language issue. It can often be quite hard to communicate with people who were brought up in the same street as yourself, nevermind someone from much further away. Reading the thread it does seem as if the OP takes a completely different perception of the words posted than I would have. This may well boil over into different expectations of customer/vendor behaviours.

[MadduckUK]

i want to know what printer bugbait is selling that lets you use a cartridge totally up and just keeps going, rather than blinking empty when its half full... sounds like the best printer IN THE WORLD, can i order a million

[Bugbait]

i want to know what printer bugbait is selling that lets you use a cartridge totally up and just keeps going, rather than blinking empty when its half full... sounds like the best printer IN THE WORLD, can i order a million

That was from 15+ years ago but not sure that much has changed? My old Samsung laser would print until the page was almost totally faded. Sure, it threw up a warning in the Windows task bar but it still let you print. Are you referring to HP's? They had a lovely tendency of reporting much higher ink use and lower cartridge capacity than was remaining (atleast every HP I ever owned did). Cheaper ones also nuked the cartridge so it would appear to be empty when it was just faulty/clogged. Currently using a Brother laser and the cartridge is like the Duracell bunny so can't tell how it behaves yet.

[MadduckUK]

That was from 15+ years ago

ah.....

[malfunction]

I was going to reply to the thread that I am guessing you are talking about, but I heald back.

No offence to this turner bloke, but for goodness sake. No where in what Wesley said did he say he would ignore what was put, he said he would have missed some questions, which granted isnt worded as clearly as it could have been, but it is obivous what is meant.

On top of that he is going on about the staff twisting his words, from what I have read he has twisted what Wesley put. And completely ignored the fact that SCAn are going out of there way to help this guy. Wesley didnt have to get PeterG involved, he could have said you didnt research the components therefore its your issue, but he hasn't.

It almost seems as if this person wants to get something out of his own mistakes/ lack of research. I have never heard of people having problems with every component in there PC's. Maybe a problem with the builder?

To me it seems SCAN are trying to help, but this Turner bloke seems to be attempting to antagonise the situation or make it seem as if he is the completely innocent person here.

I work on a service desk, so I deal with users pretty much all day long that explain a problem or a series of problems and then it either turns out to be something completely different or so simple a monkey could do it.

Yes - was reading the thread and was tempted to reply though I didn't in the end. I was most surprised that an audio engineer would build his own PCs - at a cost of 2.5K - with such a catalogue of problems. Had to wonder if the case he was using was made out of chicken wire but I'd guess not (also have to wonder why he had a relatively high end GFX card in there for a sound processing system - or why he went with an i7 even) but hey - what do I know. I did once work for a company that had their own studio for voice work and all they did was use a professional sound card and mic in a normal retail PC without issue. That was some years ago mind!

[Bugbait]

ah.....

I only build PC's for friends now and only on request. I haven't done PC/Printer installs for a fee since my Uni and early post-Uni days . Not worth the time or hassle these days. Think it's been 10 years since I did it so those examples are very old (in relative PC years anyway).

[Kumagoro]

I always love hearing stories like these, my favourite being from a couple of years ago where
a customer went into a shop wanting a refund on a graphics card because it didnt work.
Seems reasonable, right? well, as it didnt fit he had sawn it in two and was surprised to find
it didnt work when he did get it in. Classic.

[Haiku32]

Some of these stories are hilarious. I always find it incredibly frustrating when people don't realise that computers are just built up of several components and are not one single unit which has 2 states - working and broken. The amount of people I know that have thrown away good working computers and replaced them with something overpriced from pcworld just because the hard drive stopped working or it had a virus is just ridiculous. People who don't know about computers shouldn't argue with people they do. I wouldn't go into a mechanics and argue over what I think is wrong with my car...clearly they know best.

My favourite story was when my friend asked me to look at his new computer because it wouldn't turn on. He had connected everything right, except for the fact that he didn't put the power cable in and was just turning the PSU switch on and off and wondering why it wasn't turning on. Some people just lack common sense in these situations.