Referring to Re: OS 9 woes, at 20:05 -0600, 3/19/03, (Mike Hebel) eloquently elucidated:
> On Wednesday, March 19, 2003, at 07:48 PM, cbirds wrote: > >> Well, many of my clients do NOT. So, I would be a bad person to put >> something on there and then have them not be able to run other >> applications without having problems. > > That's a perfectly acceptable, non-foolish, attitude to take. I don't > have a problem with that. (Apologize for the fool comment BTW - I get a > little heated sometimes.) My argument was the blanket statements you > made and the tone that came with them. > >> I enjoy both instant gratification and I also run LC III's to do things >> like take in faxes. I also own several other PCI, G3, and laptop Macs, >> including G4's and servers.......to name a few.....I have never gotten >> 'rid' of a Mac, every one I've owned is still in use either by me or >> someone else that I have GENEROUSLY donated it to, some who are on this >> very list. :-) > > Ok. Fair enough. > >> I am trying to get my users to be more self-sufficient and having them >> ask me if they need to buy X is getting old. Most of my frantic callers >> have had some do-gooder slap X on their machine and leave them unable to >> print or surf because they did not finish the job. >> I had one user call me late last night crying because she was told she >> needed X to run her Palm-Pilot (not!) and let some numbskull install it >> on her perfectly good laptop. Some people are just not repsponsible and >> don't you agree, should not be shoving stuff into folks' machines unless >> they plan to follow through with it? > > As a person who has done over a decade of end-user and network support, > some of it on Mac as well as PC, may I observe that the problems you are > experiencing are the normal state of end-users. It's the natural cycle > of support. > > 1) Person screws up machine or machine breaks. (Regardless if they > installed something wrong or a "friend" *groan* installed something.) > > 2) You fix machine and educate user. > > 3) User calls you the next time something breaks. > > It's how it works, it's how we help people, it's how we make money. > > As for the shoddy - non-finished - work thing. I agree. I also feel > that these are opportunities for you to be the hero to that user and to > help them grow. (I've never been one to keep a user in the dark unless > absolutely necessary.) From the long-view these need to be looked at as > opportunities not problems. Heck, I still get calls from people I've > done very little work for in the last decade. I still help them. Why? > Because even though it's the most frustrating thing in the world having > to re-load that machine every few months when the user breaks it - it's > also the most gratifying thing in the world to see them happy again. > > BTW - Kill the slap-loaders on sight when you see them. The thing you > want to find out is how many years of experience they have. The other > cardinal rules to teach your users is to ask questions of _everyone_ > working with their system. Regardless of it's you or not. ;-) > You, sir, are a gentleman. It takes that and balls to admit a mistake. Thank you. I owe you one. Now I sincerely hope cbirds cools it, as well. Paul -- PCI-PowerMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Sonnet & PowerLogix Upgrades - start at $169 | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> PCI-PowerMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/pci-powermacs.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive:<http://www.mail-archive.com/pci-powermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
