Do you ever get bothered by constant requests to fix people's computers?

@lyndaj70 (293)
United States
November 23, 2007 10:33am CST
I work on computers for a living. The other day, I'm getting ready for work and a friend pops up out of the blue wanting to be shown how to do something bearing some treats from where she works as a bribe.... I go to my boyfriend's house and end up spending the afternoon not socializing but installing drivers on his computer "while I'm there." I go to my part time job (non computer related) and people there bring computers for me to "look at." There have been times when I go out of town to shop for fear of friends having a computer question. These people are friends and they all including my boyfriend expect me to work on their computers for free, and I don't think they understand I would like to visit without talking about computers for once... Does anyone else have this problem?
3 responses
@wolfie34 (26771)
• United Kingdom
2 Dec 07
You obviously have a great talent indeed, but trouble is people start taking you for granted and expect you throw everything down at the drop of a hat, oh she knows about computers she'll do it, not a question of manners or anything just the expectation that you'll do it, no quibble. People do tend to take advantage and once you do it once for them, they'll expect it. When you are assertive with them they get funny and don't understand you're good with computer so what's the problem! Makes me scream so I deliberately go out of my way to be unhelpful to certain people who tend to take me for granted. Stand your ground!
@lyndaj70 (293)
• United States
3 Dec 07
Thank you for your response! I can tell you know what I am talking about... Like the ones who wake you up expecting you to stay up for hours to "fix" their problem on the phone and when you tell them the solution, they want another fix.... One time my future bro-in-law called in desperation. I helped him work through a new restore and bless his heart, he bought me a computer book in gratitude! If he ever calls again I will be happy to help him cause it was obvious he appreciated it and hasn't taken advantage. I have others who call at all hours and expect me to just "run over" and fix this or show them how to do that... I started avoiding them and they started calling my fiancee to complain... He very bluntly told them that I did this for a living and it wasn't very nice to expect me to work on their systems all of the time for free. .. They have improved since that... It isn't quite as bad here as it was in central ky. People have more manners about it I guess cause they haven't known me for years and years.... Still gets annoying though.. Thanks for posting!
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
23 Nov 07
Yes, this happens to me constantly. I have quite a lot of friends who appear to have a great talent for causing themselves computer related problems, and the first response is to pick up a telephone and call me.
@lyndaj70 (293)
• United States
24 Nov 07
How do you respond in this situation?
@chunter (1759)
• Singapore
23 Nov 07
I get such requests all the time too....but I'm not really bothered... If I'm busy, I'll just tell them I'm busy...to be able to help is a virtue too
@lyndaj70 (293)
• United States
24 Nov 07
This is true... Thanks for your response!