clientsfromhell:

I own a PC repair shop and sell used machines from time to time. One great boon to my business came last year when Microsoft announced the free upgrade to Windows 10 for 7 and 8 users.  I had stickers printed up that said, “Compatible with Windows 10! Free upgrade!”  They flew off the shelves.  One slipped through the cracks and was sold as “guaranteed to work with Windows 10” but had an inferior video adapter.

The customer came in about two weeks ago and had a printout of the compatibility check from Microsoft saying that the video card was not compatible with Windows 10. Honoring my promise, I put a known-compatible card in the machine for the guy for free and apologize for the error.

The customer comes back again and says that it’s still not working. What’s more, he brought his “Windows 10 basic instructor” with him to help him out.

Now – who do you imagine would be teaching how to use Windows 10 to a community school of seniors? If you answered “an eighty year old woman who doesn’t  seem to understand computers whatsoever,” congratulations! Treat yourself to a cookie.

Knowing that this woman is a potential reference to all of her would be “students”, I was anxious to please her no matter what.  I told them to bring in the computer and I would get in running. They brought it in, and then the instructor sat down and started clicking around on it.

The first thing she did was open the browser, and click on one of those “scan pc for errors” pop-ups. I stopped her before she downloaded a file.

For 20 frustrating minutes, she wouldn’t let me run the compatibility test while falling for every piece of spam and malware you can imagine. Every time I tried to stop her from downloading a piece of “free” software to check if “your computer is too slow” she would lecture me on the importance of keeping a computer up to date.

Just business as usual.

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