Tannin
Storage? I am Storage!
I know where you are coming from Mark, but I think your analogy is quite wrong. It is in fact like hiring someone to service your car and having it come back washed, polished, and vacuumed inside. (Come to think of it I do that also, sort of - give the machine a wipe over outside if it looks grotty and get rid of the dust inside.) I think that we are both doing the same thing in a sense: giving the customer what he wants and expects, and not giving him any nasty surprises!
It might be worth adding that my usual routine is to have a quick diagnostic look at the machine with the customer still in the shop. We examine it together (hardware and software side both,usually) and decide what needs doing. I like doing that because then if there is something unexpected we can deal with it - machine is unexpectedly completely dead? Not a problem, the customer has seen it too, knows it's not something bad I have done to it. Wrong user account password? I found out straight away and get the right one. Noisy PSU fan? I can suggest a replacement. Not enough RAM? Suggest an upgrade. Happy machine? Tell the customer not to worry about buying a new one, this one will do him for another couple of years. And so on. This is typically the time at which Classic Shell goes on (if it isn't there already), while the customer is still in the shop with me and before I start the major task. Or another common one is where the customer has bought a new laptop elsewhere (often with some advice from me - I generally only sell Thinkpads, so if they want something cheaper they get that at one of the big local supermarket places) and bring it in to get their documents copied over, an AV package installed, crapware removed, and generally have it set up so that it's nice to use. Since Windows 8 came along, this has become really common 'cause the interface is so bad.
People generally adapted without too much trouble to the UI degradations in W98 and then Vista/7, but they mostly flat-out reject Win8 Metro. I haven't seen so much downright hate directed at computers since ... hmmmm .... since forever. Way more than Vista, and Vista was pretty bad. The computer industry is suffering big-time 'cause people just ain't buying new hardware unless they can get it with Windows 7 or else get Metro banished and some other solution (Classic Shell, Start8, Lenovo QuickLaunch, True Launch Bar, ObjectDock, etc.) installed instead.
It might be worth adding that my usual routine is to have a quick diagnostic look at the machine with the customer still in the shop. We examine it together (hardware and software side both,usually) and decide what needs doing. I like doing that because then if there is something unexpected we can deal with it - machine is unexpectedly completely dead? Not a problem, the customer has seen it too, knows it's not something bad I have done to it. Wrong user account password? I found out straight away and get the right one. Noisy PSU fan? I can suggest a replacement. Not enough RAM? Suggest an upgrade. Happy machine? Tell the customer not to worry about buying a new one, this one will do him for another couple of years. And so on. This is typically the time at which Classic Shell goes on (if it isn't there already), while the customer is still in the shop with me and before I start the major task. Or another common one is where the customer has bought a new laptop elsewhere (often with some advice from me - I generally only sell Thinkpads, so if they want something cheaper they get that at one of the big local supermarket places) and bring it in to get their documents copied over, an AV package installed, crapware removed, and generally have it set up so that it's nice to use. Since Windows 8 came along, this has become really common 'cause the interface is so bad.
People generally adapted without too much trouble to the UI degradations in W98 and then Vista/7, but they mostly flat-out reject Win8 Metro. I haven't seen so much downright hate directed at computers since ... hmmmm .... since forever. Way more than Vista, and Vista was pretty bad. The computer industry is suffering big-time 'cause people just ain't buying new hardware unless they can get it with Windows 7 or else get Metro banished and some other solution (Classic Shell, Start8, Lenovo QuickLaunch, True Launch Bar, ObjectDock, etc.) installed instead.