Archive for November, 2007

Giving freebies ("I’m trying to run a business here")

Thursday, November 15th, 2007

I love it when people find out what I do for a living and then they immediately say s.t. like “Maybe you could come round and fix my computer for me”. Were they just waiting to meet someone like me that they could ask? And how long has the problem needed attention anyway?

One time I installed a router for a friend. Afterwards his wife still kept trying to use dial-up, got nowhere fast, and then got very upset, saying “This is my business” (a.k.a. “I’m trying to run a business here”), and him insisting “It never worked” rather vehemently (wrong).

After that we just weren’t friends any more….

We get the same thing all the time where I work now servicing residential Internet subscribers. Some days it seems like everybody is on the way to their first million….