Last week a lady came to my door wanting me to look at her computer tower. So I checked everything and found out that the motherboard was fried (probably because the computer had NEVER been cleaned, the CPU literally looked covered in mud)
A few days passed and the lady came by wanting to know if I had another computer for sale. I did have my old computer (Emachines 3.33ghz, 1gb ram, 160gb HDD) that I was wanting to sell for $60
So I reformatted it, put a few games on it and sold it to her on Sunday
Well, I get a phone call today (Tuesday) and now theyre having problems with a ‘virus‘ they say was on the computer when I gave it to them. To me, it sounds like big-time spyware (the kind that locks all the processes up and declares EVERYTHING a virus so that you will buy their software to remove it) And now they want tech support, sounding all frustrated on the phone as if its MY fault this happened. They said that a virus program called “Avast!” was on the computer and was finding all of these viruses. I bluntly told them that I never EVER use Avast, and its never even been on that computer.
They just keep saying that theyve never even had the computer on the internet yet, so its not their fault. So I just told them if they keep having problems call me again.
Im really frustrated because when I diagnosed her old computer and cleaned it out.. she never gave me any money for doing that. Also, I sold that other computer for really cheap when I know I could have gotten at least 20 bucks more for it
Im just afraid that these people are going to think that every time they download spyware that IM the one who is going to fix it, just because I sold them that computer
What would you say to these people? How should I handle this?
3 Responses to 'How To Deal With This Computer “customer” Problem?'
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Tell them that if they’ve never been on line, then it’s unlikely they got any infections (unless they used an infected disk/flash, or they’re lying!).
Also, tell them what you said here. You didn’t charge for the investigation on the old one and that you gave them a very good price for the new one.
Print out the following and tell them to do as instructed and don’t offer to help any more. I had a couple of customers that thought I was their personal support engineer, I told them straight.. If you want my expertise, you pay for it!
The key words here are SAFE MODE!!!
Download, (if you can’t get on-line, have a friend download and copy to disc/flash for transfer) install, update and run full scans, in SAFE MODE*, with these programs…http://www.malwarebytes.orghttp://www.superantispyware.comhttp://download.cnet.com/1770-20_4-0.htm… Ad-Aware free
*** Important, when downloaded/installed/updated disconnect from the internet ***
Then re-start.
If you can’t run a scan, go into the scanner’s folder and re-name the .exe file to something like ‘MyFile.exe’ and try in safe mode again. Some malware prevent the execution of anti spy/mal/virus scans by blocking them by name.
You should consider getting a good Anti-Virus program.
Try one of these free ones…http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-…http://www.free-av.com/en/download/1/avi… (Avria)http://free.avg.com/download
***Never use more than one, active, anti-virus program at any one time***
*Note: On start up (before Windows loads) keep tapping either F5 or F8 (be aware that some manufacturers use F8 for system recovery!) then use arrow keys to highlight ‘Safe Mode with networking’ and hit Enter/Return, click on a user account, enter the Administrator password (if you don’t know it, there probably isn’t one so leave it blank) and hit Enter/Return.
© arou42
tell them that their inability to properly use a computer is not your responsibility and that they shouldn’t expect much for $60 anyway.
you can take your computer and pay them $60.
or install a free antivirus program for them or ask them to get a paid version.
that’s so simple