Had one this week - turn it off and back on again
Client phones up. Can't get online. I tell them to restart the router. She is literally too scared to pull out the plug "in case the phone breaks". 25mins of call trying to get her to do this, I give up. Tell her that she has to pay the full hour if I come out.
So 30mins drive, to pull out a power cable on a router. £60 please.
To be fair, I did sit and give her an hour sorting out other mess on the computer for her.
Which reminds me of another one. Years back. Another 30mins drive, this time to turn off a PC that had got stuck during shut down. That guy was too embarrassed for me to stay longer than the five mins it took to power off the PC and pay me.
Often 5mins of knowledge is worth the fee if it saves the client time. It is the odd side of experience. The number of calls I get that I can now fix in five mins due to the 40 years of experience that tells me "I know this, I don't it before". The client pays for a solution.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
