Ikonboard » Printable Version of Topic » Heres what really pissed me off the other day....

Forum: Rants
Topic: Heres what really pissed me off the other day....
started by: ball7068

Posted by ball7068 on Jun. 13 2000,03:25

At work, shit got fucked up and I was there all day long and through till 8PM. I had to finish a computer lab that needed to be ready the next day. There were alot of problems here and there. While I was in there, this guy from the Physics dept (these people generally THINK that they know alot about computer, but really dont...) he walks in and asks to take a look at things. Completely ignores me. Looks at the tower, and mutters to himself, "Omni Tech...who makes these fucking decisions and buys a piece of shit generic computer" and he starts to walk away. I say to him while he is walking away, faily loud, "excuse me???" He turns around and I asked him if he is implying that a big company like Dell, IBM, or Gateway is better. He says, "Of course they are, you see..." I cut him off (I was already in a pissed off mood since I just destroyed the build and had to start over). I say to him, " You see, what you are really saying is that Intel makes shitty processors, motherboards, and network cards, Iomega makes zip drives suck, Western Digital hard drives are junk, and Sony Cd-roms, floppy drives, and monitors are not any good". He starts looking puzzled. I pretty much told him that he doesnt need to start talking bad about the computers when he had a chance to test it out. Pretty much told him off. All a big company is good for is tech support. We dont use tech support and we dont deal with the vender on warentee matters since we outsourced the PC repair (whenever hardware goes bad, Pomeroy replaces it for free - reguardless whether it is in or out of warentee based on our service contract.) For some reason I got really pissed. I hate when people start talking about something [that I am in charge of deploying, managing and supporting] when they really dont know a thing about what they are talking about...

This is the third time that I have heard such a speech. We used Tangent last year. Pretty much, we are planning on sticking with smaller companies that are willing to build a computer out of the parts we specify and will then take the time to support the deployment of the computers across campus. Anyway, last year I heard a similar line from two other people. One fucked up his registry and proceeded to tell me that if we would have bought Dell computers "people wouldnt ever have problems like this". The other guy had a bad motherboard and blamed it on "shitty Tangent computers" (what he doesnt realize was that it was a genuine Intel SE440BX motherboard that failed.) I tell them the truth and they just let it go in one ear and out the other. Sometimes thats why I would rather deal with the Mac users. They dont know enough about things to talk shit and they are just happy with their computers (for some reason, when things go wrong, they just want them fixed and dont create a scene).

Erik

Posted by Sithiee on Jun. 13 2000,19:21

im confused a little, are you saying this guy said that sony,WD,and intel suck?...granted, iomega things dont always hold together...but big companies are sell outs...Dell wont let anyone get SDRAM workstations anymore, and they also charge far too much for their parts...but yeah, my physics teacher swears hes some sort of computer genius, i choose not to belittle him with my mad skills, because i want to pass the class...but he talks shit you wouldnt believe...umm...yeah

Posted by Cyrino on Jun. 14 2000,01:47

Hey, man!!! Don't dis my 'ol friend Dell!!!

I have been given the duty of repairing and maintaining the computers in my tech room at school (yes I am a student and know more about computers than the site administrators). The school board made the most excellent decision to buy a shitload of Dell Optiplex G1's. In my couple of months of experience with these, I have had to replace: a mouse that when connected to the PS/2 port, halted the system; 2 floppy drives that just stopped working; and a monitor that will not keep colour settings.

And as for Dell's superior tech support, on the second time I called for a part replacement, I made the mistake of hitting the extension for parts replacement and not regular tech support (for part replacement on systems currently under warranty, you need to go to regular tech support). Anyway, After hitting the extension for parts replacement (not knowing it), I waited on hold for 20 minutes. When finally being served, the tech on the line told me that I had to talk to regular tech support, and that he would connect me. Well, he connected me, but to support for Dell Latitude Laptop systems (after waiting another 15 minutes on hold). Then that tech coneccted me to Optiplex tech support (the usual wait on hold), but this time it was for home and small business. I was then told that the school board's account was that of one for large businesses. He was kind eanough to connect me to the RIGHT person. So, after the ordeal, I was able to have the replacement floppy drive ordered.

So, you can imagine how much I like Dell and the talented people involved in conserving quality among their customers.

Oh, and I like the integrated ATI video cards that were designed 3 years ago, they're my fav!

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They have cats in the future?

Posted by rig_hater on Jun. 14 2000,02:41

yikes! i can't stand name brand pc's. they're such a pain for parts replacement - especially if they've got mobos that are proprietary to their respective cases. ARGH!

I work at a small pc shop where we build custom systems for people, and it's great - we cut out the crap parts that you get in the big name brand pcs and stick to good ones. people get what they want, and personal service, where you're not stuck on hold waiting for help. granted, most pc owners don't clue into these perks till the second time around - but it's rare that you see someone buy a compaq, dell, or ibm the second time around if they're looking for a performance home pc.

i'll take upgradability and quality over international reputation anyday.

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PEBKAC: Problem exists between keyboard and chair.

Posted by Sithiee on Jun. 14 2000,08:27

true that, most brand computers suck, because they get paid money to put shit software on your comp, so you end up with a computer full of shit software, and then you pay more for it. why did you call dell for a replacement? why not go to the fucking computer store and slap down the fucking 10 dollars and save you time?...and trust me, choosing companies based on their tech support is one of the dumbest ways to do it.

Posted by Wolfguard on Jun. 14 2000,09:51

Where I work we are in the middle of a Dell vs. Compaq fight. Now as far as a desktop unit goes they are about the same. The difference has been in reliability and service.
In the 3 years we have been using Dells we have had only 1 motherboard fail and that was the built in NIC card. We lose about 1 Compaq a week due to a memory or processor failure.
I can take any card from any vendor (and some that the boys and girls here dream up) and plug them into a dell and off I can go. I can't do this to a Compaq and get away with it. It will either hang the system or just plain old not work.
I can call dell and order any part and it will be here tomorrow (I just got a replacement for a 486 that we use in a machine we produced 3 years ago). If I call Compaq they tell me that they may be able to get someone out to look at it tomorrow.
I won't even go into the price.
Cough
Dells are cheaper
/cough
Just my .02

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Posted by Nero on Jun. 14 2000,14:33

First thing: if you pull an all nighter at work, people are much more willing to treat you as a person at four in the morning. i never knew.

so we were resetting an aisle at work (i love retail./sarcasm) and the conversation came to computers. i told my manager what i'm planning to build and he told me i was stupid. "everyone i know that's built a computer has had it fuck up. i'd get a gateway if i were you." lick my sack, jackass. this guy's a prick anyway, but that's the first time i've ever really talked to him. and he actually thought he was right. i've nothing against gateway, but i can build for half the cost something they probably couldn't give me anyway. so he thinks that because his friends are idiots and can't fix what they've broken that i can't either. i guess this all really goes back to people pretending to know about things they really don't, but that doesn't make it any less irritating.

/rant

Posted by Cyrino on Jun. 14 2000,19:40

Well, i didn't just go to a fucking computer store because, if you have ever seen an Optiplex system, you will notice that Dell was kind eanough to have slightly modified a regular 3.5" floppy drive so a standard floppy drive won't fit.
Anyway, dell is pretty good at response time, the parts are generally there the next day.

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They have cats in the future?

Posted by fendi on Jun. 14 2000,22:15

hmmm... Dell computers... I must say I'm not too impressed with them. The place where I was previously working had some sort of a lease contract with Dell which seems to come with reasonable terms (because they have been on it for years so I'm assuming that). The work done on the laptops though, were extrememly CPU intensive and after several months, the laptops would just die. Calling up Dell for support was hell, but when you do reach them and chuck a big enough spastic, they pick up the laptop and send over a replacement. Most of the time, the laptops were replaced totally as they could not find what the problem is. Good for us because the replacement was usually a later model than what we sent in. There were even a couple of people who particularly liked dealing with the Dell support. They just loved 'socking' it to them and bragging about how they 'shoved it up Dell's ass' later. I'm thinking, 'Oookay... as long as you get a kick out of it, I'm glad its not me.' Suffice to say I left that company for greener pastures.

(The top echelon was also rumoured to occassionally read other people's emails but that is hard to prove.)

Posted by Willy Pete on Jun. 16 2000,13:02

We have similar. I worked in a US university as a student and we had compaqs there, just like at my present company here in the UK. You put in enough and the odds are against you to come away from a rollout with finding 1 or more duds straight out of the box.
I HATE their diagnostic bios partition. Someone invariably decides to kill it with Fdisk sometime during their time in the company. If the hard disk goes, it screws you up too as you don't have a lot of bios functions from the start. And while we're on the subject of BIOS, dumbass users who think they're secure with a bios password just chap my hide. Mind you It makes my job easier. I just walk away from the job if they aren't there to put it in and let them bitch to my super about bad support, who promptly reminds them that they were the wanker who left the machine locked up. Yes, I know how to reset passwords with jumpers/cmos, but I get lazy when I meet those people. They sap my will to perform.

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"Sometimes I sits and thinks, but most times I justs sits." - Me.

Posted by Willy Pete on Jun. 16 2000,13:13

Guess I should have put this in my other posts, but have you guys noticed the merging of paths between the old car officionados and pc homebuilders/tweakers? I know I don't like having mass consumer shit dumped on me by buying a market pc. Absolute control over what goes tick-tock in my box is so important to my well being. If it chokes, I alone carry the blame, and no choking so far.
Car geeks are really similar. They'll buy and old car and swap out what they don't need and put in better after market stuff. They 'recompile' their own upholstery and 'overclock' it to get those few extra horses. Funny how the the two jock and geek stereotyped passions are so close in their objectives. seems the old fashioned drag strips are now replaced by the multiplayer Q3/HL/UT/insert_mp_game_of_choice.
Think of the ego wars between the Tbirds in 'Grease' and their rivals (Scorpions?). Compare to modern flame/hack wars.

Just a thought. I'll go back to my corner now.

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"Sometimes I sits and thinks, but most times I justs sits." - Me.

Posted by Observer on Jun. 16 2000,13:15

Those are also the same people that piss and moan about changing their settings and violating their security, weak as it may be. I've done work on friends' systems when there was a problem, and a few of them get quite irate when I bypass their security because they didn't have time to be there. Attitudes like that can make the people working on your system (like me) leave back doors open to mess with them later.

Posted by Cyrino on Jun. 17 2000,04:07

Oh, God...
I hate Compaqs more than Dells. The bios or whatever you call that is so annoying and doesn't ever help.

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They have cats in the future?

Posted by Hellraiser on Jun. 17 2000,09:41

Compaqs are pieces of shit as well, a couple of my friends have them and have had nothing but problems with them.

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Posted by Chrissy on Jun. 17 2000,19:51

I have a compaq laptop- but then Im not a computer geek so I don't need any fancy shit. I've had so many issues with it. Overall it does what I need it to do so it doesn't really bother me
except for that one time I wrote a 20 page paper and it erased the whole thing just about
hey that could have been my fault but I dont think so

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"The causes we know everything about depend on the causes we know nothing about, which depend on the causes we know absolutely nothing about."- Tom Stoppard

Posted by Bob_Cannibal on Jun. 18 2000,01:18

I'm writing on a compaq 4764...

read: (base system)

Pentium 133, MMX
24 megs of ram
33.6 internal winmodem (proprietary, removable, but you can't recover the slot...)
ESS 1888 audio
S3 Trio graphics(damn thing...)
2.28 gig HD
16X cdrom
Win95

cost in 1996: 5000$ (est)
this machine is jacked... I fixed it, but it's really, really, starting to BSOD every 10 hrs of use...

my parental servers bought it... I put a zipdisk, 32 megs ram, a virge (hey, it was free...),an extra 372mb HD, a scanner, and misc. components... maybe I should OC... but the jumper only goes to 200MHz... bastards and their proprietary mobos...

hey cr0? please send me that mobo... help a needy biznatch... (all of you... send me spare components...)
I need:
a mobo
a case
a 3d card (i'll use the ViRGE for 2d...)
a sound card
an HD
and a fdd...

I'll recycle:
the CDROM, the scanner, the OS, a spare modem, my joystick, my speakers, the monitor, a printer the HD ( i think it's compaq proprietary...), and my mouse...

give a needy gamer a chance... this comp is old... it's from 1995, i'll even recycle my 56 megs of ram...

Posted by Bob_Cannibal on Jun. 18 2000,01:21

Oh, then I'll send the rest along for cr0 to nuke...

Posted by Bozeman on Jun. 22 2000,10:46

About Iomega, zip drives are a good idea, but the one in my tower broke, and tech support and the store don't know how to fix it. So, if some company could make zip drives that don't break....... that would be GREAT.... (you'll get that if you saw Office Space) Now I have to use an external to look at my pr0n. Oh well, that's the way the hardware crumbles...

Posted by Sithiee on Jun. 22 2000,11:12

you know whats always fun? people who DONT bring back 5 day old threads.