You don't have to be computer literate...

[DrFaroohk]

...but if I'm going to help you, you have to learn how to listen.


I realize grandmother is older and from a different time, but I also know she's smart and were she willing to stoop to the level of taking advice (which she asked for) from someone younger than her, she'd learn her computer just fine.


Last night she calls and asks for help with her computer.

"I just bought something on E-bay, but I don't see the confirmation e-mail anywhere."

"where did it get sent to? Your earthlink account or your g-mail account?"

"Ummm....it's ebay."

"Ok you're in your e-bay account?"

"No, I'm trying to read my e-mail."

"Ah, ok, which e-mail. Earthlink or gmail?"

"It's from Ebay."

"Yes yes, but where did the e-mail GO?"

"To my e-mail."

"Which is....."

"Which is what?"

"What's your e-mail?"

"Oh, it's Gmail."

"Excellent! Now, let's see if we can't find that e-mail. I'm going to log in here and help you look ok?"

"OK! It's <loginname>."

"Ok...let's see, nothing's coming up for <loginname>. you sure you got the password right?"

"Yes! It's <loginname> and then <password>."

"Hmm...it's not working. What exactly is your log in name?"

"<loginname>! I was just using it today. It should be working."

"<loginname> at Gmail dot com?"

"Yes that's it, it should be working."

"Ok, something's not right. I need you to read me, letter for letter, your e-mail address."

"It's <loginnname>!"

"Awesome, now what's the password."

"That is the password."




Sorry that was long. It was basically like this for about 45 minutes. She knows enough about computers to understand things like dot com, @, g-mail, ebay, etc...yet she just won't open up her ears enough to keep from rambling and actually LISTEN to what I'm telling her to do.

[telecom_goddess]

Oh that would drive me bat shit crazy.

[Andara Bledin]

Get a screen sharing program. Put it on her machine. Make her do the work, and just watch.

If they can't listen, they get to do the 'heavy lifting.'

^-.-^

[DrFaroohk]

Yeah I'm gonna have to physically go over there and sit down with her to make this work. Why is it so hard to listen? I'm not going fast. I'm not using a lot of big, unfamiliar words. I'm make sure she understands what I mean when I say things like G-mail, password, username, account, log in, etc...

[guywithashovel]

I had a similar situation with a student at work once.

She wasn't old, but she wasn't a native of the US. She was from some country in Africa. We have a fairly sizeable pool of immigrant students here, and many of them aren't that savvy with computers (not putting them down, just stating a fact).

She came to my desk and told me that she saved something in Microsoft Word while she was at home, and she wondered if she could pull it up on one of the library computers.

I asked her if she saved it on her flash drive.

"No, I saved it in Microsoft Word."

"That was the program you were using," I said. "But did you save it on your hard drive at home, or did you save it on a flash drive?"

"I saved it in Microsoft Word," she said.

I then tried to tell her that she wouldn't have actually saved the file in Word, but nothing I said really clicked with her. Eventually, I just told her that unless she put it on a portable medium like a flash drive, she wouldn't be able to pull it up here. Then I showed her how to save a word file onto a flash drive.

[Jack]

Put a conspicuous shortcut to Teamviewer QuickSupport or something like that on her desktop. Saves a great deal of sanity. Then you just have to connect and tell her to show you her e-mail or whatever instead of worrying about her understanding exactly what you're asking for.

But, god, yes, I can understand some people not being familiar with computing concepts, but part of tech support is helping such people by translating things into easily understood, universal concepts. Somehow, these people still don't get it, even when the idea is something as basic as up/down/left/right, find the thing on the screen that says "Foo Bars", "You don't have to close all the windows before opening a new one", or where the address bar is located.

[Andara Bledin]

But, god, yes, I can understand some people not being familiar with computing concepts, but part of tech support is helping such people by translating things into easily understood, universal concepts.

Sometimes it's a matter of finding the edges of the other person's comfort zone, and keeping within the boundaries.

Other times, however, it's the other person not wanting to actually do anything themselves, and just trying to frustrate you into going over there and doing it all yourself.

^-.-^

[AdminAssistant]

I'm going home on Saturday, and I *know* that Dad is going to want me to look at his computer. It's slow and gets a fairly continuous stream of viruses...of course that may have something to do with all the porn he watches......*shudder*

[DrFaroohk]

I'm always happy to help out, but I swear some people really are doing it on purpose.

"I think I've got a virus! What other reason could there be for facebook rejecting my hastily typed password!?!?"