Mildly Infuriating

OMFG the elderly parent tech support shit.

My dad and his wife drove me crazy with that shit. The best part about the wife is that when she would call me for help she would argue with me about the things I told her to do.

This is the situation, they are in their condo in Florida and I am outside Baltimore MD, On a phone call.

• Her: The keyboard wont work
• Me : The battery is probably dead, replace the battery
• Her: We have never replaced a battery in a key board.
• Me: ok, that is probably why it is dead.
• Her: It doesn't have a battery.
• Me: (as I set it for them I know it is wireless) Does it have a cable connecting it to the computer?
• Her: no
• Me: ok, then it is wireless, the batter is probably dead. Flip the keyboard over and look for the battery cover.
• Her: (I hear on the phone that she has not flipped the keyboard over) I don’t see it.
• Me: have you flipped over the keyboard over.
• Her: (at this point, she is in total brainlock) how do I do that?
• Me: (pours myself another whiskey and coke)

Yeah back when it was all PC tech support I would just use Teamviewer and other products to shadow their PC and see WTF their issues where. Now with everything being cellphone it is fucking hopeless.

For a long time I did convince them to get the same exact phone as I had so I could at least give them step by step instructions on some issues.

Then “the nice guy” at the phone place gave them a great deal on a different phone type.

Now my dad’s mental capability is completely gone so that has stopped and I got so sick of her shit that I have shut it down.

“It says I can’t”

“What says you can’t?”

“The computer”

“What is the message?”

“It says it can’t”

“Tell me exactly what it says. I need to know that.”

“THIS IS THE PROBLEM WITH YOU NERDS, YOU MAKE THINGS SO DIFFICULT!”

My dad hasn't installed banking on his phone. He also doesn't know the password for his email and his phone logged him out. So what happens when his credit card is declined for a b&b he's booked and (after calling him) they send him a link to arrange a bank transfer, but he's only logged in on the tablet he doesn't have with him?

🥴

Just here to brag that when my dad upgraded to windows 11, he was tricked into making a microsoft365 acct which was promptly compromised.

So I walked him through the process of downloading a Linux mint iso, checking the hash in powershell, downloading rufus, prepping install media, and getting him off windows for the remainder of his life.

I had no eyes on the situation. His browser was giving malware results for everything so no downloads could be trusted.

2 years on his only complaint is occasional printer problems.

That sounds familiar, my dad used to do contracting and worked away from home on the week. When he got back on a Friday, he would as me how he connects to the network. Every week I would tell him the same thing, just plug the cable in to your computer

Instead of complaining, introduce her to password managers - then she only needs to remember one pw.