PC Rage

We depend upon our PCs. They are a necessity. Printed magazines are no longer delivered by mail. Google.com finds specific information I need. Google news and the TV provide news. Most everyone communicates using e-mail. School homework today requires computer access and MS Office. There is no escape. Anyone 25 years old or younger does not know life without PCs. (I can sure remember the early TV days because I avidly watched TV test patterns on B&W TV. At that time TV was new and compelling to watch.) We depend more upon PCs today than ever before. PCs are household appliances. People exhibit all types of computer rage when PCs won’t work or important data is lost.

The more we depend upon PCs the more desperate we become when the do not work. We get calls on all types of PC problems. The illogical calls are from people desperate to have their PC work, desperate to have their data saved, but looking for the cheapest PC repair price. More importantly, these people are often angry people implying that in some implausible way we have hurt their PC and should rush over and fix it for free because it is broken. Many are looking for the cheapest PC repair service regardless of quality. Why care about important data and be more than naively willing to have a cheap someone that does not care about your data, fix your PC. The cheapest way to repair a PC is to wipe all data off the drive by performing a system restore. When you want cheap, you get this.

In-home PC service seems to provide personal care and assurance. Because service is in their home people feel in control. However, in-home service technicians often do not explain what is happening; and service is incomplete (unless a total system data wipe and restore is performed). It is a misconception to associate in-home service with hi-quality service and any empathy critical data loss. Viruses cannot be removed when booted off a PC’s disk drive. More thorough cleaning techniques are required.

When I was doing TV at Channel 2, I heard a phone call from a person that returned their laptop to the manufacturer for repair. They believed that the manufacturer would repair their PC and return it to them. But the manufacturer returned another remanufactured PC. This remanufactured PC had none of their data. This person slowly lost composure during the course of the phone call because two years of his life had just disappeared. The call ended with him shouting into the phone phrases and words that I cannot repeat.

Sometimes customers we service call act very angry thinking that their anger compels us fix their PC. We fix the PC regardless of the anger because our goal is to fix their PC. Such anger is symptomatic of the underlying PC rage that is emerging whenever PCs do not work as we expect them to work. Anger and frustration result from time pressures and the sinking feeling vital information has been lost.

Sometimes data just cannot be retrieved no matter what you are willing to pay. If I am lucky and get a drive before it completely fails, I can be the hero and save all important data for a few hundred dollars. The next level of computer rage reduction and data recovery starts around $1,000 or more. Whenever I loose important data I comfort myself by repeating this mantra “The second time I create something, I will do it better than the first time that I created it.” This helps reduce my PC rage.

To determine how PC rage impacts you, answer the question: “Have you ever hit, kicked, or punched your computer?” I have. Has anyone shot their PC with a gun? I would not be surprised if more than one person had shot their PC. Broken PC parts are a good way to reduce frustration. I give customers failed CD-ROMs and fixed disks with instructions to beat them with a hammer on those frustrating bad PC days. I know for certain that everyone will some day have a bad PC day. Computer rage is inevitable. It is best handled by determining your response now before you are hit by the rage.