I just billed a client $300.00 for finding the solution to a problem that took me less than half an hour. The bill should have been $30.00.
How can this be you ask?
Well, if you have ever called for computer tech support you probably know the answer — incompetence and/or lackluster attitudes on the part of the phone support technician.
My client even knew what the problem was and asked her tech support phone guy to check it and he refused! He said it wouldn’t do any good to check that.
He gave up and his advice was to call the computer manufacturer for tech support or buy a new computer. BUY A NEW COMPUTER!!! To fix a software problem that they just installed.
Wow.
Why was my bill so high? Because she wanted me to stay and talk to the tech people who installed the software. (It was an anti-virus/firewall solution provided by her internet access provider which disabled her internet access). It took them four(!) technicians doing remote access and over 4 hours(!) to fix the problem. And my client wanted me to stay so that those techs couldn’t try to pull the wool over her eyes again. (And it’s a good thing I stayed as it turns out.)
Of course my bill is going straight from her to the service provider. We’ll see how that works out…
The moral of this story, is if it just doesn’t seem right, call back and talk to a supervisor and ask them if the solution you’ve been offered is proper. Maybe you’ll get lucky and get somebody smarter, or somebody who cares more, on the phone.
Or call me when you’ve just had enough of those people who just make you want to ______________ fill in your own blank.
The man behind Firefox says we should be on the lookout for a mobile browser that will provide an “entirely different experience” from Web navigation on a desktop. At the 
