So I’ve started a small business , working from home. I offer to maintain computer systems for smaller companies who can’t afford their own IT department - companies of up to about 20 workers really don’t have the resources to have a full time IT guy, so I offer maintenance contracts, and system setup, and whatever it takes to keep them running smoothly.
I’ve only been at this for a couple of months, so I’ve not got a lot of business yet. The last week was DEAD. Not a single call.
Until today. I’m not feeling well, I’m running a fever, so screw it. Off to bed and try to get to feeling better.
I took the cordless phone from the office (upstairs in the attic) with me just in case someone called after all.
So I’m laying there, zonked out and drifting towards a nap, and RRRIIINNNNGGGG!
Yippee! A customer!
I drag my feverish ass out of bed and jump to the phone on the night stand, and answer the phone to encounter … an absolute dipshit.
The guy asks if I can install an operating system for him. Sure, says I. What will it cost, dipshit wants to know. Well, says I, it depends a little on what system you’ve got.
Dipshit answers back “Windows XP professional, a copy a freind made for me.”
Say what? You can’t buy a copy but you want to pay someone to install it for you? You call up a professional and ask him to help you break the law?
My half fevered brain fell back on habit, and simply informed him that I don’t touch pirated software - can’t do that if I want to stay in business - and reminded him that he himself was breaking the law. Standard speech that I give when asked to do something like this by an existing customer - it is amazing how many people think it is OK to buy one copy of something and install it on a gazillion computers.
In my fevered (and half asleep) state it didn’t occur to me to try to convince him to purchase the software legally or to suggest a free alternative instead of giving him THE SPEECH.
So I wind down, and hear this “Urrm. OK. Bye. Click.” and dipshit is gone from my life.
I crawl back under the blankets to toast the bugs who are making me feel so shitty and to ponder the stupidity of a wannabe software pirate who can’t install his own software.
Sheesh.