W2k or XP is going to be more stable than 98, and harder to mess up.  I
would stay away from NT if for no other reason that it's age and trouble
setting up PnP devices.  As far as them continuing to break things, this is
a tricky issue.  You can force them to use particular accounts, and change
the permissions so it's harder for them to break things.  You will need to
do some studying to get this done right if you don't know these operating
systems real well already.

Frankly, these kind of customers are my bread and butter.  Understand, I do
everything I can to convince them to be more careful, and I try to get them
involved in training via me or a more formal class, but the typical response
is to do nothing except pay me to come back and fix their mistakes.  When I
have actually sold them the machine in question, I take great pains to go
over my warranty on the system and explain that I will fix what breaks
WITHOUT their intervention.  If it's something they did (like download a
file with a virus), they will have to pay my fee.  When it's questionable on
whether or not they caused the problem, I will usually split the difference
with them or charge them a nominal fee, but this can be more tricky.  I want
to be as honest as I can with my customers, and sometimes will eat the cost
if it's not something I can show was definitely a user error.

Good luck.

Kyle Elmblade
Distinct Computer Solutions
Sales - Upgrades - Training - Consulting
[log in to unmask]
Computers are a more fun way to do the same work you'd have to do without
them.

From: "Ian" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, February 17, 2003 11:46 PM
Subject: [PCBUILD] Troublesome customer


> I have a customer who I'd have to classify as 'difficult'.  18 months ago,
I
> built him a 1.4Ghz\256 DDR W98SE system.  Since then I've lost track of
the
> number of rebuilds and repairs I've had to do to keep it running.  He, and
> his family, just keep breaking it.
>
> I'm going to give it one last shot, but it's occurred to me that maybe
these
> people need an OS that'll take more of a hammering than W98SE  (like maybe
> an abacus)
>
> So, what do you think?  Win2K? XP? NT?
>
> Suggestions welcomed.
>
>
> Ian Porter

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