*Archived*
# I swear our office IT contractor is screwingup on purpose, just to make extra cash

We’re a small office. Our contractor IT guy is somehow associated with our CEO, otherwise thiswould have been gone a long time ago. He’s been known for generally not being that savvy, we catch him googling YouTube videos on how to do stuff for instance. Everyone has computer problems popping up constantly and it takes forever for him to resolve them. So no one was surprised at this latest round of irritating behaviour

A month ago he got me a brand new Surface tablet/computer, it’s the newest and most powerful computer any of us have and there hasn’t been a single day without problems. It has error windows popping up whenever I open an Office document, it won’t update, it freezes even when nothing is open, and it frequently crashes with critical process errors. He’s done “repairs” and fixes and updates, but the problems persist

So I searched the error message online from one of the crashes, Critical Process Failed, find out how to a deeper diagnostic, determined there’s an issue with some of the core process files, as the system is unable execute a repair itself. Indicates I likely need to create a restore file on a USB stick, and copy/paste in some replacement system files from Microsoft. Fine. I contact Microsoft Support, get the files, and prep a restore drive. But I don’t execute it because I will have to reinstall all the Office software and IT guy has the activation codes. I tell him to give me the codes

He flips out of course, tells me I have a virus that’s causing these error messages and I’ve probablyup the computer further with my “repairs”. He tells me the virus is my fault for installing Google Chrome and 7-zip. And he needs to fix it. So fine. He does a remote access on my computer and I watch as he installs aof free antivirus anti-malware anti-adware software, runs them, basically only finds cookies and one potentially suspicious file. He deletes aof pre-installed bloatware, deletes my two downloaded programs, deletes any files. Managed to get the computer to update a few times. Tells me I had a virus causing the problems but he fixed it for me

He took away my admin access and tells me to contact him if there are any problems. Because maybe I’m a bright young lady but he’s been doing this for a long time and he knows what he’s doing


Well guess what? The computer is still failing to check for and install updates. And it crashed with the same error message as before. I’ve been texting him every time something fails today. In intricate detail
And I forwarded him all the info on what I did (as he accused me of “fixing” stuff on my own andit up further). And all the emails from Microsoft. And the link to the software files they sent. And the details of every error that’s been happening and the repairs he’s done and the current status. And then I copied one of our managers on the email because he also copied him in accusatory emails to me

Thisis very likely to end up doing the exact repair I was going to do in the first place, but billing several extra days’ work of futile efforts to repair my “virus”. Pretty sure it wasfrom the beginning (as there were other problems with the battery and it not booting up/crashing initially and it’s potentially some hardware issue so thething will get returned

If I’m right I’m going to get the manager to have him give me back admin access, as he’s clearly wasting my time

I would go even farther and say that is any non-specialty field including doctors, lawyers, etc. The body of knowledge is large and unless you are a hyperfocused tier 3 engineer whoa single product you simply aren't going to know every a significant minority of the information. What makes a good troubleshooter (which is what doctors and IT folk are) is the ability to accurate conduct a differential diagnosis and then equally resolve the issue

I mean, that thing should be on warranty. Just back up data and send it in. They'll send you a brand new one,case scenario. Make him set it up again. That's what I would have done if the problems you're describing are actually happening. Sounds like potential hardware issue. Whenever I get to the point where OS install is the course of action - I check the warranty

It's also possible he deliberately broke the updates so he controls which ones actually get pushed to you. So an update doesn't break a system he has in place by accident

He also probably thinks you don't know anything, and is dumbing down his explanations to you

What I will say is, while he doesn't sound like he's the best at customer support - there's a lot going on in the back end that you're probably not aware of that he has a certain way for a good reason. Googling is also perfectly acceptable for anyone in IT at any level


Because this isn't your profession, and it's his - I would try to play nice. Having an attitude and behaving this way towards him will reflect extremely poorly on you if it turns out he's right (especially if he's in with the CEO). Which he may very well be and just hasn't committed the time to doing the job right

Final thought: Sounds like the problems are not simple, and worth investigating the warranty for repair options

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