Those Odd Days

[G8racingfool]

I didn't see any (recent) threads on this so I thought I'd make one.

So I have this guy call yesterday, new customer that I've never talked to before, sounds fairly elderly who says he's having computer troubles. I find out that he lives in the next town east of me (about a 20-30 min drive) so I suggest that we do a remote session, he declines saying that he wants me there so he can see what I'm doing and talk to me face-to-face. In the back of my mind I'm going "eh-boy" because these sorts of things always tend to go badly in my experience, but I tell him okay I'll schedule a time tomorrow (which is now today) to come down and look at it. We find an agreeable time in the morning and I'm off on my merry way down there.

Being the prudent person I am, I map the location before I leave, the place looks like a dump. But, I know Gmaps isn't always accurate around this area (ex: it literally had my route cutting through corn fields to get to this place) so I try not to think too much of it. I get to the place google mapped to and sure enough, total dump. Fortunately it wasn't the right address and the correct place was still a 1/4 mile down the road. The right place was a quaint little well-kept farmhouse sitting on some nicely groomed land and the guy who called was waiting at the front door for me. I shook his hand and got straight to work.

As I worked, he talked my ear off about his life (something I never mind, I always like hearing stories from the old timers) what he'd done and how things were. He had just turned 90 a few weeks ago and was actually still pretty spry. Reminded me a lot of my grandfather (who's currently 97). After about 2 hours I had finished up everything he wanted done. In the meantime I could see why he wanted someone there, things were made easier with a physical presence, but mainly he just wanted somebody to talk to. This is where things took an unexpected turn, I get up from my chair and tell him that I think we're "good to go here" to which he replies:

"Okay good. Now I'm going to have you drive me into town to get some lunch and then we'll drive back here and you can drop me off."

Umm what? I didn't realize I was suddenly in the chauffeur business? I tried in the politest way possible to decline but he insisted, so as awkward as the situation sounds, there I was helping a 90 year old guy into the passenger seat of my car and off we went into town. We wound up eating at a little diner that I didn't even know existed (and I've lived up here for 12 years) while talking with some other folks that happened to be there. After we'd finished, he insisted on paying for the meal (the bill wasn't huge but it was still nice of him) and we got back in the car and headed back to his place. After we got back I dropped him off and he asked how much he owed me, I tallied up the bill, he paid it and said he'd call if he had anything else he needed me to help him with and just like that I was on my way back to the office.

So yea, tldr version: On Monday I got a call to go to a new customer's house on Tuesday and wound up driving a 90 year old guy whom I've never met to a cafe that I'd never been to for lunch for no particular reason. Gotta love living in this area.

Anyone else have any similar stories out of left-field?

 

[River Valley Computer]

I didn't see any (recent) threads on this so I thought I'd make one.

So I have this guy call yesterday, new customer that I've never talked to before, sounds fairly elderly who says he's having computer troubles. I find out that he lives in the next town east of me (about a 20-30 min drive) so I suggest that we do a remote session, he declines saying that he wants me there so he can see what I'm doing and talk to me face-to-face. In the back of my mind I'm going "eh-boy" because these sorts of things always tend to go badly in my experience, but I tell him okay I'll schedule a time tomorrow (which is now today) to come down and look at it. We find an agreeable time in the morning and I'm off on my merry way down there.

Being the prudent person I am, I map the location before I leave, the place looks like a dump. But, I know Gmaps isn't always accurate around this area (ex: it literally had my route cutting through corn fields to get to this place) so I try not to think too much of it. I get to the place google mapped to and sure enough, total dump. Fortunately it wasn't the right address and the correct place was still a 1/4 mile down the road. The right place was a quaint little well-kept farmhouse sitting on some nicely groomed land and the guy who called was waiting at the front door for me. I shook his hand and got straight to work.

As I worked, he talked my ear off about his life (something I never mind, I always like hearing stories from the old timers) what he'd done and how things were. He had just turned 90 a few weeks ago and was actually still pretty spry. Reminded me a lot of my grandfather (who's currently 97). After about 2 hours I had finished up everything he wanted done. In the meantime I could see why he wanted someone there, things were made easier with a physical presence, but mainly he just wanted somebody to talk to. This is where things took an unexpected turn, I get up from my chair and tell him that I think we're "good to go here" to which he replies:

"Okay good. Now I'm going to have you drive me into town to get some lunch and then we'll drive back here and you can drop me off."

Umm what? I didn't realize I was suddenly in the chauffeur business? I tried in the politest way possible to decline but he insisted, so as awkward as the situation sounds, there I was helping a 90 year old guy into the passenger seat of my car and off we went into town. We wound up eating at a little diner that I didn't even know existed (and I've lived up here for 12 years) while talking with some other folks that happened to be there. After we'd finished, he insisted on paying for the meal (the bill wasn't huge but it was still nice of him) and we got back in the car and headed back to his place. After we got back I dropped him off and he asked how much he owed me, I tallied up the bill, he paid it and said he'd call if he had anything else he needed me to help him with and just like that I was on my way back to the office.

So yea, tldr version: On Monday I got a call to go to a new customer's house on Tuesday and wound up driving a 90 year old guy whom I've never met to a cafe that I'd never been to for lunch for no particular reason. Gotta love living in this area.

Anyone else have any similar stories out of left-field?

Oh yeah - plenty - been in this business tooooooo long. I won't bore you with them, but I can feel your pain - I live in Arkansas now but I am originally from Omaha, NE - go Cornhuskers!

 

[mraikes]

..So yea, tldr version: On Monday I got a call to go to a new customer's house on Tuesday and wound up driving a 90 year old guy whom I've never met to a cafe that I'd never been to for lunch for no particular reason. Gotta love living in this area.

I lol'd. As I read your tale, I thought it was exactly the kind of thing that would happen where I grew up (Iowa), Everything from the description of the drive, the address being off, a lonely old guy that just says "Welp, now you can drive me into town for lunch." without thinking twice about it. It made me homesick! Then I looked at where you're from (Nebraska) and thought yup, that makes sense. Rural Nebraska and rural Iowa folks are cut from the same cloth.

 

[Markverhyden]

I didn't see any (recent) threads on this so I thought I'd make one.

So I have this guy call yesterday, new customer that I've never talked to before, sounds fairly elderly who says he's having computer troubles. I find out that he lives in the next town east of me (about a 20-30 min drive) so I suggest that we do a remote session, he declines saying that he wants me there so he can see what I'm doing and talk to me face-to-face. In the back of my mind I'm going "eh-boy" because these sorts of things always tend to go badly in my experience, but I tell him okay I'll schedule a time tomorrow (which is now today) to come down and look at it. We find an agreeable time in the morning and I'm off on my merry way down there.

Being the prudent person I am, I map the location before I leave, the place looks like a dump. But, I know Gmaps isn't always accurate around this area (ex: it literally had my route cutting through corn fields to get to this place) so I try not to think too much of it. I get to the place google mapped to and sure enough, total dump. Fortunately it wasn't the right address and the correct place was still a 1/4 mile down the road. The right place was a quaint little well-kept farmhouse sitting on some nicely groomed land and the guy who called was waiting at the front door for me. I shook his hand and got straight to work.

As I worked, he talked my ear off about his life (something I never mind, I always like hearing stories from the old timers) what he'd done and how things were. He had just turned 90 a few weeks ago and was actually still pretty spry. Reminded me a lot of my grandfather (who's currently 97). After about 2 hours I had finished up everything he wanted done. In the meantime I could see why he wanted someone there, things were made easier with a physical presence, but mainly he just wanted somebody to talk to. This is where things took an unexpected turn, I get up from my chair and tell him that I think we're "good to go here" to which he replies:

"Okay good. Now I'm going to have you drive me into town to get some lunch and then we'll drive back here and you can drop me off."

Umm what? I didn't realize I was suddenly in the chauffeur business? I tried in the politest way possible to decline but he insisted, so as awkward as the situation sounds, there I was helping a 90 year old guy into the passenger seat of my car and off we went into town. We wound up eating at a little diner that I didn't even know existed (and I've lived up here for 12 years) while talking with some other folks that happened to be there. After we'd finished, he insisted on paying for the meal (the bill wasn't huge but it was still nice of him) and we got back in the car and headed back to his place. After we got back I dropped him off and he asked how much he owed me, I tallied up the bill, he paid it and said he'd call if he had anything else he needed me to help him with and just like that I was on my way back to the office.

So yea, tldr version: On Monday I got a call to go to a new customer's house on Tuesday and wound up driving a 90 year old guy whom I've never met to a cafe that I'd never been to for lunch for no particular reason. Gotta love living in this area.

Anyone else have any similar stories out of left-field?

To be honest I'm not that surprised. That's a customer who came from a totally different era.

 

[overburnz]

i don't do residential work, but still where i work sometimes the old timers offers me coffe or a beer wich i try to decline (the beer at least ).

 

[glricht]

We've been an onsite-only business since 2003 and what you describe is almost a daily occurrence ... and a 20-30 min drive is typical.

The first couple of times I had a customer like yours I was a little perturbed as I wanted to get to the next customer. But since we charge by the hour, if he wanted to talk or go to lunch, that was fine with me. (Depending on our schedule for the day, sometimes we'd charge for the time at lunch, and sometimes not.) We've even taken a customer to a convenience store so he could use the ATM to get cash to pay us!

Over the years, the customer interaction has become neater -- you really meet a lot of neat people, especially the seniors, with amazing stories that they share while you're working on their PC. And your willingness to listen and share ends up being good business as our referral business is quite strong. ("You worked on my friend's PC and they said I should call you because not only did you fix my PC, you were also very friendly.")

And yeah, we've been offered beers and mixed drinks, but had to decline those! (But have had a couple of customers give me bottles of wine to "bring home to the missus").

 

[G8racingfool]

The first couple of times I had a customer like yours I was a little perturbed as I wanted to get to the next customer. But since we charge by the hour, if he wanted to talk or go to lunch, that was fine with me. (Depending on our schedule for the day, sometimes we'd charge for the time at lunch, and sometimes not.) We've even taken a customer to a convenience store so he could use the ATM to get cash to pay us!

Over the years, the customer interaction has become neater -- you really meet a lot of neat people, especially the seniors, with amazing stories that they share while you're working on their PC. And your willingness to listen and share ends up being good business as our referral business is quite strong. ("You worked on my friend's PC and they said I should call you because not only did you fix my PC, you were also very friendly.")

I've had quite a few customers offer me food/lunch/etc as well over the years. The main thing that had me kinda taken aback at first was just the "okay, you're going to do this now" demeanor. At first I thought about just putting my foot down and saying no but after thinking it through quick I figured the poor gent was 90 years old, lives by himself, and probably doesn't get out much (he has macular degeneration so he can't drive). He was a pretty good guy all around and, after getting to know him better, I wouldn't have any qualms about doing it again.

And I'll absolutely agree about the stories. A lot of people in my age group couldn't give a crap less about the older generation but I've more or less grown up around them (at 13 I was a part of an organization comprised mainly of seniors) and I get along pretty well with folks in that age range. There's a lot of wisdom to be gleaned from our elders, much of which I'm afraid will be lost when they're no longer with us due to a lot of people these days going out of their way to not pay attention to these people. And yes, "coffee shop talk" is probably the best advertising you can get. I don't even think I could buy an ad campaign that would be as effective.

 

[GTP]

(But have had a couple of customers give me bottles of wine to "bring home to the missus").

Wine, beer, biscuits, cakes, puddings, slices, pasties, pies etc. I'll take them all! nom nom!
I have one client who drops me in a tray of "goodies" every other week! ('cause she likes me!)

 

[GTP]

And yes, "coffee shop talk" is probably the best advertising you can get. I don't even think I could buy an ad campaign that would be as effective.

I wholeheartedly agree!

 

[cypress]

This is a great story. I will say that the elder clients are one of the most loyal out there. You take care of them, and they will take care of you with good worth of mouth business.

Side Note: I can't stop laughing at the location of Oakland, NE (because I keep thinking California.)

 

[glricht]

This is a great story. I will say that the elder clients are one of the most loyal out there. You take care of them, and they will take care of you with good worth of mouth business.

One of my favorite senior-citizen stories -- that I tell to many of my customers (especially if they say they're "too old for computers" -- is a 90 year-old gentleman that called me about 4 years ago. He had lost his wife about 3 years prior and was getting tired of just watching the cars drive past and viewing TV shows. The local university doesn't charge for students over 75, so he went back to school! He took one remote-learning class each semester. At the beginning of each semester I would create desktop icons for that particular course and review with him the process needed to view the syllabus, submit his homework and take the tests. At the end of the semester, I'd stop by and remove all the course-specific setup.

At the beginning, he told me he was going for a law degree! Last year, he told me he was changing his major to Russian Literature! (I was blown away by his new major until he told me that he used to work for the state department and was fluent in Russian.)

He passed away last fall. I really miss him.

p.s. I got a LOT of business from his referrals.

 

[overburnz]

i also agree, old timers are good for bussiness IF you take your time with them, if you try to hurry them they will tell and won't come back.... i've had quite a few asking me if i would teach them in how to use a computer but i don't think i would be a good teacher lol i like to teach my co-workers how to fix computers, no teach anyone in how to use Word or google chrome...

 

[HCHTech]

I just had one this week. An older woman that has been a customer for a long time. She is involved in a gardening club of some sort and got tapped to be in charge of publicity this year. She basically paid me to do her homework - haha. I created an event flyer, a trifold brochure, and scanned in some logos and letterhead, and finally created an Excel spreadsheet so she could track their monthly speakers. At the beginning she asked if I could show her how, but it was clear that she really didn't want to know how, she just preferred to chat while I did the work - more than happy to pay. She handed me a bottle of scotch on the way out the door as a bonus!

 

[Altster]

She handed me a bottle of scotch on the way out the door as a bonus!

YOU were her life save (see how your logo fits in with the conversation?)

 

[Velvis]

I didn't see any (recent) threads on this so I thought I'd make one.

So I have this guy call yesterday, new customer that I've never talked to before, sounds fairly elderly who says he's having computer troubles. I find out that he lives in the next town east of me (about a 20-30 min drive) so I suggest that we do a remote session, he declines saying that he wants me there so he can see what I'm doing and talk to me face-to-face. In the back of my mind I'm going "eh-boy" because these sorts of things always tend to go badly in my experience, but I tell him okay I'll schedule a time tomorrow (which is now today) to come down and look at it. We find an agreeable time in the morning and I'm off on my merry way down there.

Being the prudent person I am, I map the location before I leave, the place looks like a dump. But, I know Gmaps isn't always accurate around this area (ex: it literally had my route cutting through corn fields to get to this place) so I try not to think too much of it. I get to the place google mapped to and sure enough, total dump. Fortunately it wasn't the right address and the correct place was still a 1/4 mile down the road. The right place was a quaint little well-kept farmhouse sitting on some nicely groomed land and the guy who called was waiting at the front door for me. I shook his hand and got straight to work.

As I worked, he talked my ear off about his life (something I never mind, I always like hearing stories from the old timers) what he'd done and how things were. He had just turned 90 a few weeks ago and was actually still pretty spry. Reminded me a lot of my grandfather (who's currently 97). After about 2 hours I had finished up everything he wanted done. In the meantime I could see why he wanted someone there, things were made easier with a physical presence, but mainly he just wanted somebody to talk to. This is where things took an unexpected turn, I get up from my chair and tell him that I think we're "good to go here" to which he replies:

"Okay good. Now I'm going to have you drive me into town to get some lunch and then we'll drive back here and you can drop me off."

Umm what? I didn't realize I was suddenly in the chauffeur business? I tried in the politest way possible to decline but he insisted, so as awkward as the situation sounds, there I was helping a 90 year old guy into the passenger seat of my car and off we went into town. We wound up eating at a little diner that I didn't even know existed (and I've lived up here for 12 years) while talking with some other folks that happened to be there. After we'd finished, he insisted on paying for the meal (the bill wasn't huge but it was still nice of him) and we got back in the car and headed back to his place. After we got back I dropped him off and he asked how much he owed me, I tallied up the bill, he paid it and said he'd call if he had anything else he needed me to help him with and just like that I was on my way back to the office.

So yea, tldr version: On Monday I got a call to go to a new customer's house on Tuesday and wound up driving a 90 year old guy whom I've never met to a cafe that I'd never been to for lunch for no particular reason. Gotta love living in this area.

Anyone else have any similar stories out of left-field?

You probably made the guys week. If he was willing to ask/tell you you were going to lunch he probably REALLY needed/wanted the companionship. You might even consider calling him up in a few weeks and ask him if he needs a ride anywhere.



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