Flo, her expensive computer - and Tiscali

Flo (name changed to... well, you know - names are always changed in these kind of things, aren't they?) well, anyway, Flo called me one day to ask me about building her a new computer and installing her a wireless network. New client at that point, she'd pulled my name out of the local directory.

Unlike most clients, she wasn't looking to get the cheapest deal she coud - she wanted a relatively high spec box, and she was aware it would cost. So I costed one for her.

For those who are interested, here are the spec:

• Asus K8V-MX SKT754 motherboard;
• AMD (Newcastle) Athlon 64bit 3000+ 512kb L2 Cache 754pin;
• Corsair memory, 2x512MB matched pair, DDR 400 CL2.5;
• Seagate Barracuda Plus 200GB 7200RPM HDD;
• NEC dual layer DVD writer;
• Sapphire Radeon 9600 AGP X8 256MB DDR DVI TV-Out;
• Internal floppy/ media card reader;
• Good quality silver with black trim case, 350W PSU.

Nice case, isn't it?

With that, she wanted a 19" Neovo glass fronted monitor and Canon Pixma iP5200 printer.

Done. Delivered. Installed.

We had hassle with that computer. Flo thought she knew about computers. She also had a "knowledgeable" mate (there's always one of them, isn't there) who castigated her for getting an Athlon instead of a Pentium IV (never mind that in independent tests, Athlon beat the laggard P4 hands down, especially in multimedia apps, which she intended to run.) Faults were found, faults were rectified or pointed out not to be faults. I spent extra hours on installing her software as she had it on her old computer, then upgrade her old computer to WindowsXP so that her 10 year old son could use it for his homework - cos the little tyke couldn't possibly do his homework on Windows 98 now, could he? - and didn't charge. Just so's I end up with a happy customer.

Anyway, all that aside - she also wanted wireless networking, so that her son could access the internet from his own computer - for his homework. So, I got her a Linksys modem/wireless router and a wireless network card, went there to install it.

Found Flo tearing her hair out - her broadband connection had failed and would not reconnect. So she got on the phone to -
yes, Tiscali customer support.

According to Flo, she spent some two hours on the phone to them - various "technicians" put her and the computer through their paces. Eventually the advice was - yes, "reinstall Windows" (see my post about ntl "customer service" below.) So she ended up with two instances of Windos XP on her computer, a confusing choice of Operating Systems at boot ("please select your operating system: Windows XP or Windows XP") and no internet connection.

I looked down at the modem - ADSL light was flashing; the modem wasn't trained. I asked her whether she told Tiscali that and whether she asked them to check the line. Yes, she had, and they assured her the line was just fine. Had she suggestd to them the modem had developed a fault? Yes, she had - their answer was, no, it's a Windows problem. OK, I said, let's try the router.

Installed the router, it trained without a problem. Her internet connection was up and running in less than 15 minutes.

This time I did charge her to sort out the mess of two XP installations.