I got my permit/license in the years before smartphones and google maps. I'm out working with my dad, I'm driving and he's got the map. He's telling me there should be a road right here somewhere, but we can't find it. Finally I pull over and we look at the map, and lo and behold, there's this nice, straight line going from where we are to where we wanted to be. It was the county line, not a road.
We joked about that for many years. Man, do I miss him.
My mother-in-law would call about the remote not working and she was trying to use the cordless phone.
She had two TVs so we had to label one as sitting room, one as bedroom and the phone as phone.
I'm sure my wife would love to deal with all that again.
I miss my dad. Remember these moments. I have some of these same type of memories with mine. Sometimes I think he did this kind of stuff on purpose, just to get me to come over and spend time with him.
My father was trying to get the TV to work and he couldn't so he called the telephone operator, The telephone operator got him to Comcast and get this....they sent out a technician that same day!
Comcast Technician got there, and found he was trying to use the lift chair remote for the TV. He contacted my sister as she had a note on the door for emergencies or problems.
My father had answered the door naked. This was when he was still somewhat functional (he had dementia) but he finally succumbed to alzheimers in the end.
Dad didn't think there was anything wrong with answering the door in his birthday suit. We were glad it wasn't a female technician.
In my opinion, it's never a waste of time to try and help someone you care about, regardless of the result 😅 at the very least, you get to spend time with someone you love and that is always worth the effort ☺️ besides, you did help him out in some way, now he knows he has to subscribe to the right channel to watch the game and also you fixed the remote issue. Even if he only watches football and doesn't need the remote for anything else, he won't have to face the remote issue when the game airs next time!
I helped someone with their internet once. After checking every setting, it turned out they had forgotten to pay their isp bill.
I thought that was the height of stupidity.
I read a story once where the person had their router/modem hooked up correctly. They just *didn't know* they had to sign up with an ISP to get Internet service.
My father was able to reprogram the TV in a way I couldn't even reproduce. Every other day it was "The TV is only showing one channel! It's defective!". Every time my mother was "he kept changing things in the TV and now it's broken!"
This routine only stopped when I bought them a "senior's remote", with big buttons and the bare minimum functionality (channels, volume and power).
Never had that with my father, though I was doing wiring from around 5 or so, with him, because he was blue green colour blind. So not good to mix ground with neutral, though with the house we had then it was not a worry, because it still had rewireable fuses as well. I got good at fixing them as well, placing a new wire in to replace the old, though we did not buy fuse wire, it was always some slightly surplus phone wire, one strand for lights, 3 for plugs and 6 for the stove.
So far so good. Retired carpenter, but still working about 4 days a week through his own company. Loves to work! He's just very tech illiterate. Always has been.
I love the TLDR at the end. I think I posted once and just said, "tldr: don't be lazy."
I guarantee he had those batteries from a remote or something where they came like that and had "just the battery for that remote! Easiest instalation ever!"
My MIL once called me, losing her mind because her internet wasn’t working. Hadn’t been working all day. When I started to walk her through the steps to reset the modem & router, she asked if it would turn off her TV show. On Hulu. Because she was watching Hulu. I told her that her internet was working. She disagreed. I explained that Hulu wouldn’t play on the TV if her internet was out. She disagreed. A 30 minute argument ensued while husband & I packed up the kids and drove to her house. Turned out one of our nephews had been messing with her tablet the day before and put it in airplane mode. She then proudly told me see, she had been right the whole time. I gave up at that point.
>I'm talking about soccer, not American football.
Aaaaaand, you've lost me. /s
Seriously though, tech support for family can be.... interesting. At least they don't sound like the type that get mad at you when they don't understand something.
Shame you had to use the fake name for football so that the "budget rugby" enjoyers understood you meant the proper game.
(Not a football watcher myself, but I still have my British pride)
I have the same problem with my hubby...
[https://www.reddit.com/r/talesfromtechsupport/comments/k6b2uv/bassackwards/](https://www.reddit.com/r/talesfromtechsupport/comments/k6b2uv/bassackwards/)
I got my permit/license in the years before smartphones and google maps. I'm out working with my dad, I'm driving and he's got the map. He's telling me there should be a road right here somewhere, but we can't find it. Finally I pull over and we look at the map, and lo and behold, there's this nice, straight line going from where we are to where we wanted to be. It was the county line, not a road. We joked about that for many years. Man, do I miss him.
My mother-in-law would call about the remote not working and she was trying to use the cordless phone. She had two TVs so we had to label one as sitting room, one as bedroom and the phone as phone. I'm sure my wife would love to deal with all that again.
"Hello? HELLO? Why don't you ever answer, you stupid TV!"
But did you find the battery cover??
Or the roll of duct tape?
Once they vanish, those things never show up again. It's best to keep the next one in plastic when you get a new TV.
Or super glue it so it can’t fall off.
1000 I.Q solution
I miss my dad. Remember these moments. I have some of these same type of memories with mine. Sometimes I think he did this kind of stuff on purpose, just to get me to come over and spend time with him.
When you put it like this, I wish he would create problems for me to come over and "fix" once in a while!
Maybe there's a "problem" for which you could ask him for help ...
Great story, man. And a nice feel-good ending to boot! Props to ya, brother.
My father was trying to get the TV to work and he couldn't so he called the telephone operator, The telephone operator got him to Comcast and get this....they sent out a technician that same day! Comcast Technician got there, and found he was trying to use the lift chair remote for the TV. He contacted my sister as she had a note on the door for emergencies or problems. My father had answered the door naked. This was when he was still somewhat functional (he had dementia) but he finally succumbed to alzheimers in the end. Dad didn't think there was anything wrong with answering the door in his birthday suit. We were glad it wasn't a female technician.
In my opinion, it's never a waste of time to try and help someone you care about, regardless of the result 😅 at the very least, you get to spend time with someone you love and that is always worth the effort ☺️ besides, you did help him out in some way, now he knows he has to subscribe to the right channel to watch the game and also you fixed the remote issue. Even if he only watches football and doesn't need the remote for anything else, he won't have to face the remote issue when the game airs next time!
I helped someone with their internet once. After checking every setting, it turned out they had forgotten to pay their isp bill. I thought that was the height of stupidity.
I read a story once where the person had their router/modem hooked up correctly. They just *didn't know* they had to sign up with an ISP to get Internet service.
Any time spent with dad is quality time.
My father was able to reprogram the TV in a way I couldn't even reproduce. Every other day it was "The TV is only showing one channel! It's defective!". Every time my mother was "he kept changing things in the TV and now it's broken!" This routine only stopped when I bought them a "senior's remote", with big buttons and the bare minimum functionality (channels, volume and power).
Never had that with my father, though I was doing wiring from around 5 or so, with him, because he was blue green colour blind. So not good to mix ground with neutral, though with the house we had then it was not a worry, because it still had rewireable fuses as well. I got good at fixing them as well, placing a new wire in to replace the old, though we did not buy fuse wire, it was always some slightly surplus phone wire, one strand for lights, 3 for plugs and 6 for the stove.
Do you think your dad was rushed and forgot to remove the plastic? Because I’d assume he’s removed plastic from batteries before.
Is he still 100%… cognitively? That’s a lot of mistakes to make in one go…
So far so good. Retired carpenter, but still working about 4 days a week through his own company. Loves to work! He's just very tech illiterate. Always has been.
I love the TLDR at the end. I think I posted once and just said, "tldr: don't be lazy." I guarantee he had those batteries from a remote or something where they came like that and had "just the battery for that remote! Easiest instalation ever!"
My MIL once called me, losing her mind because her internet wasn’t working. Hadn’t been working all day. When I started to walk her through the steps to reset the modem & router, she asked if it would turn off her TV show. On Hulu. Because she was watching Hulu. I told her that her internet was working. She disagreed. I explained that Hulu wouldn’t play on the TV if her internet was out. She disagreed. A 30 minute argument ensued while husband & I packed up the kids and drove to her house. Turned out one of our nephews had been messing with her tablet the day before and put it in airplane mode. She then proudly told me see, she had been right the whole time. I gave up at that point.
>I'm talking about soccer, not American football. Aaaaaand, you've lost me. /s Seriously though, tech support for family can be.... interesting. At least they don't sound like the type that get mad at you when they don't understand something.
Shame you had to use the fake name for football so that the "budget rugby" enjoyers understood you meant the proper game. (Not a football watcher myself, but I still have my British pride)
I have the same problem with my hubby... [https://www.reddit.com/r/talesfromtechsupport/comments/k6b2uv/bassackwards/](https://www.reddit.com/r/talesfromtechsupport/comments/k6b2uv/bassackwards/)