Sink or Swim ? Don't know until you try? And other such..

Sink or Swim ? Don't know until you try? And other such ideas.

There is so much to learn and do in the great world. Modern communications through so many channels work full time to let us know how much we don't know about the world.

So much is out there to tell us that we need X, Y or Z in order to be more successful in some aspect of life.

Some of these communications are primarily oriented so you go ahead and buy a product, or solution. So it is aways a balancing act of telling you enough that you are missing out until you purchase the solution. But if they tell you enough... you don't need to buy the solution... They already shared it with you!

Somehow the personal computer industry still seems to be gripping with how to get people happily started with their first computing experience.

I won't mention brands or the specific case. I don't want to embarrass the person who may be reading this post.

I recently came into contact with a small business owner who just purchased a new computer from a major manufacturer. She had very basic needs to start with in terms of a computer.

Unfortunately the computer manufacturer had decided to transition to the latest version of a particular operating system. I personally know from my experiences over the years as a Technical Support person that introducing new technology as product can be easy or rough in terms of use. However it seems that that whenever a major change is introduced , there is the possibility of disruptions of service or customer satisfaction as everyone learns the "ropes" in supporting the product.

I became involved in the situation when the owner of the new computer asked me in frustration to help.

The issue boiled down that the product was shipped with unusable product and software. The new operating system had chosen to block the new software from working and certain new peripherals ( with the computer manufacturer's product label on it) would not work as well due to a lack of current drivers.

So the product was shipped with no warnings or suggestions to be on top of the latest situation. The technical support people who she contacted did not give her options on what to do next. She was given the suggestion by me to ask at first if they could sell or send her the previous version of the operating system if essentially her computer was unusable due to operating system incompatibilities. She was told, "They don't sell that version of the operating system anymore"

I would personally be very frustrated if this was my first computer purchase.

I stepped in and used my background to reach the "right people" . Even the computer manufacturer's support organization was not on the same page of knowing the status of product compatibility or driver updates.

I did talk with someone who did find an updated driver that supposedly would make the new business owner's computer work with the printer that she purchased as part of the package.

What surprises me ... Is that there was no mention in the customer's packaging where to go to get the current news on compatibility , news or drivers relating to her purchase.

So this was a new product purchase, which included old software that would not work and no other information to go by. The standard support process failed to help get on her feet with a new system using the default installed software.

The person owning the computer is on a slow Internet connection. So as a favor, I pulled down a 50 megabyte file update from my fast Internet connection in order to get this file in less than five hours using her modem connection. Technical Support said they could NOT ship a disk to her with this update.

I was becoming frustrated a bit with the handling of the whole process. That is saying quite a bit since I have by nature a great deal of patience. If this was my first computer.. I think it would be promptly putting it in a box and shipping it back.

So you still need a friend out there to help you on your road to computing. This should not be the case. Personal Computers have been with us for some twenty eight years.

So do you need to buy your first private plane in order to fly to the exclusive private plane airport ( which can only be reached by private plane) so you can learn about purchasing the right private plane?

If cars were this hard to buy and operate, many more people would be walking!

Eventually this change in operating systems will be a bump in the road. Unfortunately those who were "bumped" during this time period will remember this experience for a long time.