Why Do People Ignore my Tech Advice?

[Wes Vollmar]

Why do people ignore my tech advice, even after they ask me for help? It makes me feel as if I have zero credibility. Has anyone ever dealt with this? How did you deal with it? Let me give you just a small example of a situation.

My cousin loves gaming of all forms. He likes everything from D&D/Tabletop gaming to PC and console gaming. A few months ago he asks me my opinion of which kind of PS4 to buy, a regular PS4 or a PS4 Pro. I give him my opinion and tell him he should buy a Pro, but I made sure to mention one specific feature. That feature being 'Boost Mode'

For those of you unaware, Boost Mode on the PS4 Pro is a setting you can turn on which allows better optimization for older PS4 games that were released prior to the PS4 Pro (which is slightly more powerful than the PS4). In some cases in can drastically increase framerate and reduce stuttering, but just makes the game look and perform a little bit better overall.

Fast forward a few weeks after hes purchased his PS4 Pro and I go over to visit. I notice the game hes playing (Just Cause 3) is stuttering and his load times are pretty long.

I ask him "Have you enabled Boost Mode on this yet?"

"Boost mode?" he asks, with a confused look "Are you trolling me?"

Again I explain to him what Boost Mode is and how it would help with the game stuttering.

Then he replies with a simple "Alright... well... interesting."

He doesn't go to enable it though and I prompt a couple more times by talking about how I enabled Boost Mode and Killzone looked a lot better with it enabled. Still nothing. To this day he has not enabled it and when I mention it I just get a "Oh, yea? Hmm, Ill have to check it out"

Time and time again I get situations like this with people. Not specifically about tech or computers every time, but stuff like this in general. A lot of times people will ask me what they should do or ask for my opinion on how to fix something, Ill happily tell them or even offer to fix the problem, just to have them come back and tell me they paid someone to fix their issue or Ill catch them getting a second opinion from someone else. Or they'll get their second opinion and come back to tell me about, which in some cases the things they have told me are either wrong or the person is telling them they need to do more than what is required to fix their problem in order to gouge them.

 

[Ralston18]

Human nature.

Some people more than others. Have a family member who is just like the "person" in your last paragraph.

Have a neighbor who will ask what to do regarding a computer problem and all the while pushing keys, mousing/clicking around, and otherwise not even attempting to do as I suggest. Will not even let a screen load and tries to do something else.... Even has unplugged the computer because that "worked last time".

Some folks you try to help just need to learn the hard way. Adults are often worse than kids about such things.

There is a saying something to the effect of "You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink".

I will also refer you to Oxymoron #1: "Never offer unsolicited advice".

And it is also always a good idea to get a second opinion. Most people do that especially if indecisive or dealing with something risky, expensive, unfamiliar, etc.. And some people just cannot make a decision at all or will not do anything until they hear what they want to hear.

Do not take it personally. Provide assistance and information as requested, as best you can, and let it go. Learn to say "no". Sometimes that is best for you.

 

[madmatt30]

My partner is exactly like that & ive lived with her for nearly 20 years now ;-)

Damn infuriating in all honesty sometimes


Worse on here sometimes , there have been threads where I've offered good solid advice & it's not even been acknowledged almost as if I'm completely invisible - & the op then goes & takes advice as gospel from someone who has no idea what they're actually talking about - this is pretty much a daily occurence too!

 

[Paul NZ]

Same thing happens to me. I help people get rid of malware ( I use teamviewer, if they're somewhere else).

And tell them what not to do so they dont get infected again.

Do they listen. No lol. Thats fine, the more they do it, the more $ I get lol

Helped someone a few yrs ago. She wanted to get online with her mobile (with a laptop).

So I got the program that the mobile provider had, installed it, told her what to do. yer yer, she said.

It has an option where you can turn the data on and off / takes you offline to save data and $. She was on a pre-pay plan then

So, what does she do, after she leave my house?

She changes the plan. Gets online, forgets to turn the data off, and gets a $800 - $900 bill lol

 

[USAFRet]

Some years ago, my daughters BF was gifted a brand new Sony VAIO laptop.

He, a budding music producer pt1cable had to have all the uber software. Of course, too much $$.
So, torrents.
And of course, his system was quickly virused up.

I fixed it (wipe and reinstall), with the admonition of "Don't do that. Here are some sources for legally free alternatives"
2 months later, hosed up again.
"OK, I'll fix it this one last time. Don't do that again. Here is a USB of actual software. Install this and use it. Last time, dude"

3 months later...virused up again. To the point of 50 megabytes free on a 250GB drive.
"OK, I'll give you $50 for the carcass."

It served as my main system and VM host for another 3 or 4 years.