We quarantee to answer your question in 24 hours

A few days ago I got e-mail from a guy who was building one of the projects that I have published here. Actually there were two messages from him since I don't read my e-mail every day. The second e-mail was sent 26 hours after the first one.

In the second message he was very angry because I had not answered him. He told me that response time more than 24 hours is totally unacceptable. His opinion was that if someone publishes projects here, he must understand that people need help in building them. He asked me not to publish anything if I don't have time to answer the questions.

I recommended him to ask his question in the forum, because it makes no sense to answer the same question to everyone privately. I am waiting if he dares to do that...

(I don't know where he got my e-mail. It is not visible in my profile. Probably from some old thread.)

Hi audiox,


    take it with a pinch of salt. the guy is clearly a prick. Please tell us his name, so we can all be wary of him in the future! - Only kidding. . . .

  I am so sorry that people feel they can treat you this way, especially after all the things you have done for us guys and gals here.


  it is his outrageous expectation of a by-return response thatis outrageous, and you can tell him I said so.


Please refer him to me if he continues being a dick.



  Kindest regards,


      ANdyP

hehe, I know this situation  ;D ;D ;D
even with questions to projects I have done nothing for  :

but only two mails in 26h is low, nice guy  8)

this is getting out of hand. one bloke pissed of for not having a pictured assembly documentation for project x... now this.

people invest a lot of money into a project but don't have the skill to properly DIY the whole thing.  They don't know how to reverse engineer, they don't know how to figure out things that aren't spelled out for them and worst of all, they don't know what to search for when looking for more info. 

They think that since they spent the money, that someone owes it to them to help them.  That's not the case here in DIY land.  People don't make enough money on projects to offer "tech support" for them too.  We help because we want to help, not because we have to.

This angry person was likely angry because biting off more than you can chew is generally a kick in the ego.  Realizing that you spent a lot of money but don't know how to finish makes people self conscious.

If I were you, I would tell him what I thought about this in a frank but respectful way and point him to this thread which is sure to have some interesting opinions.

That's the attraction of d.i.y.  , and also the responsability
you think you are saving money and you do , but you're not homefree
It is not free and your time [ in research , prep & planning ] is where
you make up the difference in money .
The fact that someone even offers a pcb for something is an advantage
not available everywhere or all the time , but it's not always a shortcut
or easy way out , if you can't stand the heat ................
and it's not for everyone , there's a reason companies make these things

The responsability is your's for even looking
it may hurt sales for some but maybe a big disclaimer upfront is nessecary

this grp does grow by people helping people , but that's the lesson of expectations
you can't expect others to do or act as you wish and expect

Good luck & skill

I thought thats what the "Y" in DIY stood for..."yourself"...

Maybe we need some acronyms posted:


UTSB :"Use the search button"

ABP: "Already been posted"

GIYF: "Google is your friend"

TNTKY: "Try not to kill yourself"

DYPII: "Did you plug it in?"

DYMHAKTL: "Did your mom have any kids that lived?"

CTM: "Check the meta"

APHKE: "Ask Peter he knows everything"

UIFADS: "Use it for a door stop"

...

DIY: "Do it yourself"...

TYJSTO: "Turn your jerk setting to off"


I dunno, this place is incredibly helpful and very polite...I have other ideas but none of them are appropriate.

Audioex - if you want to pass on his contacts I will happily return the favour by sending him emails* asking for help with a number of issues in my life right now that I need some assistance with.  Lets see, I wonder if he can give me any advice on how to clean my suede shoes? They always stain so easily........



(*the above is intended as a joke before anyone gets narky with me

It is human nature to see the world from our personal perspective.  I can imagine a frustrated DIY'er who invested in parts, blocked out some time to complete a task, and then ran out of personal knowledge or experience to finish. It is a symptom of our instant gratification expectations, and information being "almost" free on the internet.

Asking the whole list, and searching the problem will help. Their is a reason why Heathkit were successful. Their kits were very easy to follow. You get what you pay for and people stopped paying for heathkits.

Note: most commercial promises of a response in 24 Hrs do so with automated responders , which are better than nothing, but rarely a solution.

JR

audiox said:

In the second message he was very angry because I had not answered him. He told me that response time more than 24 hours is totally unacceptable. His opinion was that if someone publishes projects here, he must understand that people need help in building them. He asked me not to publish anything if I don't have time to answer the questions.

Click to expand...

Give an inch, they'll take a mile comes to mind.

I personally have found many helpful, talented and generous people through this forum,

It's truly a great community and it's sad when uninformed, ignorant people abuse it.

JohnRoberts said:

It is a symptom of our instant gratification expectations, and information being "almost" free on the internet.
JR

Click to expand...

Absolutely true, it will be the undoing of the world eventually unless people wake up and realize that not everything is handed to you.

Mark

At least when you try searching for the answers
you usually wind up with better questions

His tone sounds indictitive of what the rest of his life
must be like , here we are group therapy .

take a deep breath  , relax look at the problem and go from there
gets an informal survey as a bonus

The less you pay  , the more you [ should ? ] tolerate

okgb said:

...
The less you pay  , the more you tolerate

Click to expand...

this would be fine, but is wrong in my experience.

I'm reading Predictably Irrational, and the author proposes a plausible explanation for behavior like this.

The complainer is apply market norms, as opposed to social norms, to this situation. When someone purchases something they have an expectation of support created by the going market rate for products with support offered as part of their purchase price (I know this is highly variable). The projects offered here, free of charge, promise no such support, but the complainer has lost sight of the difference between this social exchange and a market exchange.

Ariely offers the example of standing up after Thanksgiving dinner, pulling out your wallet, and offering some amount of cash for the meal your host has just served. In this instance, the complainer is standing up after the meal and saying they didn't get enough for the investment of their presence at the table, and demanding to be spoon-fed dessert. I'm guessing the complainer sees their own time invested in trying build this project as a quantifiable investment for which they demand a return. That's faulty logic built on the non sequitur "Time is money."

That people don't have that expectation ?

Buy a volkswagon and expect a porche ?
used things are cheaper but usually have no warrenty


it's a companion saying to
you get what you pay for [ if you've paid anything ]

Sheesh!  OK!!  Thanks for all the fast help!!  I'll ask my questions in the forum!!

What is the squiggle thing next to the zig-zag thing in the drawing?  Do you sell zig zags?

What is the "u" thing next to Farad?

Can I use my wood-burning tool for soldering?

:flame protection suit:
Mike
PS: these actually are rough questions that I asked a guy in the ham store over the phone when I was making my first project, the ARRL code practise oscillator, at about age 9.  The guy first said " what are you talking about, ma'am?"!  I am glad that there were so many patient people helping me back then. 

As you guys have noted above, this issue reveals human nature in its crudest form. Its often easier to blame than to accept responsibility for a mistake when taking on more than you can handle. Responsibility carries with it very confronting connotations relating to inability, incompetence, the fear of limited knowledge and general feelings of being overwhelmed.  It can be a lot to accept that you have blown loads of hard earned cash and time on components and gear that have amounted to nothing.  Maybe if you attack the creater or supplier they might sort the problem for you?

In my mind its not  even premeditated anger or even a sense of entitlement to receive help from the project's designer. It's about peoples fear of accepting that they have may have taken on more than they can chew which makes them behave this way.

yeah i got allot of wrong parts starting out

there seemed to be some impatience & expectations
so one of many good ideas ,

relax , check it out , see what the norm appears to be
how it fits in with your situation , form a plan
take responsability

he seemed to be dumping it all on someone else ,
you have to start somewhere , but that ain't it

if you've booked a session counting on the gear ,
that probably is not wise , investment in parts
not lost , plow through to finish [ including investigation ]
and recoup by using finished device
there's always buyers remorse , d.i.y. doesn't always look
shiney as new

audiox said:

I don't know where he got my e-mail. It is not visible in my profile. Probably from some old thread.

Click to expand...

Ah. I am using Google page creator to host the files. My user ID can be deduced from the file URL. And Gmail address guessed from the user ID...

Hi guys i've just run on this topic, and WOW that's nonsense  , funny how people can get angry on such things, i'm a newbie and will never expect such things from people in forum, it's a great chance to have nice people with so much knlowledge in DIY electronics right next to you that will take time helping out, the only thing that a newbie must do is sit back relax and read, and if stucked then ask, but a little respect would be nice, maybe  his girlfriend dumped him and he was high on crack and he wanted to blame somebody, can't believe that, that's crazy, hope that guy don't get electrocuted in the future tho...