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View Full Version : Would you be annoyed in the following situation?



ufcrusher
03-07-2006, 01:07 PM
I am curious if other people would be annoyed or if the few I have asked about this and responded are outliers and most people would feel the opposite way.

You set up a full home theater set up for your parents including higher end cables, a good receiver, etc, which you basically gave everything to them. (In this instance, my TV broke during a cross country move and the money recieved was used to buy the TV in this set up, the receiver was something I earned in a sales contest with the exception of $50 which was given as a gift by my grandmother to get that particular model, the DVD player was a gift...the only thing they owned was a VCR)

Your parents decided to move the hometheater a few feet and somehow manage to disconnect several wires in the process. As you were leaving for a business trip, you told them you wouldnt be able to fix it until you return because they placed it in an area where there was NO room to work on the back of the system and you were flying out the next day.

While you are away you learn that they let some idiot they just met go behind the system and "fix" the wiring. Since it was only a wire or two that would have been out, you know it would have taken all of 10 minutes to fix it, but supposedly this person was back there for a long time supposedly fixing all of these problems and making the system "easier" to use.

The system had been wired 100% correctly and to the highest standards, so the person obvioulsy undid correct wiring to take it from better inputs to lower quality inputs.

Would you be furious at them for allowing some idiot to touch the wiring? Would it make you even more annoyed because 9 out of 10 times where you have to fix either the computer or the home theater it is because they tried to do something themselves and so they promised not to do any work on these systems themselves?

Frankly, I am so mad at this point I told them I will not fix or set up any more electronics for them. I am not going to spend 10 hours wiring something for them to let someone they just meet to come and undo it and then to have them say "he made it better and fixed the problem" when there was nothing that could have made the system better.

Butch
03-07-2006, 01:48 PM
Relax . . . parents are afraid of electronics. The know not what they do.

My parents do the same thing. Yeah, it's annoying . . . they somehow become reliant on you to keep them up and running . . . they refuse to read instructions or learn about things themselves . . .

It's part of life . . . they're your parents . . . chalk it up as part of the cost of the gift you gave them . . . you have to expect it.

Cubsfan
03-07-2006, 01:58 PM
I voted for the third one, but what I'm really wondering is if they even noticed a difference. If they didn't, then perhaps you're building it more for 'you' instead of for 'them'. At least with my parents, I'm not really sure if they would notice the difference between a $200 home theater system and a $2000 one. And if they did noticed, they probably wouldn't care.

molecularfire
03-07-2006, 02:02 PM
:stupid: I've spent every vacation time I've had over the last several years fixing various computer systems that they flat out refuse to leave well enough alone. It's just the price you pay for having parents (god knows they've paid a large enough price for having me). Can't let it get to you too much or it will drive you nuts (and I'm barely holding on to sanity by a thread anyways).





Hehehehe... didn't realize that Cubsfan posted ahead of me. I was agreeing to the stuff Butch posted, not cubsfan.

ufcrusher
03-07-2006, 02:08 PM
I know for a fact that my mother can hear the diffence between the systems, quality or not. Years ago, when she was buying her own receiver she went with an Onkyo Integra because of the sound quality. For those that are unaware of this, Onkyo Integra was Onkyo's top line and broke off to become Integra by itself.

On a side note, this is the first true HT they have and they absolutely love it and were quite upset that I had not been more forceful about it before.

This was simply a matter of them not wanting to wait and not thinking about the implications. My choice is whether to bother to fix what this arse did or just let them reap what they sowed.

welfareloser
03-07-2006, 02:18 PM
well... punishment... "teaching them a lesson" ... do you want to be that guy?

i'd just let it go. they are who they are, and at this age, they ain't changing. and to be fair, they didn't tell the guy to go make a bunch of changes... you couldn't fix it fast, they wanted it fixed fast. they have no idea what the wiring is all about, and no understanding of what the doofus who took it upon himself to rewire was doing or talking about... be mad at the doofus.

Dem0072
03-07-2006, 04:45 PM
Whats funny is they spend the first 18 years of OUR lives teaching us patience like it will lead to the skies raining gold, but the second we're independent enough and living on our own, we get to baby their impatience and engineer their futuristic lives for them.

You would think for people who are so intollerant of something (technology) they would at least find the time to be able to define it accurately - "An ever-changing state of advancements and technological improvements in which to stay current with the world and reality" thats my definition and principal.

It's just ironic how some father teaches his "boy" how to fish like a "man" and they sit on the shore for 2 1/2 hours and hardly get as much as a nibble, he sums it up to "ah they just aint bitin"... when if he would have stuck a sonar in the damn lake he would have noticed that shore was sparcely populated, pick a new spot & try again.

I could rant for hours on parents, old people, etc and technology.

I just wish some people would practice the preached responsibiliy and quit blaming the world for progressing into the future, and turn on Cnet for about 15 minutes a day.

Jenny
03-07-2006, 06:35 PM
This was simply a matter of them not wanting to wait and not thinking about the implications. My choice is whether to bother to fix what this arse did or just let them reap what they sowed.


:shrug: They are your parents. Like someone said, think of it as part of the price of the gift. Sure, frustrating for you, but they probably don't think of it like you do.

And if they aren't complaining or asking you to, just let it go. If they ask you to fix it, smile and do it, then go home and bitch to the wifey about em. ;)

blueindian
03-07-2006, 07:12 PM
kick thier ass!

Daedalus
03-07-2006, 09:42 PM
+1 for the "Dude, they're your parents" response. I understand your frustration. My parents are still learning the difference between left click and right click, and they've had Windows since Win 3.1. I use my vacations to fly 2500 miles each way to visit my parents and then spend all 4 or 5 days working on their house, their cars and their computers. They're old and simple, but they're happy. Not sure about yours, but mine honestly do not want anything more advanced than what they have, even if it fell out of the sky. It took me a while to figure this out, but we're all happier when I'm not trying to "improve" their lives. They finally convinced me they really cannot tell the difference in sound between their crappy 20-year-old panasonic stereo and anything newer.

Dem0072
03-07-2006, 10:05 PM
uh, the 20 year old one is the one over there in the corner... it has a vicious hiss and likes to spark... lol

faither
03-08-2006, 06:21 AM
Let it go.

Just make sure the chucklehead didn't swap out any components or your good cables.