Share your parent's epic tech fails

[sbelyo]

So I need to vent/laugh...

I make my living in IT support for a large corporation and you would think that should rub off a bit on my parents.  Nope!

My stepdad is 78 and hasn't used a computer in 10 years and smart phones, forget about it.  He decides to buy an Ipad and enlists the help of some guy at a bar (not me).  What shows up is a fully loaded Ipad pro ($1000 +).  Not bad so far right...  He obviously wants to set it up right away (enter me).  I'm walking him through the process and we get to the point where he needs the wifi info.  He doesn't know the router name, asks my mom and she's unsure.  I know what they usually choose for names and can see the router in the list.  Now, for the password my mom grabs this piece of paper with a jumbled list of passwords (this list looks like its a lost Zodiac letter with red and brown stains on it).  She then claims she remembers it only to realize after an hour that it's the password to the security camera system.  My stepdad then asks well WTF is the password then?  She screams at the top of her lungs what she can remember.  This turned out to the the router name.  

Long story short I eventually remembered what I made the password out to be and it worked.  That was three hours of my life I'll never get back.  I have more, like trying to help them understand that apple ID's, email, and the passcode for an IOS device are not all the same thing nor will one password work for another.  The other day Dad was looking up baseball stats on the ipad, Mom walks by and asks watchya looking at?  He replies baseball stats.  She asks so you're on the internet?  He replies, no I have no idea what the internet is.  Or my personal favorite, he bought ticket from stubhub.  The PDF of the ticket says "printed tickets will not be accepted".  He won't take mine or the ticket's word that he doesn't need them.  He drives all the way to best buy and has someone there print the ticket out for him.  I can go on and on

[skullguise]

I know your pain!  I work in IT as well, and am the resident geek for my family.....  I especially love when I have to talk with one of the "older generation" and they describe EVERY single byte of what they see on the screen.  And all of this just so they can click "OK"

The other one I like is when they get an error popup, they say something like "It's yelling at me...."

Users.....!  I once told my mom she had the typical ID Ten "T" error (ID10T).....she did end up chuckling......

[sbelyo]

oh yes...  take my mom 20 minutes to describe what she sees on the screen.  I use the PIBKAC error Problem Is Between Keyboard And Chair

[swt61]

My Parents? Hell, I could absolutely astonish you with my own tech fails!

[guzziguy]

Steve, that's because you and your people are right-brain and can't deal with technical concepts. Except for Leonarda Da Vinci, that is, and he was really an alien.

[Parbaked]

My Dad's 83. Lugged his iMac to the Apple Store because "something was not working".

Brought it home and it wouldn't start up so he called me.

After 30 minutes on the phone we determined that the power cord was still in the trunk of the car.....

[Craig Sawyers]

In the (not so distant) future someone's offspring will say "My poor old 137 year old dad still has absolutely no idea how to connect the socket on his skull to access enhanced reality" 

Seriously, both mine are no longer here - but I absolutely guarantee that dad (gone 25 years) would have been absolutely clueless with computers and the internet - even though he was an engineer. And my mum, who passed 10 years ago, never ever worked out how to drive the video player we bought her (pre-DVD, clearly).

But we'll all be clueless old farts in time 

[skullguise]

^^^ "in time" ?  I thinking some ways I'm already there....

[SeaWolf]

Call from mom because dad clicked the receiver onto an input other than cable. I tell her to push the button on the front labeled "Cable". Her response "it's dark in here I can't read the buttons".. Me " turn on the lights?"