Worst clients: Doctors, Lawyers, or Realtors

Discussion of all things technological and/or gadgety
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Cybrludite
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Re: Worst clients: Doctors, Lawyers, or Realtors

Post by Cybrludite »

I've found lawyers more likely to ask, "Do you know who I am?!?", and doctors less likely to listen to instructions.
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Greg
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Re: Worst clients: Doctors, Lawyers, or Realtors

Post by Greg »

My doctor's first career was as an electrical engineer. He's a tech geek who likes to look after the tech in his office himself, not because it's cost effective for him but because he likes it.

Otherwise I don't think I've had enough experiences to generalize. Accountants seem to like technology, but be deathly afraid of going 'under the hood', as it were. Also cheap, but they do pay on time.
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Rusty Ray
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Re: Worst clients: Doctors, Lawyers, or Realtors

Post by Rusty Ray »

I have never worked for a realtor.

But I have worked in research labs where the lab head was an MD, or collaborated with same. They seemed OK(ish) and were not as enamoured of themselves as the doctors one finds in a hospital.

But, if I could get away with it, I would eviscerate every single med student I could. I have had to work with the bastards in the UK, the USA and in Germany. Without exception, I have found them to be self important, arrogant and utterly unable to accept that they could be wrong about something, or (God forbid) they did not understand something.....I have lost count of the number of times I have seen a med student strut into a lab all full of just how fantastic and life savingly important they are, only to see them choke when asked to do the most basic thing at the bench. And yet they still seem to fail to take on board the lesson, and continue in the belief that they are amazingly fantastically wonderful.

Self important wankers.

As for having a lawyer as a client, I'll see your lawyer and raise you Indians or Pakistanis.....When I was self employed plumber, I ended up refusing to take any work from them. It just was never worth it in the end.

Rant over, cheers- Rusty
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Aglifter
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Re: Worst clients: Doctors, Lawyers, or Realtors

Post by Aglifter »

Given how, completely, non-technical most lawyers are, that I know... I could see them being bad...

Not as many, and even fewer who could afford IT, but I suspect creatives would be worse... Kinda - these days, they do tend to get comfortable w. Macs.
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Jericho941
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Re: Worst clients: Doctors, Lawyers, or Realtors

Post by Jericho941 »

Hmm.

Lawyers have trouble understanding that their ISP didn't set up their office network, so if they can connect directly through their modem, it's someone else's problem.

Realtors have trouble understanding the very concept of the Internet, and business hours.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but we can't troubleshoot your laptop's problem while you're offline on the ferry. It has to be connected to your home internet connection."
"Are you even going to be open when I get home in an hour?"
*checks clock* "No, but we're open again tomorrow at ten in the morning."
"TEN IN THE MORNING!?"
"Yes, ma'am, those are our weekend hours."
"So I have to deal with this problem until you people just TRAIPSE IN at... whatever time you feel like tomorrow?!"
"No, ma'am; I don't traipse. I'm not sure about Phil. But it'll be me tomorrow, at the same weekend hours we've always had: Ten to four."
"UGH. FINE. WHATEVER. BYE."

The absolute weirdest was one was a veterinarian, though. Bar none. Nice lady, just... didn't get this whole "Internet" thing, and at one point was convinced she was going to lose her job because of all the spam she was getting about Viagra and other drugs.
BobbyK
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Re: Worst clients: Doctors, Lawyers, or Realtors

Post by BobbyK »

I'm simply going to answer "Yes" to this question.
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Aglifter
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Re: Worst clients: Doctors, Lawyers, or Realtors

Post by Aglifter »

However, you should be able to terrify docters w HIPPA, and lawyers with PRISM being used to garner info for use in negotiations, to scare them into showering you with money for encryption programs.
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mekender
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Re: Worst clients: Doctors, Lawyers, or Realtors

Post by mekender »

In my experience, doctors, especially medical doctors, tend to be really easy to work with compared to lawyers and realtors.

Lawyers are always looking for a way out of a problem and don't like to trust people imo... Realtors tend to not like to embrace technology and don't see the value in it.

Doctors in my experience seem to appreciate that technology changes and grows, that keeping up with trends is important and that trusting someone who has experience in a specific field that they do not have expertise in is someone to rely on. Plus a doctor can understand you when you bluntly say "I wont try to read xrays*, you dont try to build a server"


*Told that once to my uncle who is a radiologist.
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g-man
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Re: Worst clients: Doctors, Lawyers, or Realtors

Post by g-man »

Not an IT contractor. However, having worked for MEDCOM, with Staff Judge Advocate folks, and moved around a bunch (thus interacting with a slew of Realtors), here's my $.02

Realtors. Hands down. Lawyers hire IT guys to set up something because they have some semblance of a clue about needing connectivity, etc, etc. Doctors (at least the myriad I've worked with/for) are also mostly unconcerned as long as they can get to the records they need and the system stays up. Realtors, as a group, are the most techno-backwards group of clowns I've ever met. Individual realtors sometimes have a clue, but as a group they're the most clueless career field (as it regards technology and how they do business) I've ever seen. "What do you mean I shouldn't take pictures with my cell phone for your listing?" "I don't know about the photos on our site, the ones on my computer aren't all grainy...".

I swear, if I had any inkling I could crush most of the realtors I've met in terms of useful listings, with a simple wide-angle lens, a tripod, and floor plan app.

All that said, I'd be interested to hear Chris's take.
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Langenator
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Re: Worst clients: Doctors, Lawyers, or Realtors

Post by Langenator »

g-man wrote: I swear, if I had any inkling I could crush most of the realtors I've met in terms of useful listings, with a simple wide-angle lens, a tripod, and floor plan app.
You know, when I was shopping for a house last summer, I repeatedly pondered to my wife, "Why don't real estate listings have floor plans? It doesn't seem like it would be that hard?"

Maybe I'm spoiled because, if you're looking for on post housing, the housing office usually has floor plans for all their houses, online.
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