$389 from a customer in labor...for placing a semicolon!

[mikesorensen]

I used to work in a mom and pop computer store. I was the main full-time tech with a part-timer who came in after school. Well, one day a lady came in with her machine and a UMAX flatbed color USB scanner. She was having major problems with the PC ever since they picked up this brand new scanner. They have only had the scanner for a month (never got it to work on this machine), and numerous major tech depts such as Best Buy and CompUSA just charged her and sent her on her way. So, she finally as a last ditch effort decided to try us. I did all the searching I could and started to give up. We had the lady's system and scanner for 2 weeks. I uninstalled, reinstalled, over and over again. We knew it wasn't Windows or her file system, it had to be something more. SO, I installed the scanner on another system, an AMD. It worked. SO, I installed it on another system...an Intel. Both worked. Hmmmmm. So, I was about to just give up, I was out of options. So, I went to umax.com, microsoft.com, all the sites. Nothing! So, last ditch effort, I ran sysedit. Started poking around in there. Found nothing out of the ordinary. Did the same with regedit. Nothing. By some WEIRD and strange reason, upon a Lycos search and going through hundreds of listings of troubleshooting sites...I literally stumbled across a site for the umax scanner and problems that have been known in the past. One was a line in the system.ini file for an option to load a particular driver upon windows startup. This was a problem ONLY if you had a Umax Scanner, a Canon BJC 4300 inkjet, AND a Hewlett Packard Pavillion. (or something to this degree.) BASICALLY, all these instances had to be in the formula for the scanner to be a problem. Something about the .dlls and the way devices are loaded upon startup to conflict with the scanner. Solution: Place a semi-colon on that one particular line in the system.ini file to REM it out from startup. THis allowed the scanner, printer, and PC to function completely 100%.


2 weeks, and 2 days later, I call the lady with a $389 labor bill......for a semi colon.

She gladly paid and picked it up that day.
Not to mention I talked her into a CDRW drive and an additional $50 in labor/software!


Anyone else with a crazy labor charge story please add to this forum!

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Do one thing everyday that scares you!

[This message has been edited by mikesorensen (edited August 24, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by mikesorensen (edited August 24, 2000).]

[3fingersalute]

that's crazy alright, seeing as how the scanner was only probably worth $100.00 !! I would have hooked up another drive and loaded windows on and the scanner software, if that worked, start adding software and drivers in one at a time until you find the culprit, would've saved mega bucks!!! At least you figuerd it out though.

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[email protected]

[This message has been edited by 3fingersalute (edited August 24, 2000).]

[FU_MAN]

Originally posted by mikesorensen:
I used to work in a mom and pop computer store. I was the main full-time tech with a part-timer who came in after school. Well, one day a lady came in with her machine and a UMAX flatbed color USB scanner. She was having major problems with the PC ever since they picked up this brand new scanner. They have only had the scanner for a month (never got it to work on this machine), and numerous major tech depts such as Best Buy and CompUSA just charged her and sent her on her way. So, she finally as a last ditch effort decided to try us. I did all the searching I could and started to give up. We had the lady's system and scanner for 2 weeks. I uninstalled, reinstalled, over and over again. We knew it wasn't Windows or her file system, it had to be something more. SO, I installed the scanner on another system, an AMD. It worked. SO, I installed it on another system...an Intel. Both worked. Hmmmmm. So, I was about to just give up, I was out of options. So, I went to umax.com, microsoft.com, all the sites. Nothing! So, last ditch effort, I ran sysedit. Started poking around in there. Found nothing out of the ordinary. Did the same with regedit. Nothing. By some WEIRD and strange reason, upon a Lycos search and going through hundreds of listings of troubleshooting sites...I literally stumbled across a site for the umax scanner and problems that have been known in the past. One was a line in the system.ini file for an option to load a particular driver upon windows startup. This was a problem ONLY if you had a Umax Scanner, a Canon BJC 4300 inkjet, AND a Hewlett Packard Pavillion. (or something to this degree.) BASICALLY, all these instances had to be in the formula for the scanner to be a problem. Something about the .dlls and the way devices are loaded upon startup to conflict with the scanner. Solution: Place a semi-colon on that one particular line in the system.ini file to REM it out from startup. THis allowed the scanner, printer, and PC to function completely 100%.


2 weeks, and 2 days later, I call the lady with a $389 labor bill......for a semi colon.

She gladly paid and picked it up that day.
Not to mention I talked her into a CDRW drive and an additional $50 in labor/software!


Anyone else with a crazy labor charge story please add to this forum!

You charged that lady 389 bucks to get her scanner working?!?! Do you own your shop? If you were an employee I would have personally made you take the money back to her then I would have fired you! Do you do everything by the clock like that? You should have been able to find that problem sooner than that. Most of my family lives in your area, I will make sure to tell them it is cheaper to fly me down than to pay you!!



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I do not wish to have a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.

[mikesorensen]

Lets just say that it's good that I dont work for you.

Furthermore, Mr. Know it All "I am the God of all Computers", this lady had money, and she had already invested time and money with other shops. Her reasoning behind all this was whether or not her system was worth it or not for a scanner, cause she was considering buying a different system. If I were YOU, I would not question a person who has the money to spend whatever they want on it. It's their money, thier desision. I called her every day, with a new update. AND, she knew of the charges, and was fully aware of it, with no problems. She said "Anything, as long as you can fix it!" That store did not charge by the hour either. Besides, if you were paying attention...read it again...I don't work there anymore. I won't even comment on your "You should have found the problem sooner than that", oh great one. Furthermore, there have been many, many times when I would stay 3-4-5 hours past closing time, OFF the clock, to fix someones system for a mere $30-45 minimum fee, just to help them out.

Originally posted by FU_MAN:
You charged that lady 389 bucks to get her scanner working?!?! Do you own your shop? If you were an employee I would have personally made you take the money back to her then I would have fired you! Do you do everything by the clock like that? You should have been able to find that problem sooner than that. Most of my family lives in your area, I will make sure to tell them it is cheaper to fly me down than to pay you!!

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Do one thing everyday that scares you!

[theBeast]

I agree. You could have told the customer, "Listen...here are your choices. You could either pay me to track down this problem, which may be a few hours labour, or you could go the cheaper route and buy a new scanner that we know works." I'm sure the customer would have been much more happier with those choices.
Before I begin any extensive work on a system, I warn the customer that it may be labour intensive and they may be further ahead to buy a new device.
We really aren't in the business of "jamming" customers.
We have a "stupidity fee" of an extra $15 labour for something silly like, the customer complains that their system is slow, they say that they've checked EVERYTHING, they bring it in, and I turn the turbo button on. We also have a "not my problem" fee where they buy a computer and a device somewhere else, and want us to install the device (for example, they buy a clone from one store, and a CD-RW from another store, then bring it into our store to install) which is an extra $15 (ie for RAM, it would be $30 install, for CD-RWs it would be $45, etc). We also have a diagnostic fee of $30 for when a customer brings us a computer they want us to "inspect", but decide to hold off on any repairs or installations. Like, "My monitor isn't powering on, here it is. Take a look at it."
We do, however, waive that $30 fee if the customer buys something from us.
It's just to protect us from fixing other store's problems for free.

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***the Beast
- Fate drove me here...then told me to get out of the car...

[theBeast]

Service isn't about charging the people the most you can. Did you bother telling her that she could get a new scanner that would work for cheaper? Probably not.

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***the Beast
- Fate drove me here...then told me to get out of the car...

[mikesorensen]

Ok, you guys don't seem to understand something. I worked for the store. It's not MY store, not MY prices, not MY rules, not MY labor. So, why ask me questions that only my FORMER owner/boss could answer?

I was a tech. Did what I was asked. Charged what I was told to. Doesn't mean I agreed with it. This forum is supposed to be stories of outlandish, simple, weird solutions for such big problems. I guess you guys missed the point. Cause all I am doing is sitting here reading harsh critisism on what I did wrong, rather than comment on the fact that all that happened for a stupid semi-colon. All I did was post a story, and wanted to know if anyone else out there had anything unusual like that happen to them. NOT to hear you people throw in your 2 cents worth and talk down to me. I am a lot smarter than you naturally assume, people.

Originally posted by theBeast:
Service isn't about charging the people the most you can. Did you bother telling her that she could get a new scanner that would work for cheaper? Probably not.

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Do one thing everyday that scares you!

[mikesorensen]

By the way, the first thing I told her was..."Why don't you just take it back and get a diff scanner?"

Her reply, "I like this one cause the software is simple and I am already used to it from my pc at work."

Service is about DOING WHATEVER THE CUST WANTS AT A SATISFACTION THEY NEED.

Also, a lot of times labor is more than what something is worth. You people SHOULD already know this. $45 to work on a 486? The pc isn't worth that much! $85 to install windows? HAH! Windows costs that much, if not cheaper! So, dont even tell me about service or charging.

Originally posted by theBeast:
Service isn't about charging the people the most you can. Did you bother telling her that she could get a new scanner that would work for cheaper? Probably not.

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Do one thing everyday that scares you!

[cyberhh]

So since your a lot smarter than we assume you to be riddle me this - did you voice a reccommendation to your supervisor re: this outlandish bill? If so what was it? If not how do you find yourself able to look at yourself in the morning? Do you realize that "the lady has money" and "everybody else is doing it so why can't I" is not a valid ethical response. Noe, I've ran two stores and owned one and I have NEVER been party to such a gross financial rape of a customer. Not only would I have quit BUT I NEVER would have charged that to my customer AND I would have wrote the local newspapaer a letter describing the UN-ETHICAL treatment of customers.

Also - at what point did you make alternate suggestions to your customer?

If your answer is no to all these questions - please go back to being a used car salesman and be confident in the knowledge that we niether underestimated you intelligence, wisdom or ethics - only that as techs we have a desire to be able to look ourselves in the mirror every morning.

If however you provide reasonable, ethical and honest answers to these questions, forgive our intrusion as a miscommunication based on the information we were given and try next time to include this information and stop whining next time.

[ledrichard (san antonioTX]

hey dude I agree with you man. I used to work for a "major computer store" that had fees for everything. You have to do your job according to the stores rules and some of them might be wrong or outlandish. Hey if the cust doesnt care about how much it is going to cost, I say do it and dont lose sleep over it!

[mikesorensen]

UM....yeah. Sure. Whatever you say.
Why do you think I don't work there anymore?
Besides, that tech job among other stores I worked at got me where I am now....Network Systems administrator. (BTW...I am only 20.)
I will easily compare my "ethic" to anyone.
I quit that job cause the man was psycho. (i.e., throwing mbs across the room in front of customers, refusing credits, refusing refunds/exchanges due to "lack of intelligence on customer's part")

That was not mentioned, but I guess now I have to validate myself and my integrity so I don't look like a dumbass I guess.

Remember...Dont assume anything...cause it makes an ASSouttaUandME.

till next time.

Originally posted by cyberhh:
So since your a lot smarter than we assume you to be riddle me this - did you voice a reccommendation to your supervisor re: this outlandish bill? If so what was it? If not how do you find yourself able to look at yourself in the morning? Do you realize that "the lady has money" and "everybody else is doing it so why can't I" is not a valid ethical response. Noe, I've ran two stores and owned one and I have NEVER been party to such a gross financial rape of a customer. Not only would I have quit BUT I NEVER would have charged that to my customer AND I would have wrote the local newspapaer a letter describing the UN-ETHICAL treatment of customers.

Also - at what point did you make alternate suggestions to your customer?

If your answer is no to all these questions - please go back to being a used car salesman and be confident in the knowledge that we niether underestimated you intelligence, wisdom or ethics - only that as techs we have a desire to be able to look ourselves in the mirror every morning.

If however you provide reasonable, ethical and honest answers to these questions, forgive our intrusion as a miscommunication based on the information we were given and try next time to include this information and stop whining next time.

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Do one thing everyday that scares you!

[mikesorensen]

Props to you, and thank you. At least someone sees the point to this discussion!



Finally, a smart one here!

Sometimes you have to follow orders and do what is expected, despite if its not necessarily the BEST solution. Besides, I got to my senses and quit that store, so what gives?

Originally posted by ledrichard (san antonioTX:
hey dude I agree with you man. I used to work for a "major computer store" that had fees for everything. You have to do your job according to the stores rules and some of them might be wrong or outlandish. Hey if the cust doesnt care about how much it is going to cost, I say do it and dont lose sleep over it!

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Do one thing everyday that scares you!

[jvalliere]

To get back to the original intent of this discussion. (There was one, wasn't there??)

I have seen several times where a machine won't boot until you REM out the McAfee scan line in the autoexec.bat.

It ends up being an easy fix when you know it, but is time-consuming to find it initially.

Take it easy guys this is just a discussion forum, not a back-stabbing competition. Draw in the claws guys, my cats don't even fight that nasty.

[Grider]

I've seen a font stop windows from booting. Had to run a logged boot and find the file that was hanging windows....it was Veranda I think, its been a while. You boot up in safe mode or dos, delete the font file and reboot and all is wonderful again.

A full virus scan before the deletion of the file using mcafee and norton failed to turn up squat. :-)

I wasn't really sure how the font was corrupted or not, for some reason I didn't try to replace the font with a copy from another machine. Must have not been a really needed font. :-)



[This message has been edited by Grider (edited August 24, 2000).]

[Humpinate]

The LAST time that I did a "Phone Referral".

i.e..."Yes, Ma'am, Bring it in and i'll fix it for you" was for a 486 IBM StinkPad, that was like, in a grocery bag! I looked at her and asked quietly " You DO know this is an older laptop". She said yes."You understand we charge 60.00 and hour for labor".She said yes."I will put this back together, but You should know it will take 3 hours OR MORE, and if anything is missing, plastic, screws or whatever, I'll make a note, and see whether or not it's needed to make the box work....and then i'll give you prices".
She said yes. 4 hours, two scrap StinkPads, and some luck (!) later, it boots and all is well....until she comes to pick it up...
long story short...(too late) I now own it 'cause I paid the fee and kept the good parts, AND she threw a fit when we told her the final total.