Laptop trouble

[quote=“herbie_popnecker”]Someone brought in an old Pentium 100 laptop the other day, the floppy was bagged, no CD, they wanted it upgraded cuz Win95 wouldn’t run the virus protector. I handed him the 8 lb sledge I use for pounding in ground rods on antenna installs and they completely failed to see the humour! :open_mouth:
So I had to explain how it was cruel like an old lady with a 23 year old poodle dragging its legs and peeing itself. Sometimes it’s just better to end the misery…[/quote]

Why not take the customers hard drive out of her laptop and scann it on your computer ? It’s easy i do it every day… stuff like that helps the customer and shows the customer that you ant to help them. They will even come back too.

I have a couple 2 1/2 - 3 1/2" adapters exactly for that purpose. Used to mount laptop drives into Amiga 1200s with them. Scooped the whole 1 Gig drive w converter from old “Bondwell 150s” i recovered. Was good coin :laughing:

Part of the deal is education. It’s 2005, you have to convince someone you talking up to an XP/P4 system it’s time to give up on Castle Wolfenstien…

It’s a project to build a new system crappy enough to handle Win98 these days. Lot of businesses with $5000 worth of old vital software that’s not even Win2K compatible around here, and they just don’t make the kind of money to upgrade the software. Or old DOS shit like ACCPAC. Everybody stole a copy years ago, and they just won’t be convinced Simply is overkill for their small business. I have steady sales of rehab’d old systems for bookkeepers and gyppo mills running DOS stuff on ISA cards…

My point was keep the customer happy never tell them they have a crappy machine let them know it is older and you will try your best to help them :smiley:

You don’t tell them it’s crappy. You explain it’s long ago passed it best-before date. They appreciate a little honesty if you tell them you can fix up their old one, but they could get a brand new one for $100 more.
eg P133 Win98 box in shop yesterday
0.5 hours - set up and determine hard drive goes clak clak
1.3 hrs - pull drive, slave to another, rescue some files. Find out its partitioned from Win95 days, rescue 2nd partition
2.0 hrs - find old useable HD, install windows
1.5 hrs find drivers cuz Win98 cant find its own ass in dark
1.0 hrs - figuring out you burnt old files to CD, but you have to temp put a new CDROM to install old files
call customer, brings important software disks
1.0 install software, repairing every other floppy along the way. Close box, writeup Svc Order:
old Harddrive $20, 7.3 hours @ $60=$438 =$458
Customer shits bricks. Takes 1/2 hour of managers time. Feels bill should be ‘about $40 max’. Manager can either seiz a $20 computer and piss off customer or ends up charging $75 that doesn’t cover your labor let alone his time or overhead. Must then repeatedly mention that you only recovered the files that were readable, etc.
Customer goes home, calls back screaming cuz Works 4 Windows is gone, all his high game scores are lost, you ripped him off, he just saw your ad for new systems from $499 and you tried to screw him for $450! Tells all his friends, who start calling your tech at home an offering him “a whole $20” to come do similar jobs at their house. All go to Suture Shop where they say “sorry they don’t make harddrives that fit anymore” and walk away. Chase after salesperson and come home with new Cicero with no modem and bunch of worthless rebate coupons feeling good. Find out when they get home has no ISA slots for old scanner, no COM2 for the dongle and makes laughing noises at them trying to install Works4Windows1.0. Go back to Suture Shop and happily pay for new scanner, modem install, Works2003, and new dongleless XP compatible software. Need a blankCD cuz they ‘formatted’ the sample one and go back to your local store. It’s shut down for good and they’re all pissed off they have to drive to the Suture Shop in the other town just for a $1 CD.

Isn’t that more like it?

[quote=“herbie_popnecker”]You don’t tell them it’s crappy. You explain it’s long ago passed it best-before date. They appreciate a little honesty if you tell them you can fix up their old one, but they could get a brand new one for $100 more.
eg P133 Win98 box in shop yesterday
0.5 hours - set up and determine hard drive goes clak clak
1.3 hrs - pull drive, slave to another, rescue some files. Find out its partitioned from Win95 days, rescue 2nd partition
2.0 hrs - find old useable HD, install windows
1.5 hrs find drivers cuz Win98 cant find its own ass in dark
1.0 hrs - figuring out you burnt old files to CD, but you have to temp put a new CDROM to install old files
call customer, brings important software disks
1.0 install software, repairing every other floppy along the way. Close box, writeup Svc Order:
old Harddrive $20, 7.3 hours @ $60=$438 =$458
Customer shits bricks. Takes 1/2 hour of managers time. Feels bill should be ‘about $40 max’. Manager can either seiz a $20 computer and piss off customer or ends up charging $75 that doesn’t cover your labor let alone his time or overhead. Must then repeatedly mention that you only recovered the files that were readable, etc.
Customer goes home, calls back screaming cuz Works 4 Windows is gone, all his high game scores are lost, you ripped him off, he just saw your ad for new systems from $499 and you tried to screw him for $450! Tells all his friends, who start calling your tech at home an offering him “a whole $20” to come do similar jobs at their house. All go to Suture Shop where they say “sorry they don’t make harddrives that fit anymore” and walk away. Chase after salesperson and come home with new Cicero with no modem and bunch of worthless rebate coupons feeling good. Find out when they get home has no ISA slots for old scanner, no COM2 for the dongle and makes laughing noises at them trying to install Works4Windows1.0. Go back to Suture Shop and happily pay for new scanner, modem install, Works2003, and new dongleless XP compatible software. Need a blankCD cuz they ‘formatted’ the sample one and go back to your local store. It’s shut down for good and they’re all pissed off they have to drive to the Suture Shop in the other town just for a $1 CD.

Isn’t that more like it?[/quote]

I think you’ve missed the point. Yes, it is better to be honest with the customer straight away. However, your attempt at humor will probably be misconstrued as you trying to tell them that the customer is stupid.

How would you like it if you brought your beloved dog into the vet’s office because it wasn’t eating, and the vet decided to tell you that the dog had to be put down by bringing out a shotgun and saying “here, you wanna do the honors?”

There are plenty of ways you could have made your point. Handing a customer a sledgehammer is hardly one of them.

[quote=“Stardog Champion”]

[quote=“herbie_popnecker”]You don’t tell them it’s crappy. You explain it’s long ago passed it best-before date. They appreciate a little honesty if you tell them you can fix up their old one, but they could get a brand new one for $100 more.
eg P133 Win98 box in shop yesterday
0.5 hours - set up and determine hard drive goes clak clak
1.3 hrs - pull drive, slave to another, rescue some files. Find out its partitioned from Win95 days, rescue 2nd partition
2.0 hrs - find old useable HD, install windows
1.5 hrs find drivers cuz Win98 cant find its own ass in dark
1.0 hrs - figuring out you burnt old files to CD, but you have to temp put a new CDROM to install old files
call customer, brings important software disks
1.0 install software, repairing every other floppy along the way. Close box, writeup Svc Order:
old Harddrive $20, 7.3 hours @ $60=$438 =$458
Customer shits bricks. Takes 1/2 hour of managers time. Feels bill should be ‘about $40 max’. Manager can either seiz a $20 computer and piss off customer or ends up charging $75 that doesn’t cover your labor let alone his time or overhead. Must then repeatedly mention that you only recovered the files that were readable, etc.
Customer goes home, calls back screaming cuz Works 4 Windows is gone, all his high game scores are lost, you ripped him off, he just saw your ad for new systems from $499 and you tried to screw him for $450! Tells all his friends, who start calling your tech at home an offering him “a whole $20” to come do similar jobs at their house. All go to Suture Shop where they say “sorry they don’t make harddrives that fit anymore” and walk away. Chase after salesperson and come home with new Cicero with no modem and bunch of worthless rebate coupons feeling good. Find out when they get home has no ISA slots for old scanner, no COM2 for the dongle and makes laughing noises at them trying to install Works4Windows1.0. Go back to Suture Shop and happily pay for new scanner, modem install, Works2003, and new dongleless XP compatible software. Need a blankCD cuz they ‘formatted’ the sample one and go back to your local store. It’s shut down for good and they’re all pissed off they have to drive to the Suture Shop in the other town just for a $1 CD.

Isn’t that more like it?[/quote]

I think you’ve missed the point. Yes, it is better to be honest with the customer straight away. However, your attempt at humor will probably be misconstrued as you trying to tell them that the customer is stupid.

How would you like it if you brought your beloved dog into the vet’s office because it wasn’t eating, and the vet decided to tell you that the dog had to be put down by bringing out a shotgun and saying “here, you wanna do the honors?”

There are plenty of ways you could have made your point. Handing a customer a sledgehammer is hardly one of them.[/quote]

:unamused: I highly doubt he would seriously hand them a sledge hammer, however most clients I have had will tell me their hardware is out of date and they want to smash their computer with a hammer after only owning it for a year due to spyware etc.

Honestly though I dont work for just anyone who calls/comes to my door I choose not to work for people who are a pain in the ass. so if someone brings in a 486 and wants it fixed they can either put up with my humor or go somewhere else. It might sound arrogant but there are plenty of customers out there and someone else can have all the shitty/cheap ones.

In my experience the people who wouldnt be able to take the joke are hte cheap ones who will try to stiff you or get a “deal” those clients just dont pay off in the end.

Jesus hit the nail on the head. In all my years of experience, the customers you go out of the way for are the most likely to stiff you. If they’re still using a 486/Pentium I and complaining about the price of software, it’s a pretty good indication they’re either cheap or dirt poor.
When there was another store in town, I used to look at a job like that, tell them that perhaps ‘the other guy’ could help and even pass out his card. Sent him all the worst ones, he eventually folded.

[quote=“jesus”]

Honestly though I dont work for just anyone who calls/comes to my door I choose not to work for people who are a pain in the ass. so if someone brings in a 486 and wants it fixed they can either put up with my humor or go somewhere else. It might sound arrogant but there are plenty of customers out there and someone else can have all the shitty/cheap ones.

In my experience the people who wouldnt be able to take the joke are hte cheap ones who will try to stiff you or get a “deal” those clients just dont pay off in the end.[/quote]

It’s so weird. I dont pick and choose my customers if they want it fixed i fix it. I had this guy bring me his PII 333 last month and he said it was running slow should i go buy a new mchine so i can surf the internet faster… No i replied you just need more ram and a a fresh windows install.

So heres me i backed up his whole drive with a program i had in 15 min then i put it all onto a cd for him. i don’t know how it take’s you herbie 3 hours to back up and burn to a cd yoru doing something wrong. So as it is the customer paid me 50$ a little tip because the last computer shop said no we cant work on it it will take to much time.

Another week later he phoned and said it’s still working great i told my friend about you can you fix his computer. Sure i reply so they bring it over and i fix it in less than 3 min hes happy he hands me a cheque for 504 i reply i dont ened any money sir it was somthing i can charge you for maybe next time. He replys wow thanks jason…

Week later that same guy calles me and says jasondo you have any time on the weekend to help with some computers… I reply sure do… I get picked up to be brought to his company where his boss is and some co workers… they walk me around with a list of things that are broken and arn’t working well and well at the end of the day i walked away with 1600$ cash for some simple work…

My point here is never turn down work even if it is a pain in the ass… You will gain lots later… it’s a 486 that a customer paid $3k for many years ago who cares work your fast magic charge him a little $$ and be one with it.

Customers come back to people that help not peolpe that charge them up the ass and tell them they need a new computer when all they do is surf the net and check email…

I hated watching mike at creative systmes sell people that were new to computers… it was a joke he always told them they needed fast computers and cheap computers dont work well. 99% of the time he was full of shit and just wanted to see the $$$

Hee hee. That’s the difference, your job is to fix stuff where mine is to make sure there’s a place you can work and the customer can go for repairs.
As for time, well people around here tend to leave things to the last minute when TARFU is the rule. You can’t back up a drive in 15 mins if the system won’t run. It takes hours just to format a big new drive, you need to arrange something for your tech to do while it’s formatting. I setup our shop so we could simultaneously service 4 systems. We ended up cutting back to 2, because there isn’t enough demand in a small town, but I’m thinking of restoring the space cuz we’re building a lot of servers and systems now.
Sempron64’s and Foxconn mobo’s… good deals right now!

*Mike was doing what he’s supposed to. Extract as much money as possible while leaving the customer feeling satisfied with the transaction.

um hours to format a big drive ? Excuse me… um it just took 2 min to format a drive a 300gig drive. why does it take you so long ?

ok mike was doing his job… Right how many people have quit that hole in the last 2 years… id bet more than 4…

Actually what I believe jleaman was hinted at was that Mike was taking advantage of customers by selling them more system than they needed. If you consider that good business that speaks a lot about you as well. It also explains why Mike’s business went from one of the most popular computer shops in town to a place where people know you’ll get ripped off. If you truely speak down to your customers in the way you describe here in the forums, you might want to learn from his lesson.

Mike

Dont get me wrong jason, I dont turn down many customers However I do not just take any customer who comes my way. I will not work on a 486/pentium 100 it is not worth my time, sure i can put one of my Win98 clone images on the hd in about an hour, hten i have to wait to install all their software etc. and when they get a bill @ $60 per hour they will be pissed off, for a while I decided I wouldnt charge for wait times but I found myself sitting around waiting to click ok/next. It is just not worth my time and not worth the customers money to come to me with an ancient system. Now if they were a business customer I would take the 486 and turn it into a dumb terminal :wink: but your average home user doesnt want that.

Jesus is hired. Jason has to reveal how to properly format a 300 Gig drive in 2mins… Crazy Mike don’t go for a career in sales… :laughing:

Jason puts 300 gig hard drive into machine and uses tool that came from hard drive manufacturer… OR puts it into his windows xp machine and right clicks my computer to select manage and then formats the drive in computer managment :smiley:

Thank you for confirming what I suspected.

Mike

#2 still took forever last time I used it. I’ll check out Samsung for a #1. So I guess both of you are hired. But here’s the catch: you have to live in Fort St James. Cranky boss and crappy pay is one thing, but I couldn’t bring myself to subject anyone else to such an idignity :laughing:
Besides I’ve just about convinced myself into a carrer change. I can’t do it anymore :open_mouth: (well probably not such a shock considering the tone of all my posts…)

Mike: A guy came in with $3000 to spend (and he told me that’s what he wanted to spend) and I couldn’t come up with enough stuff. I actually had to tell him at $1800 that he’d have to go somewhere else and find some real expensive killer app to take advantage of what he had bought. These days you can buy more than you need for under a grand! Half the businesses in town are wasting a perfectly good athlon64 just to do bookkeeping.

Kinda like me wasting money on the best video and sound cards out there (when I bought my machine 4 years ago) just to do normal everyday things.