Crazy customer story #1 - Computer Repair Shop

[SpookyCitrus]

Just for context I normally don't get heated and very little have I had to do what I did to this guy, he gave me no choice and I tried everything to help him out. Had a guy come into the shop I work at because his "Enthusiast" grade PC couldn't hold a steady FPS and was crashing pretty frequently, also coming at me with the "My computer has so much less fps than this guys does on youtube, with the EXACT SAME PARTS!" So I check it in and start going to work running diagnostics.... not a bad system 2700x, GTX 2080ti, Nice X470 Motherboard, Samsung nvme drives, the whole nine yards, cable management is not the best but it's the guys first build. Notice only one stick of ram, not even a heat spreader on it just a green DDR2 looking stick of ram, pull it out, start inspecting. Smells crispy, no name brand anywhere, only a single sticker and in the most shotty looking print job it said... DDR4 4GB 1600mhz. So I grab a 2x16GB kit of Corsair Vengeance Pro RGB 3200mhz off the shelf and slap those puppies in, the whole computer was RGB except for the Ram so it was a pretty addition as well as functional. Turn computer on no longer crashing, FPS is solid. Butter smooth. Call this guy up ask him my usual spiel. "Hey where did you get that ram module from?" customer, "Just on Ebay, didn't think it was a problem just made sure it was DDR4 and at least 4GB." Tell the guy the ram is garbage and 4GB 1600mhz is way to low for a 2700x build, he says no it's not it's fine with what I have and if it's bad  it has a lifetime warranty with Samsung,  I try not to laugh and tell the guy he got screwed, he says fine, what will it take to fix it? Feel bad for this guy so I tell him the retail price for the ram I replaced it with, not even going to charge for my time or anything I even cable managed the system for him just to be nice. Guy says that's way to expensive I only paid $15 for that ram and you want to charge me $250 for what you have? What a rip, you're trying to screw me! Tell him I'm not I did 4 hours labor on it, cable managed it for him and am not charging him for any of that because I felt bad and wanted to help him out and get it going so he's happy. He says whatever, what a load of horse shit go to hell! I tell him fine sir you wanna be that way your bill is now the $250 for the ram plus $340 for services and time spent, not usually that high but I've logged about 4 hours on this system already and am really sick of this guys attitude. He says F off I'm not paying that I can't even afford the $250 for just the ram.... all my money went into the computer when I built it... really man why even bring it in somewhere that's going to charge you for fixing it?? Tell him ok we can hold onto it until you can pay us then you can have it back. Guy says no effing way I'm calling the cops, I just laugh and say go ahead you signed a check in waiver when  you brought it in that gives us the right to hold the computer until we are paid for services and if you if refuse to make the payment after 30 days we can sell said item to make up for goods or services not payed for. He says I'm suing yadda... yadda... yadda, he cries, begs and finally says I'll be there Friday after I get paid. Needless to say he never came in, computer was here for 41 days, I left several very persistent messages about one a week, finally gave up and sold the system. Made a pretty decent profit because I only had the ram into it so I believe it was about $2600 in profit. I sold it for $2850 and it's been a month or two since then and I haven't heard a thing from him. Several morals to the story but the main one is don't be a dickwad to the guy fixing your $2900 system, and then refuse to pay him. Some say I try to hard, but some say it's just enough.

[Spotty]

35 minutes ago, SpookyCitrus said:

So I grab a 2x16GB kit of Corsair Vengeance Pro RGB 3200mhz off the shelf and slap those puppies in

 

35 minutes ago, SpookyCitrus said:

Guy says that's way to expensive I only paid $15 for that ram and you want to charge me $250 for what you have? What a rip, you're trying to screw me!

Considering the customer is complaining about gaming performance (and not say, intense workloads), the guy probably doesn't need a $250 2x16GB kit of ram. You can get 2x8GB 3000MHz RAM for about $80-$90 which would have fixed their problem. If you want the fancy, high end Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO 2x8GB it's about $120.
So, in regards to trying to sell him $250 parts when $80 (or $120 for the fancy, RGB version) parts would fix the problem and meet the customers needs, then yeah, you were in a way ripping them off. The customer was sensible to question how much you were charging for the parts as what you were quoting them was excessive and unnecessary for their needs.

 

35 minutes ago, SpookyCitrus said:

Tell him I'm not I did 4 hours labor on it, cable managed it for him and am not charging him for any of that because I felt bad and wanted to help him out and get it going so he's happy. He says whatever, what a load of horse shit go to hell! I tell him fine sir you wanna be that way your bill is now the $250 for the ram plus $340 for services and time spent, not usually that high but I've logged about 4 hours on this system already and am really sick of this guys attitude. He says F off I'm not paying that I can't even afford the $250 for just the ram.... all my money went into the computer when I built it... really man why even bring it in somewhere that's going to charge you for fixing it??

The customer gets to decide whether or not the want to buy the parts from you. You can't force them to buy the parts if they don't want to. If the customer says "No, I don't want to spend $250 to fix the system" then you take the RAM out of the system, put the old RAM back in, and give the system back to them. You give them a report and say that your diagnosis has determined the performance issues to be related to the RAM, and that your recommendation is for a new RAM kit to be replaced and give suggestions on compatible models and the price of those models in your store.
You could charge whatever service/diagnostic fee that was initially agreed upon to find the fault, but that's really it. You can't force them to pay $250 for RAM they don't want. Likewise, the customer never asked you to perform those additional services you provided (cable management, etc), so you can't charge them for that either unless it was agreed upon prior and the customer was made aware that you would be performing those services and that there was a cost to those services.

 

35 minutes ago, SpookyCitrus said:

Tell him ok we can hold onto it until you can pay us then you can have it back. Guy says no effing way I'm calling the cops, I just laugh and say go ahead you signed a check in waiver when  you brought it in that gives us the right to hold the computer until we are paid for services and if you if refuse to make the payment after 30 days we can sell said item to make up for goods or services not payed for. He says I'm suing yadda... yadda... yadda, he cries, begs and finally says I'll be there Friday after I get paid. Needless to say he never came in, computer was here for 41 days, I left several very persistent messages about one a week, finally gave up and sold the system. Made a pretty decent profit because I only had the ram into it so I believe it was about $2600 in profit. I sold it for $2850 and it's been a month or two since then and I haven't heard a thing from him. Several morals to the story but the main one is don't be a dickwad to the guy fixing your $2900 system, and then refuse to pay him.

So you tried to force a customer to pay for parts they didn't want, as well as charge for services they never requested... Then when they refused to pay for those charges that you had no right to charge for, you decided to steal their property and then sell it to make a profit?

 

It would be like taking your car to the mechanic for an oil change. Then when you go to pick up your car the next day, without you asking for it the mechanics have replaced the wheels, tyres, windscreen, and brakes, and then tell you that the you have to pay $2000 extra for the parts that you never wanted + additional $300 labour charges for services/work you didn't request. Then the mechanic steals your car and sells it because you refused to pay thousands of dollars extra for parts & services you didn't want/need or agree to.

[mr moose]

It took you 4 hours to work out it was a ripoff ram stick? First thing you do is check which parts are recognized in windows (including ram total) then a look at the ram stick,   from your description should have taken a total 5 minutes.  I'd be pissed if I were your customer too. 

[DildorTheDecent]

53 minutes ago, SpookyCitrus said:

 I try not to laugh and tell the guy he got screwed

 

and am really sick of this guys attitude. 

 

don't be a dickwad

This is gold.

 

2018 account n00bs are easily the best. Nothing else can possibly come close.

[Arika]

Why didn't you just take the stick out, put the old one in and give it back if he's being that difficult? write off the labour cost and call it good. you were already willing to write it off originally.

 

really hope that isn't the actual story and you made it up just to get a laugh out of people.

 

 

[Spotty]

14 minutes ago, mr moose said:

It took you 4 hours to work out it was a ripoff ram stick? First thing you do is check which parts are recognized in windows (including ram total) then a look at the ram stick,   from your description should have taken a total 5 minutes.  I'd be pissed if I were your customer too. 

4 hours is a lot of time for just a RAM swap... But to be fair to OP you have to include time spent testing the performance initially, installing diagnostic software, diagnosing the problem, probably doing a virus scan as well (lots of PC repair places will include this in their services, and a deep scan can take a while), swapping the RAM, cable management (even though it wasn't asked for), then testing the performance after to ensure it works as intended, and cleaning up any software that was installed afterwards. Could easily add up to 4 hours service. Though, this time should be expected and accounted for by any halfway decent PC repair business when they take a system in to diagnose a problem, and it should be accounted for in the initial cost of the service/diagnosis of the system.

 

Personally I can't wait to see what happens in Crazy Customer Story #2.
"A customer brought in their broken laptop and asked us to fix it, the HDD inside it was dead, so we sold them a $3000 iMac Pro on a payment plan with 30% interest rates, and when they couldn't make the payments we broke their legs. It was hilarious!"

[mr moose]

5 minutes ago, Spotty said:

4 hours is a lot of time for just a RAM swap... But to be fair to OP you have to include time spent testing the performance initially, installing diagnostic software, diagnosing the problem, probably doing a virus scan as well (lots of PC repair places will include this in their services, and a deep scan can take a while), swapping the RAM, cable management (even though it wasn't asked for), then testing the performance after to ensure it works as intended, and cleaning up any software that was installed afterwards. Could easily add up to 4 hours service. Though, this time should be expected and accounted for by any halfway decent PC repair business when they take a system in to diagnose a problem, and it should be accounted for in the initial cost of the service/diagnosis of the system.

 

Personally I can't wait to see what happens in Crazy Customer Story #2.
"A customer brought in their broken laptop and asked us to fix it, the HDD inside it was dead, so we sold them a $3000 iMac Pro on a payment plan with 30% interest rates, and when they couldn't make the payments we broke their legs. It was hilarious!"

You don't need to do all that testing to know that 4G is highly questionable as being enough.  He is describing a really decent PC and then a really shitty RAM stick,  It's the first thing I would have replaced.  When you are in a shop it takes 1 minute to swap a stick for known good ram, boot up a game to confirm.

 

1 minute ago, ReggieGRS said:

 

Wish shit here was good enough that i could afford to criticize that!

 

I understand the not wanting to judge and being grateful for what you have,  but everything scales.  I have been in and around computers for 30 years (I even did it professionally for a few of them),  you don't dick a customer around like you just traversed a desert when it was a relatively easy diagnosis. 

 

Whether this story is true or not is moot.  Advocating treating people like that only furthers the detestation of humanity.

[LukeLinusFanFic]

11 minutes ago, ReggieGRS said:

@Spotty

 

Wow. Such a different POV. I get the ethics and morals of it are tough (or not). But the difference in experience simply paints such a difference color onto this story for me. As silly, naive, stupid or whatever you may wanna call this, i feel like if someone does a good service in itself and fix the problem you had, i think they're kinda allowed to rip you off by replacing your faulty parts with the most expensive one they have available. I know. This is laughable. But like i said, the difference in experience. Here i worry if my problem will actually get fix, worsen, or take too long to diagnose that i'll may take it somewhere else or even go as far as to invest into an entirely new system. That's how bad tech service is here. Its the reason why i sided with the OP. Not that i needed to justify that to you ofc just wanted to share opinion since i've had such a difference experience. But i do see your point and agree with it. To a degree. The rest is my biased experience feeling like i'd be taking good service for granted. Or "good" as some would put it.

 

Its similar to when people elsewhere complain about their slow internet when they can download at over 50mb while i over here, in good days, download at 300-700KB and i'm just like "man, they have it so good and don't know it". I guess my difference experience can be summarized to "you just don't know any better" and seems about right. But still...

 

 

Wish shit here was good enough that i could afford to criticize that!

Umm no, that's still ripping someone off and that's not okay. It's okay to charge a premium charge for a premium service, but it's not okay to stick you with something you don't want...

 

Frankly, I wouldn't go to this shop based on this story.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, SpookyCitrus said:

Several morals to the story but the main one is don't be a dickwad to the guy fixing your $2900 system, and then refuse to pay him.

Here is a list of morals I found:

- Its OK to overcharge a customer by putting in expensive parts without their consent

- Its OK to steal and sell someone else's property

- Its OK to abuse a customer on the phone

- Forget to tell the customer its an issue with the speed and capacity of the RAM

- Its OK to lose your professional attitude 

- Its OK to change your quote, who cares about what he can pay anyway

 

He now has every right to sue you, and he should. Selling his stuff after an arbitrary time period, after gouging him for money. Shame. 

[Arika]

16 minutes ago, ReggieGRS said:

I think they're kinda allowed to rip you off by replacing your faulty parts with the most expensive one they have available.

No they absolutely are not. it's up to the customer what they want to buy.

 

a restaurant could have the best customer service in the world, but if i order a bowl of mac and cheese and they give me a gold leaf steak and expect me to pay $500 for it even though i haven't touched it, i am absolutely not paying a damn thing.

[Spotty]

12 minutes ago, ReggieGRS said:

Wow. Such a different POV. I get the ethics and morals of it are tough (or not).

IMO not really a moral issue to be honest. In Australia what OP did would be illegal, for theft of the system, trading in stolen goods, as well as unlawful consumer practices which could see the company likely fined & named and shamed on a list of dodgy dealers. The customer could also sue for any money already paid back, as well as the cost of replacing the system which the store stole.
 

Quote

Unsolicited products or services

When you receive products or services that you have not requested, this is called an 'unsolicited supply'.

If you receive unsolicited products or services:

• you are not required to pay for the products or services
• you are not liable for any loss or damage resulting from a supply of unsolicited services
• if you contact the business in writing, expressing that you do not want the products, then the business should recover the products within one month
• if you don’t contact the business, then the business may recover the products within three months from the day after you received the products
• you cannot unreasonably refuse to allow the supplier to recover the products
• you may be liable to pay compensation if you wilfully damage the products during this period.

So if someone comes in and asks for their 6 year old HP to be scanned for viruses, you can't just decide to put a $1400 RTX 2080Ti Asus Strix in there and then force the customer to pay you $1400 for the card + $100 for installation fees, and then refuse to give the system back if the customer refuses to pay. That's both unsolicited products and unsolicited services. The customer would just say "No, I don't want that graphics card, I never asked for it and I'm not paying for it" and the store will either have to remove it from the system, or let the customer have it for free.

 

12 minutes ago, ReggieGRS said:

As silly, naive, stupid or whatever you may wanna call this, i feel like if someone does a good service in itself and fix the problem you had, i think they're kinda allowed to rip you off by replacing your faulty parts with the most expensive one they have available. I know. This is laughable.

You're saying that it's okay to rip off a customer if they're uneducated in what they're dealing with? In other words, it's okay to rip people off if they're vulnerable. It's the customers fault they're stupid, and so they deserve to be ripped off?

The customer is paying the PC store to provide a service and to provide that knowledge and expertise in order to determine not only what the problem is, but to also use their knowledge and expertise to determine what the best solution for their needs is. OP failed that in attempting to convince the customer to buy more expensive parts than what is required - parts that cost 3 times as much as what suitable parts would cost. OP was simply trying to gouge the customer by trying to make them buy more expensive parts than what is needed and take advantage of the customers ignorance.

 

12 minutes ago, ReggieGRS said:

That's how bad tech service is here. Its the reason why i sided with the OP. Not that i needed to justify that to you ofc just wanted to share opinion since i've had such a difference experience. But i do see your point and agree with it. To a degree. The rest is my biased experience feeling like i'd be taking good service for granted. Or "good" as some would put it.

I'm all for people sharing their opinion. It's something that I take advantage of in sharing my opinion, so I'm glad you share yours - even if I don't agree with it.

 

 

2 minutes ago, mr moose said:

You don't need to do all that testing to know that 4G is highly questionable as being enough.  He is describing a really decent PC and then a really shitty RAM stick,  It's the first thing I would have replaced.  When you are in a shop it takes 1 minute to swap a stick for known good ram, boot up a game to confirm.

True, if it's just a RAM swap then it is about the easiest thing you can do with a PC and take about a minute at most... However, from my experience and people I know working in the industry, a lot of the PC repair places will do "PC Service" deals which will include basic things like dusting the system, virus scan, etc. Pretty basic service to offer whenever a customer comes in with a problem of any sort. Probably what the store signed the customer up to and what the customer agreed to. 
So even if it took them 1 minute to realise the RAM was the issue and needed to be swapped out, they should still provide the other services the customer solicited which could take a few hours.

Basically how it would typically go down...

Quote

Guy goes in to store: "My PC sucks, it's not performing properly, I try to game and my FPS is lower than other people with my specs. I don't know what is wrong with it, please help"

Store: "Sure, we can do a service & diagnostic on the machine. Service involves dusting out the internals, performing virus scans on the system, checking things like the fans are still working, cables are plugged in properly, etc. 9 times out of 10 this will solve most issues, but if not we will do more thorough diagnostic testing and hardware testing to determine the cause of your issue. We charge a flat fee of $79 for the service & diagnostics and we will give you a report at the end outlining any issues we might find. If there is a hardware fault we may need to replace hardware in order to fix the problem, however if that is the case we will give you a quote on any replacement parts required before proceeding."

 

Few hours later, store rings up the customer and says: "Hey, we've found your problem and we believe it to be related to your system memory. We've tested the system with a new kit of memory and it has fixed the problem. We have a number of suitable replacement parts in stock today. We can offer you a 2x8GB kit of 3000MHz RAM for $95. Since we are already charging you the flat fee for the Service & Diagnostic, we are happy to waive the usual installation/labour cost of installing the parts for you today and only charge you the $95 part cost in addition to the flat fee $79 for the service. Would you like us to proceed and replace the RAM for you today?"

 

[Spotty]

2 minutes ago, ReggieGRS said:

So i find a dude that charges and arm and a leg but fixes my shit perfectly, goddamn it i take it.

It sounds like what you're talking about is going to someone who charges higher prices, but provides better quality of services.
That's something the customer will always need to weigh up themselves and decide whether the more expensive service that is better quality is worth it over the cheaper, poorer quality service. That's the same whether you're paying a kid in the neighbourhood a few bucks to mow your lawn vs a professional greenskeeping service, or paying a successful law firm $500,000 to defend you in a murder case vs public defender.

 

27 minutes ago, ReggieGRS said:

I'd take OP's sort of rip off than someone outright steal a piece of my hardware or taking a fucking month with my PC and ending up with nothing. 

-snip-
Just woulda payed and moved on. 

So you would have paid the $250 for the RAM in order to get your system back sooner?
I guess that's an interesting point to make. If I needed to replace RAM and I was in a store, and they charged say $115 for a kit of RAM that I knew I could buy for $100 on somewhere like Amazon, then I may end up paying the higher price in store just so I don't have to wait for delivery and I can get my system back up and running sooner. So there is a point where convenience has a value in the transaction, I guess it depends on how much you value that convenience.
Paying $250 on expensive parts that aren't required when a $80-$100 part would do the same job, well like the person in the OPs story I would draw the line and say "No, that's too much. I'll take my business elsewhere"

For arguments sake, let's say OPs store tried selling them a 4x16GB kit instead for $500. Would you still just pay it in order to get your system back, or would you say that it's too much and refuse to buy it?

And even then, the customer still gets to make the decision whether they want to buy it or not. The store can't hold the customers possessions to ransom if they refuse to buy what the store is trying to sell them.

[Dedayog]

9 hours ago, LukeLinusFanFic said:

Umm no, that's still ripping someone off and that's not okay. It's okay to charge a premium charge for a premium service, but it's not okay to stick you with something you don't want...

 

Frankly, I wouldn't go to this shop based on this story.

Yeah, all I got from it was he tried to pawn off 32GB of RAM the guy didn't need without offering other options, like a 16GB kit.

 

This story is bullshit.  Cuz everyone leaves a $2500 machine at a shop for them to sell when they only owe less than $200.  What's your diagnostic fee?  He would have known this going in and agreed to it, and since you didn't actually fix the machine... he would have been out only the diag fee.  You put the bad 4GB back  in, PC still broke.  Diag fee is only expense.

 

Polish it up a bit before you post on the next forum you troll, there were a few holes.

[Tsuki]

10 hours ago, Spotty said:

-snip-

i completely agree. i got my 16GB 3200MHz kit for $100.  OP needs to not try to upsell that hard. 250 for a kit is way too high especially if the customer doesnt ask for it.  OP is an asshole and i would never go to a shop run like that.

 

 

-you cant charge for work that wasnt asked for

-that waiver you made him sign is actually illegal in some places, and if he took you to court, you would lose

-it should have taken less than 10 minutes to confirm diagnosis. 4 hours of work was because you spent extra time doing things you werent asked to do, unless it legit took you 4 hours to figure out that a single 4GB stick of 1600 of ebay ram on ryzen was gonna be a problem, in which case you arent qualified to have your job.

-this should have ended with him not wanting the ram, and you giving him back his computer charging him nothing more than the diagnostic fee

-the real moral to this story, you're an asshole, if you treat all your customers like that, you shouldnt be in business

 

 

please bring me your car for an oil change that im gonna charge your $400 for because i also got it detailed for you without asking. oh you dont want to pay the extra for the clean? too bad im just gonna sell your car.

 

fuck OP

[Dedayog]

Just now, Tsuki said:

i completely agree. i got my 16GB 3200MHz kit for $100.  OP needs to not try to upsell that hard. 250 for a kit is way too high especially if the customer doesnt ask for it.  OP is an asshole and i would never go to a shop run like that.

 

 

-you cant charge for work that wasnt asked for

-that waiver you made him sign is actually illegal in some places, and if he took you to court, you would lose

-it should have taken less than 10 minutes to confirm diagnosis. 4 hours of work was because you spent extra time doing things you werent asked to do, unless it legit took you 4 hours to figure out that a single 4GB stick of 1600 of ebay ram on ryzen was gonna be a problem, in which case you arent qualified to have your job.

-this should have ended with him not wanting the ram, and you giving him back his computer charging him nothing more than the diagnostic fee

-the real moral to this story, you're an asshole, if you treat all your customers like that, you shouldnt be in business

 

 

please bring me your car for an oil change that im gonna charge your $400 for because i also got it detailed for you without asking. oh you dont want to pay the extra for the clean? too bad im just gonna sell your car.

 

fuck OP

Hence the entire story is a... story, nothing more.

[CarlBar]

12 hours ago, Spotty said:

IMO not really a moral issue to be honest. In Australia what OP did would be illegal, for theft of the system, trading in stolen goods, as well as unlawful consumer practices which could see the company likely fined & named and shamed on a list of dodgy dealers. The customer could also sue for any money already paid back, as well as the cost of replacing the system which the store stole.

 

Amen. Refusing to return the system is legal in some parts of the world for time spent, but until that was settled selling the system would be flat out illegal almost anywhere.

 

I can understand it taking a little while to spot the ram as my first step would probably have been to confirm there was an issue, but that shouldn't have taken me very long.Half hour tops. And it's quite probable during that time, (as i'd likely just install steam on a temp basis and grab my copy of 3dmark which would need a little while to download), i'd have pulled up the info in windows and figured out that it only had 4GB of ram. At which point i'd have likely taken the side off, done a check to see how many sticks, grabbed a spare ram kit to confirm that was the issue and then had a word with the person.

 

2 hours ago, jstudrawa said:

Hence the entire story is a... story, nothing more.

 

I suggest reading the experiences with non-techies thread, the story on the customer end actually sounds amazingly plausible given the kind of thing you'll find in there.

[Dedayog]

3 minutes ago, CarlBar said:

 

Amen. Refusing to return the system is legal in some parts of the world for time spent, but until that was settled selling the system would be flat out illegal almost anywhere.

 

I can understand it taking a little while to spot the ram as my first step would probably have been to confirm there was an issue, but that shouldn't have taken me very long.Half hour tops. And it's quite probable during that time, (as i'd likely just install steam on a temp basis and grab my copy of 3dmark which would need a little while to download), i'd have pulled up the info in windows and figured out that it only had 4GB of ram. At which point i'd have likely taken the side off, done a check to see how many sticks, grabbed a spare ram kit to confirm that was the issue and then had a word with the person.

 

 

I suggest reading the experiences with non-techies thread, the story on the customer end actually sounds amazingly plausible given the kind of thing you'll find in there.

You're very right.  Someone will leave $2900 (using the OP's valuation) on the floor like that over a few hundred dollars.

 

Step over to the side here, I have some bridges to sell you...

 

For the non-tech thread... who's to say some of those aren't embellished or outright false?   I can understand some odd things but the one above?  Fuck and no.

[CarlBar]

6 minutes ago, jstudrawa said:

You're very right.  Someone will leave $2900 (using the OP's valuation) on the floor like that over a few hundred dollars.

 

Step over to the side here, I have some bridges to sell you...

 

For the non-tech thread... who's to say some of those aren't embellished or outright false?   I can understand some odd things but the one above?  Fuck and no.

 

There's 2 stories in there about someone who destroyed 2 different 9900k systems live on stream by doing monumentally stupid thing within a matter of months of each other. And thats just the most obvious one i can think of off the top of my head.

 

People really do stupid things far more often than we'd like to believe.

[aezakmi]

12 hours ago, Spotty said:

You're saying that it's okay to rip off a customer if they're uneducated

[Dedayog]

Just now, CarlBar said:

 

There's 2 stories in there about someone who destroyed 2 different 9900k systems live on stream by doing monumentally stupid thing within a matter of months of each other. And thats just the most obvious one i can think of off the top of my head.

 

People really do stupid things far more often than we'd like to believe.

That's completely different.  

 

In this case, it was give me $250 or give me $2900.  We can discuss the legality or ethicality (meaning the OP is a piece of shit for his supposed business practices) but in no way can I believe someone just GAVE AWAY $2900 over $250 (or however much it was).

[CarlBar]

1 minute ago, jstudrawa said:

That's completely different.  

 

In this case, it was give me $250 or give me $2900.  We can discuss the legality or ethicality (meaning the OP is a piece of shit for his supposed business practices) but in no way can I believe someone just GAVE AWAY $2900 over $250 (or however much it was).

 

How is destroying 2 multi-thousand dollar systems through sheer ignorance and then blaming the people that advised him any different. Both require monumental amounts of don't give a shit and i know better than you mentality.They also both involve people throwing money down the drain, and their far from the only examples in there. They're just the two easy to grab ones. The point is people can and will do monumentally dumb things that cost them hilarious amounts of money on a routine basis if they're tech illiterate.

[imreloadin]

Real moral of the story here is that @SpookyCitrus should have not spent extra time doing stuff that the customer never requested and then should have presented a selection of options for the replacement part. If the client says "no" then slap the original parts back in it and send it on its way. This could have been handled in a much better way which would have made it into a win for both parties. If this had gone differently this guy could have even came back in a week or two after getting paid to buy the new RAM. Instead now he's just badmouthing your company everywhere since you basically screwed him out of his PC and now he'll never build one again. Thanks for being a "dickwad" as you so eloquently put it OP...

[Touch My Hamm]

As someone who has worked and managed for years in Computer repair shops (not going to say names). I believe he is telling a very poor 1 side of the story without all the conversations. I doubt he was holding the PC hostage because of the charge for ram. He was holding since he was owed the payment for labor. As much as everyone can say "Its a RAM issue its easy fix 1/2 hour max" that's not true. I had special software that we ran that would give us an overview and scan the PC with multiple malware scanners and stuff. This didn't always check if ram was sufficient for what the user is trying to do. We don't know what the whole story was or if the customer asked to check software and see if its a software issue first. This is common place as the customer never wants to be pointed at and they always want an easy fix. he might of paid for software diagnostic, and OP did a hardware test on his own to be nice. 

 

Testing diagnostics for many big tech companies have a standard for what to do first. And this inst always go check RAM. Its been a long time since I go "Upgrade Ram" on first inspection. Many prob remember Vista and how every PC came with 2GB and it was never enough for that hungry monster. 

 

I believe this story to be not the best telling as it tries to only paint the customer in a bad light. Yes customers can feel entitled, and they are allowed to. They chose you with this property. Something that they hold close to them. Yes its a computer but its this persons first build and he was ignorant in what he had. Instead of saying this is how to fix it. Give the customer options and make him feel as though he is in control. You will get A LOT more return customers and must better service doing this. And always make it seem that they are getting a great deal, let him know you are waiving the labor since you loved him computer build and would love for him to be a return customer. and give him options for RAM. or say here is a discounted labor cost and I would highly recommend an upgrade to Ram and link him a video to watch and let him know that if he buys the ram from you that you will return the labor cost. Also please do not cable manage for someone unless they ask. This is just asking for trouble. There is always a chance you break something by accident. 

 

I'm not saying I agree with OP or say he was the wrong one. I think there would need to be a lot of clarification on the post. It really sounds like someone new to this field who lost a sale since he wasn't wanting to budge on Ram/Labor. But this could be since the story isn't fleshed out.  

 

 

[RoseLuck462]

So the guy never came back for his $2000+ system?

 

Riigghhtttttttttttt

[SpookyCitrus]

LMAO, it's so much better baiting here than on reddit.