Interesting Tech/Computer Job stories?

[VincibleAndy]

Do any of you guys have any weird or interesting stories from when you worked at a tech support or computer repair company?

 

I have too many to count, but a couple I find interesting are:

 

1) My boss replaced some dudes Retina MBP screen with a 3rd party one from eBay for cheap but told him it was OEM from Apple and charged him as such. This happened often and I would voice my objection and tell customers when I knew about it, he didn't like that, but whatever.  The screen had various issues like going back until you did a couple reboots or resets or the colors shifting the longer it was on.  He kept bringing it back for repair and I told the guy it was obviously a bad screen and will be replaced under warranty.  While I was out my boss gave him the laptop back saying the screen had been replaced and everything was Aye-Okay!  It wasn't replaced and the issues continued.  The dude kept coming back every couple days, no idea why he would come back even after that first time, but whatever.  After a few more times my boss told him that he AGAIN sent it to Apple for replacement and it was good to go.  The next day it had issues, he brought it directly to Apple who told him there was no record of any repairs and that since it had major 3rd party replacement parts, they wouldn't touch it now.  Furious he flies into the shop and starts threatening lawsuits at me (he was a Hollywood-type Producer).  My boss ended up having to "cut a deal" with the dude and my paycheck was late that week; great place to work.

 

2) Same boss noticed the company was going well so we bought a $2k MakerBot printer.  His goal to build a life-sized BB-8 replica.  Pretty cool idea at the start.  Anyway, having no patience, it didn't go anywhere.  Blaming the printer for every mistake and making no attempt to learn the machine.  Just dumping more money into more parts and accessories for the printer.  After months of no longer using it, he bought 2 more at the same prices as the original.  They are both still unopened, in the box as far as I know.  He was trying to market the company as a 3D Printing service but had to turn away the people who actually wanted the service as he was in no position to do that.  Most people turned us down as he wanted to charge $15 an hour to print, which was more than he was willing to pay me to work there.  He also tried to sell his half finished, poorly done BB-8 model to someone for a few grand, who laughed at him thinking he was joking around.  He got furious with the person and refused them service in the shop.

 

Hope these weren't too boring or long winded.  I have MANY more stories from this place, as working there was absolutely ridiculous, but I am curious is this is a common theme in this industry?

 

Also, I thankfully do not work there any longer or in that industry.

[Canada EH]

I would say a great majority of sellers on ebay state the item is OEM when its really just a cheap chinese knockoff. Buying from china you would never know. There is no real way of knowing from looking at it. I know some people will put a very cheap cell inside a can, and slip on a heatshrink with Sony on it. Then there are the people that buy the cheap chinese knockoffs, stock up and resell them in North America to get the delivery speed advantage and of course up the price of the item.

 

The problem with the cheap knockoffs is, no one has an idea as to what materials they used. So of course it could be dangerous. Think of cell phone cases, touches your hand and you eat. The sellers dont care, they got their money. You cant sue them.

 

The new age is 3D printing. Jay Leno did a video on a car that was 3D printed. Also there is a guy in the USA that is 3D printing firearms, he lists his programming as open source.

[VincibleAndy]

1 minute ago, Canada EH said:

I would say a great majority of sellers on ebay state the item is OEM when its really just a cheap chinese knockoff. Buying from china you would never know. There is no real way of knowing from looking at it. I know some people will put a very cheap cell inside a can, and slip on a heatshrink with Sony on it. Then there are the people that buy the cheap chinese knockoffs, stock up and resell them in North America to get the delivery speed advantage and of course up the price of the item.

This I know, as I have seen it. Both the lying on eBay and the reselling of 3rd party parts under the OEM marker.  But in this specific case he knew it was 3rd party and even had to re-glue part of it before installing it into the guys machine.  Stuff like that just drives me crazy, if its 3rd party, just ask the customer if that's what they want.

[Canada EH]

6 minutes ago, VincibleAndy said:

This I know, as I have seen it. Both the lying on eBay and the reselling of 3rd party parts under the OEM marker.  But in this specific case he knew it was 3rd party and even had to re-glue part of it before installing it into the guys machine.  Stuff like that just drives me crazy, if its 3rd party, just ask the customer if that's what they want.

Human nature is greed. Some people will do anything, even harm others with defective products to make a buck. You cant really do anything about it. Especially online purchases. Even "reputable" brick and mortar stores, like yours, I'd hazzard a guess and say BestBuy would sling some shady stuff too just to pass on an old product and make a buck while they are at it. Futureshop here in Canada did it. Canadian Tire automotive repair is another, their front desk csr's get paid commission. Heck I even bought some rotors, and pads from them. When I got them home they were all rusted. Someone ripped crappy tire off and it sure wasnt me. Made me look bad, but I give them props for honoring my return. It was on camera at the parts counter.

 

Years ago I built a computer. I had a guy help me with it. I cant remember the specs it was so long ago. But I stated there was a larger amount of ram in the machine then there actually was when it was sold. It wasnt on purpose mind you.

[NeXTSalt]

Well this is a story of how these guys screwed over my father over something super simple. I was replacing my main rig in 2014 or a newer one (was going from x79 to x99) so my father got my old PC only for it to just randomly die. He brought it into a place to get it checked out. They stated it was a windows corruption and they said it was fixed. He brought it home and soon after it was working for 5 minutes, it started to power cycle again and again. He made quite a bit of trips with random excuses coming up using for 5-30 minutes and then starts power cycling. Then one day after he picks it up yet again. It wouldn't boot at all, it turns out when I checked it out they damaged 2 of the dimm slots and broke the latch on the top PCIe port! He brings it in and they state that he needs a new mobo, I order a asus P9X79LE as a replacement for him and boom he back to working. 2 days passed and he is back to power cycling. Afterwards they say it's a power supply issue and then I go to replace the PSU with a 650W G2 from evga. I even tested to see if it works beforehand and once I confirmed that yes it's working. I give it to them to install. After a week or so I give them a call and they say the power supply doesn't work and they replaced it with something else and now the PC is ready for pickup. My father gets the PC and it's been working good ever since. Also he went ape shit when he got the bills because with all of their bullet they charged a upwards of $1500 for all the "work" they did on the PC. And the PC was worth $2500 at the time.

 

P.S the power supply I bought and tested. When I got it back I tested it by running it for 2 days without turning it off and it worked fine -.-

and the motherboard with the damaged dimes I found out that they damaged the cpu fans,

 

 

[ObliviationGNx]

4 hours ago, NeXTSalt said:

Well this is a story of how these guys screwed over my father over something super simple. I was replacing my main rig in 2014 or a newer one (was going from x79 to x99) so my father got my old PC only for it to just randomly die. He brought it into a place to get it checked out. They stated it was a windows corruption and they said it was fixed. He brought it home and soon after it was working for 5 minutes, it started to power cycle again and again. He made quite a bit of trips with random excuses coming up using for 5-30 minutes and then starts power cycling. Then one day after he picks it up yet again. It wouldn't boot at all, it turns out when I checked it out they damaged 2 of the dimm slots and broke the latch on the top PCIe port! He brings it in and they state that he needs a new mobo, I order a asus P9X79LE as a replacement for him and boom he back to working. 2 days passed and he is back to power cycling. Afterwards they say it's a power supply issue and then I go to replace the PSU with a 650W G2 from evga. I even tested to see if it works beforehand and once I confirmed that yes it's working. I give it to them to install. After a week or so I give them a call and they say the power supply doesn't work and they replaced it with something else and now the PC is ready for pickup. My father gets the PC and it's been working good ever since. Also he went ape shit when he got the bills because with all of their bullet they charged a upwards of $1500 for all the "work" they did on the PC. And the PC was worth $2500 at the time.

 

P.S the power supply I bought and tested. When I got it back I tested it by running it for 2 days without turning it off and it worked fine -.-

and the motherboard with the damaged dimes I found out that they damaged the cpu fans,

 

 

now that sounds fuckedup.

[NumLock21]

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/34813-experiences-with-non-techies/

[NumLock21]

dp

[THFourteen]

Dunno about interesting but I once had to take a support call on Christmas Eve and the only tool I had with me was my iPad (original 1024x768 res). 

 

The PM gave me his login so I remoted onto his Laptop and fixed whatever it was I needed to fix then told him it was done. 

 

A few mins later I get a call "what have you done to my laptop everything is all small!!!"

 

Essentially had to spend five minutes explaining how to use the maximise button as it had resized his windows to 1024x768 lol