Stories From the Bench: He said what???

[crashhelmet]

One day two ladies came up to our counter and asked for help getting a PowerMac out of their car. I recognized one of the ladies and gladly went out to help them with it. I brought it back in and set it on the counter to be checked in. I had been working on a system build so one of my co-workers took over and was helping them with the check-in process.

L1: Mac Owner
L2: Lady's friend (The one I recognized)
D: Co-Worker
CH: Me

CH: Hey D! I gotta get this system done. Can you do me a favor and check in this Mac for L2 and her friend?
D: Sure!

D: (To L1) What can we help you with today?
L1: My Mac won't power on.
D: OK. Do you remember any errors or problems the last time you used it?
L1: No. it just wouldn't turn on this morning.

(Conversation goes back and forth about possilities and options)

L1: Is this worth fixing?
D: Well, if you ask me, the only thing a Mac is good for is a door stop or a boat anchor.

L1: :eek:
L2: :mad:
CH: :eek:

At this point, I should mention that the lady I recognized was the Vice President and one of the founders of our company.

L2: You're joking right?
D: (Standing there with this "did I say something wrong?" look on his face)

At this point, I felt it necessary to take over

CH: D, I'll handle it from here. Can you finish getting the sound card drivers installed on that system for me?

L2: CH! Does he say things like that to all of our customers?
CH: No ma'am, not to my knowledge.
L2: Is T (my manager) here today?
CH: Not yet. He's got the closing shift tonight.
L2: Please have him call me when he gets in.
CH: Yes ma'am.

D wasn't working in our department much longer. If I remember right, he got transfered to our central service center where he wouldn't have any customer interaction.


Crash Helmet

[crazylegs]

There goes a case of foot IN mouth disease... Are you an apple dealership or do you just sell/repair them? (in a generic sense with other computers)

[Broomjockey]

Ow. Just...ow. I feel sorry for the guy. Aren't techs supposed to be opinionated about the stuff they sell? Then again, if he's selling repairs, telling someone their stuff is crap isn't gonna do it. Oh well. At least he wasn't canned.

[crashhelmet]

It's an electronic retail chain with an in-house repair/service desk, much like BestBuy or CompUSA. Just not one of them ;p

Crash Helmet

[protege]

Ow. Just...ow. I feel sorry for the guy. Aren't techs supposed to be opinionated about the stuff they sell? Then again, if he's selling repairs, telling someone their stuff is crap isn't gonna do it. Oh well. At least he wasn't canned.

That's why the hobby shop I go to is always careful about what they say. Even though some brands of model locomotives are truly shit--Tyco, old Life-Like, some Bachmann (not Spectrum), etc.--they try not to say that, and simply say that they can fix it, but it's not going to be cheap. Some of those brands simply weren't designed to last, or the companies that made them are out of business.

Then there are the guys who insist that if a locomotive isn't brass it's worthless. Never mind that many of those (expensive) brass engines *run* like shit. Hell, some of my cheap Athearn engines will outperform them :p

[gunsage]

Don't get me wrong...I don't like Macs very much, but then I don't like Vista either. Why? Because they're two things I'm not very familiar with, but I still have to troubleshoot them anyway. The nice part is with Macs, often I don't have to do much. Unfortunately when there IS something wrong with a Mac, often it's serious. I would not, however, be badmouthing the system right to a customer's face. If anything, it's crass and definitely unprofessional. Just wow.

[lordlundar]

Besides, it's no macs in general for that purpose, it's the original iMac.:p

[crashhelmet]

The original iMac was pure crap. I cant count how many HDDs, video cards, and RAM modules I had to replace in them.

[Gurndigarn]

The original iMac was pure crap. I cant count how many HDDs, video cards, and RAM modules I had to replace in them.

I managed to get quite a long use out of mine. Hard drive and optical drive replaced at various points, but it still worked a long time before dying.

BTW: don't use them for doorstops or boat anchors. Turn them into MacQuariums!

[protege]

BTW: don't use them for doorstops or boat anchors. Turn them into MacQuariums!

Dad worked at a public relations company...that actually used Macs for doorstops. At the time, they simply weren't worth fixing. At the time (and may be still?) you had to get the parts from Apple--it wasn't like a PC, where everyone and their brother sells parts to upgrade or repair them.

MacQuariums are awesome though :)

[Gurndigarn]

Dad worked at a public relations company...that actually used Macs for doorstops. At the time, they simply weren't worth fixing. At the time (and may be still?) you had to get the parts from Apple--it wasn't like a PC, where everyone and their brother sells parts to upgrade or repair them.

Motherboards are Apple-only still. Most drives are stock, though you may need to transfer I/O boards from the old one to the new one. Not sure about monitors; I've never had a monitor die on one that was worth keeping any more.

OTOH, Apple has really upped their quality in the last several years, and you don't usually run into many problems except with the drives.

[PepperElf]

*raises her hand as a happy mac user* :)
for laptops i usually go though about a 6 month honeymoon where i'm happy and after that there's enough issues that i'm unsatisfied. I've had the macbook for... about 11 months now and i really haven't fallen out of the honeymoon state yet.

but not everyone likes them the way i do and for different reasons. They're not really gamer-based, with some exceptions... All Blizzard games are Universal (PC & MAC versions in the same box) and all EA games are available as either PC or Mac. But for the people into graphics, multimedia editing and such...Macs have always been known for their quality. (not to mention that the new ones come with basic editing programs for making movies, music, & dvds... all for free)

But even if you ignore those differences... it's not really a good move to have the tech start going off on how he thinks the gear is trash, especially not in front of the customer. Those kind of statements usually give the message of, "I'm not going to do a good job for you cos I'm horribly biased against your equipment."

[technical.angel]

BTW: don't use them for doorstops or boat anchors. Turn them into MacQuariums!

I am!! I had one heck of a time getting the durn thing apart. Now, I just have to worry about the plexiglass part.