So back in my days of a computer repair chap I had this one case come in. Customer is complaining that the new printer he just bought isn't working with the computer he bought from us.
He's waxing poetic about how we promised him that his computer would be compatible with any printer on the market that has Windows XP Drivers, and how I should be arrested for fraud. I try to step him through the obvious things to try to troubleshoot a printer and I fond out that he doesn't have a USB Printer cable.
Thinking that this is the problem I suggest that he get one and try it. Big mistake as this causes him to scream that the printer is wireless. Thinking that this guy might be a total idiot for thinking that because the printer didn't come with the cable that it must be wireless I calm him down and find out the model of the printer.
Son of a bitch it *is* wireless. It has a Wi-Fi network printserver built into the unit so anyone on the network can print to it. Nifty.
Now this goes from idiocy to honest configuration issue. Since he's a normally good and steady customer I offer to stop over to his house on my way home since he lives about a mile from my house. I also even offered to not charge him the house call fee. Grudgingly this is acceptable and I go about the rest of my day.
I get there and I find out the problem. The printer was set to the wrong IP address. His address for the network were 192.168.0.x and he had set the printer to 192.168.1.x which for non-geeks out there meant that the printer thought it was all alone in the universe since a 1.x address can't talk to a 0.x address without additional equipment.
Time to fix? 2 minutes to check the settings, 30 seconds to make the change, 2 more minutes to do a test print. I told him that I'm not even going to bother to charge him for my time since it was a quick fix.
Did this make him happy? Nope! I got "Incompetent fool" (What for? I didn't @#$%-up the setup ), "Selling my garbage that doesn't work with printers like you promised." (WTF?!? IT did work, you just miss-typed a number), "Make me look like a fool will you?!?" (Jesus Christ! All I did was cheerfully come in, find the problem, and fixed it with a cheery smile on my face since it was a quick fix), and my favorite "I'm not paying for this you know. You owe me for @#$%-ing up my computer."
That's when I snapped.
"Listen you! I told you that the computer I sold you would be compatible with any printer on the market that has XP drivers. IT IS! The problem you had with it was a miss-configuration issue that was CAUSED BY YOU! You are the guy who bought the printer, you set it up wrong, I came out to fix it, and I already told you THAT I'M NOT GOING TO CHARGE YOU!. The computer is out of warranty, I did this out of the goodness of my heart off the time clock to keep a normally good customer happy and this is how you treat me? You are on your own with this printer...I wash my hands of it."
And then I left.
Never saw the guy again. His wife on the other hand brought me a box of donuts and apologized for her husband. From then on she was the one who called and dealt with me. Funny thing was on another onsite repair he saw me and went down to the basement and avoided me.
Jackass
M
He's waxing poetic about how we promised him that his computer would be compatible with any printer on the market that has Windows XP Drivers, and how I should be arrested for fraud. I try to step him through the obvious things to try to troubleshoot a printer and I fond out that he doesn't have a USB Printer cable.
Thinking that this is the problem I suggest that he get one and try it. Big mistake as this causes him to scream that the printer is wireless. Thinking that this guy might be a total idiot for thinking that because the printer didn't come with the cable that it must be wireless I calm him down and find out the model of the printer.
Son of a bitch it *is* wireless. It has a Wi-Fi network printserver built into the unit so anyone on the network can print to it. Nifty.
Now this goes from idiocy to honest configuration issue. Since he's a normally good and steady customer I offer to stop over to his house on my way home since he lives about a mile from my house. I also even offered to not charge him the house call fee. Grudgingly this is acceptable and I go about the rest of my day.
I get there and I find out the problem. The printer was set to the wrong IP address. His address for the network were 192.168.0.x and he had set the printer to 192.168.1.x which for non-geeks out there meant that the printer thought it was all alone in the universe since a 1.x address can't talk to a 0.x address without additional equipment.
Time to fix? 2 minutes to check the settings, 30 seconds to make the change, 2 more minutes to do a test print. I told him that I'm not even going to bother to charge him for my time since it was a quick fix.
Did this make him happy? Nope! I got "Incompetent fool" (What for? I didn't @#$%-up the setup ), "Selling my garbage that doesn't work with printers like you promised." (WTF?!? IT did work, you just miss-typed a number), "Make me look like a fool will you?!?" (Jesus Christ! All I did was cheerfully come in, find the problem, and fixed it with a cheery smile on my face since it was a quick fix), and my favorite "I'm not paying for this you know. You owe me for @#$%-ing up my computer."
That's when I snapped.
"Listen you! I told you that the computer I sold you would be compatible with any printer on the market that has XP drivers. IT IS! The problem you had with it was a miss-configuration issue that was CAUSED BY YOU! You are the guy who bought the printer, you set it up wrong, I came out to fix it, and I already told you THAT I'M NOT GOING TO CHARGE YOU!. The computer is out of warranty, I did this out of the goodness of my heart off the time clock to keep a normally good customer happy and this is how you treat me? You are on your own with this printer...I wash my hands of it."
And then I left.
Never saw the guy again. His wife on the other hand brought me a box of donuts and apologized for her husband. From then on she was the one who called and dealt with me. Funny thing was on another onsite repair he saw me and went down to the basement and avoided me.
Jackass
M
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