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Placing this under Sightings even though this fellow is a customer. I wouldn't call him a sucky customer, just clueless.
Sold this guy a new inkjet printer about 4 months ago. Yesterday he went to Staples to get a black ink cartridge (it's one of those models where it has 4 separate cartridges) He calls me because he can't figure out how to get the old cartridge out.
Despite owning a computer store, I don't have an eidetic memory of every brand of printer. But I look up the model and see it's one of those ones where the print head slides over, under a sort of cowl. I ask if the printer is turned on - usually that's the case when you change a color cartridge: turn the printer on, open the lid, and the print head slides over to let you change the inks. Well, no - he didn't have it turned on.
So he turns it on and now he's hemming and hawing a little because it's taking more than 3 seconds for the print head to move back and forth. I'm now getting a little irritated because if he had simply read the instructions he would already be done, but we all know no customers bother to do that.
I all but shout "you need to give it a few seconds!". After 30 seconds of warming up, the print head moves to a spot where he can remove the ink. Great. Wish him well and end the call.
Five minutes later he calls back because the ink won't go in. Looks like it's the right size, and it's what the guy at Staples told him to get. (and I hold the opinions of anyone at Staples suspect, anyway, at least with regards to computers and such) Well, I'm not giving the guy my cell phone number to send me a picture of what he's looking at (I don't mind doing it for good repeat customers or service contract customers but I could see this guy abusing the privilege and calling me over every little thing, so F that.)
Guy comes in about 20 minutes later with the printer. Simply looking at the two cartridges I can see that not only are they different part numbers (110 and 220 or something like that) but the bottoms are different. One has a round hole where it plugs into the print head, the other is square. You know how well jamming a square peg in a round hole goes, so it looks like my assertion that the Staples guy didn't know what he was talking about is correct.
Guy heads back to Staples to swap the cartridges. Even though it was opened, I don't think they'd give him any static since the guy gave him the wrong information.
I get a call 20 minutes later. He dropped the printer and now something in the back is bent backwards and he can't fix it. I tell him I'd have to see it. He hasn't called back or come back in again since that.
I think what irritates me the most is how helpless people are... when they don't need to be. Yes, I run a computer shop and I help out with glitches and errors and such. But if you would READ THE DAMN INSTRUCTIONS you'd know how to take out the cartridge and then you'd have the thing in your hand to take to Staples to get the right part number. We're not talking about something complicated like installing a device driver or fixing a bad Windows update. This is something you could have easily done if you just took 30 seconds to read instructions but instead you had to waste my time and your time with 3 phone calls and an unneeded visit. And now you may have broken your printer as well.
Sold this guy a new inkjet printer about 4 months ago. Yesterday he went to Staples to get a black ink cartridge (it's one of those models where it has 4 separate cartridges) He calls me because he can't figure out how to get the old cartridge out.
Despite owning a computer store, I don't have an eidetic memory of every brand of printer. But I look up the model and see it's one of those ones where the print head slides over, under a sort of cowl. I ask if the printer is turned on - usually that's the case when you change a color cartridge: turn the printer on, open the lid, and the print head slides over to let you change the inks. Well, no - he didn't have it turned on.
So he turns it on and now he's hemming and hawing a little because it's taking more than 3 seconds for the print head to move back and forth. I'm now getting a little irritated because if he had simply read the instructions he would already be done, but we all know no customers bother to do that.
I all but shout "you need to give it a few seconds!". After 30 seconds of warming up, the print head moves to a spot where he can remove the ink. Great. Wish him well and end the call.
Five minutes later he calls back because the ink won't go in. Looks like it's the right size, and it's what the guy at Staples told him to get. (and I hold the opinions of anyone at Staples suspect, anyway, at least with regards to computers and such) Well, I'm not giving the guy my cell phone number to send me a picture of what he's looking at (I don't mind doing it for good repeat customers or service contract customers but I could see this guy abusing the privilege and calling me over every little thing, so F that.)
Guy comes in about 20 minutes later with the printer. Simply looking at the two cartridges I can see that not only are they different part numbers (110 and 220 or something like that) but the bottoms are different. One has a round hole where it plugs into the print head, the other is square. You know how well jamming a square peg in a round hole goes, so it looks like my assertion that the Staples guy didn't know what he was talking about is correct.
Guy heads back to Staples to swap the cartridges. Even though it was opened, I don't think they'd give him any static since the guy gave him the wrong information.
I get a call 20 minutes later. He dropped the printer and now something in the back is bent backwards and he can't fix it. I tell him I'd have to see it. He hasn't called back or come back in again since that.
I think what irritates me the most is how helpless people are... when they don't need to be. Yes, I run a computer shop and I help out with glitches and errors and such. But if you would READ THE DAMN INSTRUCTIONS you'd know how to take out the cartridge and then you'd have the thing in your hand to take to Staples to get the right part number. We're not talking about something complicated like installing a device driver or fixing a bad Windows update. This is something you could have easily done if you just took 30 seconds to read instructions but instead you had to waste my time and your time with 3 phone calls and an unneeded visit. And now you may have broken your printer as well.
) and offered the old PC to my dad.
Seriously? Mine has a freaking WALK THROUGH on the touch screen and on the ink placement's door. But of course, you can put neon around the damn thing and people still won't read it. They'll be all like, "Oooh, flashy lights!"
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