The Tow Files: Blast From The Past

[depechemodefan]

NEITHER ONE THOUGHT TO DRIVE THE TRUCK BACK!!!!

I wonder if they were thinking they were solving the problem of the fox, the chicken and the grain.


My dad used to drop off a car for repair and use the other family car to wait by the mechanics after they closed to see if they would use the car to drive for fun. Of course I'm dragged, at pre-school age, to these stake-outs and would get very bored.

My dad was a real paranoid man.

[Sparklyturtle]

Computer tech who used to work for the company I used to work for told me this one: He'd figured out how to fix an issue with some computers at one of the military facilities in the mid west. Next thing he knows, he's getting a call from a base in Florida, and the gist was that they'd heard through the grapevine that he had figured out how to fix this issue on computers in Tennessee, and they were having the same issue in Florida. So he told them how to fix the issue (he said it was a 5-minute fix once he'd figured it out) and by the time the call had ended the people in Florida had their computers up and running. He finished by saying, "I didn't know my reputation was so far-flung."

[Apallo]

Argabarga: We have the same problems (idiocy, not necessarily with cars) with some of the guys doing on-site work. They will get to the customer site, only to find that they forgot the product (some or all), or their tools, or the cable management stuff. It boggles the mind how they can load up and take off without realizing they left 1/2 or all of the important bits back at the shop. The worst is when they forget the paperwork. No signature = we don't get paid for the product or labor.

Don't you just love getting voluntold by relatives, especially to help people you don't even know? <sarcasm mode off>

This right here is why I charge people, even my own parents, for any repairs. I used to do this stuff for free (or food), but over the years, I've learned that once you've fixed someone's computer, any problem, no matter what it is, is now your fault, and you need to fix it NAO!! Doing the service for free devalues your trade (no matter what it is) in their mind.

Charging people for the service seems to remind them that there's a skill involved here, and they're less likely to blame you for their shenanigans if it's $$$ every time they call you out to fix it. I had to impress this idea upon my parents, especially my dad. He just didn't get that it was costing me money to come down and fix his stuff for free (I live like 20 miles from them). I finally had to explain that he's costing me money, and I'd at least like enough to put some gas in the tank, and that he charges me to do my taxes (he's a CPA, and he doesn't charge full price), so if I'm paying him for his skilled work, why is my skilled work worthless? Funny thing happened after that....his computers (both work and home) have suddenly stopped having all these problems!

[protege]

More like an eye-dee-ten-tee or PEBKAC error

[Argabarga]

Sounds like a "this computer is running too slow, time to find the biggest file and delete it to make more space so it'll run faster!" kind of error was made.......

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Don't you just love getting voluntold by relatives, especially to help people you don't even know? <sarcasm mode off>

Heh.

Years ago we had our home repainted by a lady (who was recommended by my ex-stepdad - should have asked HIM to do it himself looking back on this) who obviously didn't know much about anything else. Mom had paid her (by cash) and it turned out that the painter (Crystal) had a young daughter and was interested in getting her a computer (child was around 9 or 10 at the time.)

At this time, I had just gotten my 2nd PC (still had the Packard Hell that I started out with just sitting around gathering dust and my brother had just gotten one for his room, so old Mabel as we called her was basically a spare by this time) and Mom wanted to know if I'd let Crystal have the Packard Hell computer for the daughter.

Okay, I went along with this (knowing full well this was a bad idea) and away the computer went with them.

Not long after, I get a phone call asking if I can come by their apartment and take a look at it - they couldn't get the computer to do anything.

I told Mom then they've probably poked around and messed a lot of settings up or some such - probably because we're talking about folks who have no clue about this technology or what to do with it. But I went over there to see if there was anything I could do.

Bad idea. Place was a small, dingy apartment and reeked of pot/stale cigarettes/spilled beer - just nauseating. I managed to get the computer turned on and it wasn't recognizing anything - so I go into the Windows folder and see where a bunch of stuff is missing! Half the system folders were gone, the drivers were gone . . . apparently somebody got into the files and just started deleting random stuff off the hard drive,therefore rendering the computer as a paperweight b/c nothing could run on it b/c of missing files.

Hell, I couldn't even get the restore discs to run b/c the PC wasn't recognizing the CD drive due to missing files. So that idea of reinstalling everything off the CD's went right out the window.

After an hour of poking around, I basically told them they'd have to take it to a computer shop and IIRC I got out of that place.

And after that, my mother NEVER told anyone I'd work on their computers again - I'd simply tell them to call Geek Squad or another tech place. I only work on the computers that are in this house and nobody else's.

[eltf177]

Don't you just love getting voluntold by relatives, especially to help people you don't even know? <sarcasm mode off>

[Dreamstalker]

Anyway, as we're getting ready to leave said burger joint, she calls me over to her car, and shows me a computer in the trunk. She had volunteered me (without asking) if I could fix that computer. It wasn't even her computer. It belonged to a lady she worked with.

My mom basically hired me out to help an acquaintance of hers who knew absolutely nothing about computers...I was given no indication whatsoever of what I was walking into. I dealt with the woman twice, and then we mutually ended the relationship when she decided that I "didn't know enough" (after she specifically asks me to install X then later decides she doesn't want X after all, goes into the control panel as she saw me do, and screws things up to a degree where I was hesitant to even touch it...of course I should know what she did )

She also gave me an old Vaio laptop, which I still have and I never heard from her regarding what she wants me to actually do with it (there's some confidential financial data on there...). It might turn into a sacrificial lamb.

[dalesys]

My high school electronics class (I took it 11th grade) was taught by a shop teacher who'd been an AF radar tech aka box swapper. I got A's because A) I was answering everybody's questions, and B) he was a good honest person stuffed into the position.

[Rosco the Iroc]

I was also disremembering an ancient scifi story I read a few weeks ago and managed to re-dig up: Positive Feedback by Christopher Anvil.

I get it.

Boy you are not just peddling vacuum.

Good troubleshooters are hard to find. That story reminds me of what happened in the Navy.
We had many different test benches and set ups. For many kinds radios, radars, misc cockpit boxes. Of course these systems are made up of many boxes. All with different connector set ups and signals.
Stuff like this-

It had test equip you could run independent to any computer prog tests that were at best had an 80% of a correct call out.
I became the master of one had to troubleshoot box because I ran into an engineer who explained how it worked beyond the unclassified maint book.
I still had to run the full computer prog test on it but I did my own manual tests with the muitmeter and Spectrum Analyzer. I would fix it half the time and rarely needed an second part call out unless the 1st was needed to unmask the 2nd.
I was glad when my drier died and I was able to find an tech book online and it gave me an excuse to get out the fluke meter and troubleshoot an bad high limit switch.
Anyway all these benches were replaced with an single new bench CASS
Consolidated Automated Support System or as we called it Can't Actually Support Shit

So you only need to train a tech to run the bench and it does it all!
So the same tech can fix anything!
No need to have hundred different adv tech training classes!
YEAAA sure this will happen...ok so nothing got fixed.
Notice just one display and the results are go/nogo. So you wouldn't see that the 5VDC power supply has an ripple in it and it's bouncing between 4.2 and 6.5DVC inducing random issues with any of the subassys that use the 5volts because the test program window says it's ok. You also have an tech that has looked at 20 different boxes in the last to weeks and never get to know any of them to look for such an issue.

Car mechs are the same way. Some can troubleshoot and some are part changers.
Part changers will see that the inner brake pad is down to the backer on the left front side, and change the pads. Maybe even clean up the rotor.
The Troubleshooter will ask why? One pad on one side is not normal, what caused it?
Then see if the caliper bolts are frozen, sticking or bent, or the piston is the same. Or maybe the wrong pads were put on and forced to fit. What ever he will find out why and fix it.

I had a guy come into the parts store and insist his coolant temp senor was bad because that's the code I scanned.
It was in the 20 and said if his thermostat is sticking open it would cause it to read low. Most cars that have an temp gauge and it runs off an second sensor. Was the needle where it should be? They are not the most accurate most people can see if it's in the right place. Not this guy.
Ok I sell him one he insisted.
Week later comes back pissed and swearing our sensor is an POS bla bla bla.
I happened to have an IR thermo and low and behold it was telling the truth and his thermo was sticking and the eng was at 180 instead of the 205.

Sorry I had to rant. BTW good story.

[dalesys]

...Oh! Big Deal! Increase Income!

What are you trying to say? Making fun of my link you quoted or OBD2?...

I was also disremembering an ancient scifi story I read a few weeks ago and managed to re-dig up: Positive Feedback by Christopher Anvil.

[protege]

Unless they're MG-GTs

Probably because Armagh (home of The Roadster Factory) isn't too far away. TRF throws an awesome summer party, from what I understand So do the PVGP folks, and it's all for charity. Nice B GT there, BTW.

Here's mine

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

I liked the multiple deaths for the two numpties that took your truck. I feel bad for you on that one but damn if it doesn't make for a hilarious story.

[taxguykarl]

Most likely an insurance settlement.

[raw1989]

yay no more screaming at the office staff