Water and electronics

[AdvancedFlea]

I know if I don't link this someone else shall!

http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20030530

I wanted to say to the customer exactly what Lucas had said, just to see if he responded...but I couldn't remember the words ;_; but atleast, with us, he came in to check before giving his computer a bath

...I really feel Lucas' pain somtimes, as I'm sure all retail tech support jockeys do

"Those guys at the store told me, fervently, not to use soap and water. But they probably don't know what they're talking about. It's probably fine to wash it down."

do you know how many times I have had a simalar situation to that?

"The guy told me not to use a 10amp fuse in the plug, it won't blow when there is a fault"
*Checks the plug. 10amp fuse* "so why did you use a 10amp?"
"Because he only works here. he doesn;t know what he's on about"
*rolls eyes*

thats the one we tend to get. or someone will tell us they were told NOT to use a certain LCD/Plasma wall mount so they used it anyway. ofcourse, none of these customers ever have the accidental damage warrenty

*is reminded of the tale of my ex and the cellphone* Although he wasn't trying to clean the thing, he just had no clue that talking on it while in the shower was bad...trying to dry it off in the microwave was even worse.

did you ever let them near anything electrical again?

[Victoria J]

What scares me here is that I keep thinking how reasonable the guy was. Before I started reading customers suck I would have thought he was the world's stupidest person, now I'm just thinking "well at least he didn't go back and blame the shop, or argue that it wasn't water damage, or threaten to sue, or ....."

My expectations are no so low I'm not shocked by this

I'm wondering if he actually washed it before coming in. SC washes computer - then finds it won't work. SC has gnawing feeling of dread, but is sure that cleaning computers is OK. SC heads down to computer store to check that you can clean computers. SC is confronted by his own idiocy and shamefacedly goes home and brings computer back for repair...

That makes more sense to me that him cleaning it after asking - given that he didn't show other signs of being the sort of idiot who doesn't listen to people, or accept advice.

Victoria J

[AdvancedFlea]

What scares me here is that I keep thinking how reasonable the guy was. Before I started reading customers suck I would have thought he was the world's stupidest person, now I'm just thinking "well at least he didn't go back and blame the shop, or argue that it wasn't water damage, or threaten to sue, or ....."

My expectations are no so low I'm not shocked by this

I'm wondering if he actually washed it before coming in. SC washes computer - then finds it won't work. SC has gnawing feeling of dread, but is sure that cleaning computers is OK. SC heads down to computer store to check that you can clean computers. SC is confronted by his own idiocy and shamefacedly goes home and brings computer back for repair...

That makes more sense to me that him cleaning it after asking - given that he didn't show other signs of being the sort of idiot who doesn't listen to people, or accept advice.

Victoria J

I actually thought the same thing. I was well prepaired for customer stupidity before I went into even woring at the petrol station (2004-2006) I dunno why or what prepaired me, I was just well prepaired.

Funny though, my dad said exactly the same thing as you. It could well be right ^_^

[Dreamstalker]

You're kidding, right ? Right ?

No, sadly I'm not.

He was trying to "multitask" by talking to me while he took a shower (now tell me, what phone call is so damn important you cannot wait until after the shower?) Although I was tempted to give the guy a few points for at least trying (hanging his head outside the shower curtain, which contrary to opinion does not prevent water vapor from entering the works).

I became sole witness to the slow drowning death of a cell phone (he got out of the shower, continued to talk to me as I could hear the microphone becoming more and more waterlogged until--beep, connection lost). But that's not all...

He did put it in the microwave for 4 seconds or so to dry it out. That worked long enough for him to place one final call to me half of which seemed to be variations on the theme of "why didn't you tell me I couldn't use it in the shower"

At the time, he was taking classes for an electrician's license

did you ever let them near anything electrical again?

I have not the power to do so (if he wants to blow up his house, that's not my problem), but that was when I stopped taking any advice from him on anything related to electricity.

[Samaliel]

At the time, he was taking classes for an electrician's license

You gotta be shitting me. I call shenanigans !

How did his microwave not burst ? How did it not toast his phone ? I once put something with the tiniest bit of metal in microwave and there were electrical arcs !

Brain... Melting...

[Dreamstalker]

I swear, he did do this.

As far as not going kaboom in the microwave, I'm not 100% certain how long he put it in there for or even if he did as he claimed to (although, the phone casing being all plastic may have meant that nothing actually arced, or it was only in there for an increment of time such as microwave ovens can't really measure).

[AdvancedFlea]

No, sadly I'm not.

He was trying to "multitask" by talking to me while he took a shower (now tell me, what phone call is so damn important you cannot wait until after the shower?) Although I was tempted to give the guy a few points for at least trying (hanging his head outside the shower curtain, which contrary to opinion does not prevent water vapor from entering the works).

I became sole witness to the slow drowning death of a cell phone (he got out of the shower, continued to talk to me as I could hear the microphone becoming more and more waterlogged until--beep, connection lost). But that's not all...

He did put it in the microwave for 4 seconds or so to dry it out. That worked long enough for him to place one final call to me half of which seemed to be variations on the theme of "why didn't you tell me I couldn't use it in the shower"

At the time, he was taking classes for an electrician's license

your boyfriend greatly amuses me hehe.

[Music Mo-Gal]

Some people are obviously too stupid to own a computer!

Soap and water on a computer? Now I've heard everything!

[AdvancedFlea]

Some people are obviously too stupid to own a computer!

Soap and water on a computer? Now I've heard everything!

I actually said to a guy I work with "Computers are too cheap"

The problem is that some people buy them then assume that they know all their is to know about computers. this then leads to stupid things like that happening.

[Geek King]

Fortunately for him, all he had managed to do was blow the power supply unit. It still cost him £89.99 for the repair (and a years tech support in case he does something stupid like that again) and £54.99 for a new power supply unit. I should have charged him extra for stupidity, I think.

Actually, when the water starts corroding the motherboard and other fun bits in there, he'll pay a lot more. Even dried, there's a good chance additional damage was done that might take a couple of weeks to show. Then again, I've seen electronics take a dunk and let dry, then work for years. Blame the mad prophet Murphy, I guess.

[Seraph]

THIS is probably what that customer was "thinking"........

B

This is off topic...but I hate that comic. Buckley is a hack, and I restarted reading it since his recent comic arc had me hoping he might have the chutzpah to be creative for once...but nope. He didn't have the balls to go through with it.

He did put it in the microwave for 4 seconds or so to dry it out. That worked long enough for him to place one final call to me half of which seemed to be variations on the theme of "why didn't you tell me I couldn't use it in the shower"

Perchance is he related to this friend of mine?... He dropped his cell phone in a puddle and put it in his dryer to dry it off.

You gotta be shitting me. I call shenanigans !

...Are you my old EQ2 guild leader? The man was ALWAYS saying that phrase!

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

I wasn't there personally, but my supervisor once told me a story of a call he was on where a customer had soaked his cell phone and called us to find out what to do about it. The rep he spoke to told him he should put it in the OVEN to dry it off!

And would you believe Mr. Genius actually did it!

One melted cell phone later we had a very angry/embarrassed customer on our hands.

[Dreamstalker]

Perchance is he related to this friend of mine?... He dropped his cell phone in a puddle and put it in his dryer to dry it off.

A clothes dryer?! Although some folks on a computer forum of mine have claimed to put MP3 players/flash drives through wash/dry* and they worked afterward...

* Someone, I believe it's Corsair, makes a flashdrive that is supposed to be waterproof/shockproof. I would test that claim if I had the disposable income to do so.

[Dark-Star]

Some days I support the idea of a mandatory test for ownership of any electronic device more complicated than a calculator. This is one of those days.

[Dreamstalker]

Exactly. Say, a variant of the A+ exam to even buy a computer, periodic retesting every year after.