I work in a computer repair shop. I’ve finished a job on a laptop that involved installing a new 1TB hard disk, Windows installation, data recovery from a defective hard disk (took two days), reinstalling his Office, email configuration, and a few things.

The bill was around $250, which is cheap for what we did. The customer comes in to collect the laptop and sees the bill.

Customer: “I’ll offer you $40 cash, no more.”

When cheapskates try this, I’m supposed to call the store owner over straight away.

Owner: “No. Just no. You knew what the bill was when you left it with us. I don’t waste time on people like you. Pay up.”

Customer: “No, this was a simple job. $40 is more than fair.”

Owner: *To me.* “Undo it all.”

I take the laptop into the back.

Customer: “Where’s he going with my laptop?!”

Owner: “He’s going to remove the new hard disk and put back the faulty one.”

Customer: “But… no! You already did the work!”

Owner: “Yeah, I know. It sucks.”

Customer: “Okay, okay! $250! You take check?”

Owner: “After what you just tried to pull? Absolutely not. Cash or card payment.”

Customer: *Grumbles but produces a credit card.*

Shockingly, the payment goes through, and he takes the laptop. Un-shockingly, he called back a few hours later, saying our repair job was bad and he demanded a full refund or he’d put up a bad review online.

Owner: “Hmm, well, we have over two thousand five-star reviews on Google, earned over a decade of good work. Let’s see how much of a dent you can make.”

We never saw a bad review appear. Same for that customer!

I owned a computer repair business for a few years. A woman brings in a laptop slammed with viruses, spyware, etc. It was so bad it wouldn’t boot. I got it all fixed up, and she picked it up.

She’s back the very next day with the same issues.

Me: “I feel I need to ask, what websites are you visiting on this thing?”

Customer: “Oh, hmm, lemme see. My boyfriend spends most of our internet time on…”

She proceeds to list, totally casually, a long list of adult-oriented websites with names that would make most people blush.

Me: “Um, okay. I’ll go ahead and clean it again for free, but if you visit those sites, I can’t do it again without charging. Those sites are 100% the cause of all your computer issues.”

Customer: *All smiles.* “Okay!”

She picked it up the same day, and is back in the next.

Me: “Did you go back on those sites?”

Customer: *Laughs.* “Of course.”

Me: “Do you understand why this keeps happening?”

Customer: “Yup!”

Me: “And you go to those sites anyway?”

Customer: “Yup!”

Me: “I’m going to charge you every time you come in with the same issue.”

Customer: “S’all good!”

Those two and their choice of websites paid my rent for months…

My boss walks over to me, holding a job ticket.

Boss: “You got this ticket to repair this computer?”

Me: “Clean it. The customer wanted it dusted out.”

Boss: “You returned it uncleaned?”

Me: “I did. The resultant required job was not as described by the client.”

Boss: “Huh?! Just how much extra dust was in there?”

Me: “Enough dust to almost cover the mouse bones.”

Boss: “…never mind. Good call.”

A customer brought in a computer with a BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) problem, and apparently, completely ignoring the signage everywhere (including on the form he signed to drop it off) stating there would be a minimum cost, was furious that there was actually a charge to fix his computer, upon his return.

Customer: “You’re a bunch of scam artists! You can’t expect people to see and read everything. I bet you don’t read the terms and conditions all the time either, do you? You should have told me verbally!”

Funny enough, though, I had only literally just fixed it (it was a corrupt file, which you just renamed, and Windows fixed it with a scandisk on restart), so the computer was on the bench, and actually still on.

The dude was still furious and continued to loudly declare statements like:

Customer: “This isn’t right! If I’d have known there was a charge, I wouldn’t have bothered!” 

I calmly told him:

Me: “I will see what I can do.”

I go into the workshop, straight to his computer, and simply rename the restored/fixed version and revert to the original corrupt file. I then turned the computer off, unplugged it, and brought it out a short while later. As soon as I came out with it:

Customer: “There’s no way I’m paying for it, though!”

Me: *Smugly, smiling happily.* “My apologies for the misunderstanding. Here’s your computer back, and there is no charge.”

Customer: “That’s d*** right there isn’t. But you fixed it, right?”

Me: “Well, it was fixed, but you made it clear you had no intention of paying anything to fix the computer.”

He was about to continue his rant when I just cut him off and continued.

Me: “It’s an honest mistake; you somehow managed to completely miss all the signs trying to make it clear we’re a business, and you simply don’t understand that a business needs to charge people for their services to stay open. So, in accordance with your wishes, I’ve reverted my work, and I’m giving it back to you in the state you brought it in, which has incurred no charge to you.”

Customer: “Yeah, but for this inconvenience I expect it to be fixed… you’re telling me it’s still broken?!”

Me: “Well, yes. As you literally just made clear, quite belligerently, you didn’t want to spend any money on this computer to fix it. I’ve literally done what you wanted.”

This confused him for a moment, and I could see he was about to simply continue his tantrum until he got his way, before I again cut him off.

Me: “Unless you’re a scam artist and never intended to pay for the repair, this is exactly what you wanted. We have literally no more reason to continue this discussion unless you intend to pay for our services to have the computer fixed.”

I could see he was still angry and was probably going to continue to be an a**hole, but thankfully, the phone rang, and I picked it up.

He then took the computer and, cursing under his breath, left the store… only to have his wife drop it off to be repaired, at cost, the next day.

I work in a small computer repair store. When customers come in to collect their repaired units, one of us goes into the back to get it while the other takes the customer’s information at the desk. I usually just ask the brand, as we don’t have too many in the back at any given time.

Customer: “I’m here to pick up my laptop. You sent me an email.”

Me: “Sure thing! What brand of laptop was it?”

Customer: “Jade.”

Me: “Jade? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that one.”

My coworker also looks confused, but I go into the back to have a look while he checks the customer’s ID and looks up what he owes on the system.

I go into the back to see if we have any laptops by that brand (maybe it’s one of those new Chinese-branded ones they don’t sell here yet?), but I come up with nothing.

I go back to the front to tell them I can’t find it. The coworker tells me the name of the customer, so I go back to search again. I find it straight away, but then I start laughing. As I bring it out:

Coworker & Customer: “Why are you laughing?”

Me: “Mr. [Customer’s Name], your laptop brand is Acer.”

Customer: “No, it’s not, it’s Jade! It’s written right there!”

I flip the laptop upside down.

Customer: “…oh.”