I do freelance PC repairs. I’m called by a lady who owns a repair shop for TVs and home appliances.

Repair Shop Owner: “I want to add PC repairs to my services. I can offer you 50% of the charged price.”

Since I’m not working much at the moment, I agree. She calls me to the first service and wants to be there for the first repair to see how I treat the client.

We are at the client’s home.

Me: “Can you tell me what the problem is?”

Client: “The PC doesn’t turn on.”

I sit next to it and switch the “on” button, and it turns on.

Client: “It turns off after a while, though…”

I am troubleshooting when I hear the repair shop owner go to the kitchen with the client, who comments that her microwave isn’t heating the food. The shop owner opens it, sees that it’s a bit scratched, and says one of the stupidest things I have heard.

Repair Shop Owner: “Well, since it’s all scratched up, the lasers can’t bounce off the walls, and that’s why it’s not heating up.”

I facepalm so hard.

The seven-year-old kid who is there with the client speaks up.

Client’s Child: “Microwaves don’t work with lasers.”

The owner then argues with the kid, making up stuff to defend her argument. Finally, the kid comes to the PC and speaks to me.

Client’s Child: *Politely* “Could I use the PC for a second?”

He went to Wikipedia, looked for the entry on microwave ovens, and printed it. Before the kid showed her the article, I simply stood up, called the lady up, said there was nothing wrong with the PC, and left. I never worked with that lady again.

Related:
Microwave For A Micro-Brain

My parents have a repairman at our house fixing something. I live with my parents and am helping my dad out in the yard. The repairman finishes the job and drives away.

Dad and I finish the yardwork and head inside. Dad hops in the shower first to clean off all of the dirt, and then it’s my turn. The bathroom is heavily steamy when I come out, and I open the bathroom window.

That’s when I hear it: a clatter.

I put my glasses on and inspect the window sill. A small, triangular piece of broken plastic is in the track of the window.

I’m concerned, initially thinking some part of the window broke, but no. The window is intact. I can’t find a single spot where anything could have gotten damaged. Then, I get a cold feeling of dread.

I come out and talk to Mom.

Me: “Mom, did the repairman ask to use the bathroom?”

Mom looks a little surprised.

Mom: “Well, yes. I told him to go ahead. They’re people, too, and need to do their business. Why?”

I show her the bit of plastic, which I left where it was without touching it.

Mom: “What’s this? Is the window broken?”

Me: “No, I think that’s the piece of plastic he stuck in the window to prevent the window from latching when we closed it.”

Mom went very still for a moment and then shared a horrified look with Dad. The local newspapers had been detailing a rash of home burglaries where the burglar gained access through a window, usually the bathroom.

Long story short, a police officer talked to all of us, got the “repairman’s” name from our paperwork, took the plastic, and left. I’m not sure about the details of the investigation, but the burglaries did stop afterward.

Back in the early 2000s, I had a summer job as a service representative for a phone tech company. Specifically, the company sold and serviced ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) telephones. My job was to fix phones that had been sent in, and if I couldn’t fix them, just take one that had already been fixed down from the shelves and send that out instead.

A man called the repair shop, having been searching desperately for someone who could fix an issue with his phone. Apparently, he had been given the run-around by all the salespeople who sold him this thing, making him more and more desperate for actual assistance.

At this time (in July), most people were on vacation, so it was even harder to find anyone who could help. There I was, a temp in my teens, alone in a repair shop, taking his call.

As he explained his problem to me, though, it did sound like a fairly simple fix; the issue he was experiencing should be fixed with a software update. The way to do that was to open up the phone, extract one chip from the circuit board, and put in a new pre-programmed one. I wasn’t quite sure about the next step, though, seeing as he lived in a city an hour’s drive away.

Me: “Would you like to send me the phone? Or maybe I can send you the chip you need if you’re able to fix it yourself?”

Customer: “No, I’ll be right down!” *Click*

Sure enough, an hour later, a car pulled up on the industrial estate. I went out to greet him and let him in (even though there was no customer reception area, just a warehouse). Once I got hold of his phone, I fixed his issue in about two minutes. It was as I thought: just open it up, extract the chip with a special tool, insert a new chip that we had ready on the shelves, test the phone, and screw it back together.

Customer: “How much do I owe you?”

Me: “Oh, nothing. That was so simple; I couldn’t charge anything for that. Plus, you drove all the way down here.”

The man insisted and left me some cash anyway. He then departed, ecstatic that he’d finally found someone who’d been able to help.

I learned a lot about customer service in that job — to be polite, helpful, and patient. Whether the customer is an ignoramus, unlucky, or just plain desperate, there’s always some way to help them. When you’re in the service sector, that’s the job.

I work for a decently-sized chain of repair shops. One day, we get a ticket from one of the newer locations, a location we acquired six months ago.

Ticket: “Subject: Two of our computers are offline. Ticket: Everything was working fine when we left on Friday. But when we got back, two of our computers and our Xerox were down. We have customers waiting in the lobby. Please address.”

This kind of thing happens pretty often in our stores. The cleaning crew comes in over the weekends and sometimes they’ll bump the power cable to the switch in the front office, knocking the machines offline. I figure that is the case and call them, expecting this to be an easy fix. I speak with the store manager.

Me: “Hey, this is IT, calling about that ticket about the offline PCs. Can you tell me a little more about what’s happening?”

Manager: “Yeah, man, two of our modems are down and we’ve got a lobby full of customers. What do you need me to do?”

Half of our employees call computers “modems”, for some reason.

Me: “Can you go trace the ethernet cables on the computers that are affected? The box they’re connected to probably got unplugged.”

Once I describe the ethernet cable to him, he does ask what I asked.

Manager: “They’re all unplugged, man. Where should they go?”

That one stumps me.

Me: *Shocked and surprised* “Unplugged? What? Um, they should go into either the wall or the switch. Why are they unplugged?”

Manager: “Oh, they probably did that over the weekend when they were remodeling.”

Me: “Hold up. Remodeling? What all got remodeled?”

Manager: “The entire front office. They ripped the walls out completely and moved a ton of stuff. It looks like a whole new building now, at least inside.”

Me: “Who did the wiring?”

I’m not the head of our department, so I don’t know everything going on, but I know we didn’t have our wiring crew scheduled to go to that store over the weekend.

Manager: “I dunno, the electricians? Look, where do I need to plug these in?”

Me: “Let me call my manager real quick.”

I end up calling and talking to our IT director, who tells me he had no idea the store was being remodeled. He calls the person in charge of remodeling and asks her what is up.

IT Director: “So, who did the wiring in that store that got remodeled this weekend?”

Remodeling Manager: “[Employee], the company electrician.”

IT Director: “No, who did the network cabling? Who ran the ethernet cables?”

Remodeling Manager: “What’s an ethernet cable?”

This isn’t the first time we’ve had this conversation with her. She is notorious for pulling this crap. This right here is just the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

IT Director: “Hold on a moment. Let me call someone real quick…”

He proceeded to call the CEO and tell him the full story of what was going on. A few minutes later, we were all CC’d on an email to the head of the remodeling team that basically said, “Inform the IT department before you do any remodeling.”

The store itself was half a day’s drive for our wiring crew at the time, so we hired some local contractors and paid an emergency fee to get them there the same day to run wires. The story doesn’t end there, though. The same store was scheduled for more remodeling, which we were made aware of. We just weren’t told when it was going to happen…

…until we got a ticket on a Friday at 4:45 Central that the store was being remodeled over the weekend and that we needed to have it wired and ready to go by Monday morning. The store in question was in Eastern time, which meant it was already closed by the time we were notified.

This resulted in another call to the CEO, who sent out yet another email. This time it said something along the lines of, “Inform the IT department two weeks before you do any remodeling.”

We never had issues with that lady again.

I work part-time in a small independent sales and repair shop in a small town. I’m friends with the owner, and it’s not unusual for him to ask me to pop in and cover a lunch break. I don’t get paid, but I’ll get to leave early next time I work, or I can just tally up the time and then have a day off. It’s all very informal. I should note that I’m the main person for all repairs.

One day, I happen to pop into the shop to ask the owner something. It’s busy, it’s lunchtime, and he’s on his own in the shop, so I catch his eye and gesture that I’ll help, and he nods gratefully. I jump straight behind the cash register and check out a couple of customers, but the next customer has an item for repair. I can see straight away what the problem is.

Me: “That’s a quick job. I can take care of that right now for you; it’ll only take five minutes.”

Customer: “You? Where’s the repair girl?”

Me: “That’s me.”

Customer: “No, I saw you come in. You’ve still got your coat on. I want the girl that does the repairs.”

Me: “I’m the one who does all the repairs. I’m not working today, but as you can see, [Owner] is busy so I’ve offered to help.”

Customer: “But you’ve got your coat on. You’re not here.”

Me: “Uh… Can you wait a moment, please?”

I step behind the repair counter, and in full view of the customer, I take off my coat, put on my name badge, and sit down.

Customer: “Oh, good! Lovely. Right, this stopped working; can you fix it, please?”

She was perfectly polite the whole time.