This is RIDICULOUS! (long)

[clowninasack]

A man buys a computer and monitor combo from us. It is from one of our suppliers fliers, and is the cheapest system we sell. It comes with a monitor made by a company I've never heard of. We don't hear from him for several months.

It comes in with the claim that it just gets a blank screen with a blinking cursor that won't go away whenever he reboots, but I cannot find anything wrong with it or even replicate the problem. I try a few things, and tell him to try to narrow it down to one of his peripherals.

It comes in the next day. He says it is happening again and he tested it with each of his peripherals. I take a look at it, and I get it to freeze at the POST after a day or two of tinkering, and subsequently the kb/m stop working occasionally (whether or not that is our crappy kb/m is another story for morons in management). It's not exactly what he was claiming, but I figure it's good enough. I replace the motherboard and all is well. Or so I thought.

It comes in AGAIN! He says it is doing the same thing. Grasping at straws I think maybe something is wrong with the hard drive and phone him, offering to RMA the hard drive. This conversation takes place just before I get off work. For the purposes of anonymity we shall call him Fred. My thoughts in italics.

Me: Hi this is *blahblah* from *blahblah* may I speak to Fred please?
Fred: This is him.
Me: Hi, Fred, I'm just calling to give you an update on what is going on with your computer. I think there *may* be something wrong with the hard drive and to be safe we're just going to replace it for you. Now we're going to reinstall Windows when we get the new drive, just in case something is wrong with Windows as well. That will mean you'll have to reinstall any programs that didn't come with your computer, but we will backup your data so you won't lose that. Is that okay?
Fred: THIS IS RIDICULOUS! I'VE GOT WORK THAT NEEDS TO BE DONE! THIS IS COSTING ME MONEY! WHY CAN'T YOU PEOPLE FIX THIS PROBLEM? FIRST YOU THINK IT'S THIS THEN THAT! WHAT DID I PAY ALL THIS MONEY FOR THIS COMPUTER FOR?! (this is significantly shortened. I ended up staying a half our late listening to him rant)
Me: Well, our warranty is repair only. If you wanted to be guaranteed having a computer 24/7/365 you should have either bought a more expensive system and not just acted like a jackass, just buy a new one every time a problem happens, or learn to fix it yourself, you cheap bastard. I'm sorry, Sir, but our warranty is repair-only. There is nothing more I can do for you. Since it is Friday the hard drive won't get here until some time next week. Would you like to go ahead with the repair?
Fred: *grumble grumble, actually acts halfway nice at this point and tells me to go ahead. I think I took the wind out of his anger sails *

We replaced the hard drive and reinstalled windows, and it still fucking happens. Turns out it was the crappy monitor that was broken, but he thought he saw a blinking cursor on the screen, so I thought it was something wrong with the computer.

[ArcticChicken]

Wow. See, if my computer wasn't working, and one of the symptoms was I couldn't see a damn thing on the screen, the first thing I'd do is plug in another monitor. But then again, I put ranks into common sense, and we all know it's cross class for SCs.

Which leads me to envision a scenario in which someones computer breaks, they do plug it into another monitor, it still doesn't work, and after weeks of techsupport they discover that the monitor is broken. Which leads to the question why it didn't work on the alternate monitor. Which leads to the statement "Oh, it wasn't working, so I stuck it in a closet and bought a new one. I didn't know I needed to use a working t.v. box thingy to check it."

[Machero]

Well......

What?! you mean things other than a computer can fail?! Madness?! Everything but computers are made perfectly. It's always the computer that is to blame. Damn those I-D-10-T errors!!

[marasbaras]

I write software for money ... so, I've assembled quite a few machines over the years (dozens) for myself and for friends. I'm pretty good at putting them together, keeping them working, and dianosing problems.

Just this year, I spent THREE DAYS tracking down a bad hard drive RIBBON CABLE. Never in the 28 years I've dealt with PCs had I had a ribbon go bad until then.

[LostMyMind]

Wow marasbaras, that's some luck. I've had all kinds of cable go bad on me. So much that I usually swap cables first for hard-drive failure.

Only because people think computer cables are like electric cables and can be tied into a pretzel without damaging it.

[HawaiianShirts]

What?! you mean things other than a computer can fail?! Madness?! Everything but computers are made perfectly.

Which is why every day I have to deal with someone who now HATES one brand of computer manufacturer or another. They'll come in and say, "I need a new computer, but don't show me a (Dell, HP, Compaq, Gateway, eMachines, Acer, or whatever the offending brand happened to be). I had one of those once and it gave me nothing but trouble." Now I don't want to start an argument over who makes good or bad computers, but I really don't see one brand fail significantly and consistently more often than another.

It usually turns out that these customers were trying to get their computer to do something it couldn't do or were having software problems (Windows ME is a common offender). Of course, they won't listen to that explanation. Over my three years of computer sales, I've learned to just nod and agree to show them some other brand, which makes them think I'm agreeing with them about the poor quality of whatever brand they hate, but I'd rather have that than a twenty minute argument consisting of them giving me the same tired examples of problems over and over again while ignoring every bit of contrary evidence I present.

[Seshat]

We've had bad luck with ribbon cables - even when we're the ones who've done the installation, and never done anything but loose-folding, we'll check the cables first. Still, at least it's a cheap fix.

[Andara Bledin]

Just this year, I spent THREE DAYS tracking down a bad hard drive RIBBON CABLE. Never in the 28 years I've dealt with PCs had I had a ribbon go bad until then.

Try tracking down a bad power cable sometime. I had one of those, and I thought my hard drive was going out, because it would spin down randomly.

When I pulled the case off (mini case, the cover wraps across the whole thing) to see it if was a heat issue (mini case, lots of airflow problems, but damn is it cute), and when it happened to brush one of the power supply extensions, the drive spun down then back up again. Replaced that cable and all was well.

Then there was the time when the southbridge on my motherboard went wonky. That little problem is pretty much indistinguishable from a bad or overheating video card.

^-.-^

[Apathy]

Over my three years of computer sales, I've learned to just nod and agree to show them some other brand, which makes them think I'm agreeing with them about the poor quality of whatever brand they hate, but I'd rather have that than a twenty minute argument consisting of them giving me the same tired examples of problems over and over again while ignoring every bit of contrary evidence I present.

People never change their opinions due to logic or persuasive argumentation. According to Scott Adams, people will only change their stance in order to avoid being mocked. I fully believe this.

[Andara Bledin]

People never change their opinions due to logic or persuasive argumentation. According to Scott Adams, people will only change their stance in order to avoid being mocked. I fully believe this.

I quite freely change my stance on anything in the face of new information that makes my previous stance invalid based on my convictions.

^-.-^

[PCGameGuy]

Wow. See, if my computer wasn't working, and one of the symptoms was I couldn't see a damn thing on the screen, the first thing I'd do is plug in another monitor. But then again, I put ranks into common sense, and we all know it's cross class for SCs.

See, and if you pull the ranks in common sense, it would be more likely that if your computer stopped working, you would blame the neighbors vacuum cleaner!

Yeah, my mom had one of those older TVs with an older vacuum cleaner, so every time she woulv vacuum near the TV, the screen would distort and the sound would buzz. After she retired, we got her a new TV and a new vacuum among other things, and the problem stopped happening. But this wouldn't be an SC tale if that was the ending.

A little later, after a storm blew through and 'adjusted' her antenna for her, her favorite channel was coming in poorly. Unfortunately for the neighbor, she was vacuuming at the time. Until she finally went deaf enough, it was not uncommon to hear her start griping loudly about the neighbors vacuum whenever she heard it running, even after I re-adjusted the antenna.

Sigh. Parents.

[CancelMyService]

Not to start a "mine is better than yours" argument, but when I was in retail there were certain brands that failed at a higher percentage of others (original e-machines, Compaq).

Of course that's been years ago so I'm sure it's completely different now.

I know some people who would cut off a limb to avoid buying Dell, but the one I bought has been working fine so far.

[Gurndigarn]

I know some people who would cut off a limb to avoid buying Dell, but the one I bought has been working fine so far.

It's not the fail rate that's so bad with Dell, near as I can tell. It's what happens once it fails. In most cases, you buy a new computer, because Dell's customer "service" is a poster child for Why You Shouldn't Outsource*. And getting specific parts is harder than finding them for Apple equipment, which takes some doing.


* Incidentally, I'm not talking about US/Europe vs India/etc. It's not the accent that's bad, it's the training. And the attitude. They don't want to provide information. Especially not information that's not in the simplistic script they have. If they don't know it, they're not gong to transfer you to someone who does know— they would much rather try to get you to take it to a repair place. Hello? All I wanted was to find out if it's possible to disable the trackpad! That doesn't require a trip to the repair shop! (Found the answer here, incidentally. Thanks!)

[CancelMyService]

Top Secret Dell Tip: If you buy from their Small/Medium Business department you get to speak to folks in the US. I bought my laptop from there and my desktop from the Home/Home Business side and the difference was night and day.