Dusty Ol' Bones
Full of green dust
So today I had a bad experience trying to hire a computer repair guy to service my DAW desktop machine. A little background: I called him a couple of weeks ago because after years in storage, my DAW came out of hibernation. Upon boot up I got a message saying my CMOS battery was dead. Apparently the CMOS battery can go dead after a few years and needs to be swapped out. I dug through online google reviews and found a shop with lots of good things said about it. When we spoke he insisted on describing to me how to make the repair myself, for free, rather than bringing it into his shop. Since this required removing the outside case of the CPU, I noticed a lot of dust on the motherboard. Of course I thanked him profusely for assisting me with the battery change and I got a quote from him and told him I'd contact him in a week or two in order to schedule the service for cleaning it out.
Today I made that call to schedule service for Monday. I had previously told him my computer was a little old (2008) and runs Windows XP. Despite the age, it is built like a tank and has served me well over the years as a machine built specifically as a DAW for music production including dual hard drives, firewire ports, and an insulated case to keep the internal fan quiet. Well when I asked him about Monday, he told me outright that the $80 charge for cleaning it was more than what the machine was worth. This response was completely unexpected, so much so that I had to ask him to repeat himself because I couldn't believe what I was hearing. He again told me the computer wasn't worth the fee to clean it and he wasn't going to waste his time with the job. He also mentioned that he doesn't service XP machines. I said first, the value of my computer is simply a matter of opinion as there is nothing wrong with it and it functions completely to my satisfaction. Second, I told him I wasn't asking him to service the OS or even to turn it on, I just needed him to open it up and clean it out. He firmly told me he wasn't going to do it and I was like fine, I'll find somebody else to take the money I throw at them.
After this awful conversation, I wrote up a review for google but decided not to send it. I have seen other reviews by Karens who make insane demands like showing up after a store is closed and leaving a bad review that management didn't unlock the door and let them in. What do y'all think? Was his behavior was egregious enough to warrant a scathing review or should I just let it go and forget about it?
Today I made that call to schedule service for Monday. I had previously told him my computer was a little old (2008) and runs Windows XP. Despite the age, it is built like a tank and has served me well over the years as a machine built specifically as a DAW for music production including dual hard drives, firewire ports, and an insulated case to keep the internal fan quiet. Well when I asked him about Monday, he told me outright that the $80 charge for cleaning it was more than what the machine was worth. This response was completely unexpected, so much so that I had to ask him to repeat himself because I couldn't believe what I was hearing. He again told me the computer wasn't worth the fee to clean it and he wasn't going to waste his time with the job. He also mentioned that he doesn't service XP machines. I said first, the value of my computer is simply a matter of opinion as there is nothing wrong with it and it functions completely to my satisfaction. Second, I told him I wasn't asking him to service the OS or even to turn it on, I just needed him to open it up and clean it out. He firmly told me he wasn't going to do it and I was like fine, I'll find somebody else to take the money I throw at them.
After this awful conversation, I wrote up a review for google but decided not to send it. I have seen other reviews by Karens who make insane demands like showing up after a store is closed and leaving a bad review that management didn't unlock the door and let them in. What do y'all think? Was his behavior was egregious enough to warrant a scathing review or should I just let it go and forget about it?