...With friends like these.

So this is kind of an entertaining story.

A friend of mine that I play guitar with was talking to me about his refurb xbox 360 and how it had crapped out on him. I had never repaired an xbox before, but I do IT repair for a living. So I told him to bring it over and I would take a look.

Four months later he calls me and says he's in a rush and asks if he can drop off his guitar at my house. I comply. He shows up about forty minutes later with his guitar in hard case, and a big chrome box with a handle. I imagined it was recording equipment...or maybe some sort of hard case for a sidekick amp (although I have never seen that done)

Two months later he asks if I have ever fixed his xbox......
I explained that he had never brought it over and he said I've had it for two months and it was in the box.

He sounded agitated at this point so I explained to him that he didn't let me know that's what was in the box and I'm not in the neighborhood of nosing through other people's things. Especially my friends. He calms down and I tell him I'll look at it in the next few days.

Problem turned out to be the three red rings caused by the thermal paste issue. Easy fix. After the repair I played Halo 3 on it for a few hours to ensure it was indeed fixed. Then I proceed to call him and let him know that it was repaired and he could come pick it up free of charge via friend credit.

3.5 weeks later I called him again, "Hey man, you ever going to come get your xbox? It's sitting in the back seat of my car."
"Yeah brah, be right over."

Prior to all this I had tried to talk him into letting me mod his box because well it's fun. Obviously I was going to make him pay for parts and my associate and I were just going to charge him like 40 bucks for the labor. Which we can all agree is next to nothing.

He comes over. Get's the xbox, takes it home, plugs in power....and calls me to bitc* about how it now has 4 rings! He is outraged!!!! He's so glad he didn't invest any money in it!!!!!!! He's so mad he decided to take it to a local repair shop! (meanwhile i'm googling "4 red rings error xbox" at home) He gets to the repair shop, drops it off and I call him back....

"Hey man, 4 rings in an AV cable error. Are you sure you had it plugged in? Because I played on it for like three hours and it worked fine. Perhaps your cable is shorted internally and you just need a new one?"

He goes on to explain that he didn't think that it needed to be plugged in just to power up and see the green lights. I explain that is exactly what that specific error is for. So he turns the car around....

When he gets back to the repair shop the guy has it taken apart. My friend explains to the guy that it actually works and he brought it in by mistake. The disgruntled gent behind the counter starts to put it back together and tells my friend that will cost him fifty dollars since he's been working on it for almost an hour already! Repaired or not!

They argue for a while and then my friend winds up paying the guy to get his xbox back (which DID work just fine)

The moral of the story?

Be kind and have patience with people who have professional training. If there is a lack of communication, it's most likely because you left something out. Frustration will just get your wallet raped by a fat hairy guy in a wife beater with mustard stains! lol

(not to offend any fat hairy guys with mustard stains....as I am fat, hairy, and love mustard.)

I do wish I would have charged the guy though. What a dip sh*t, seriousely.

Hear hear! I used to work in a computer store and heard all kinds of stories of idiotic customers. I hate people that make a mistake and then assume that it's your fault and won't listen when you try and explain it's something they did that can easily be fixed.
I once had a guy, helped him build a computer, huge sale for me, and I kept emphasizing that I'd been building my own for years, it wasn't tough at all. Spent hours of my workday with him. He brought it all back the next day because, if I recall correctly, one of the prewired connections to the front panel of the case didn't seem to fit quite right. Something like that...something that should have been a very easy fix, and he refused to listen. :facepalm: it's amazing how many folks out there aren't willing to put in even a little tiny bit of time to thinking and troubleshooting a problem...course, I guess IT people would have a lot less work to do in that case LOL :D

true that! lol.......problem solving skills really do start at step .01.....is it plugged in? lmao!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by burntheland

"Yeah brah, be right over."

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Well there's your problem. ;)


Seriously though, definitely agreed. It's amazing how little most people are willing to think about something not explicitly defined in their job description...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by artoodeeto

it's amazing how many folks out there aren't willing to put in even a little tiny bit of time to thinking and troubleshooting a problem...course, I guess IT people would have a lot less work to do in that case LOL :D

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Shhh, it's called 'job security'. :P

Quote:

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Originally Posted by burntheland

true that! lol.......problem solving skills really do start at step .01.....is it plugged in? lmao!

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LMFAO! sexy red head too!

Hotbox 360 has one of the worst cooling solutions i've ever seen.

Should of used a slim DVD-rom to make enough room for actually actively cooled heatsink

Whats up with the repair guy not turning it on and seeing it work first?

hell thats the first thing i always do is hook it up and see what it does.

1/4 of the time its something stupid and completely obvious.


Should of seen the guy that brought his computer in after "forcing" SD ram into a DDR slot hahahahahhahahahha. yes SD ram does fit in a DDR slot if you try hard enough apparently.

I know....the masses are retarded.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Twigsoffury

Should of seen the guy that brought his computer in after "forcing" SD ram into a DDR slot hahahahahhahahahha. yes SD ram does fit in a DDR slot if you try hard enough apparently.

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My favorite was a guy who tried to put in a new stick of RAM while the computer was running...it was the right kind, but he only got it halfway in because as it entered the slot, about half the pins made contact...and instantly were welded in place.. :facepalm:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.....it's recommended you disconnect from power before changing hardware sir. lol

lmfao.... sounds like when my stepdad was target booting his laptop to an esata hdd with linux... he unplugged it and the laptop mysteriously stopped working...