Yet another customer rant.

[VirtualLarry]

I have a customer, that, upon suspicion of their computer having a virus, proceeded to uninstall random items from the control panel. Rig was OEM prebuilt with Vista on it. Inquired about restore discs, apparently they were never fully made. So, not having a vista disc handy, I suggested upgrading to Win7 for them. They accepted that solution.

So I did the install, and everything seemed to be working fine. It was an Nvidia 6150-based mobo, so Win7 picked up all the drivers itself, it appeared. (Except for maybe the video driver, I think I installed that one seperate.)

I'm pretty sure I tested the audio, by watching YouTube or Hulu, and it worked.

Well, two weeks later, I get word that the computer is having trouble with the audio, and oh, btw, I can't get some of my old children's games to work.

So I get the computer again, and I take a look at the audio. Plugged in a headset, sounds seem fine to me. Adjusted the mic gain a little bit too, so that would work, even though the customer didn't have a mic hooked up. Took me less than five minutes.

I spent a good two hours (almost) putting some of these kids games through the installer and testing them a little bit. Some of them, like the Reader Rabbit games, seem to use a 16-bit autorun starter app, which is of course incompatible with the 64-bit Win7 I put on. But you can manually go into the INSTALL dir on the CD and run SETUP32.EXE, which is both the installer, and the game launcher. So I document what is needed to run on the game's CD sleeves (half of which I replaced for free, because they were natty or missing.)
There was only one CD that was totally incompatible, because it was from 1996, and probably written with 16-bit apps. There was another disc that appeared to be damaged, as it would just hang the machine when I tried to access it.

So I return the computer, and leave it with a mutual third party, and then I just finally got around to calling them and requesting that they pay me for two hours of labor.

Well, she refused, claiming that I should have done this as part of my OS install job. Mind you, I'm not charging for checking the speakers, even though I'm quite sure that they were working fine when I installed the OS. But I would really like to get paid for the time I spent doing compatibility-testing for her software, since she didn't get around to contacting the publishers of her games to find out if they were compatible with Win7, my proposed solution. (Which I informed her of nearly two weeks before I finally got access to the computer to install it.)

So what would you do? My feeling is, if she wants to continue to recieve (cheap!) computer service from me, that she had better pay me for my time.

 

[adairusmc]

Can you get the computer back from mutual 3rd party and hold onto it until payment in full, or does she already have the computer back?

 

[lxskllr]

Welcome to the post pay service model. You can kiss this money goodbye. If you get future work from her, pad the prices to recover some of the loss, and be explicitly clear in the future what work you're doing, and what the fee is.

 

[Zap]

If you're running your services as a business, then you'd better get used to putting everything in writing.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, this event inspired me to come up with a helpful "OS Install Checklist".

The idea is, as you go through the items, or after you've installed everything, you ask the customer to initial the items. Thus preventing future issues where they come after you for more work, claiming that it wasn't done initially.

http://larzon.dyndns.org:8080/Operating_System_Install_Checklist.txt

Let me know what you think.

 

[lxskllr]

Customers are dumb as bricks. That checklist is useful for you, but I wouldn't have a customer initial it. Just use a service level of what is expected of you, and what you charge. Base O/S install is one rate, then as extra programs are added, prices go up.

 

[Gorthan]

Agreed that the checklist will only work for you. A customer is going to look at it, eyes will glaze over and just initial where you tell them.
Still a sign off sheet is a good idea. We use pre-printed books in triplicate. We write down a summary of the work, parts used etc. , customer signs off on it. If they sign off on it, they can't dispute the work (easily). Also helps in that you can give them a copy of the work sheet to keep. Think of it like getting couriered a package, did you sign for it? Yes? Then you must have it.

Back to the customer. You have to treat them as if they are completely clueless. Can anyone name a computer using relative that would know to check application compatibility (It's Windows isn't it? It should just work!), let alone how to check it? Usually I find it best if you're going to spend a decent amount of time doing anything to call them, tell them what needs to be done and get them to OK the work. Can save a lot of grief. No surprise bill for the customer and you don't waste your time.

Anyway a bit wordy and I could easily make it longer, but there's a couple of non technical bits of advice I hope can help you in the future.

 

[DNorth]

I always agree a price with the customer before I complete any work. And min/max pricing for unknown and debugging issues.

Then collect the payment on collection of the machine.

Save a lot of these problems.

If she really wont pay you for your time. Just tank her for her customer and leave her be.

When she comes back for her next problem ( and she will ) explain to her you can resolve the issue, however there are outstanding charges on her account and additional admin fee's that need to be settled.

This of course being the route to take without taking any legal ( or illegal ) action.

2 hours labour to find out a customers worth. Worse things have happened.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

you should have told her you intended to charge her for looking at her software compatibility. also you should have advised her ahead of time that some of her kiddie software wasnt going to run on win 7 64 bit. i say she doesnt owe you anything

 

[jae]

Just take the loss. If she tries to return as a customer, I wouldn't deal with her.

 

[Patrickz0rs]

Curious...what do you charge per hour?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, I just talked with her. She said that she would pay me the money, but she felt that I was ripping her off, and that she was going to take her business elsewhere in the future. I told her that I would prefer that.

I work dirt cheap, because this is just a hobby for me, it's not my primary source of income. So the hassle isn't worth the tiny amount of additional money.

She tried to claim that the computer was working, before I worked on it, and it somehow "wasn't working" afterwards. I guess she was referring to the children's games, primarily, because her Vista was in sad shape, missing drivers and whatnot, screwed up taskbar, screwed up other things, and I paved and put in a nice fresh clean install of Win7 64-bit for her. And I'm quite certain that the sound was working fine when I installed it. I didn't do anything to the sound at all when I got it the second time, just tested it, and it worked fine. (Did adjust the mic a little bit though.)

Wait till she gets a nice surprise, next computer repair guy that she goes to, and expects free software installation of like 8 games, along with an OS install.

From my perusing of "computer repair rate schedule" in Google, the cheapest going rate for software, is $25 per title.

For the record, I charged her $50 for Win7 HP 64-bit, $50 for the OS install and drivers, and then $20 for the later two hours of work I spent testing her software. A bargain.

Edit: Oh yeah, in her parting words, she tried to convince me she "knew hardware and software". Ok then, why is she calling me when she has problems?

I think I'm going to give her the number of a "computer guy" that charges $75/hr just for walking in the door.

 

[JackMDS]

I also think that it is a mistake installing x64 on computers used by Ignoramuses and especial when there is kids that use the computers too.

It is not kids games. Many developers of educational software know very little about computers technology, and are also Not aware of x32 x64.

If it sense that a person that I help understand some basics I mention that there is x32 and x64 and try to explain in simple terms the differences. In most cases the people get headache just from the explanation.

 

[piasabird]

Just tell her that her expectations are unrealistic. She needs to live in the real world. Other than exchanging her 64 bit OS with a 32 bit version of that or some other OS, there is nothing you can do.

You could also offer to give her a discount on a new game in exchange. You might consider it a compromise.

At this point it depends how well you want take care of a possible return customer.

 

[DaveSimmons]

When suggesting a Win 7 install did you warn her that you planned to install a 64-bit version that would break compatibility?

Why 64-bit for someone who didn't need it? Sometimes the best solution for power users isn't best for normal people.

You might look at the work as solving a problem that you caused by picking the wrong version of Windows for her.

 

[JackMDS]

When suggesting a Win 7 install did you warn her that you planned to install a 64-bit version that would break compatibility?

Why 64-bit for someone who didn't need it? Sometimes the best solution for power users isn't best for normal people.

You might look at the work as solving a problem that you caused by picking the wrong version of Windows for her.

+1

 

[Davidh373]

When suggesting a Win 7 install did you warn her that you planned to install a 64-bit version that would break compatibility?

Why 64-bit for someone who didn't need it? Sometimes the best solution for power users isn't best for normal people.

You might look at the work as solving a problem that you caused by picking the wrong version of Windows for her.

Well, that really depends on what hardware she had, and I also agree that he should have talked to her about compatibility. Who knows if those games would have worked on 32 bit Windows 7... People are stupid when it comes to computers. They think just because they can use the OS at a basic level they know it up and down.

Basically, you need to be completely upfront about everything you are going to charge for before you do it. If you weren't, then she has a right to have you reverse what you did (uninstall the applications). Checking compatibility for software is something else to do before the OS install. She has every right to complain about that as well.

 

[VirtualLarry]

At the time I told her that I was going to install Win7 64-bit, she didn't come to me and say "hey, I have these games that need to work". I installed Win7 64-bit, because the machine was capable, and because that is what is shipping on 99% of the OEM pre-built computers out there.

I suppose I could have been more clear about the potential compatibility issues (64-bit not supporting 16-bit apps). There was one game disc, from 1996, that wouldn't install because it was 16-bit. Every other game disc worked (except for one that was scratched and dirty, and the other one that hung the DVD drive when inserted.)

 

[WT]

Ohh, I feel your pain, Larry. I had a customer like this last year ... put a new board and video card into the PC and they refused to pay me. This was thru a mutual friend who felt terrible about it to the point where I fully expected her to pay me, then try and recoup her $$ from the non-paying customer.

Two phone conversations with them ensued, one with the playing dumb husband, and lastly with the wife herself who was the problem the entire time. It wasn't until I called the customer a third time and told them I would be over to their house (giving them the address so they know I was not bluffing) to let them know I was taking my parts back if I wasn't paid. I finally got payment from somebody.

Every year in this business, you get at least one of these worthless POS customers who refuse to pay for time invested. The kids games only add to the dilemma, as there is no way to make it work properly on a modern OS when the CPU is running 500x faster than the game was designed for.

 

[bamacre]

Larry, find a more enjoyable hobby.

 

[amdskip]

Ugh, I feel your pain. I was working on a computer last night with some form of fake anti virus on it and she kept insisting that she must do something when it appears. I told her to never click it because that's the worst thing you can do and it like blew her mind because there just had to be something she could do.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Now that I think about it, she might actually have asked me to install those games, when I showed up at her door to install Win7. But I didn't, mostly because I was pressed for time. I had quickly forgotten all about it. But if I had, I would have charged her extra, at an hourly rate, over and above the re-format/OS install. I don't think that she realized that. She was basically asking for a freebie ("since you're here, you wouldn't mind doing this, would you?").

Since I don't work for free (well, unless it's my mom, or a really good friend), I wouldn't have done it for free when I installed the OS anyways.

(I get customers asking for freebies all the time. If it takes me less than five minutes, I'll usually oblige them. But when it takes longer, I charge.)

Edit: Oh, btw, I did get paid for those extra 2 hours of work. But I'm probably not doing any further work for them.

 

[Zap]

you should have told her you intended to charge her for looking at her software compatibility.

Basically, you need to be completely upfront about everything you are going to charge for before you do it.

These two bring up a good point. Did you tell her you were going to be charging the two hours for installing the software before you actually did any work? If you did and she agreed to the service, then she owes you. If not...

 

[somethingsketchy]

Unfortunately it's these kinds of stories, is why I don't do computer repairs for other people (outside of family). Unless you spend the time and effort, writing up contracts and billing and other kinds of documentation, you will end up spinning your wheels later on, when disagreement arises. It's almost too much of a hassle, especially for a five minute fix.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

An OS upgrade is NEVER the answer for fixing software issues. That said, she agreed to it. The thing is, knowing she didn't have a clue, you should have stressed the potential downside.