I visited with him when the Vista-to-XP migration owner came in for his PC. I explained the work, he paid for it and went on his way to play some golf.
Kelly had to get out to check on his mom, so he bid adieu and I started finishing up the used PC. My friend Will stopped by from the Metroplex as well. He was in town to go to a family reunion and apply for a job or two while in town.
I assisted him in applying online for some positions.
After he left, I added a new 512mb stick to the used PC and finished it up. I waited until after church to call the owner and let her know about the bad stick of RAM.
I called a few people who needed to come get their PC and one of them dropped by about 2:00 pm to get it. No sooner than he had left when a guy pulls up in a van, comes in and asks some questions about his PC. After describing the issue I asked two questions, was it an eMachine and did it show power when you turned it on.
He stated it was an eMachine and it didn't show power. I pointed to the wall of motherboards I have, one of them a 'clock' and the others going to be soon. Two of the four are eMachine motherboards. I have others, I just don't have them 'on the wall'.
Without looking at it, I figured the board was bad. He happened to have it in the van, so I asked him to bring it in and we would test it. I tested the power supply and showed it was working and pulled the power from all drives and reseated the RAM. If it were a bad chip, it would likely power on. This one was D-E-A-D. Without going into great detail troubleshooting, it appeared the board was bad.
We discussed options, including a new board from eMachine, a replacement board off eBay and even buying a used PC and moving his data to the new chassis. He left with it to ponder the route he would take.
My washing of the keyboard didn't work, the Toshiba still has some stuck keys. I found a keyboard in Hong Kong on eBay and I will order it up. I called the owner and he was in agreement.
A writer, who's PC I have fixed in the recent past, dropped by to ask some technical questions about mail delivery and the like. He is either working on a murder mystery or plotting a mob hit. Of course, I am joking, but he did need some technical background to make his story more authentic, so I obliged.
At the end of the day I was able to deliver the used PC, pick up the check and deliver it to the owner and receive payment for the memory stick. In the whole process, it looks like I might have picked up a web site job. I took some pictures and gathered some background info so I could mock up a site for the owner.
I brokered the used PC deal Pro Bono as I was merely trying to provide good customer service to two of my customers. One of them had a need, the other a surplus and I was able to fill the void. I didn't expect any type of compensation, but, it just goes to show that good deeds often times lead to rewards when you make good faith efforts to do the right thing.
0 comments:
Post a Comment