Unpopular opinion: I'm tired of people thinking we can fix anything in an hour

Had a guy in my shop yesterday bring in a laptop from 2012, covered in sticky soda, and ask if I could 'just make it fast again' before his lunch break. He got mad when I told him it needed a full clean, new thermal paste, and an SSD, which would take a day. Why do some folks think complex fixes are just a quick button press?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_sean4d ago

Had a customer last week bring in a desktop so full of dust it looked like a petting zoo exhibit. They asked if I could just "blow on it" and have it ready in ten minutes. The look on their face when I explained I had to take the whole thing apart to not just spread the dust cloud deeper was priceless. People really think computers are magic boxes where problems are fixed by waving a hand. They don't get that physical gunk causes physical problems that take real time to clean. It's like expecting a mechanic to rebuild an engine during a coffee break.

noah9174d ago

Started keeping a couple of really nasty old machines in the back room. When someone has that kind of crazy time expectation, I just bring one out, open it up, and show them what a decade of grime actually looks like inside. Pointing at the dust bunnies and crusty paste usually makes the lightbulb go off about why it can't be a five minute job.