9:45 pm: phone call for desperate help! 10:30 pm: back home!

[angry_geek]

Just like the title said, I got a desperate phone call at 9:45 at night. This is a regular business client, but he was calling about his 14-year-old son's computer. Apparently, he called my mother to get my personal phone number. (Yeah, I'll kill her tomorrow for this!) "Help me; we're freaking out! My son is in summer school, and has a project due tomorrow morning that will determine his grade! It's saved on his computer, and it won't turn on. Dell says the motherboard is shot. We have to get this work off of here. I paid a lot of money for this summer school class." I told him I could take a look at it in the morning if he wanted, but there is no way I could do it tonight. He starts begging me. I told him if I came out this time tonight, it would cost at least $250.00 just for crossing the threshold. That's fine with him, and I hit the road. I take a look at the machine, and no power. After verifying the power strip is good, I open up the case to test the psu with my handy dandy little tester. I get the case open, and before I even had a chance to look inside, the kid walks around the corner to see me with the chassis open. As soon as I look in, I spot the problem. The atx power connector was unplugged from the mobo. Before I could tell his dad what was wrong, the kid starts trying to spin his dad. "I don't know how that happened! It must have just worked itself loose! Stupid Dell!" Yeah, that's what happened. I had his dad plug the connector in and try to pull it out again. Kid is in deep doodoo! Apparently, he spent the last 3 weeks playing XBox instead of doing his project.

So, dad gave me $250.00, kid's XBox 360 was given to me by his dad as a tip (I thought that poor boy was going to cry at that one), dad is taking his son to school tomorrow to explain to his teacher why he doesn't have his project done and kid has to beg for some extra time. The boy also has to work every weekend for the rest of the summer cleaning up his dad's office and grandparents' house and his family's cars. I'm not sure why the kid thought I would miss that, or if he just figured I wouldn't come out that late at night. I also can't figure out why the Dell script reader didn't have them check connections, but they were talking to the kid, so he probably covered that one up.

So, I had a Whopper and went home with my new XBox and all the accessories and games. I think I'm going to send it to my brother and his wife in Texas.

Anybody had any ridiculous calls like that one lately? Or done surprising things for a stupid high amount of money?

[Methical]

Jackpot !

Did you get a lotto (dunno what u call it) ticket while you were @ it ?

[anonymous Mac Tech]

Originally Posted by angry_geek

As soon as I look in, I spot the problem. The atx power connector was unplugged from the mobo. Before I could tell his dad what was wrong, the kid starts trying to spin his dad. "I don't know how that happened! It must have just worked itself loose! Stupid Dell!" Yeah, that's what happened. I had his dad plug the connector in and try to pull it out again. Kid is in deep doodoo!

So, dad gave me $250.00, kid's XBox 360 was given to me by his dad as a tip (I thought that poor boy was going to cry at that one)

Maybe the kid thought anybody willing to come out that late would never notice? Dell didn't! Score for you!

[rusty.nells]

I had a similar situation once when a mother gave me a small stack of PC games. I felt bad about it. When her son left the room I politely declined.

If it would have been an Xbox or something similar, I might have suppressed my bad feelings

[angry_geek]

I tried to refuse the XBox, but his dad said if I didn't take it, he was going to trash it! I haven't gone through everything yet, but there are 2 wireless controllers, wifi module, a bunch of other stuff and about a dozen or so games, plus it's an ultimate system! What a night!

[thebeardedone]

Damn, I want some customers like that ... Good one!

[K007]

Originally Posted by MichianaComputers

poor kid :P

Many times I felt like smashing my son's XBOX.
I put it away in the basement for a while but then I was looking at him and broke my heart.

That dat will soon realize he made a mistake by giving it away.

[frostbyte5014]

That is awesome! I have seem similar calls but, not this cool.

[Doctor Micro]

Originally Posted by angry_geek

Anybody had any ridiculous calls like that one lately? Or done surprising things for a stupid high amount of money?

Nossir... I do believe you've won the prize. That was classic, sir... pure classic.

[basic]

To be fair to Dell, they would never have a customer open up a computer to inspect the internals, especially if it is under warranty. The customer could easily blame them for damaging the system. Plus most vendors void the warranty if anyone but an unauthorized tech opens up the system.

Back to the OP. Funny stuff. My parents would have beat me.