Unfair Client

[14049752]

I like how you're still trying to spin it like you're the one being taken advantage of.

 

[Jay85]

I did test it before giving it back and loaded Windows XP and all relevant drivers. It was working

 

[Hercomputers]

I guess honesty is the best policy and maybe I should tell this client I will have a second look at no charge,,,it was working otherwise i wouldnt have delivered it back of course...You also will always find clients trying to get something for free which is the other danger of this buisness so you never know wheter its really your work at fault or not, Another reccomendation I have is put a small sticker on all parts you replace...If it comes back and you see the parts you put in are removed and not yours you know its been tampered with. You really need to cover your ass in this buisness dont you.

H-m-m-m....are you saying you placed sticker on the laptop and it was removed? As far as the clients trying to get something for free, it just seems to me that this did not happen - in this instance. I think your 'fix' for the particular laptop was not a perm one. I am curious to know how long 'you had it working' before you returned it back to the client. Also, when you returned it to the client, you verified everything with them, told them your findings and what was done? And did they agree and sign off on the repair? Hopefully you have documentation showing this - yes, it's good to cover yourself but at the same time, you want to make sure your repair is thorough, complete and nothing comes back to bite you in the butt - sadly in this case it did....but for future reference.

If you don't like Toshiba laptops like you've already expressed and you're not sure of them, you can refer the client to someone else or go online, look up that particular model and get familiar with it. This will add to your knowledge and you'll gain more experience from this one.

Good luck to you.

 

[Jay85]

No i did not give him a signing off form but I will be doing this from now on and have learned from this mistake..The comp was running a good few hours in my workshop, surfed a bit, opened some docs, just day to day things to make sure all was in order and it was, Yes all the parts are replace I put stickers on and all the stickers were there so nothing was replaced, But this has happened to me before on another occasion although I didnt say anything
and let it slide.

Basically my work has always been good and clients have always been happy with me. never had a call back ( like for the same problem I mean ) lol

 

[Jay85]

I have read numerous forums and threads about Toshibas and there poor crafsmanship or cheapness of parts whatever you want to boil it down to...To me a laptop is a laptop I dont care about brand but I have seen Toshiba as being notorious for problems and breakdowns,

 

[RevivedCS]

I guess honesty is the best policy and maybe I should tell this client I will have a second look at no charge,,,it was working otherwise i wouldnt have delivered it back of course...You also will always find clients trying to get something for free which is the other danger of this buisness so you never know wheter its really your work at fault or not, Another reccomendation I have is put a small sticker on all parts you replace...If it comes back and you see the parts you put in are removed and not yours you know its been tampered with. You really need to cover your ass in this buisness dont you.

Yes, honesty is the best policy. Be straightforward with the client and let them know you'd be more than happy to look at the laptop again. Stand behind your work at all times and always remember that one negative word against your company can ruin it. Your name is all you really have.

If you really want to cover yourself, I'd make this right...have him sign something after completion...and then learn from this one in the future. Call him/her up and at least see what's happening with the laptop. Then just take it from there.

 

[14049752]

I have read numerous forums and threads about Toshibas and there poor crafsmanship or cheapness of parts whatever you want to boil it down to...To me a laptop is a laptop I dont care about brand but I have seen Toshiba as being notorious for problems and breakdowns,

You're really trying to pass the buck any way you can, aren't you?


Here's the deal: The initial problem was probably the hard drive failing (based on what I read in this thread). You didn't do anything to fix it, other than n&p, so of course the problem is back a few days later.

You also didn't do anything to diagnose the hardware in the system. You said

so I thought it could be a faulty Ram stick,,,Put them in another laptop and worked fine

I mean...wow....that's one heck of a thorough diagnostic test....

And as far as the hard drive, it looks like you ran chkdsk on another machine and nothing else? You realize that's not a hardware diagnostic, of course...since you're a tech...right?

Basically what you did was a temporary fix and it came back to bite you. Own up to what you did (or rather didn't do), tell the customer that you'll do what it takes to take care of him....and do it.

 

[Jay85]

I used disk info to check that disk and it said it was healthy, not even a caution...was healthy and blue

 

[Jay85]

This is for the Seniors,,,

So on a Job do you first give an estimate with parts and sofware or time and then the client signs it like an agreement?

Usually I give a quote, the client says fine and I do the work and have had no problems, in fact never had any problems without signing anything although I do give an invoice of what was done and amount payed plus I put a sticker on the tower or laptop

 

[ATTech]

I pretty much agree with everything 14049752 has said, but let me see if I can present you with a reasonable explanation on why it could be a misdiagnosis, despite it working for you, and not for the client:

Possibility A: Bad Memory
A portion of the memory is bad. This portion is not utilized by any of the default drivers, the operating system, or any of the software YOU installed. As such, it appears to be working fine for you. The client receives the computer back and begins reinstalling software. One application, installs updated drivers for one of the components. This update driver now sets the devices memory range to include the portion of the memory that is bad. Viola! We now have a blue screen due to bad memory. The fact that it worked in another system could be easily explained by the fact that the other system didn't utilize the bad memory addresses.

Possibility B: Bad Hard Drive
Pretty much the same thing with Problem A, but with the hard drive.

As you can see, there are reasonable explanations for why a system may be working for you, and not for them. This happens all the time, and trying to blame it on the client taking you for a ride, or poorly designed hardware, or whatever else you can think of, isn't going to help you, or the client. Man up, take the computer back and properly diagnose it.

 

[Jay85]

I have contacted the client and have said we will take it back and try resolve the issues and give it back to him in working order again at no charge except for parts if needed,

My hunch would be replacing the Hard Disk, But Disk Info did report it as Good with no bad or over written sectors, is there another tool for diagnosing hard drives? Of course I was just putting the components into another system to test them individually to try find the problem through process of elimination, Lesson Learned

 

[Jay85]

Thanks for all the input and advice,,,I may not know the meaning of every single error code but I try my best and am Right about 95% of the time...

Its a hard buisness but its best to reimburse a customer and keep them than have bad rep and loose more...

I was not trying to pass blame, Just wondered why it worked for me and not him, I would never return a system without checking it for a good few hours

 

[Mushin]

I have contacted the client and have said we will take it back and try resolve the issues and give it back to him in working order again at no charge except for parts if needed,

My hunch would be replacing the Hard Disk, But Disk Info did report it as Good with no bad or over written sectors, is there another tool for diagnosing hard drives? Of course I was just putting the components into another system to test them individually to try find the problem through process of elimination, Lesson Learned

DFT and Memtest do pretty good for us. We have never seemed to miss bad memory or a bad hard drive.

I rarely pull memory from a computer and put it into another to test. That is what memtest is for. I will put known good memory into a clients computer to test but rarely have done that. The only time I can recall was just to make sure that the Sodimm B slot was actually bad. Two good sticks that both passed in slot A, but both failed in slot B

 

[Jay85]

I have also come accross a scenario where it was the second memory channel not the ram dimms that was causing problems and suggested the motherboard be replaced.

Do those 2 progs u suggested run from a live cd or within windows?

 

[iptech]

I used disk info to check that disk and it said it was healthy, not even a caution...was healthy and blue

Do you mean via the 'Disk Management' option of the 'Computer Management' MMC snap-in? You do realise this is not a diagnostic, but just a basic file-system check? It does not measure the health status of the physical drive structure.

Someone who had repaired hundreds of laptops would have come across a failing hard drive on many occasions, it's the most common hardware fault on any computer.

I agree with others that this appears to be a straightforward hard drive failure and you have simply nuke'n'paved over the damage with inevitable short-term consequences. Apart from having to go over the whole process again on a new hard drive, you also now have to face the challenge of how you're going to cover the cost of a replacement hard drive.

Its a hard buisness but its best to reimburse a customer and keep them than have bad rep and loose more...

It's a lot easier if you learn to diagnose correctly in the first instance, that's why it's good get experience with someone else before learning the hard way and at your own cost.

 

[Jay85]

What in your oppinion is the best way to diagnose a hard drive and if a drive is consdidered unhealthy or faulty is there a way it can be repaired via software?

 

[tf76]

Look mate find out the brand of the hard drive and go and download the specific diagnostic tool to test it. LifeGuard tools for WD or SeaTools for Seagate etc ....

Also a chkdsk will tell you as well sometimes

 

[Jay85]

Toshiba have no support software for diagnosis unlike western digital or Seagate which is one of the reasons I dont like Toshiba

 

[iptech]

What in your oppinion is the best way to diagnose a hard drive

Manufacturer's diagnostics are always the best way to go, especially if you need to RMA the drive. I use Hitachi/IBM Drive Fitness Test as a quick & generic test and it also quickly identifies the OEM of the drive without me having to open up the case so I can following on with the correct manufacturer software if need be.

if a drive is consdidered unhealthy or faulty is there a way it can be repaired via software?

Absolutely not IMHO, file system errors can be repaired with chkdsk, but physical errors cannot - however physical error may manifest as file system errors and chkdsk will re-allocate the data on bad sectors to those which are currently mapped as good in the drive allocation table - thus chkdsk will only provide a temporary fix if the physical structure of the drive is failing. You will see adverts for software which claim they can rejuvenate a hard disk with reported physical errors, but I would never, ever rely upon them. The relative cost of a new hard disk against the consequential losses and costs of storing irreplaceable and often valuable data on a graded drive make absolutely no sense, especially if you're serious about this type of work as a business.

 

[iptech]

Toshiba have no support software for diagnosis unlike western digital or Seagate which is one of the reasons I dont like Toshiba

Are you sure?

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