Chronicles of a PC shop

I've mentioned before that I own a PC (build/repair/network) shop. I am a partner of a larger PC retail store that outsources their PC builds/repairs to my shop. I Have a binding agreement that prohibits me from advertising my services in the city and surrounding county so as not to compete in any way with my retail partner. That's all fine with me, I get more than enough business from the retailer to make a decent profit.

Last week a customer brought in a PC that he claims just suddenly stopped working. While the customer was watching I examined the PC, and noticed four 5mm holes on the motherboard side of the case. I realized that this wasn't part of the case's original design, and so I asked the customer where the holes came from. He began to explain about how the PC kept overheating, and that he thought he would just mod the PC with a power drill. I looked at him for a second, he was about 55+ years old. I then opened up the motherboard side of the case to take a gander at what I already suspected. Sure enough...four holes in the motherboard. They didn't go all the way through, but were deep enough to break several contacts on the board. I also saw metal slivers hanging onto the circuitry forming a crude bridge from one point on the board to another. I then asked him a question..."did you punch holes in the case while the PC was on?". Wouldn't have made a difference, but I thought if I was going to get a good laugh out of this, I might as well be thorough. He just nodded. I explained to him what happened, and told him that the board is gone. After testing the RAM, video card and the CPU, I found out that the RAM and CPU were also sent to hardware heaven. I completed a diagnosis of the PC and explained to him what parts he needed and what it would cost to repair it. He stared at me for a second and then blurted..."but I have a guarantee!".

Believe it or not, this isn't the first time that I've seen a user...er...abuser drill holes in a case in an attempt to rid the PC of imaginary gremlins. I've just never had anyone demand a free replacement.

I've been freelancing pc repair on the side for several years now, and I've run into my share of strange ones, but that takes the cake!

Wow. Just wow!

He thought it would help?

And then he thought it was still under warranty?

It just goes to prove that artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

Dreams wrote:

..."but I have a guarantee!".

That's funny, and sad at the same time.
It's amazing what people do, and then expect someone else to fix for free.

lol, that's really silly.

Bit like removing your cars steering wheel exchanging it for a donut, crashing the car into a wall and then going back to the showroom and say "It doesn't steer properly, give me a new car."

Some people are priceless.

Fundy

Interesting story. Here is mine...

Early last year I completed a move and after pulling the PC out of the box and hooking everything up (monitor, scanner, etc) it would not boot. No power, nothing.

So I called a computer repair shop and they sent a "technician" - I use that term loosely in this case - out to my place. I was told that the motherboard was shot and that he would be able to build me a new PC for around $800.

And no, I was not drilling holes in the side of my PC!

Needless to say, I got a second opinion from a different company...

Technician from second company shows up and he diagnosed a faulty power supply. I believe total repair costs were around $60.

What can you say? It always pays to get a second opinion.

OMG thats hilarious, I do warranty repair on Dell machines for a living ive seen some strange instances but that one with the holes takes the cake. I had to work on desktop one time, replacing the heatsink and video card i opened the case up and the heatsink was just destroyed. This was for a company and there were no evidence of abuse or foul play the video card too was damaged the fan on it was gone cuz it fell into the heatsink. I wish I took a picture of it id post it if i had it

I drilled holes in my external drive case to increase convection (fans went out) but it was off and the drive was not in it.