Wildcat! Technology

"Customer brought in a 8 to 9 year old laptop with a power adapter with frayed wires hanging out of it. I was able to power on the laptop on my bench with my power adapter. The laptop powered up, but the screen was distorted due to a driver issue. I offered to try and reload the OS, and if the reload didn’t fix it, I wouldn’t charge them for the $135 OS reload with data backup. The computer ran the Windows 7 installation without incident, and ran updates overnight without a problem. The only issue was there was small; less than 1/8” line on the right side of the screen along the border of the screen. This symptom was very common for a laptop of this age, and I didn’t recommend fixing it based on its age. I also sold them him a universal power adapter due to the condition of the existing power adapter. The computer was brought back 1 week later, and wouldn’t power on at all. The power jack on the laptop was now loose/damaged, and wouldn’t power on at all and the customer demanded his money back. The laptop was not in the same condition, and if the laptop had powered on, and the problem that I fixed was repeatable, The laptop was totally dead now, and not in the condition it was brought to me originally. I would have fixed it again free of charge. I did refund him the money for the $45 power adapter. If you take a car to an auto mechanic for a tune up, and a week later the transmission goes out, the auto mechanic is not going to assume responsibility for the failed transmission. This is the same situation. The customer has since harassed my wife, filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau (which ruled in my favor), and yet he continues to demand that I be responsible for anything that has gone wrong with a 8 to 9 year old laptop."