4 May
2010
4 May
'10
3:56 a.m.
In general, I'm happy that the data was
recovered.
I'm unhappy in the sense that I'm out $800 without any explanation,
or new professional connection to a service I might need to use in
the future, and for the yucky feeling of dealing with clueless
and misleading customer service people.
Not trying to sound pessimistic but most businesses are set up
to deliver a service or product for the money. It is a kind of professionalism
(although not the profesionalism you expected) to deliver the same uniform
service to all customers. When your expectations fall outside the
standard services there can be a kind of impedance mismatch going on...
you don't get what you want, they probably never understood what you
wanted, there may not even be a mechanism in place to figure out what
you really wanted.
Technically I think your expectations were very reasonable especially
considering it was just a NVRAM failure ... and money wise them charging
you for clean room services in the case of a NVRAM failure makes no sense
at all. So I understand your dissatisfaction that way.
At the other end, there are professional consulting companies which
do really good at sucking up lots of $ listening to what the customer
wants but never have the obligation of actually delivering anything at all.
A huge chunk of the IT industry is set up that way.
Tim.
4 May
4 May
9:18 a.m.
On May 4, 2010, at 6:56 AM, Tim Shoppa wrote:
...and some businesses are run by people who think that
essentially "smash and grab" tactics are acceptable, like the asshole
who runs the company mentioned here. They won't get a dime of my
money after hearing about what happened to John.
In general,
I'm happy that the data was recovered.
I'm unhappy in the sense that I'm out $800 without any explanation,
or new professional connection to a service I might need to use in
the future, and for the yucky feeling of dealing with clueless
and misleading customer service people.
Not trying to sound pessimistic but most businesses are set up
to deliver a service or product for the money. It is a kind of professionalism
(although not the profesionalism you expected) to deliver the same
uniform
service to all customers. When your expectations fall outside the
standard services there can be a kind of impedance mismatch going
on...
you don't get what you want, they probably never understood what you
wanted, there may not even be a mechanism in place to figure out what
you really wanted.
Technically I think your expectations were very reasonable especially
considering it was just a NVRAM failure ... and money wise them
charging
you for clean room services in the case of a NVRAM failure makes no
sense
at all. So I understand your dissatisfaction that way.
In our society, "the norm" for product/service expectations is set
by Wal*Mart, meaning cheap, unrepairable made-in-China plastic
garbage that fails and becomes useless WAY prematurely, sold in dirty
stores by minimum-wagers with no product knowledge and purchased
primarily by the toothless "football 'n Bud Light!" masses who don't
know any better and couldn't care less.
People who actually pay attention to what they're buying and what
they get for their money are few and far between.
At the other end, there are professional consulting
companies which
do really good at sucking up lots of $ listening to what the customer
wants but never have the obligation of actually delivering anything
at all.
A huge chunk of the IT industry is set up that way.
Ahh, I still have a slight anal burning sensation from watching
that happen at Digex. The kickbacks to management were substantial.
I expect that's pretty common. It was unbelievable; it almost
started looking like the federal government.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
9:40 a.m.
At 11:18 AM 5/4/2010, Dave McGuire wrote:
...and some businesses are run by people who think
that
essentially "smash and grab" tactics are acceptable, like the asshole
who runs the company mentioned here. They won't get a dime of my
money after hearing about what happened to John.
In my case, I shouldn't have been so impatient. If I'd thought about
it slowly, I didn't need much of the old data right away. In theory
I could've shopped around more, spent time calling places to ask about
what they could do for me, sent the drive out a few times... but my
time is money, too.
Maybe there aren't any drive repair places that would've charged
me appropriate amounts for what had to be done, like $250 to repair
the NVRAM or $1000 to replace the heads. Maybe they're all fixed-price.
I can also appreciate that this service (in general) has dropped
significantly in price in the last few years.
I appreciate Tim's comments, too. I'm a consultant. Yes, I laugh and
remind the client that I'm happy to sit and talk with them as I'm
paid by the hour. I do feel I deliver, though.
- John
9:49 a.m.
On May 4, 2010, at 12:40 PM, John Foust wrote:
Well yeah...anyone with important data is storing it on a RAID
array. ;)
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
...and some
businesses are run by people who think that
essentially "smash and grab" tactics are acceptable, like the asshole
who runs the company mentioned here. They won't get a dime of my
money after hearing about what happened to John.
In my case, I shouldn't have been so impatient. If I'd thought about
it slowly, I didn't need much of the old data right away. In theory
I could've shopped around more, spent time calling places to ask about
what they could do for me, sent the drive out a few times... but my
time is money, too.
Maybe there aren't any drive repair places that would've charged
me appropriate amounts for what had to be done, like $250 to repair
the NVRAM or $1000 to replace the heads. Maybe they're all fixed-
price.
I can also appreciate that this service (in general) has dropped
significantly in price in the last few years. I appreciate Tim's comments, too. I'm a
consultant. Yes, I laugh and
remind the client that I'm happy to sit and talk with them as I'm
paid by the hour. I do feel I deliver, though.
I do a lot of consulting work, always have. I'm really bad about
billing though. I just can't bill someone for just talking, even if
I'm explaining things to a client. I know I should, but I have a
really hard time with it.
That's not without its benefits, though. My primary gig right now
(replacing the IT and point-of-sale infrastructure for a small local
retail store chain, a big Windows purge) has gotten a lot of my time
for free, but the guy knows it, and when I do hand him a bill, he
doesn't question anything on it, he drops whatever he's doing and
writes me a check on the spot. I really like that.
-Dave
12:47 p.m.
I do a lot of consulting work, always have.
I'm really bad about
billing though. I just can't bill someone for just talking, even if
I'm explaining things to a client. I know I should, but I have a
really hard time with it.
I hae diffiuclty chargeing for anything :-(. Last time it was a complete
mechanical rebuild (printer nad card reader) of an HP9810 calculator.
Well, the owner is a friend, and he did supply the most expensive stuff I
needed (3M COld Shrink) so I couldn't charge him, could I? Even if I did
have to turn a new roller for the card reader. make a new spindle, etc.
Brass rod and setscrews are not that expensive...
-tony
1:05 p.m.
Tony Duell wrote:
I tend not to charge friends. I *do* charge cow-orkers though. And I
certainly charge people who hear about me through word-of-mouth.
Peace... Sridhar
I do a lot
of consulting work, always have. I'm really bad about
billing though. I just can't bill someone for just talking, even if
I'm explaining things to a client. I know I should, but I have a
really hard time with it.
I hae diffiuclty chargeing for anything :-(. Last time it was a complete
mechanical rebuild (printer nad card reader) of an HP9810 calculator.
Well, the owner is a friend, and he did supply the most expensive stuff I
needed (3M COld Shrink) so I couldn't charge him, could I? Even if I did
have to turn a new roller for the card reader. make a new spindle, etc.
Brass rod and setscrews are not that expensive... 
5:04 p.m.
Dave McGuire wrote:
Well yeah...anyone with important data is storing it
on a RAID array. ;)
As long as it's not a RAID0 array!
That's not without its benefits, though. My
primary gig right now
(replacing the IT and point-of-sale infrastructure for a small local
retail store chain, a big Windows purge) has gotten a lot of my time for
free, but the guy knows it, and when I do hand him a bill, he doesn't
question anything on it, he drops whatever he's doing and writes me a
check on the spot. I really like that.
I've had the opposite experience -- usually getting people to pay up is
like pulling teeth. The only exception to this was an electronics design
company emailing me completely out of the blue and asking me to make
them a bootloader for a PIC microcontroller. "We need this, this and
this, and we like your existing bootloader -- make it like that if
possible." That was pretty painless, though a bit more formal than usual
(I sent them a quote, they sent a Purchase Order and some demo hardware,
then I sent an invoice and they paid it).
I've stopped doing "informal" development work because there's always
some argument about what was requested, what's been delivered or how
much it's going to cost. If I could stand up in front of a class full of
software development students and give a few pearls of wisdom, this is
what I'd say:
Don't write a single line of code until you have an outline
specification of the application and a formal purchase order (or price
quote) sitting on your desk, both agreed to and signed by the
customer/client.
Make certain you've agreed a deadline (and ideally a couple of
part-way milestones) and a price with your client. Otherwise they're
almost guaranteed to argue that "you said it'd {be cheaper, take less
time, make coffee, walk the dog}."
"I don't know what I want but I know I want it" type work is never
profitable. Rent-a-Coder is worthless unless you're happy to work for
less than a pound an hour. Open-source work looks good on a CV though,
especially if it's for a major project (Linux kernel, gcc, ...)
[I'm still working on that last one!]
Geez, I've only done this "semi-professionally" for about five years,
and I already sound like my Large Systems Environments lecturer...
--
Phil.
classiccmp at philpem.me.uk
http://www.philpem.me.uk/
12:44 p.m.
At 11:18 AM 5/4/2010, Dave McGuire wrote:
> ...and some businesses are run by people who think that
>essentially "smash and grab" tactics are acceptable, like the asshole
>who runs the company mentioned here. They won't get a dime of my
>money after hearing about what happened to John.
There are certainly some honest repairers out there. Alas there are also
some dishonest ones. And there seem to be more of the latter. I've seen
repair invoices lisitng work that can't possibly have been done.
This is one reason I try to fix everything myself. At least I can't be
cheated that way
In my case, I shouldn't have been so impatient. If I'd thought about
it slowly, I didn't need much of the old data right away. In theory
I could've shopped around more, spent time calling places to ask about
what they could do for me, sent the drive out a few times... but my
time is money, too.
Since you were pretty sure it was the NVRAM chip, why didn't you try
chaning it yourself? You didn't have anythign to lose by doind that.
-tony
5345
days inactive
5346
days old
8 comments
7 participants
participants (7)
-
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
cclist＠sydex.com -
classiccmp＠philpem.me.uk -
jfoust＠threedee.com -
mcguire＠neurotica.com -
ploopster＠gmail.com -
shoppa＠trailing-edge.com