We all have those clients, or potential clients who say things that make us cringe on the inside with a primal question of "how on earth are you still alive?" Many stories here reflect this. I had one such experience today.

I get a call from a long time good client. Super nice guy, not dumb by any means. He has had some apparent level of success in life. Anyhow, he has enough mental capacity to have made it this far in life, why should that change now?

He explains that his TV stopped working with his HDMI. I knew exactly what HE meant because I set it up for him. OLD CRT rear projection set with a single HDMI input. OLD Marantz AVR without HDMI switching. No need to upgrade anything because "it still works fine". Well he has Apple TV, Roku, and a Blu-ray player, none of which have component video outputs. So he uses the single HDMI cable and physically swaps it between the 3 devices. Follow me so far?

His problem started suddenly. One moment, he was watching a show on Netflix, via Apple TV. He turns the system off. He comes back several hours later to try and resume said show. He gets an HDCP error on the TV. He plugs the HDMI cable into the Roku, navigates to Netflix, tries to resume his show....boom....another HDCP error (both messages coming from the Apple TV and Roku devices respectively). He then tries the Blu-ray player....HDCP error yet again.

Being a resourceful person, he unplugs everything for several minutes. After all, that is what the internet said to do. That did not help. He then proceeded to go buy a new HDMI cable. Not a bad choice of troubleshooting procedures. Still no worky. Going as far as he was comfortable, and trusting us, as the professionals we are, he calls me up and asks me to come take a look...because surely "it is just a setting in the TV he accidentally changed".

Knowing that his TV has bit the dust, I went over anyway because he asked nicely. After doing a quick diagnosis, even going as far as to call a local TV repair company we have a close relationship with, and scouring the surface of the internet for info, I gave him the news. His TV needs to be buried in the landfill.

His response was priceless. "I find it hard to believe that it could work fine for years, then I turn it off for a couple of hours, and it just stops working?"

Really. He cannot believe that it would just up and quit without any warning or sign of some kind. And his remedy? "I guess we will just watch satellite from now on." (it is connected with component video cables so still works).

I tried to explain that everything that has ever stopped working suddenly, worked right up until the exact moment that it stopped. I do not think it sank in.

And he seems in no rush to replace the broken TV with a working one. I know he will call in a week asking for a new TV. I just find it amusing that otherwise intelligent people can be so dumbfounded by technology, that they will get angry at it, and even hold grudges against it. He is not replacing the TV out of spite for the TV suddenly breaking? Awesome!