This is a companion to the thread about pulling pranks on cow-orkers.

An installer friend was showing different menu commands to a client who had had a particular satellite receiver for well over a year.

The installer and the client were standing facing the screen, and the client's wife was standing facing away from the screen, at the two guys.

Well, my friend pulls up the "Past Purchases" screen and the client's face goes WHITE as he sees ten to fifteen titles such as "Debbie Does Dallas" on the screen. My friend notices and manages to hit EXIT before the wife turns around to look at the screen.

My friend got a $100 tip from a very appreciative customer who sometimes watches movies that, apparently, his wife does not know about.

My best tip for something outrageous was not really that outrageous, but it took some gall because I first say the location on the first day of the installation. The client wanted a projector, screen, and drape. He was going to have a cabinet built to cover each drape stack and a little stage built under the screen to camouflage the speakers.

I had never installed any kind of mechanized drape, and Makita was recommended to me. I worked with the Makita tech guy to get the right parts, and had them drop shipped to the client.

I worked with his decorator to get drapes of the correct size, and the client's carpenter gave me measurements of the room.

We shipped a JVC projector and mount to the client's home.

Then I threw most of my tools aside, thought carefully about what I would need for the task, and packed one slightly large suitcase of tools and a few changes of clothes. The client flew me from California to Virginia where I installed the Makita parts, hung the drape, mounted the Stewart Filmscreen, mounted the projector (and found that you can't rely on a basement floor to be level) at the back of the room...and successfully put it all together.

I'm not going to name the tip. It was a bunch.