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.

We have a client in Newport Beach, on the water that we all dearly love. All of us love to go to her house, and jump at the chance when she needs something.

No matter what we're there for, or how long, she stands at the door and one by one, hands us each a $100.00 bill.

Smart lady. She has us jumping like Pavlov's dog. Everyone knows what tip stands for right? To Insure Promptness.

That reminds me of the anti-tip story.

One lady was so paranoid about a crew's honesty that she left a small pile of change on a table every day while they worked there. The supervisor noticed her counting the change at the end of the day and told the crew about it.

Soon, everybody was putting a penny, or a nickel, or even a quarter into the pile....just to mess with her.

A driver, another helper, and myself went to deliver back a 57" Sony after repairing it. Two of us carried it straight through the front door and on the right. That was it! No Bull, this guy gave all three of us two hundred A PIECE.

The guy's name was Fred Ward

Do you have his phone number? I've checked information and he must be unlisted.

I won't call him and offer to work for him or anything... honest! :)

A $100.00 for a Hells Freeze Over DVD.

I must say, that the most memorable tips, next to the $100.00 per person lady, come from the senior citizens in our community. I have been handed as little as a dollar, and felt obliged to graciously accept it. Fact is, they mean it as true appreciation of a job well done. I don't think slighty of them as I walk to my truck, with an uncontrollable smile growing on my face. Because I remember when the Tooth Faery paid 10 cents for a tooth. Apperently, even our fantasy characters suffer from inflation. My children get 5 bucks.

A couple of months ago, we were adding a request piece to a client of ours system. It was at the same time we were doing a promotional drive with a local childrens hospital. When we mentioned this to the home owner, she promptly wrote a check for us to donate in her name. As we were leaving, she slipped my partner another check as a tip for caring so much about the children! It was for $1000.

We had just compleated a DirecTV HD install for a customer who had gotten a new 50" plasma. It was replacing a 50" Pioneer RPTV. He asked my installer if he wanted it. My installer said yes, but he had no way of getting it home. The client said no problem, lets put it in the back of my pickup truck. It was about an hour ride to my installers house, and the client was happy to get it out of the house!

On the same vein as Theaterinstaller, I got a $100 tip for copying 2 CD sets of a Wagner opera- not the opera itself, but 2 different 4CD sets EXPLAINING how to ENJOY a particular Wagner opera....



then there was the old lady for whom I once changed a tire... She tried to give me a $20, but I told her to give it to the Boy Scouts instead, since I used to be one. Now, 10 years later, the BSA here built a nice, new building... Apparently, she left them a nice donation in her will... LOL

Had a great customer give me 8 lovely cubans(cigars) for getting his system up and operational by 4:45p.m., I had just stepped off a plane at 2:30p.m., because his birthday party started at 5:00p.m.

Was given a full Carver stack of gear because we finished a job under deadline.

More times than I can remember I have received $100-$500 tips. Seems like those tips come just before I go out of town, makes for more fun at the strip clubs.

I got a call from a homeonwer in the "old money", ultra high end neighborhood here in town a couple of years back. Seems the "clusterf***" of a system that one of my competitors had installed had finally conked out entirely.

It's December the 23rd, the lady of the house is having a major bash for all the "bluehairs" in their little enclave, and she wishes she could have her selection of Christmas tunes playing throughout the evening.

I dismantled the system, rerouted all the wiring so it could be operated as a large single zone system for the evening "gala" (as she called it) and returned the day after Christmas to return the system to a multi-source, multi-zone system that she could actually use (imagine 5 years of having the children turn the stereo on for you).

I billed at a standard rate for my time, got paid just like you would expect and went on my way.

A few days later I received a nice thank you card in the mail. Which had a check for $1,000.00 in it!

She said something biblical, took the money out of 'her' pants and slammed it on the table.

Had to sell some demo equipment once so I made it a bargain and then the guy talked me into doing the work on the side.

It was right when the TSU3000's came out so that was only part of the forty two hours I put in at his place afterhours (in one week making it about a 100 hour week combined with my day duties).

When it was all done he gave me fifty bucks.

That is outrageous.

Jputtcamp, you should have seen it coming.

Write this on blackboard 100 times....lol....

How about a cash discount? NO.

How about installing over the weekend? NO.

How about installing my equipment? NO.

How about installing this stuff I bought on the internet? NO, NO, NO!

That said, a friend of mine, who is also a competitor, made a service call on a clunky old intercom system I installed a few years back. Won't go into the gory details, just leave it at the fact that the homeowner wouldn't dare call me.

Anyway, he makes the trip, does the repair, and the wife offers him a nice clean $10.00 bill.

Sad situation. He had to sue them to get paid his normal service call rate.