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!

The thread title is interesting as you are overlooking the blatantly obvious. This guy is a cheap ass. He could habe replaced tv or receiver, or added a simple hdmi switch long ago but chose to keep unplugging his wire. The dude is cheap.

Being cheap is not a factor. It is a given, yes. His reasoning is like another client who had a lightning storm take out a TV and an AVR. His response was "I have lived here for 20+ years and have never had a problem with lightning!" Well, freakin' DUH dude! UNTIL NOW! S4!+ happens bruh! The logic is just non-existent. Spock would pull his hair out!

I thought at some point I would write a book that contained peoples amusing comments, after spending 30 years in the repair industry. That kind of humor really goes along way to keeping things light.

One of my favorites was when someone would bring something in for repair, set it on the counter, and say, "I know what's wrong with this." Well, if you know what's wrong with it, why did you bring it to me?

Thats akin to the potential client saying "its easy". Then why did you call me?

People's reasoning skills?????

Millions of people will vote for Killary Clinton this election.

The opposite side will say the same thing about Trump I'm sure.

One new constant to add to death and taxes,

PEOPLE ARE STUPID

"I think it's just a fuse."

"This should be a simple repair. It was working fine yesterday."

"I think it's just a loose wire." Oh yeah, which one?

"Can you put a new cartilage on my turntable?"

"I am having trouble with the TV in my motorhome. Do you work on them there Hibachi's?"

"My TV quit working. I think that it's an RCA Victim."

"My stereo amplifier quit. It's probably real simple. It's one of the really nice Kenmore ones."

"If I bring this in just after work today, do you think you can get it done before you close?"

"My tape deck was chewing up tapes, so I took the bottom off and sprayed it all with WD-40. It still doesn't work."

"Yeah, can you fix this amplifier for me? One speaker sounds kind of blurry."

"My brother-in-law is an engineer, and he says this should be really easy to fix." Hmm, does he work for Amtrak, Santa Fe, or the Burlington Northern??

"My receiver started smoking. But I unplugged it right away, so it's probably not too bad." You should have told it that it is too young to smoke.

"Yeah, can you fix my amp? I got one of those demonstration CDs, and I was listening to the one where the 747 comes in for a landing. I had it cranked up pretty loud, and it sounded great, but is soon as it touched down, everything went dead."

I billed a customer more in parts and labor to fabricate magnetic catches to hold speaker grilles to his ceiling then it would have cost him to just buy the speakers in the first place.

He was also mad that the millwork guys cut his wood ceiling around the pre construction brackets.

His bid was for us to prewire the house and install 8 pairs of in ceiling speakers. After the house went to finish he wanted to "revisit" the idea of having house audio, that it was too much money.

Same guy had us wire his house for video distribution and is/was now mad at us that there was no place for his cable box in the family room.

Another customer (an engineer) had me program a remote to control his family room system. I program said remote, issue a power off command, gear turns off. Wait a minute and go to turn it back on and the tv makes a loud popping noise and goes dark. He looks at me and says (somewhat angrily), "why did you turn the tv off? It blows a fuse in it when you turn it back on, I never shut it off."
He insisted that I drive across town to Radio Shack (this was a while ago) and find/install a replacement fuse for said ancient CRT rear pro tv.

I have another client that has a very large, very old Crestron system in their house. Place is completely automated. Lighting, shades, hvac, pool, gate etc.
They found us when their processor died. We quoted a replacement and programming, they were aghast at the price and decided to "think about it".
Fast forward 6 months, they finally call us back to do the job.
These are people worth north of $100,000,000 and they had extension cords run all over their 8 million dollar house and lamps everywhere because they had no lighting due to the processor being dead. They would go in the closet, roll the rack out and manually adjust the thermostats and walk all the way up their long, steep driveway with a gate remote to let people in.
We quoted an update to their system, they have been "thinking about it" for about a year now.

I remember a thread here started by one of us, who asked what was wrong with a TV that no longer functioned. I said that the TV was, to be technical, "broke."

People live in flood plains. People live on the sides of rivers, carefully (sometimes) placing their homes above the hundred-year flood line, forgetting that there are also thousand year floods.

Then what happens when they're asked what they're going to do? "We're going to rebuild!"

Yes, people are stupid. We just need to remember that we're people, too.

I always respond with everything works before it breaks. Pisses them off and I love it.

I have customers constantly asking me why I have to cut walls or ceilings to run wires. They thought that I could "fish" it from one side of the room to the other.

They will have a bad cable in one room and ask why I can't just attach a good cable to the bad cable and use it to pull the good cable to the other room.

I hope you asked "And when did you tell me it blows the fuse when you turn it on?".

I'm going to add "I am not a mind reader" to my business cards.

It may not be a matter of stupidity, it's more likely a matter of their lack of understanding. That said, there's a lot of stupid out there.

One of my current favorite quotes:

I can explain it to you, but I can’t understand it for you.

"Because proper installation, in fact legal installation, involves anchoring the wires at regular spacings, typically every four feet. Wires can be repulled only if conduits are installed."