Everyone should spend an hour this weekend writing down "services" that suck. Anything that requires lots of effort with little to no reward. This printer install for example.

How much were you making on this service before you ran into trouble?

How much are you going to end up losing trying to resolve it?

More importantly...what will the customers level of satisfaction be once you are done?

The three questions above should be applied to every service you offer. They will help you determine whether or not you should be offering the service.

Luckily I covered myself. We are charging by the hour. We aren't losing anything. This was not a "printer install". It simply is resetting up the network after the ISP replaced their router. Customer satisfaction might begin to be a concern if it takes too much longer though. Although I have been explaining to him all along the way why it is taking so long. God I hate wireless printers.

haha, ironic thread.

I had one of my best clients ask me to look at their wireless printer the other day. I said noooo waaaay, I'll throw it through your window first.

I have a wireless Brother MFC that I gave up on a long time ago. Now it's an expensive fax machine and occasional scanner, if hardwired.

I tell people to buy a cheap b&w laser at a office store on a holiday for 60-70 bucks. Hardwire it and be done.

One of my sons was in charge of enterprise hardware for a local college, and at one point they asked him what he would really like to do in the IT department. He said he would like to NEVER again have to repair something that he knew he would have to repair again later. Which is every printer on campus. Pretty sound thinking!

We just don't support wireless printers. "Sorry Sir/Mam we don't support wireless printers, too many problems. No, you don't need a wireless printer to print using a wireless connection from your laptop. Your printer just needs to be on the network. We recommend you get a printer with a hardwire connection."

"What you a Mac. Sorry, we don't suppot those either......."

Then we move forward and dont have to wait for the phone to ring from the customer to tell us that they can't print anymore.

Brother MFC here at home, connected via wifi.
Zero problems printing from my Macbook or girlfriend's windows machine.
Also the app works great, can print from my phone or Ipad, no issues. Have had it for about a year now.

I think it is the 2nd or 3rd printer I have bought to try to do this, all have been problem children except this one.

Went back out to the customers house today. Disabled the wireless in the DSL modem/router and installed a Ubiquiti UniFi Long Range AP. Printers started working instantly. Made for a great start to the day!