That one client who made me rethink drive cloning

Had a guy come into my shop in Portland last Tuesday with a 2012 Dell Optiplex, said it was running slow. I told him we could clone his old 500GB HDD to an SSD for $89. He looked at me and said "just give me the SSD and a screwdriver, I'll do it myself." Watched him youtube how to clone drives right there in the lobby and he was done in 20 minutes. Anyone else ever get schooled by a customer like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

jake_owens2mo ago

Not gonna lie, that's kind of impressive. You handed him the tools and he just went for it. Most people who say "I'll do it myself" end up back in the shop two hours later with a half-dismantled computer and a confused look. Guy must have done his homework or maybe he's just one of those people who learns fast by watching. Either way he saved himself $89 and a week of waiting. I probably would have charged him a "dumb tax" fee just for doing it in the lobby though.

margaret_jackson732mo agoMost Upvoted

My buddy tried that once, fried his motherboard in 30 seconds flat.

rowanellis1mo ago

Wait, why would you charge a "dumb tax" just because he wanted to learn something himself? @margaret_jackson73's friend probably didn't watch the right tutorial or skipped 15 seconds where they showed which screw to avoid lol. This guy clearly had the common sense to follow along step by step which is more than most customers can say. Honestly sounds like he respected your time enough to not make you do grunt work for $89, and he probably walked out feeling like a king.