I had a small computer business and around the time that intel core 2 duo's were new, I had a woman come and ask for the absolutely cheapest computer I had. I had an old P3 desktop with XP on it, I said $20 for it, she said she could only afford $17, So I said lets call it an even $15. ..6 months later she comes back and says the computer stopped working and she wanted her $ back, I said when did you buy this and for how much, she said 6months ago and for $15 (My sales records confirmed it, I had also wrote a note about the haggling because it made me laugh). I was too shocked to argue and gave her the $15 and she left (She wasn't going to take no and I was busy with much bigger transactions). I took a quick look and the video card died , I changed it out and put it out on the counter with a note that said: "Works ,P3, $20, No warranty", it was sold the next day.
I can completely relate to your stories. I worked at a computer shop that also sold video game consoles. A big aggressive guy came in once with a DS he bought from us saying it doesn't work anymore. We booked it in for a warranty test just like you did, after opening the back, the moisture indicator wasn't just pink, it was red. You could see small bubbles coming out of it. He clearly had dropped it in the bath or something. We told him his accidental damage wasn't cover under the warranty and he trashed the store. He pushed over the game racks and pushed all the laptops off the desks. The manager called the police and he ended up being fined for all the damage. It's incredible how some people think they can treat small businesses like crap. But that's retail I suppose. Anyway, I loved the podcast and I'd love to hear more of your stories in the future!
I was a computer tech in the late 80’s and early 90’s. My most remembered story is another tech worked with a customer on the phone for almost an hour with a computer not powering up. He gave up and said I am about to get off work and I will come by and take a look at it. He comes back the next morning still laughing. She was an older lady who ran sewing machines for years. He said he got there, looked at the setup computer and asked her why the mouse was on the floor. She answered that is where you always put the foot pedal. She was trying to operate the computer like an old sewing machine. He said he spent about an hour showing her how the computer actually works and she was happy after that.
2 Stories for you - Knew a lady, had never used a mouse before, took her 27 pages of written notes on how to use a Mouse in this "incrible NEW Operating SYstem" (Windows 7) I once sewed my thumb to my thumb on my 1st day of Home ec class
I worked as a rep for HP in the 90s and spent my week visiting CompUSA, BestBuy, Circuit City, etc. I loved the buzz in those stores with how interested and excited people were to get their first computer.
Yeah it was a very exciting time in the 90's for computers as they where moving so fast, now it's the next iPhone, or Samsung Galaxy for a $1,000 that's not that much better then last years model, or even some sub $200 Android phones it comes to daily task, and video card launches get botched by mining scalpers driving up prices, and some systems 3 generations old can still play the latest games, and do basic daily task with no issues, and even with AMD launching Ryzen/Threadripper it's again just not the same excitement for new products that it was in the 90's and early 00's for sure.
This is quite entertaining to me as well. A good story from a TOTALLY different market. One day many years ago, when I worked for a major grocer in the meat dept as a seafood clerk I had a very irate customer come in. Now, the date was July 5th, mind you. He comes in all fire and fury, and I ask him what the problem was. He said, "Your auto wrapping machine isn't working right! It poured lighter fluid all over my steaks!". I tell him that is impossible, there is no lubricating fluid in that machine, let alone lighter fluid. He reiterates again that he had received these steaks from the store doused completely in lighter fluid. Finally, after about 30 minutes with my manager, store manager and myself all explaining to him the implications of having a lighter fluid lubricated machine and the improbability of that ever passing FDA inspection, he finally left empty handed. I had figured that he had over bought, and wanted to recoup the money, because not all the guests had shown up to his bbq. Quite humorous indeed.
This video hits my nostalgic nerve bad. I worked at CompUSA as a floor salesman and then a computer tech in '99 as well. I have very similar stories you had like the roach motel computer and people getting pissed at something they don't know. Talking about hardware such as Intel vs AMD(was an AMD guy myself) with other co workers and buying all the parts to my first computer I built was such great memories. Good old days...
In my fist job as a technician, the boss sometimes ask me to go and buy coffee for customers. There was another technician that never do any favor because he was a technician. One time the work slow down and the technician was fired. Wen I ask the boos what happened to the other guy. He say, he never went to buy coffee.
These were quite amusing, I remember my mum bought a Compaq "internet" pc around 95, I was 5 at the time but knew a bit about computers, could run programs and knew about parts, and I went a bit mad she spent a whopping £1000 on this PC with monitor KB etc because she could have got a PC for the same price that could at least play games which I wanted to do. but she had it in her head that "internet PC" was the only thing that could go on the internet. GG Compaq with that marketing silkscreened right on the front of the tower.
Hahaha I know that feeling about being an introvert. Sometimes you just don't wanna talk to people 😂 I had to deal with a similar issue when I started my first job.
I worked at PC clone shop called Nordic Computers in Concord, California from summers 1988-1991. Also started while I was wrapping up my high school years. These were the years of XT (8088) and AT(x286) computers. The days of dip switches and populating memory chip by chip while trying not to bend the chip legs. MS-DOS (I always laughed when customers would call it DOSE) 3.33 was the standard. Windows and the x386 was just coming out when I left that job. I was one of the shops techs and also their GoFor driving around the SF Bay Area to pick up parts from distributors or delivering completed systems to customers. This navigating the roads of the Bay Area experience has been so valuable to this day! This podcast brought back some memories. Thanks!
You can say "shy", it isn't a disease. I had the exact same problem in my IT career. Being a major introvert was a real hindrance at times, I can totally relate. At one place we had to do cold calling to existing customers (bothering people on the phone to to buy more stuff), man that sucked beyond belief. The story about the guy refusing to stock the shelves... WOW... I mean... WOW... telling your boss "no" when asked to do a simple task... seriously...? Around my area people were so desperate for jobs we'd do anything short of being a human toilet if asked to do something by our boss.
I worked with computers from 1985 until I retired in 2016, so I can relate to your stories completely, although I didn't work in computer retail. It's always interesting when you work with people who don't have any idea how computers function. I worked as a computer trainer for a number of years early on in my career and eventually managing a staff in desktop support for a major company. The stories could fill up volumes of books!!
Oh man, what a great time in computer history! I'm only maybe 2 years younger than you, and when I was in high school, we got a Dell Dimension XPS-T500 with the P3-500 with a DVD drive and a CD Burner. My friend, a huge Gateway 2000 fan brought over his Neverhood OEM disk, so we copied it. Meanwhile, a bit later, someone gave me an old HP Vectra with a Pentium 133 in it, that I eventually upgraded to a Pentium 200 MMX. Pair that with 192 megs of RAM, a 20 gig hard drive, a CD burner, an external parallel Zip drive, a 15 inch Viewsonic monitor and a crap-ton of MP3s from Napster, and I was the coolest kid ever. That Vectra was the first of my machines that had the FCKGW-RHQQ2 version of Windows XP! I kind of miss those days!
Oh man, the FCKGW-RHQQ2 version of Windows XP! That ran on two PCs in my family in the early to mid 2000s - my Mum and I's PII 333MHz with 512MB RAM / 40GB HDD / TNT2 Ultra 32MB / SB Live! / 36x CD-ROM, and my grandparents' Athlon XP 1600+ 1.4GHz with 256MB RAM / 40GB HDD / Trio64 2MB / onboard sound / 16x CD-ROM :P
LOL your story about the tech not wanting to do the job they asked him to really takes me back. I've seen several instances of that. My favorite one was this guy who called his wife (I know this because I actually overheard him making the call) and had her call the place and say she was really sick and needed him to take her to the hospital so he could leave work to get out of doing a job he didn't want to do.
Oh boy, that last story was awesome, a few years after i started tinkering with computers i learned about cpu overheating and stuff, eventually started checking the outside temp. (where i live summer gets really hot). one day i went into overkill mode with my amd fx 4100 cpu: it was summer, a hot day, my cpu's temp wasnt low, its max was 80ºC and i started overclocking knowing all of that, even tho the cpu was at 80C i kept on overclocking, that bad boy sat at around 85C and ready to blow up at any moment after the OC, it felt like gambling your life at poker against a psychic.
Keyboards... 1. I was working with a distributor who sold Packard Bell computers in the MS-DOS era (late 80's). A customer kept bringing in his computer because it kept rebooting and reformatting the HDD. Normally, when a machine came back we just asked for the box first because often the problem was there. So we checked that first - no problem. So we asked for the power cables and keyboard. Problem. Swapped the power cord. Problem. Swapped the keyboard -no problem. So we placed a call to PB service to find out why a keyboard would cause this problem. Turns out the system was designed to do a self test and part of that test was a reboot and format of the HDD. The keyboard in question turned out to be intermittent causing the system to revert to self test. We got a keyboard replacement from PB (under warranty) and everything was fine. 2. Worked as IT repair at a very large community college (20,000 students at the time). Faculty were issued computers for the first time. One faculty member said his computer kept locking up randomly. A tech retrieved the computer (no cables) and brought it for testing. On the bench it worked fine. So the tech returned it. The faculty member used it for a little over two weeks and called about the same problem. Since this was a second call for the same problem, I grabbed a stocked keyboard (just in case). The tech didn't understand. So we went to the office in question while the faculty member was there. It turned out that it did happen a lot, but since he had lost a lot of typing he reported it again. Rebooting fixed the lock-up but it was annoying. So I had the faculty member sit down and show us what he did exactly. He began random typing and decided he wanted music (music faculty). He grabbed a remote control and turned on a stereo - and the computer locked up. The keyboard was infrared and on the same frequency as the remote. swapped with a wired keyboard. Problem solved. 3. Last one. By now, keyboards ALWAYS were brought in. IT gets a call that the letters typed randomly changed from the key hit. Both the computer and keyboard came. But when we changed out the keyboard it was fine. But what caused that? While swapping keyboards, we saw dip switches on the bottom of the offending keyboard. The keyboard was programmable. There was a dip switch for clear/reset. So we reset it. But the other switch was programming on/off and it was a loose switch. So when you pressed a key, it was reassigned to the next key you pressed. So we reset again, determined the off position and superglued that switch. We returned the computer with the modified keyboard which never came back in that generation of computers.
My scrappy little town here in northern Sweden even had five computer stores at one point in the 90s. Now we are stuck with a franchised electronic store(basically our version of Best Buy), with a pretty lacking computer section to boot. We still have our ten pizzerias tho, that's one thing us Swedes never get tired of. 😋
In the late 90s I built my first computer... using a K6-2 450. Our house was air conditioned, didn't matter. That thing still ran incredibly hot and it was slower than my friend's system with a PII 400. I took the K6-2 and the mobo back and bought a PIII 550. Loved that computer. Took it to a lot of LAN parties.
Well I might go a bit further back to the early mid 80s. My first computer was a Ti99/4a, I got part-time job with a company, which was a steel supplier, who's owner was opening a store called U-Compute where you could rent time on a bunch of different computers. He was also working on a book on computers and he gave me an office to create and edit, and comments about the function of programs. I also remember my dad buying a 512Mac and a LaserWriter for about $10,000.00. Funny thing is that he took to designing his news paper advertising on it and created quite a negative stir at the news paper where they counted on doing full mock up and layout. Now keep in mind that the ads had a noticeable Mac like look for the product description, and the photo were scanned digital picture. He had a scanner that went into the dot matrix printer and could scan as the print head was driven back and forth by the software. I think it was called a Thunderscanner. Anyways my ramblings.
I just watched this whole thing and definitely a nostalgic topic of the early days of computer sales. I was In my teens In the late 90s and I still remember being in awe of going to CompuUSA and Circuit City seeing all of these computers. I work as an Enterpise IT director now and once i. Awhile I come across very old computers (especially in town halls) and once I see a gateway pc I get really nostalgic. I envy your stories and experience in computer sales and working with different people in different environments and situations. Not many have that luxury to have experienced that. You are right, most bestbuy techs don’t invest enough time to talk computers - mainly because it’s not like that anymore and it’s not relevant in 2019. Maybe in 1999, I’d be standing for hours talking if this can run sim city 2000 lol
It’s interesting how times have changed. Nowadays a customer would be looked at funny if they didn’t know about something like hard drive size because it’s such common knowledge now
I remember having a local mall computer shop that did repairs. Around that time Computer Shopper was also huge, so we bought our PII-300 with i740 agp graphics mail order. Prior to that our first family computer was an IBM PS/2 486DX bought from a Sears no less.
I still remember when my family bought our first computer at CompUSA in the mid 90s, it was a Macintosh Performa and I still have it lol. The last computer I bought from CompUSA was a Mac Mini in 2006, I think that was the last year they were in business.
The late 90s were the computer wars. I was just talking with a friend and brought up Comp USA and assumed they had closed down, but was curious when and found some article back in 2007 that they were closing all stores. lol Makes sense. By the mid 2000s everyone who wanted a computer had one so there was no way a store like Comp USA could stay in business. Kids that grew up in the last 20 years would just be baffled by this era since they have grown up with computers and now have tablets and smart phones.
I know i'm super late to the video but i really really enjoyed watching this video. IT brought back so many memories of those times in the late 90's when computers started making their ways into the "everyday household". My only complaint was that i wanted to hear more stories! Smiles.
Colin I worked for best buy in the PC department. I feel the same way you do about being an introvert, but when it's a topic i love (Computers, technology, Sports) i can open up and be very social, but if it's a topic i'm not familiar with i am usually the wallflower, so i get where you are coming from.
I remember going to the Compaq computer HQ here in Houston with my dad to buy his first computer. The price sheet I still have. 2 thousand bucks for a 100mhz machine I believe. 1gb had I think. But to be a part of Compaq at the height of it's power I still remember.
Regarding that one customer who had no AC at home, I live in Florida so I know how hot it can get on the second floor of a house myself. I had a gaming rig that kept blue screening until I got proper cooling. For a while I had placed a box fan next to it but then I decided to invest in better cooling. My current gaming rig had liquid cooling from the start.
My dad also finally bought our first computer in late '98 and to my surprise, despite him usually being cheap with everything, he got a nice Sony VAIO! It had a Pentium II 450 MHz CPU, a Matrox Mystique G200 GPU which had great image quality and could handle 3D fairly well, an Aureal Vortex 3D sound chip, and a DVD/CD player and even an AV input. It was also quite stylish. I was pretty amazed with what all you could do with it (especially the internet) and used it far more than my family did. By 2003, technology had progressed so much that our '98 VAIO was very slow and outdated so we were looking at upgrading to another VAIO. I remember seeing the cool MX series with it's built in amplifier and nice bookshelf speakers and neat info display but for the money, it had a much slower and outdated CPU and GPU than the mainline RZ series so I custom specified the RZ with a 2.6 GHz Pentium 4, an nVidia GeForce 4 Ti, and Creative Sound Blaster Audigy. After that, I always just built my computers but the 90's really were neat with all the unique designs before everything became basically standardized. I'm really interested in all the Japanese designs in particular such as the Fujitsu FM Towns, Sharp X68000, NEC PC-9800, and MSX. With the custom graphics chips and MIDI based Yamaha FM sound chips, and even custom mechanical keyboard, mouse, and controller designs, they all really had a unique character to them.
WHOA I happened upon your channel, I think you worked at Computer Renaissance in Mankato Mn! Crazy small world I worked there in 2002. Am I right? R & M :)
Youre not old. I worked in retial from 1977 to 1983. My frst IT job, officially, was as a project officer. in an IT roll out. Your stories reflect my stories.I have been in IT support since the days of Apple IIes.
I got: The person who bought a laptop then called asking why it turned off after several hours, she thought the whole point of laptops is they don't need to be plugged in. The person who abandoned a laptop then came back 2 years later looking for it, pissed off we sold it (we had a generous 6 month policy, with lots of calls until then) The Indian guy who bought the cheapest crappiest old laptop we had (~$200), came back a year later wanting to trade it in at equal value for a recent well equipped laptop (~$650), and it had a broken CDROM bezel and logo missing. The guy argued for an impossible deal in a thick accent so fast he was frothing at the mouth for more than an hour, until the owner had to throw him out. The service customer who I informed on the phone his hard drive died, no data coming back, offer to sell him a new drive and Windows install, he agrees. He comes in the next day screaming, called me an asshole for deleting all his data. (Came in day after that apologizing) The guy who I didn't like who wanted my number so he could call me up randomly about computer problems at his job, I refused, he was pissed off.
Your initial job at the beginning was basically the same experience I had when I began working at Staples as a Tech Support rep. I was still in high school and very much considered myself an introvert. I can thank that job for giving me the opportunity to practice people skills and learn how to talk to folks while also simultaneously being able to engage in my passion. But, yeah people constantly thought that I made commission and I'm like "yeah would be nice, but no I make 9.50 an hour here" lol. But Staples (or our store manager at least) placed a huge focus on customer service and instructed as not to oversell to customers
Colin has awesome stories about his time working at a computer shop. I was born in 1980 and I remember the same time period and I enjoyed the late 1990's in personal computers. I hope Colin shares many more of his stories at the computer store. Back in 2012 I had the idea to make short films about what it's like to interact with the public because of the bizarre aspects of human nature. So in April of 2015 I finally made my first video about it but in the spring of 2017 I converted my upstairs of my house to be a 1990's mom and pop computer shop to function as a set for making episodes of an educational skit comedy drama show for TH-cam. I am thrilled to hear Colin's stories about these customers. I already shot the principle photography of the pilot episode of my show. Now I got to finish editing and we got a very dysfunctional customer in the pilot episode.
Nice to hear what it was like to run one of these stores. Many of the smaller and midsized ones disappeared quickly once the boom peetered out. Some were run by people who had no tech knowledge. A few are still around, catering for business users mostly. (Norway) Thx for your talk.
GREAT story telling here Collin. I'm 33 so this is right up my alley... I even remember going in to an independent computer store around the age of 17 much like the one you described when I was building my first custom PC. From what I remember I bought my parts online (can't remember which website but this was around 2000) and when I finally got everything put together it would shut off early in the boot phase. I never did figure out exactly why but I ended up buying a new motherboard from that local computer store and then never had a problem.
I worked at a used game store and I can really relate to these stories. I have experienceda similar shift with games as they continue to impprove on home consoles and PCs so rapidly, although, they have been way more mainstream for a while. Warrenties, repairs, and people getting the wrong hardware, I have dealt with all of that. I would love to hear more stories like these. They are very entertaining and make me laugh thinking of similar experiences that I have had.
I worked at a small smartphone store/repair shop around the time smartphones started becoming mainstream. I can totally relate to those stories about frustrating customers breaking things and then blaming it on the store. Had a customer bring in a Motorola droid phone with a broken screen. We fixed it and sent him on his way. A couple of weeks later, he brings the same phone back and wants it fixed under warranty; The screen was broken. It's not unheard of for there to be defects that can cause replacement screens to be unusually fragile (IE: Debris under the glass). So we inspect it, but this phone has clearly been heavily abused. The new screen was already scratched to hell and the phone has clearly been dropped several times since we last repaired it. So we decline the warranty request, but offer a discount on a new screen repair. He was not happy with that and after a back and forth, he storms out of the store and begins yelling at customers at other nearby businesses telling them not to go to our store. Pretty much acting the same way your angry customer did. Funny conclusion to that story is that the next day, that guys father brings the phone in and has us repair it. The customer who yelled at us, the son, he wasn't young. Probably in his mid-to-late 30's.
If you think the late 90s was an interesting time for computers, go back another decade or so when there were actual choices - Amigas, Atari STs, Apple 2s, as well as the early generation of PCs and Macs.
Great video! Some of those stories brought back memories for me too!! Where I work, on a USAF base in the UK, at RAF Lakenheath, back in the mid 90's in our computer store, we once had a customer bring back a "faulty" Packard Bell desktop computer, and when the tech went to work on it, found that it was empty apart from a few house bricks (to give it weight!!)..... that was in the days when RAM chips and CPU's cost more than a second-hand car...!! Ha Ha!! :-D The things that people do, eh? Happy new year, and I look forward to more great videos to come ;-)
I worked at a small pc repair local chain in the late 90s.we built white box systems and would plastic wrap them to keep them clean till someone bought them. We sold one to a guy and he calls a couple hours later saying it shut off and won’t turn on. He brought it back in and it was still plastic wrapped. He had neatly cut out ports with a craft knife to plug everything in.
These videos are so good. I really love your videos. In india, those very early computer never came to masses and first system i remember which was literally kept in showcases were windows 98. My childhood school had 1 computer and we were only allowed to look at it through a window.
I can really relate to a lot of these stories, I worked at a Computer Renaissance store (in the MN metro area) in the late 90's, lot's of similar interactions with quirky customers, and cool cutting edge tech of the day. I instantly recognized this video's thumbnail image as a Computer Renaissance store too ;-)
Yep. I worked at a dialup service provider years ago and had a client who had a heck of a time getting connected. I ended up offering to head to her place to try a new modem. When I got there I found she was using an extension that ran her phone line through the 110 volt power supply in the house. Fine for voice, but it wasn't good enough for dialup. I string a cable along the wall of the room and her problem went away. I never would have found that issue if I wouldn't have gone on site.
I've actually had people ask if I would do a video on assembling Legos. I don't quite understand it (kind of like an ASMR thing maybe?) but I'm considering it.
Hey Colin, Great video and great stories. Sales.... story of my life! lol Keep the uploads coming my friend, I really enjoy and appreciate them ~ Thanks
Hi Colin. I love your podcasts and always look forward to seeing them. Always very insightful. Love all the hard work you put into these videos. Would love to hear more stories or anything you feel like sharing. It's very entertaining
We need more stories like these. They sure are a gem to know what that was like. It is a weird realization how much has changed since the 90s but customer service has not. I was in my early teens in the late 90s and fell in love with computers. I envy your experience of seeing the early progress of what it was like to work in such field to what it is now.
I remember that era around just before y2k (and the apprehension behind y2k, specifically) and AMD machines needing much more cooling than Intel ones. Now, I do not remember exactly which kind of heatsinks I used, but in comparison to the ones we use today, they were tiny! Older ones, from a few years earlier were, what? 6 mm tall? And computers didn't need fans on top of the CPUs. Using these monsters today just feels wrong.
Loved hearing your IT stories, Colin, and it took me back to my experiences with computers in the late 90s too (as I think I'm a similar age to you, and remember a lot of that tech equipment, especially the AMD K6 2s, quite fondly). Personal anecdotes are always interesting - it would be great to hear some more.
Recently I found a Dell Dimension L1000R and a eMachine as in eWasteMachine [eWasteMachine for those of you who are too young because they were infamous for hardware failure] or Never Obsolete eMachine T6528 thrown out where I live and the original owner did not even bother to wipe the hard drives. I have installed a dual boot of Windows ME and Windows XP Pro with Service Pack 1. The motherboard that Dell used in this system and the Dimension 2100 is called the Intel CA810E. I also own a Gateway Essential ESS 450SE and that system uses the Intel WS440BX. I recently also built myself a custom built Intel Slot 01 machine that uses the Abit BE6-II paired with a Intel Pentium III clocked at 550 Mhz.
That shift in the public perception of PCs mentioned (@7:00) started, IMHO, when AOL started it's unlimited pricing plan (December 1996). Various other factors were at play, but AOL's unlimited internet was the tipping point that finally ushered us into a new, digital, age.
I've been in Best Buy before and customers ask me what they should do or get. I'm usually not dressed anything like a Best Buy employee, but fortunately, I've been a computer tech since like 1997. I try to give them ideas that will meet their needs, but also ensure that they're going to be able to cover what they ultimately will want to do, without also breaking the bank. I also try to make sure they understand what they're getting and why, so they're not just baffled with bullshit.
It's been awhile since I've watched one of your podcasts, and I've gotta say, I really identified with this one. I miss your ThisDoesNotCommute segments, because it always felt like I was riding in the car with a buddy, just having a good solid conversation about whatever. I think you re-captured some of that feeling with this podcast though. I enjoyed listening to/watching this one. :) I've been in IT about half as long as you have, but this makes me think of my own stories that I want to share. Thanks for making this one!
Collin (Colin?) we're about the same age as I thought we might have been... I think back in 99 I was using a Mac II CI? I can't remember... My dad used to teach multimedia/desktop publishing and his students' work places were always retiring old PCs and we got a few of em, so maybe I had a P2/233 or something? I know it was something like that. Personally, I liked your stories. They were amusing to me as well! I work in retail now and I know how some people can be... Thanks for the video!
I always noticed I felt more drained and tired when doing something super social. At the time i had no idea there were other people who also felt this wwy, let alone a freaking name had been given to this "thing".
I used to work at an electronics store and one particular customer was upset with me because I didn't know what ink cartridge their printer used and the only information they gave me was the brand. They told me something along the lines of "don't you guys have ink expert?"
I had a small computer business and around the time that intel core 2 duo's were new, I had a woman come and ask for the absolutely cheapest computer I had. I had an old P3 desktop with XP on it, I said $20 for it, she said she could only afford $17, So I said lets call it an even $15. ..6 months later she comes back and says the computer stopped working and she wanted her $ back, I said when did you buy this and for how much, she said 6months ago and for $15 (My sales records confirmed it, I had also wrote a note about the haggling because it made me laugh).
I was too shocked to argue and gave her the $15 and she left (She wasn't going to take no and I was busy with much bigger transactions). I took a quick look and the video card died , I changed it out and put it out on the counter with a note that said: "Works ,P3, $20, No warranty", it was sold the next day.
Hell the video card probably cost more than you sold the computer for LOL.
William Sevier not, if you have lying around an old and appropriate video card for no cost.... could be for such an old system
Cool but glad you have a heart though wish I knew you then I needed a laptop and was homeless and would have cleaned the store for it
We need more stories!!!!!
I agree.
I worked at a similar store from 2005-2010. I have probably a hundred stories just like this!
I second this!
These were great stories indeed
I work at a car rental store and have plenty funny things to tell as well.
I work at a Walmart in their Electronics department, some people just don’t know what computers are.
Evan schroeder I find that hard to believe but I also worked at Wal-Mart too so I can believe you
I remember when Walmart sold computer parts. I think we bought a Sound Blaster card and CD-ROM drive there once, maybe in 1997 or so.
Adventures in Nostalgia yes
i worked at the photo center like 6 years ago and some old lady yelled at me since we didnt carry kodak brownie cameras XD
@@shanester366 bruh I have one now, lol
I can completely relate to your stories. I worked at a computer shop that also sold video game consoles. A big aggressive guy came in once with a DS he bought from us saying it doesn't work anymore.
We booked it in for a warranty test just like you did, after opening the back, the moisture indicator wasn't just pink, it was red. You could see small bubbles coming out of it. He clearly had dropped it in the bath or something.
We told him his accidental damage wasn't cover under the warranty and he trashed the store. He pushed over the game racks and pushed all the laptops off the desks. The manager called the police and he ended up being fined for all the damage.
It's incredible how some people think they can treat small businesses like crap. But that's retail I suppose.
Anyway, I loved the podcast and I'd love to hear more of your stories in the future!
Dang, trashing the store? I remember a few tense moments and heated arguments, but thankfully they never turned violent.
The guy should have went to prison
I was a computer tech in the late 80’s and early 90’s. My most remembered story is another tech worked with a customer on the phone for almost an hour with a computer not powering up. He gave up and said I am about to get off work and I will come by and take a look at it. He comes back the next morning still laughing. She was an older lady who ran sewing machines for years. He said he got there, looked at the setup computer and asked her why the mouse was on the floor. She answered that is where you always put the foot pedal. She was trying to operate the computer like an old sewing machine. He said he spent about an hour showing her how the computer actually works and she was happy after that.
My grandmother also ran sewing machines!!! I bet she would do the same :D
2 Stories for you - Knew a lady, had never used a mouse before, took her 27 pages of written notes on how to use a Mouse in this "incrible NEW Operating SYstem" (Windows 7)
I once sewed my thumb to my thumb on my 1st day of Home ec class
I worked as a rep for HP in the 90s and spent my week visiting CompUSA, BestBuy, Circuit City, etc. I loved the buzz in those stores with how interested and excited people were to get their first computer.
Yeah it was a very exciting time in the 90's for computers as they where moving so fast, now it's the next iPhone, or Samsung Galaxy for a $1,000 that's not that much better then last years model, or even some sub $200 Android phones it comes to daily task, and video card launches get botched by mining scalpers driving up prices, and some systems 3 generations old can still play the latest games, and do basic daily task with no issues, and even with AMD launching Ryzen/Threadripper it's again just not the same excitement for new products that it was in the 90's and early 00's for sure.
00:00 Thanks collin, I'm doing great!
lol he never gives you time to answer ;)
This is quite entertaining to me as well. A good story from a TOTALLY different market. One day many years ago, when I worked for a major grocer in the meat dept as a seafood clerk I had a very irate customer come in. Now, the date was July 5th, mind you. He comes in all fire and fury, and I ask him what the problem was. He said, "Your auto wrapping machine isn't working right! It poured lighter fluid all over my steaks!". I tell him that is impossible, there is no lubricating fluid in that machine, let alone lighter fluid. He reiterates again that he had received these steaks from the store doused completely in lighter fluid. Finally, after about 30 minutes with my manager, store manager and myself all explaining to him the implications of having a lighter fluid lubricated machine and the improbability of that ever passing FDA inspection, he finally left empty handed. I had figured that he had over bought, and wanted to recoup the money, because not all the guests had shown up to his bbq. Quite humorous indeed.
This video hits my nostalgic nerve bad. I worked at CompUSA as a floor salesman and then a computer tech in '99 as well. I have very similar stories you had like the roach motel computer and people getting pissed at something they don't know. Talking about hardware such as Intel vs AMD(was an AMD guy myself) with other co workers and buying all the parts to my first computer I built was such great memories. Good old days...
In my fist job as a technician, the boss sometimes ask me to go and buy coffee for customers.
There was another technician that never do any favor because he was a technician.
One time the work slow down and the technician was fired.
Wen I ask the boos what happened to the other guy.
He say, he never went to buy coffee.
These were quite amusing, I remember my mum bought a Compaq "internet" pc around 95, I was 5 at the time but knew a bit about computers, could run programs and knew about parts, and I went a bit mad she spent a whopping £1000 on this PC with monitor KB etc because she could have got a PC for the same price that could at least play games which I wanted to do. but she had it in her head that "internet PC" was the only thing that could go on the internet. GG Compaq with that marketing silkscreened right on the front of the tower.
More stories and Marilyn Manson pictures!
Hahaha I know that feeling about being an introvert. Sometimes you just don't wanna talk to people 😂 I had to deal with a similar issue when I started my first job.
I worked at PC clone shop called Nordic Computers in Concord, California from summers 1988-1991. Also started while I was wrapping up my high school years. These were the years of XT (8088) and AT(x286) computers. The days of dip switches and populating memory chip by chip while trying not to bend the chip legs. MS-DOS (I always laughed when customers would call it DOSE) 3.33 was the standard. Windows and the x386 was just coming out when I left that job. I was one of the shops techs and also their GoFor driving around the SF Bay Area to pick up parts from distributors or delivering completed systems to customers. This navigating the roads of the Bay Area experience has been so valuable to this day! This podcast brought back some memories. Thanks!
You can say "shy", it isn't a disease. I had the exact same problem in my IT career. Being a major introvert was a real hindrance at times, I can totally relate. At one place we had to do cold calling to existing customers (bothering people on the phone to to buy more stuff), man that sucked beyond belief. The story about the guy refusing to stock the shelves... WOW... I mean... WOW... telling your boss "no" when asked to do a simple task... seriously...? Around my area people were so desperate for jobs we'd do anything short of being a human toilet if asked to do something by our boss.
I worked with computers from 1985 until I retired in 2016, so I can relate to your stories completely, although I didn't work in computer retail. It's always interesting when you work with people who don't have any idea how computers function. I worked as a computer trainer for a number of years early on in my career and eventually managing a staff in desktop support for a major company. The stories could fill up volumes of books!!
Oh man, what a great time in computer history! I'm only maybe 2 years younger than you, and when I was in high school, we got a Dell Dimension XPS-T500 with the P3-500 with a DVD drive and a CD Burner. My friend, a huge Gateway 2000 fan brought over his Neverhood OEM disk, so we copied it. Meanwhile, a bit later, someone gave me an old HP Vectra with a Pentium 133 in it, that I eventually upgraded to a Pentium 200 MMX. Pair that with 192 megs of RAM, a 20 gig hard drive, a CD burner, an external parallel Zip drive, a 15 inch Viewsonic monitor and a crap-ton of MP3s from Napster, and I was the coolest kid ever. That Vectra was the first of my machines that had the FCKGW-RHQQ2 version of Windows XP! I kind of miss those days!
Oh man, the FCKGW-RHQQ2 version of Windows XP! That ran on two PCs in my family in the early to mid 2000s - my Mum and I's PII 333MHz with 512MB RAM / 40GB HDD / TNT2 Ultra 32MB / SB Live! / 36x CD-ROM, and my grandparents' Athlon XP 1600+ 1.4GHz with 256MB RAM / 40GB HDD / Trio64 2MB / onboard sound / 16x CD-ROM :P
LOL your story about the tech not wanting to do the job they asked him to really takes me back. I've seen several instances of that. My favorite one was this guy who called his wife (I know this because I actually overheard him making the call) and had her call the place and say she was really sick and needed him to take her to the hospital so he could leave work to get out of doing a job he didn't want to do.
Oh boy, that last story was awesome, a few years after i started tinkering with computers i learned about cpu overheating and stuff, eventually started checking the outside temp. (where i live summer gets really hot). one day i went into overkill mode with my amd fx 4100 cpu: it was summer, a hot day, my cpu's temp wasnt low, its max was 80ºC and i started overclocking knowing all of that, even tho the cpu was at 80C i kept on overclocking, that bad boy sat at around 85C and ready to blow up at any moment after the OC, it felt like gambling your life at poker against a psychic.
Definitely entertaining, interesting at the very least. Keep em comin! :)
She's STILL printing photos of Manson till this day.....:P
Rumor has it, the entire walls of her house are covered in Manson printings!
Keyboards...
1. I was working with a distributor who sold Packard Bell computers in the MS-DOS era (late 80's). A customer kept bringing in his computer because it kept rebooting and reformatting the HDD. Normally, when a machine came back we just asked for the box first because often the problem was there. So we checked that first - no problem. So we asked for the power cables and keyboard. Problem. Swapped the power cord. Problem. Swapped the keyboard -no problem. So we placed a call to PB service to find out why a keyboard would cause this problem. Turns out the system was designed to do a self test and part of that test was a reboot and format of the HDD. The keyboard in question turned out to be intermittent causing the system to revert to self test. We got a keyboard replacement from PB (under warranty) and everything was fine.
2. Worked as IT repair at a very large community college (20,000 students at the time). Faculty were issued computers for the first time. One faculty member said his computer kept locking up randomly. A tech retrieved the computer (no cables) and brought it for testing. On the bench it worked fine. So the tech returned it. The faculty member used it for a little over two weeks and called about the same problem. Since this was a second call for the same problem, I grabbed a stocked keyboard (just in case). The tech didn't understand. So we went to the office in question while the faculty member was there. It turned out that it did happen a lot, but since he had lost a lot of typing he reported it again. Rebooting fixed the lock-up but it was annoying. So I had the faculty member sit down and show us what he did exactly. He began random typing and decided he wanted music (music faculty). He grabbed a remote control and turned on a stereo - and the computer locked up. The keyboard was infrared and on the same frequency as the remote. swapped with a wired keyboard. Problem solved.
3. Last one. By now, keyboards ALWAYS were brought in. IT gets a call that the letters typed randomly changed from the key hit. Both the computer and keyboard came. But when we changed out the keyboard it was fine. But what caused that? While swapping keyboards, we saw dip switches on the bottom of the offending keyboard. The keyboard was programmable. There was a dip switch for clear/reset. So we reset it. But the other switch was programming on/off and it was a loose switch. So when you pressed a key, it was reassigned to the next key you pressed. So we reset again, determined the off position and superglued that switch. We returned the computer with the modified keyboard which never came back in that generation of computers.
wow. i have to say i've never encountered issues like that in 20 years of using computers. who knew keyboards could be such bitches...
You don't see programable keyboards that oftenin offices now
My scrappy little town here in northern Sweden even had five computer stores at one point in the 90s. Now we are stuck with a franchised electronic store(basically our version of Best Buy), with a pretty lacking computer section to boot.
We still have our ten pizzerias tho, that's one thing us Swedes never get tired of. 😋
Guy who brought back the PC had buyers remorse and was trying to do anything he could to make it not work; a classic situation.
Knuckles ftw.
Amazing stories!!! really entertaining!!!
Hi from Uruguay Colin, super fan of your channel here!!
In the late 90s I built my first computer... using a K6-2 450. Our house was air conditioned, didn't matter. That thing still ran incredibly hot and it was slower than my friend's system with a PII 400. I took the K6-2 and the mobo back and bought a PIII 550. Loved that computer. Took it to a lot of LAN parties.
Well I might go a bit further back to the early mid 80s. My first computer was a Ti99/4a, I got part-time job with a company, which was a steel supplier, who's owner was opening a store called U-Compute where you could rent time on a bunch of different computers. He was also working on a book on computers and he gave me an office to create and edit, and comments about the function of programs.
I also remember my dad buying a 512Mac and a LaserWriter for about $10,000.00. Funny thing is that he took to designing his news paper advertising on it and created quite a negative stir at the news paper where they counted on doing full mock up and layout. Now keep in mind that the ads had a noticeable Mac like look for the product description, and the photo were scanned digital picture. He had a scanner that went into the dot matrix printer and could scan as the print head was driven back and forth by the software. I think it was called a Thunderscanner.
Anyways my ramblings.
About advertising, it was funny to find the ads in the news paper on Google Newspaper site, all these years later.
Brent Drafts Oh Texas Instruments I had 1 of them also. Nostalgia overload.
I just watched this whole thing and definitely a nostalgic topic of the early days of computer sales. I was In my teens In the late 90s and I still remember being in awe of going to CompuUSA and Circuit City seeing all of these computers. I work as an Enterpise IT director now and once i. Awhile I come across very old computers (especially in town halls) and once I see a gateway pc I get really nostalgic. I envy your stories and experience in computer sales and working with different people in different environments and situations. Not many have that luxury to have experienced that. You are right, most bestbuy techs don’t invest enough time to talk computers - mainly because it’s not like that anymore and it’s not relevant in 2019. Maybe in 1999, I’d be standing for hours talking if this can run sim city 2000 lol
97-03 is my favorite period of computing. As a gamer felt like the biggest rush of change. Never felt the same before or since.
It’s interesting how times have changed. Nowadays a customer would be looked at funny if they didn’t know about something like hard drive size because it’s such common knowledge now
I remember having a local mall computer shop that did repairs. Around that time Computer Shopper was also huge, so we bought our PII-300 with i740 agp graphics mail order. Prior to that our first family computer was an IBM PS/2 486DX bought from a Sears no less.
I still remember when my family bought our first computer at CompUSA in the mid 90s, it was a Macintosh Performa and I still have it lol. The last computer I bought from CompUSA was a Mac Mini in 2006, I think that was the last year they were in business.
The late 90s were the computer wars. I was just talking with a friend and brought up Comp USA and assumed they had closed down, but was curious when and found some article back in 2007 that they were closing all stores. lol Makes sense. By the mid 2000s everyone who wanted a computer had one so there was no way a store like Comp USA could stay in business. Kids that grew up in the last 20 years would just be baffled by this era since they have grown up with computers and now have tablets and smart phones.
I know i'm super late to the video but i really really enjoyed watching this video. IT brought back so many memories of those times in the late 90's when computers started making their ways into the "everyday household". My only complaint was that i wanted to hear more stories! Smiles.
As teenager who built his own computer in the late 90s, I really enjoyed these stories
Colin I worked for best buy in the PC department. I feel the same way you do about being an introvert, but when it's a topic i love (Computers, technology, Sports) i can open up and be very social, but if it's a topic i'm not familiar with i am usually the wallflower, so i get where you are coming from.
I ended up listening to the whole thing, so I guess it was entertaining!
I remember going to the Compaq computer HQ here in Houston with my dad to buy his first computer. The price sheet I still have. 2 thousand bucks for a 100mhz machine I believe. 1gb had I think. But to be a part of Compaq at the height of it's power I still remember.
Regarding that one customer who had no AC at home, I live in Florida so I know how hot it can get on the second floor of a house myself. I had a gaming rig that kept blue screening until I got proper cooling. For a while I had placed a box fan next to it but then I decided to invest in better cooling. My current gaming rig had liquid cooling from the start.
My dad also finally bought our first computer in late '98 and to my surprise, despite him usually being cheap with everything, he got a nice Sony VAIO! It had a Pentium II 450 MHz CPU, a Matrox Mystique G200 GPU which had great image quality and could handle 3D fairly well, an Aureal Vortex 3D sound chip, and a DVD/CD player and even an AV input. It was also quite stylish. I was pretty amazed with what all you could do with it (especially the internet) and used it far more than my family did. By 2003, technology had progressed so much that our '98 VAIO was very slow and outdated so we were looking at upgrading to another VAIO. I remember seeing the cool MX series with it's built in amplifier and nice bookshelf speakers and neat info display but for the money, it had a much slower and outdated CPU and GPU than the mainline RZ series so I custom specified the RZ with a 2.6 GHz Pentium 4, an nVidia GeForce 4 Ti, and Creative Sound Blaster Audigy. After that, I always just built my computers but the 90's really were neat with all the unique designs before everything became basically standardized. I'm really interested in all the Japanese designs in particular such as the Fujitsu FM Towns, Sharp X68000, NEC PC-9800, and MSX. With the custom graphics chips and MIDI based Yamaha FM sound chips, and even custom mechanical keyboard, mouse, and controller designs, they all really had a unique character to them.
My favorite podcast so far, Colin. Hilarious stories and well told. Thumbs up.
WHOA I happened upon your channel, I think you worked at Computer Renaissance in Mankato Mn! Crazy small world I worked there in 2002. Am I right? R & M :)
Youre not old. I worked in retial from 1977 to 1983. My frst IT job, officially, was as a project officer. in an IT roll out. Your stories reflect my stories.I have been in IT support since the days of Apple IIes.
I got:
The person who bought a laptop then called asking why it turned off after several hours, she thought the whole point of laptops is they don't need to be plugged in.
The person who abandoned a laptop then came back 2 years later looking for it, pissed off we sold it (we had a generous 6 month policy, with lots of calls until then)
The Indian guy who bought the cheapest crappiest old laptop we had (~$200), came back a year later wanting to trade it in at equal value for a recent well equipped laptop (~$650), and it had a broken CDROM bezel and logo missing. The guy argued for an impossible deal in a thick accent so fast he was frothing at the mouth for more than an hour, until the owner had to throw him out.
The service customer who I informed on the phone his hard drive died, no data coming back, offer to sell him a new drive and Windows install, he agrees. He comes in the next day screaming, called me an asshole for deleting all his data. (Came in day after that apologizing)
The guy who I didn't like who wanted my number so he could call me up randomly about computer problems at his job, I refused, he was pissed off.
Your initial job at the beginning was basically the same experience I had when I began working at Staples as a Tech Support rep. I was still in high school and very much considered myself an introvert. I can thank that job for giving me the opportunity to practice people skills and learn how to talk to folks while also simultaneously being able to engage in my passion. But, yeah people constantly thought that I made commission and I'm like "yeah would be nice, but no I make 9.50 an hour here" lol. But Staples (or our store manager at least) placed a huge focus on customer service and instructed as not to oversell to customers
Colin has awesome stories about his time working at a computer shop. I was born in 1980 and I remember the same time period and I enjoyed the late 1990's in personal computers. I hope Colin shares many more of his stories at the computer store. Back in 2012 I had the idea to make short films about what it's like to interact with the public because of the bizarre aspects of human nature. So in April of 2015 I finally made my first video about it but in the spring of 2017 I converted my upstairs of my house to be a 1990's mom and pop computer shop to function as a set for making episodes of an educational skit comedy drama show for TH-cam. I am thrilled to hear Colin's stories about these customers. I already shot the principle photography of the pilot episode of my show. Now I got to finish editing and we got a very dysfunctional customer in the pilot episode.
Nice to hear what it was like to run one of these stores. Many of the smaller and midsized ones disappeared quickly once the boom peetered out. Some were run by people who had no tech knowledge. A few are still around, catering for business users mostly. (Norway)
Thx for your talk.
GREAT story telling here Collin. I'm 33 so this is right up my alley... I even remember going in to an independent computer store around the age of 17 much like the one you described when I was building my first custom PC. From what I remember I bought my parts online (can't remember which website but this was around 2000) and when I finally got everything put together it would shut off early in the boot phase. I never did figure out exactly why but I ended up buying a new motherboard from that local computer store and then never had a problem.
I worked at a used game store and I can really relate to these stories. I have experienceda similar shift with games as they continue to impprove on home consoles and PCs so rapidly, although, they have been way more mainstream for a while. Warrenties, repairs, and people getting the wrong hardware, I have dealt with all of that. I would love to hear more stories like these. They are very entertaining and make me laugh thinking of similar experiences that I have had.
I worked at a small smartphone store/repair shop around the time smartphones started becoming mainstream. I can totally relate to those stories about frustrating customers breaking things and then blaming it on the store.
Had a customer bring in a Motorola droid phone with a broken screen. We fixed it and sent him on his way. A couple of weeks later, he brings the same phone back and wants it fixed under warranty; The screen was broken. It's not unheard of for there to be defects that can cause replacement screens to be unusually fragile (IE: Debris under the glass). So we inspect it, but this phone has clearly been heavily abused. The new screen was already scratched to hell and the phone has clearly been dropped several times since we last repaired it. So we decline the warranty request, but offer a discount on a new screen repair. He was not happy with that and after a back and forth, he storms out of the store and begins yelling at customers at other nearby businesses telling them not to go to our store. Pretty much acting the same way your angry customer did.
Funny conclusion to that story is that the next day, that guys father brings the phone in and has us repair it. The customer who yelled at us, the son, he wasn't young. Probably in his mid-to-late 30's.
If you think the late 90s was an interesting time for computers, go back another decade or so when there were actual choices - Amigas, Atari STs, Apple 2s, as well as the early generation of PCs and Macs.
Great video! Some of those stories brought back memories for me too!! Where I work, on a USAF base in the UK, at RAF Lakenheath, back in the mid 90's in our computer store, we once had a customer bring back a "faulty" Packard Bell desktop computer, and when the tech went to work on it, found that it was empty apart from a few house bricks (to give it weight!!)..... that was in the days when RAM chips and CPU's cost more than a second-hand car...!! Ha Ha!! :-D
The things that people do, eh?
Happy new year, and I look forward to more great videos to come ;-)
I don't have anything to add, but thanks for the video.
I worked at a small pc repair local chain in the late 90s.we built white box systems and would plastic wrap them to keep them clean till someone bought them. We sold one to a guy and he calls a couple hours later saying it shut off and won’t turn on. He brought it back in and it was still plastic wrapped. He had neatly cut out ports with a craft knife to plug everything in.
dealing with the general public with computer problems?..... fork that!!
I like your country bumpkin accent
Great video, loved it. We also get a lot of "special" people in our store/repair shop. I know exactly what you mean with your stories.
These videos are so good. I really love your videos. In india, those very early computer never came to masses and first system i remember which was literally kept in showcases were windows 98. My childhood school had 1 computer and we were only allowed to look at it through a window.
We need more stories for sure!
I can really relate to a lot of these stories, I worked at a Computer Renaissance store (in the MN metro area) in the late 90's, lot's of similar interactions with quirky customers, and cool cutting edge tech of the day. I instantly recognized this video's thumbnail image as a Computer Renaissance store too ;-)
Yep. I worked at a dialup service provider years ago and had a client who had a heck of a time getting connected. I ended up offering to head to her place to try a new modem.
When I got there I found she was using an extension that ran her phone line through the 110 volt power supply in the house.
Fine for voice, but it wasn't good enough for dialup. I string a cable along the wall of the room and her problem went away. I never would have found that issue if I wouldn't have gone on site.
I did this from about 1993 till around 2000. Interesting times. I enjoyed it.
You should do some LEGO reviews..I see em in the background haha
I've actually had people ask if I would do a video on assembling Legos. I don't quite understand it (kind of like an ASMR thing maybe?) but I'm considering it.
Hey Colin, Great video and great stories. Sales.... story of my life! lol Keep the uploads coming my friend, I really enjoy and appreciate them ~ Thanks
What a wonderfully endearing story....thank you dude
you should do this again, dude
That was a golden age. I was in school for computer networking during this time.
Hi Colin. I love your podcasts and always look forward to seeing them. Always very insightful. Love all the hard work you put into these videos. Would love to hear more stories or anything you feel like sharing. It's very entertaining
We need more stories like these. They sure are a gem to know what that was like. It is a weird realization how much has changed since the 90s but customer service has not. I was in my early teens in the late 90s and fell in love with computers. I envy your experience of seeing the early progress of what it was like to work in such field to what it is now.
I used to always be in the computer lab in middle school in 1997 98 I miss those years so much
"Even the cup holder was working!!! Oh boy!"
Dude these stories are great. I'd love to hear more.
How long was this little store around? I understand that so many stores from the 90s are closed and long gone now.
Love the stories! Working in the same felid, I could relate on so many levels
I remember that era around just before y2k (and the apprehension behind y2k, specifically) and AMD machines needing much more cooling than Intel ones. Now, I do not remember exactly which kind of heatsinks I used, but in comparison to the ones we use today, they were tiny! Older ones, from a few years earlier were, what? 6 mm tall? And computers didn't need fans on top of the CPUs.
Using these monsters today just feels wrong.
Hey Colin I love your impressions of people in your story's have you ever thought about doing voice acting or skits
i hate it when i go into a electronics store and i know more about electronics then most of their employees
Loved hearing your IT stories, Colin, and it took me back to my experiences with computers in the late 90s too (as I think I'm a similar age to you, and remember a lot of that tech equipment, especially the AMD K6 2s, quite fondly).
Personal anecdotes are always interesting - it would be great to hear some more.
Recently I found a Dell Dimension L1000R and a eMachine as in eWasteMachine [eWasteMachine for those of you who are too young because they were infamous for hardware failure] or Never Obsolete eMachine T6528 thrown out where I live and the original owner did not even bother to wipe the hard drives. I have installed a dual boot of Windows ME and Windows XP Pro with Service Pack 1. The motherboard that Dell used in this system and the Dimension 2100 is called the Intel CA810E. I also own a Gateway Essential ESS 450SE and that system uses the Intel WS440BX. I recently also built myself a custom built Intel Slot 01 machine that uses the Abit BE6-II paired with a Intel Pentium III clocked at 550 Mhz.
Halloween is coming, let's hear those computer gore stories.
I sold computers from the mid-1990's to the early 2000's; so I can totally relate to your stories, and I found them entertaining.
The attitude of never calling people on their lies is what allows this nonsense to continue.
That shift in the public perception of PCs mentioned (@7:00) started, IMHO, when AOL started it's unlimited pricing plan (December 1996). Various other factors were at play, but AOL's unlimited internet was the tipping point that finally ushered us into a new, digital, age.
I've been in Best Buy before and customers ask me what they should do or get. I'm usually not dressed anything like a Best Buy employee, but fortunately, I've been a computer tech since like 1997. I try to give them ideas that will meet their needs, but also ensure that they're going to be able to cover what they ultimately will want to do, without also breaking the bank. I also try to make sure they understand what they're getting and why, so they're not just baffled with bullshit.
It's been awhile since I've watched one of your podcasts, and I've gotta say, I really identified with this one. I miss your ThisDoesNotCommute segments, because it always felt like I was riding in the car with a buddy, just having a good solid conversation about whatever. I think you re-captured some of that feeling with this podcast though. I enjoyed listening to/watching this one. :) I've been in IT about half as long as you have, but this makes me think of my own stories that I want to share. Thanks for making this one!
Thanks for the kind words! Opinions were split on the in-the-car episodes, but they may return occasionally ;-)
I loved all stories. I need more
Collin (Colin?) we're about the same age as I thought we might have been... I think back in 99 I was using a Mac II CI? I can't remember... My dad used to teach multimedia/desktop publishing and his students' work places were always retiring old PCs and we got a few of em, so maybe I had a P2/233 or something? I know it was something like that. Personally, I liked your stories. They were amusing to me as well! I work in retail now and I know how some people can be... Thanks for the video!
Thanks for posting! I really like work stories.
besides unbranded PC early 90s. I had Mac SE/30. However, the real push for me was the Compaq Presario 5000t
I always noticed I felt more drained and tired when doing something super social. At the time i had no idea there were other people who also felt this wwy, let alone a freaking name had been given to this "thing".
Energy Vampires.
Interesting and enjoyable as always. Thanks!
I love hearing you talk about tech tales....
COLLEN, PLEASE MAKE A PART 2 WITH MORE STORIES LIKE THESE!!!
I liked hearing these stories haha would like to hear more
I really loved this video. If you have any more stores to share, I would love to hear them.
Very enjoyable, especially as someone who lives in MN!
More fellow IT guy stories, please!! These were great
I used to work at an electronics store and one particular customer was upset with me because I didn't know what ink cartridge their printer used and the only information they gave me was the brand. They told me something along the lines of "don't you guys have ink expert?"
Bartleby: "I would prefer not to"