So I fix computers for a living. I recently went out to a small tile shop. From what I could gather they sell tiles to contractors or something. I don't know the details. They're having issues with all their computers. So I arrive and everything is at least 10 years old. Everything is running Windows XP, Vista, or 7 and big surprise, it's all falling apart. The computers are so slow that it's making it impossible for the employees to do their jobs. I'm walking in blind here. I never met the owner but I'm dealing with the manager, who seems to be a reasonable guy. I quote all new systems, getting everything moved onto the cloud and all working together, new email system, etc. Quote comes to about $10,000.
The manager says it sounds good but he has to talk to the owner so he goes into the other room and calls him. He can't reach him because he's out playing golf. The manager asks me to quote upgrading what they have instead while we wait for the owner to call us back. Frankly, there's no “upgrading” this stuff. It's all way too old. But I humor him and write up a quote, basically gutting the computers and putting all new parts inside. The quote ends up being about $1,000 less. Then he asks me how much it would be without moving anything to the cloud and just keeping everything on flash drives and external hard drives. I'm getting a really bad feeling about this but I quote him that, which ends up being about $7,000. Then he asks for quotes if they went with refurbs. I quote him that. $4,000.
Finally the jackass of a owner calls back all pissed because they interrupted his golf game. The manager remains calm and level-headed but the owner is screaming about how they should just learn how to use the old computers they have and how useless the employees are that they can't figure out how to make 10+ year old computers work. The guy is a complete asshole. I can't take it. I just can't. I pick up the phone and take it off speaker, put the receiver to my ear and say “This is XXX from XXX, your technology is completely obsolete. Your employees are spending half the day just waiting for your old garbage computers to load. How many man-hours are you paying for your employees to just sit around waiting?”
We had a long talk about how stupid he was for paying for such a loss in productivity for all these years. I did some napkin math and this cheap fuck has paid an additional $46,000 in the last year just in time wasted while his employees wait for their computers to load. He finally agrees that it makes sense to get his computers working properly but he doesn't like the price. He tells me that I can have $2,000 and that's it. I tell him that I can't do it for that much. Even doing refurbs I'd be $500 in the red. He said that's “not his problem” and I tell him that it is. We go back and forth and I ask him when the last time he had been there and he said 4 years ago. 4 YEARS! This cheap fuck hasn't even set foot in his business in 4 years and he doesn't care how everything is falling apart. I tell him good luck finding someone to fix your shit for $2,000 and hang up.
The employees looked so sad and defeated as I hang up the phone. They tell me that he threatens to fire them every time they miss a deadline, which happens more and more frequently thanks to how slow all the computers are. These employees are staying later and not claiming the hours, sometimes working up until midnight (they're supposed to go home at 8:00pm) just to avoid missing deadlines. I apologize to the employees and wish them luck and suggest they find new jobs because their boss is terrible. One of the women working there runs into the back and grabs this huge jar full of cash. She said they've all been saving up to get the computers fixed out of their own pockets because they knew the owner wouldn't go for it but that they only have about $3,200 saved.
I feel really conflicted at this point. Frankly with my cost being roughly $2,500 and how many hours it's going to take to get things going properly it's a job I would have immediately refused had a cheap fuck business owner offered it to me. In other words, it's not worth my time. Thankfully for these employees I'm not an asshole like their boss. I do still feel like an asshole for taking their money because they shouldn't have to pay for this but they're stuck in their situation and can't lose their jobs. The problem is they can't DO their jobs, not without decent computers. I reluctantly agree and the look of relief on all their faces makes me feel better about it but also sad.
I hope this asshole rots in hell. His employees say he's almost impossible to reach because he's always playing golf or on his yacht or hosting parties. $3,200 or even $10,000 would be pennies to this asshole but he'd rather his employees suffer.