Believe it or not, some clients have a hard time hearing the facts of life. No matter how clear you try to make something for them, no matter how hard you work to spell something out, they simply refuse to ‘get it’. Today, I had this experience with such a client who just could for the life of them, seem to get the point. I explained to them six ways from Sunday that their motherboard was dead and needed to be replaced. Unfortunately, this was not convenient for my client and apparently, they felt if they refused to accept this, the problem might just go away on its own.

Following that line of logic, if something is not meeting with my expectations, then by all means I can merely wish it away until a more convenient time. Perhaps the next time I need a brake job, I can try explaining to the brake specialists that I don’t really feel like my brakes are an issue right now and the accident that I will be experiencing later can be ignored because I don’t want to spend the money on some new brake pads! What the heck? I understand that people don’t want to spend the money on a new computer/MoBo. I really do get this. However, if something is dead, then its dead. No matter how much complaining or explaining, nothing is going to breathe new life into a dead board of circuits just because they want it badly enough!

Now, I am not without a heart. I explained very clearly that they are more than welcome to buy a new board so that things get back to normal. Yet, this client opted to argue every reason under the sun why the computer should still be working that you can think of. Frustrated at this point, I finally explained that they needed to do what they thought was best. “Either get the board replaced, by a new PC or try some Voodoo magic with your favorite Witch Doctor. No matter how you slice it ______, that board is dead.” I explained.

Luckily for me, I still have some clients that get it. One that comes to mind is someone who chooses to brave the world of Windows Me. The difference is that he fully realizes that a change is needed, yet has made the educated choice to remain with the ways things are for now - even though it is making me money. As a matter of fact, I just received an email from him a few minutes ago with the following subject line; “I’m going to make you so @#$%&ing rich!!!” Got to love your stubborn, never say die attitude, Steve. The rate we’re going with that machine of yours, I’ll have that new ultra high-end Motherboard/CPU combo on our next visit thanks to you. Hey I know! I’ll donate my old board and processor to my other client who wishes to ignore the realities of computing! Hmm, I wonder what the shipping rates are to La-La-Land?