I know but no matter how many jobs there are, employers still need workers(until cheap human like robots come out, then everyone is screwed), When they hire people, they aren't doing it out of the kindness of their hearts. They NEED workers in order to make money just like all humans need oxygen to survive.

I know. I'm not talking about one man standing up for himself. One man can't really do much. Strength can only come from numbers.

Had a four-hour nap followed by an hour of activity and nine hours of sleep. What the hell.

AKA Saturday, Sunday, and any other off days for me.

I'd love to get just one day like that. Between the wife snoring, the dog snoring, the other dog wanting to go outside at 5am, my picky back, and all the crap running through my brain, I'm lucky to get a fitful six or seven hours. The rest I can deal with, but the stupid back and the stupid brain...



Got to write a non-toxic "go screw yourself" letter to a customer yesterday, after a call I got Monday. Some new person paying the bills, who decides that the company is no longer going to pay for the travel time and expenses on my invoice. Beg pardon? He demands that I absorb those costs when traveling at their request.

"None of the other techs charge for that." You're talking about local techs, and none of them drive the same 140 miles and 2.5 hours that I do - each way - to work on your machines. And yes, they DO charge travel; it's simply that they roll the travel into the labor charge whereas I do it honestly on individual line items so you know exactly what you're paying. You'll see that when they're in your shop for four hours and the invoice charges five hours.

"I drive 65 miles each way to get to work and the company doesn't pay me for that." Obviously, you need to move closer to work (he didn't like that one). But think about it: if the company asks you to drive your own vehicle, on your own time, to visit a customer 150 miles away, would you be compensated for the miles and paid for the time? Yes, you would. When your company is contracted to ship and install the products it makes, does it include in the contracted product price an additional amount in order to cover those particular costs? Yes, it does. When your company - and every other business - does the same, why am I the one guy expected to do it differently?

"We'll just call one of the local techs from now on." That's always your option, and if it's more important to pay a little less instead of having your machine serviced by the person in the US with the most experience on this brand and model, then I suppose that's a decision you need to make for yourself. Remember that it will take them longer to repair and adjust the machine so the labor charge will be higher - and be sure to note for yourself that actual time spent on the machine versus the time on the invoice. Also be certain to keep my number handy when you need the top expert to correct those things done improperly by the guy you hired to save you money, and who sees this type of machine just once or twice a year. When you have me come back keep in mind that you'll be paying travel time and cost - just like your company has paid for every other visit since 2008, and your parent company has paid since 2006 - for my visit to fix the other techs' screw-ups.

Again, your decision. Good luck.

A few years back I had one guy ask why he had to pay travel time AND mileage. "Why am I paying for your car to get here?" You're not paying for my car to get there. You're paying for my toolbox to get there. Just so happens that doing so requires a car. If you'd prefer I could fly and rent a car, just like the OEMs do, instead of driving 3.5 hours myself. And still charge travel time. It'll cost you two or three times more, but if that's what you want then that's what I'll do.

Fuck me runnin' - I have more experience than any of the OEM techs, and I charge much less. It's your machinery that needs to be fixed so why am I the asshole for trying to earn a living when you call me to quickly repair and adjust things that you break and can't fix yourselves?

Yeah, we do the same thing and have the same questions come up every time we give an estimate for maintenance or a service contract. If only they knew how much other people paid for the same parts that we give them at cost they would shut the hell up.
Another one is why do you charge us for 8 hours labor instead of the 2.5 hours it took to fix. Well, I have to drive back and forth to your location, move the parts from our warehouse to my car, order parts to restock.
I'm glad I don't have to deal with the money side of things, I just tell the customer to contact my Supervisor and discuss it with him.
It always reminds me of the skit by Chris Rock in I'm gonna get you sucka.

Some cock smoker put Norton on my mothers new PC! I didn't even notice until it told her that the pictures of her grandkids were viruses.

Norton or McAfee usually come installed on new PCs unless you build them yourself. Just be glad it wasn't McAffee as it's a PITA to remove.

Hmmm, far out. My brother built it but then we handed it off to a local guy to transfer everything. This guy while good is also convinced that Norton is the be all end of AV so I just assumed he stuck it on there.

I'm afraid of something. I have had my first day at my new job today and all i could think of when i came home was "my parents are going to die one day and I'll be on my own". that is really depressing. I was like "wtf where did that come from?" I think its my childhood finally being left behind. I'm really no wimpy person but i'm just crying like crazy. Maturity is hitting me like a train right now. It was about time though. i never took anything seriously. I used to rely on others. but out of a sudden, i can feel my life changing drastically in this very moment. This is the craziest feeling i've ever had.

Yeah, that's what I had hoped to get across to him: the tech may work on the machine for 4 hours but the invoice will read more than that, to cover the time and expense of getting there and back. Nobody is going to suck that up for free.

After I saw that particular customer I was then on my way to western Michigan, a good 9 hours and 500+ miles away. I got to the hotel right at midnight, showed up at the customer at 7:15am, had the machine fixed by 8:30am, and left a little after 9am to drive another 5 hours and 250 miles to the third place, in Milwaukee. By that accountant's reckoning, the 2 hours' worth of labor cost is supposed to cover my wage for the repair work AND the fuel, meals, hotel, and tolls, AND the travel time. Uhhh... damn, I'd be at least $500 in the hole for the expenses, let alone actually getting paid for the 12+ hours.

I use a much lower travel time rate since it's just me staring at the windshield, contemplating the other crap I should be doing with that time. Then again, mileage is charged separately so combined they come fairly close to the labor rate. But mileage is an expense, not income, and some of them don't see it that way even though they have to account for the same things in their own business dealings.

That was really aggravating: as a vendor they have to deal with the exact same matters themselves, so why the double-standard?

It's not maturity hitting you. You are simply entering a new world. And it's not a better world...trust me. You have a good reason to cry because entering a darker, more cruel world is scary and one day having to face such a world alone is even more scary. I know you aren't a wimpy person.

Uninstalling Norton used to require a separate program years and years ago. I presume they fixed it at some point I wasn't looking?

I got it taken care of. Got the Norton off there and put a nice free Microsoft Essentials on there that is running nice and smooth.

Since we are on topic, and I realize this is the wrong thread, my dad would like to get Norton off his Win8 notebook. He has a very heavy email flow but I'd like something dependable and FREE I can put on there for him.

I only have experience with MSE and AVG. But there is also Avast, Avira, and probably countless other ones. I have read that AVG and Avira are the best of the free ones.
McAffee used to require booting into Safe Mode, and uninstalling three or four different programs. At least that was my experience from a few years back.