Ipod gurus, get in here ! Sync issues await !

[WalkinTarget]

OK, I know you are out there ... you Ipod carrying Mac lovers. I have a customer that I recently revived their dead home PC and they then took it to Worst, Errr, Best Buy, which informed them that their PC is too ancient to work properly in syncing the Ipod to the PC.

Here's what we have:

HP Pavilion P4 1.5ghz
80gb IDE HD
Nvidia 5700 AGP video card
CD/RW & DVD Rom drives
512 DDR RAM
4 port USB PCI card

Here's what I don't get. Best Buy told them it was a boat anchor, but they could sell them a new PC (hahaaa, how ideal of them !!) that would eliminate the issues.

It WILL sync the music files, but it will NOT sync the Ipod games that they have purchased to go along with the Ipod, but here's the catch .. the games WILL sync wirelessly !

So it involves a wired sync plus a wireless sync to make it all work, and the customer is thinking this isn't an ideal setup, plus the salespeople seem to make fun of anyone who doesn't have a quad core, GTX260+ setup, just to sell them that very rig.

So is this a known issue with a workaround ? Google fails me on this one. Or are the salespeople spouting garbage and just want to make a commission ?

Worst part of all is I have $80 in parts tied up on this build and the customer seems to be waffling on paying me now. I'll take the PC if they buy new and we can call it a wash, but either way I NEED PAID !!

[mapes]

Try creating a new Ipod library and re syncing. I think you hold down shift while starting itunes.

[Trooper110]

Dunno, I only put music and a few video files on my Ipod and I've never had issues there. Sounds like something is quirky with Itunes, I'd guess somewhere in the sync options, but I'm not sure where it would be Maybe try uninstalling itunes, wiping all the remaining files and configs, and reinstall if you haven't yet?

[WalkinTarget]

Here's the deal: I talked to them at 7:45 and their kid was howling, so I told them I'd call back. I called at 8:30 and 8:45 and got no one but an answering machine. I don't even HAVE the PC, as I delivered it to them the day after Xmas after replacing both the mainboard AND the PSU ... and I haven't seen my $80 for those parts.

I am getting mad now, as this is the first customer to go out of their way to avoid me and give me a brush off when they should know damn well that my money spent and my bill to them were more than generous.

Its these kinds of experiences that either make me want to charge everyone the going rate, or just give up repairing PCs on the side and tell the users to hell with it.

[Apache Warrior]

If they continue to avoid you send them a Certified Letter stating they have 10 days from the receipt of said letter to pay or you will be forced to take them to court. If you do go to court do not forget to include all cost, including but not limited to court costs, time and any other expenses.
Apache

[WalkinTarget]

I would hope it doesn't come to that, as $80 isn't much, but its just frustrating that I am getting negative vibes on the work that I have done, which repaired what we had agreed upon was the issue.

Best Buy has done the damage by not getting the Ipod to properly sync, so I now feel that the customers are dropping their agreed upon repair fee under the auspices that they can't get the PC to do what the want it to do. It WORKED as agreed upon when I returned it to them, so this latest issue is none of my doing.

[Apache Warrior]

I know. I meant the suggestion as a last resort. I have had to do this a few times. I hate to but, If I did the work, and it was done correctly I deserve to be payed for my labor and components. Some people will think up any excuse to get out of paying for work done. Some people are just cheap and or lazy.

The other day my mother answered her door. The house next door was being remodeled and they wanted to borrow her power. Either to cheap or to lazy to have the power turned on. She declined to help them out.
Apache

[WalkinTarget]

I actually kept the bad board and PSU, as I am always cognizant of the fact that people may want to see what came out and was determined to be bad.
Rumors of repair shops that had 'replaced' RAM or hard drives with a new model (but they used the existing gear) and then charged for new hardware are my reason for this.

I just emailed the mutual friend who referred this customer to me, and I have no ambitions of her fixing the issue, but at the least she can possibly provide details of the family that may be causing a delay in their dealings with me.

[Duke{CLR}]

Well WT I hope it all works out for you. It seems to me that you do good work for a fair price. It would be a shame for these people to ruin that for both you and your future customers.

[WalkinTarget]

Thank ya, Duke !! Every person that has taught me about PCs keeps pressing me to increase my fees, and I refrain from doing it at this point simply because after all of these years, I still love a challenge.

My latest challenge involves fixing a PC that was seriously buggered by the Virtum-Gen trojan, and I'm over 10 hours into cleaning off the PC !!

Total charge ???



$50

Flat rate fee = customer win win in this case !