So I had a customer with an old VCR/Multiplexer call me yesterday having problems with the system, hasn't worked for at least a month they tell me, but now they need it repaired so they can view an incident that happened last week.
Doug
Would you prefer the customer who called my cell pissed off because there was no response when their alarm went off and when I said I would call them back at their house when I got in to the office they told me to call their cell because they cancelled Verizon and the cable company didn't activate their VoIP service yet?
Your situati> So I had a customer with an old VCR/Multiplexer call me yesterday having
I'll give it a whirl and let you know how it turns out.
Doug
He said he never touched it
Doug
Mole brains always lie
Doug L wrote:
Yeah, we get similar calls on about a monthly basis... doesn't have to be old VCR/Mux setups either. One place has been having ongoing issues with their video system ever since they upgraded to a DVR with a couple extra PTZ cameras almost two years ago (NOT our systems - we have a maintenance contract for existing camera/VCR/MUX systems with the chain, but new DVRs are being provided by someone else). They asked me to look at a couple problem cameras they had... at first it looked like a couple views were stuck on night views, but on closer inspection, it turned out the DVR was frozen. After rebooting, a little further investigation revealed the machine had been frozen since 1am the previous morning... some 41 hours. And it had locked up almost exactly 9 hours after being installed as new by the supplier. Nice.
What gets me is that nobody noticed that the display hadn't changed AT ALL in over a day and a half... it wouldn't have surprised me if it had gone a week in that state...
Ah...what can ya say...some clients just make your week with a good laugh!
Hmm. Someone else installed a system at 4:pm on one day. It locked up at
1:am that night and the customer called you to check it out the very next day. Why didn't they call the guy who installed it if it failed in 9 hours?
You don't read very well.
Who knows, perhaps they bought it from an on line vendor who has no knowledge of the product they sell, can't offer any service and doesn't respond to emails or phone calls.
Doug
They didn't call me to fix it... I was there to perform scheduled maintenance on other systems. Nobody there even realized it was frozen. Because we ALSO do the maintenance on the older VCR/MUX systems for these sites, most of the managers already know they can ask me about video issues even with the new systems - in the end I had to tell him that he'd have to call in the issue to the proper people himself.
No, they didn't buy it from Bass...
Like I said... He doesn't read very well. Don't sweat it Matt.
Ah, that explains it. I was wondering of the customer might be a nut case.
You'd think they'd learn to get all their goodies from you and stop wasting time / money.
I was trying to be respectful to you. Wasted effort, I guess.
Well...
You'd think.
In fact, we may end up supplying and installing the same systems to this customer, as they've not been happy with the service the manufacturer has given them (but they love the DVRs themselves). That's been an ongoing question mark for a few months now...
Oh geez, take a joke.
I caution customers with VCRs that they should be cleaned and serviced once a year if their unit is in a clean environment. With the price of some VCRs its about the same cost to run them for a couple years and just replace them though.
Ask the customer when their unit was last serviced, and somebody looking at it on site does not count. To service a unit properly requires bench time.
A VCR can be replaced anymore by a single-channel standalone DVR for the same cost, or less... handy, considering most manufacturers have discontinued their time-lapse models.
You got good DVRs you can sell for $299 ?
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