9 out of 10 monkeys believe they are not behind glass

A guy I work with, Levi, got a call from one of our users about a broken HP plotter. (A plotter is a color inkjet that prints our engineering sized documents). Levi went and checked it out. Of course the screen was giving a 12 digit system error code which means the same thing to us as ancient aztec writing. Levi called HP to explore service options… and almost fainted. 1400 bucks for a service call 3-5 days out, and 1600 bucks for a next day call.

At this point Levi is kind of worried and asks me if I know of any service places around Denver that could do the same thing for a whole lot cheaper.

I said no. But in my past life I was a service technician for HP, so I told him that I would take a look at it. I pulled it apart, replaced the bad hard drive with a formatted blank one, sealed it back up and called my boss, Phil.

And I asked him where I should send the bill. I figure if I charge 700 bucks, that is a steal.

Almost free!