On 3/17/2017 8:05 AM, philo wrote:
On 03/17/2017 07:21 AM, Adrian Caspersz wrote:
On 14/03/17 17:02, philo wrote:
A friend called me and told me his wireless mouse was not working.
First thing I did was ask him if he changed the battery. He said he was
sure the battery was good and even though I knew that was the problem...
he insisted on bringing it over for me to check.
What the heck, I'm having a slow day today.
When he got here, the mouse worked for a few minutes, then quit...so I
told him I'd would replace the battery and try again.
He took a spare battery out of his pocket and said, "brought one with me
, just in case."
After examining the mouse I could not even figure how it opened, so he
replaced the battery himself and it worked fine.
(The old one measured 0.9v , surprised it worked even for a few
minutes.)

The "New" battery probably came from his cupboard box of random bulbs
and batteries, a stock of "I am not too sure if these work or not".
He'll be back in a week. Fit a real new battery, then ;-)

It was a new battery. The worst part ... he once worked as an engineer.
I think he was just lonely because his wife was out of town.
For years he has had me take care of trivial problems and he always pays
me. He owned a jewelry and import store, so as payment, he would just
let my wife pick out a ring or some earrings.
As to batteries I am such a cheapskate I re-use the old ones.
Some devices take more current that others, so if I have some that are
down to 1.3v or so I use them in one of my clocks and get at least
another year of use.

I've worked for people like that, they seemed like they were playing
more helpless than they actually were, so the customer service part of
the job was a big percentage of the 'value added' for them. I see people
like that in food stores all the time, they chat up the checker telling
them every detail of some minor episode of their life, making the rest
of the line wait. Some people must feel very isolated to do this! This
guy sounds generous and easy to work with, doesn't look like any harm
comes from it, no? What's your wife think of the arrangement?