But It Says Free

The rare and mythic FULL day off. Ahhhh.

Can you smell a rip off? Took the family comp which got fried during a power surge last week into a local computer repair shop. It should be mentioned that the comp was taken to another reapir place that I found where the estimate was about $250 to replace the motherboard and for the labor. This was earlier in the week. Today's trip was more or less to appease the folks and get a 2nd opinion. After all the guy we took it to today is Asian. Us yellow people can't be trusting what Whitey says in his big, spacious shop with half a dozen technicians. Never mind the the problem was analyzed on the spot and the estimate was free. We HAVE to ask the Asian guy, in his lil hole in wall minimall shop, tucked in next to the ramen shop and sushi bar.

So Moms tells me to keep my mouth shut and act like I don't know what wrongs with it. She just wants to tell the bald Chinese guy it won't power up and we'll take it from there. Maybe the guy at the other shop was lying about the motherboard being fried.

So he takes the comp, scratches out our information , and kicks it off with the following. It'll take a few days for him to look at it. Seeing as how he's backed up and he's the only one there. Plus it'll cost $55 for an estimate, taken off the price we have him work on it. Great deal. Or at least Moms thinks so. After all he's Asian isn't he? He wouldn't rip us off.

I bite my tongue. Hard. I can explain to her how fucked up this whole situation is. But no. She can't see past the skin color. Old school thinking is a hard thing to change.