When you work in an electronics store, you can expect to have customers come in with all sorts of different computer problems.

What would you do if your customer told you that their computer’s battery had blown up, and a repair shop down the road said it would be $400 to fix?

That is what happened to the repair tech in this story, but he found out they were lying.

Let’s see how this sweet story plays out.

They were going to charge £400?

I work in retail in a UK electronics retailer and this tale takes place today and yesterday.

So, a customer comes up to me looking for a new laptop, I show him around a few of the laptops and he states he needs something portable but powerful, of course these two things usually mean a 13 inch laptop with an i5 or i7.

Me: “So, what do you need it for?”

Cust: “Well the laptop has to be powerful but I need it to be lightweight as I’m an international student.”

Me: “Right, okay well here’s a few laptops we have that fit this description”

New laptops aren’t cheap.

Note about these laptops they’re usually around £600-£1000 depending on brand and specifications

Now I notice the customer is carrying a laptop in a carrier bag and ask him about that one, just being a bit nosey but also making conversation as I show him around the laptops.

Me: “So, what’s wrong with that laptop”

The battery blew up? Wow!

Cust: “Oh the battery has blown up and doesn’t power on anymore”

Me: “Right okay, can I have a look?” So he takes it out of the bag and I notice it’s a MacBook Air, being the stores Apple person I ask if I can have a look.

Now I notice that it has another computer shops sticker on the top of it so I ask about that.

Me: “I see you’ve taken it to the other computer store (part of an apple style chain with a shop literally down the road that people mistake for an actual Apple Store) down the road, what did they say is wrong with it”

Why would they give him a price without knowing the problem?

Cust: “They didn’t open it up but they said it would be £400 for the problem I told them I thought it was.”

Me: (internally) “They’ve quoted this and haven’t even had a look at it. No surprises there”

So, I took the mac from the customer and walked him down to the apple counter of our small store, I plug it into our mac charger and notice it’s lighting up green but not switching to amber, which it should do. So, just out of habit I perform an SMC reset (basically a hard reset to tell the mac to get it together) on the MacBook and it turns on.

Cust: “Oh my gosh you’ve got it working”

Hopefully, that was a one-time issue.

Me: “Yeah I just want to run some diagnostics to make sure this isn’t a fluke”

I got the customer to change the language from his native to English and got to diagnostics. The tests came back fine and the battery reported fine.

Me: “It’s in good working order with no problems, it just needed this reset and now it’s fine, however, your charger is toast so you’ll need an new one of those.”

I bet he was so relieved.

Cust: “That’s amazing thank you so much, my dissertation was on there and I would have to start it again.”

Now I’ve just completed my dissertation, so I completely understand the situation and the stresses of university life.

Cust: “How much will it be for the fix?”

Me: “Nothing, it was a fast 2 minute fix no need to worry.”

Wow, what a great customer.

To this the customer becomes all thankful and happy and tells me he wants to pay for dinner and I insist it’s okay and just part of my job.

So he’s on his way with his mac in working order and a warning not to use the charger and use an extra form of storage to backup his work.

Today he came back in to purchase the new charger and was looking specifically for me in the store.

He had gone out and bought me a cake and macarons from a high end cake shop.

That sounds like a wonderful day at work.

At first I said I couldn’t accept (was thinking of work and the cake obviously costing a lot of money) but after much insistence I did accept.

The customer left happy and I left work later in the evening with a cake in town and a smile on my face.

Not all customers are difficult and it left me with so much joy at the end of the work day.

What a great story! It is always nice to be able to help people like this.

Let’s see what the other people in the comments on Reddit have to say about it.

Yeah, this guy was a real hero.

Sometimes it is the simplest things.

I was expecting a bad ending, too.

Ok, this commenter is funny.

Yeah, I can’t imagine having to start over on such an important paper.

His technical support really takes the cake.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.