Pexels/Reddit

A new television isn’t much of an upgrade when it creates more work for everyone.

One technician discovered that after a longtime customer asked him to set up a new TV in her Airbnb.

Once he started working on it, he realized guests would need to log into a Google account to use the streaming apps.

That meant every checkout could leave the owners with another mess to fix.

The whole thing had the customer so upset that she finally asked him to put the old television back.

Keep reading for the full story.

Well, that’s a first.

Got a call from a repeat customer, “Please come and set up the new TV in our Airbnb cabin”. Okey dokey.

Well, for this client, I’d set up the previous TV. A “dumb” TV with no apps and no internet access. No wi-fi, no ethernet port, but A/V input, antenna input, composite input, and HDMI input.

Previous guests had asked about Netflix et al, and the customer (before they were my customer) added a Chromecast to the TV so guests could cast their phones or tablets.

Her husband went out and bought a terrible TV.

Fast forward to now, Chromecasts are now deprecated, so instead of asking my advice, customer’s husband runs off to the nearest Joyce Mayne (big-box appliance retailer) and buys the cheapest TCL he could find. The salesdroid assures him all is well, log into your google account, download latest app versions and off you go.

He didn’t inform the buyer that this TV *must* be logged into a google account to be used as anything more than a free-to-air receiver.

Regardless of your Netflix account name, amazon account name, Disney account name, or any streaming app name, the *TV* had to be logged in at all times.

So, if you log in once, you can’t log out but you can change/add another account to use. But you can’t log out except at a computer with a browser where you can access your google account, choose “devices” and force a logout that way. Google won’t let you log out of an android device on the device itself.

At this point, the lady is upset.

Having discovered that choice fact, Google pays manufacturer to make sure an account is logged in at all times to slurp up viewing data, I inform the customer.

She starts to get cranky (understandably so, but at her husband, not me), and then I show them via demonstration that if you “remove” the last account, it forces a reset, all apps gone, all preferences gone, all TV channels gone.

You have to re-set and then re-scan for digital TV channels whenever a guest leaves, because you can’t leave them signed in.

I’ve never seen a rental where the guest signs out before they leave, and then you have to log in again to download the default app updates, and download the non-default apps. So you’re back to where you started. I told the customer to CALL ME first, next time she needed a new TV.

Fed up, she demands the old TV be put back.

But she still has the same problem. She couldn’t it logged in with the guest’s account, couldn’t leave it logged in with the owner’s account, and couldn’t remove the last account without it triggering a re-set.

At this point, the customer is very firmly stating that she’s sick of this, she’s fed up and wants the old TV back, with zero access for streaming apps.

I support her decision (the Airbnb is her business, not the husband’s) and so he goes off to get the old Sony. He’s a bit cranky by now, having been over-ruled, so he fetches his battery drill to re-attach the TV’s feet, and………. pulls the trigger full on, driving the screws home in 0.75 seconds and rat-a-tat-a-tat when they hit home.

When she saw what he did, she started crying happy tears.

I tell him as gently as possible that the electronics inside the machine really don’t like that kind of vibration and he hands the drill to me, and I use a little discretion on the trigger to drive the screws in gently.

So now the old TV is back, checked and tested for reception, all operational and I call the customer from the adjacent room, “Hey , it’s all working as you requested, it’s not a problem any more!”

She comes in, starts crying, turns away and says, “Thank you, Gormsby. Please send me an invoice.”

Whew.

Nice! That sure did end well.

Let’s check out what the readers over at Reddit think about it.

This was honestly the best idea.

There’s a reason they make these.

Interesting point.

This reader’s friend had the same issue.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a grandson who is tired of driving 5 hours one way to work on his grandparent’s investment property for free.

This whole thing sounds like a mess.

There had to be an easier way to handle it, even if that meant creating a separate account for the Airbnb and keeping it logged into the TV.

Still, the customer had clearly reached her limit and wanted the simplest option possible.

After dealing with all that frustration, it’s easy to see why getting the old TV back felt like such a relief.