Heard a customer say soldering is dead, had to walk away from the counter

I was reflowing a laptop board at my bench in Tulsa when this guy leans over and tells his buddy that nobody repairs boards anymore, it's all replace and recycle. I almost laughed out loud, but I kept quiet and finished the joint. Then I showed him the blown cap I'd just swapped for 40 cents that would have cost him $180 for a new mainboard. He shut up pretty fast, but it got me thinking about how many folks truly believe microsoldering is pointless. Has anyone else run into this mindset lately, and how do you talk customers out of tossing a board with one simple fix?

2 comments

2 Comments

nancy8241mo ago

...and then when you fix it for them they act like you pulled some kind of magic trick. I swear, half the people out there think a soldering iron is just a fancy glue gun and that all boards are built to be thrown away after one hiccup. My favorite is when they watch me reball a chip or replace a corroded connector and they still mumble "but isn't that obsolete?" Yeah, obsolete like your car's alternator, buddy. Just because you can't be bothered to learn the skill doesn't mean the rest of us are ready to pitch everything into a landfill. Keep telling yourself that $40 part is too hard to change, I'll keep charging for the labor and smiling all the way to the bank.

diana8291mo ago

My buddy runs a small repair shop and he had this old guy bring in a 1980s stereo amp. Thing was caked in dust but the transformer was fine, just a blown capacitor. He swapped it in like ten minutes and the guy stood there staring at the glowing power light like it was a miracle. Then he goes "so you really can't fix these new ones?" My buddy just shrugged and said "new ones are just old ones with shorter warranties." The guy paid him $60 and left muttering about how his grandson said it was junk. Some people think a part is worth less than the knowledge to know what it does.