The accountant who timed my lens re-grease job with a stopwatch

Had a customer in Cleveland last spring who stood over my bench the whole time I was fixing his old 50mm. He pulled out a stopwatch and said, 'that should take you 90 minutes tops, I read it online.' I finished in 2 hours and 10 minutes because the helicoid had dried grease caked in three spots. He paid the $180 invoice but grumbled about my 'inefficiency' the whole time. I asked if he times his dentist or his barber like that and he just blinked at me. Anyone else had customers that treat repair work like a factory line?

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phoenix_brown857h ago

Man, that guy would've loved my shop back when I did phone repairs, I'd tell folks "20 minutes" and then take 45 while they watched me struggle with a single stubborn screw. The stopwatch thing just makes me think of all the times I've timed myself doing something and then immediately regretted it because I knew I'd be slower than my own guess. At least your guy paid up, mine usually just stood there breathing heavy and asking if I'd "ever done this before" like I wasn't holding their cracked screen in my hand.