Overheard at the Office #14

We received a phone call from an on again/off again client. They were having a new switch installed to replace one that was the victim of a power surge. First they need passwords.  Then they call back because they guy has been there for 5 hours now and they're still down. So I head out.

Me: How's it going, I'm Alan from $COMPANY.  What seems to be the problem?
Contractor: We're having trouble turning on PoE on this switch. I'm not really a network guy so I've got my guy remoted in from the office and we cant figure it out.
Me: Are you sure this is a PoE switch?
Contractor: Sure it is, aren't they all now days?
Me: <Looks at the part number written on the box and shaking my head>
Contractor: What?
Me: You brought the wrong switch.....

So I go to talk this over with the client, and when I come back, the contractor is gone (he packed up his stuff and bolted).  I'm able to cable up everything that needs PoE to the half of the blown switch that still works, and everything else to the new non-PoE switch, and then connected the new switch to the rest of the network (yeah buddy, that's why there was no connectivity for the devices plugged into it) so they're at least back up for now. Maybe this is why the other company charges so much less?

A few days later, the vendor ships out the switch that the client paid for, and I'm called back out to finish the job. Client is happy and I'm a hero for a few minutes until I bring up how they should do something to protect their infrastructure from surges. A good surge protector is a lot cheaper than a new 2960 every year.  Cisco switches should't blow out this often, look at all these dead ones in the rack because you're too lazy/cheap to have them pulled out. Aaaaaaaaand now they're not talking to us again because all we want is to constantly try to sell them stuff.  See you in another year or two when this one blows.