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Re: Twisting throttles and wrenches



At 09:58 AM 4/23/00 -0400, Robb N. Wong wrote:
>Mechanic turns to the guy and says "That'll be $100."
>The guy is startled, "Why?  All you did was turn a screw..."
>"Yep," says the greasemonkey, "but compared to you, I knew which one to
>turn."

I used to find myself having similar conversations when I was consulting. 
My favorite story to pass along was about an Alaskan company. They had set 
up some communications towers to relay between two sites. Unfortunately 
they could not get the system working - they would power it up and it would 
immediately go off-line. After much head scratching, they hired the 
"expert" on that particular system. They offered to fly him to Alaska and 
pay his rate. They flew him in and then took him by helicopter to the 
remote site. Looking the system over for about 30 seconds, he reached into 
his pocket and retrieved a small screwdriver. He took one pot and rotated 
it about 3/4 of a turn and fired the system up - it was on-line!!! The 
company was extremely pleased.

About 1 week later they received the bill - simply stating communication 
system consult - $10,000.

They contacted him and said that they were a little unsure of the amount as 
he had literally been on site for less than 5 minutes. They asked if they 
could have a review of the charges and have an itemized bill.

A week later they got the next bill -
Labor - turn 1 screw - 3/4 turn         - $10.
Knowing which screw to turn and by how much $9,990...........

Sorry for the lack of Triumph content, but I'm sure the consultants on the 
list will enjoy that .....

- - Eric


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