******* messaging advice

Wizards,

Going to a plant next week that is having issues getting a com trol to work.
The com trol is driving some sort of camera.
I have spent some time reading up on the com trol, still don't know what type of "camera" is on the other side, I will find that out when I get there.

Prior to just getting in there and banging my head on the wall, is there any advice you would like to share to help narrow down their issue.

I don't think they even know exactly what is "not working".
They did say that this set up "use to work" but now it doesn't.
Classic case of " I don't know why it stopped, it just did".

Could be something as simple as they have the "camera" connected to the wrong port on the com trol, but I wont know anything until I get there on Monday.


as always, much appreciated.

Gad

Best I can tell you is that if it was working and then stopped for no reason, then you most likely have a hardware issue. Ask them if anyone has been mucking about in the program that might have screwed up the comms. Be aware however that this is one of those times that "no" doesn't mean no. Could well be something was changed and nobody wants to own up to it.

Bubba

I've been in these situations. I just tell people up front:


"I don't know, but I'm willing to dig in and figure it out. Understand that it will take some time, and take some doing. I just want you to know up front what we are looking at. That it is going to take some time to familiarize myself with the system before I can start troubleshooting it."


I've seen it go both ways. Sometimes customers are willing to foot the expense to have someone get familiar with their equipment so that they have someone on call if they need them. Sometimes they would prefer to call in an OEM.

What I've done in cases like that is to set a time for a progress review. After X hours we'll meet and if I haven't made acceptable progress towards resolution the customer can cut their losses and I'll go home.

Following on @Steve Bailey's suggestion, tt would be convenient to have a minimum service call price (say 2h or 4h or 8h), they pay (or at least agree to owe) that the second you walk in the door, and at the end of that time, do the review, and they then choose whether to continue with you or not.