I once had a customer, before the use of the term KAREN. She called me up and asked if I repair computers, I did at the time so I took her on as a customer. I went to her house and at first she was nice and no signs of being a karen. She ended up with a virus (windows xp days) and so I had to reinstall windows. I could have saved her computer but a virus scan and removal would take longer and I billed by the hour back then. She decided that because she had a backup of everything that it would be cheaper and quicker to just reload.
After I reloaded windows I explained that it may not be activated, I used her actual Microsoft CD and I used her actual key that was from the sticker on her tower. I then explained that even though I did this it may still trigger a message that it is not activated and that it may be a burned or illegal copy and that she needs to call Microsoft.
She said that she understood and I said that if that happens then she should just call me and I can get them to reactivate her machine again. The next day she called me in full Karen mode! She told me that I must have used a burned copy of windows (even though she handed me her legit copy) and that I am stealing her windows keys. She said if I don't fix it then I will be sued. I told her that she called microsoft when I told her not to and that I could call them on my end to have it fixed, she would just need to enter a key that they send me. She refused to believe me and said that she was told that she had to pay for a new key.
At the time I was a new business and so I did not want a bad review so I ended up going over to help. She was hovering over my shoulder the entire time and was making rude remarks every time I tried to speak. I called Microsoft and told them that I was a repair person from (my business) and that I have a customer who needed to activate windows. They put me on hold for 1 minute then came back and asked what happened. I said that it was a virus and it killed her system so I had to reload. They did not ask any other questions and gave me the code to activate her machine. She huffed at me and asked why they did it for me and not her. I just said that I am not a moron who can't follow directions, next time you call someone to fix your computer you need to listen!
She told me to leave and never return because I was no longer welcome, I told her that was the nicest thing you ever said to me, thanks for your business now call someone else.
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