Re: Is that all?
Considering that what he actually did, according to the article, was show up, make a list of demands, piss off for two weeks, and then plug in a server and install DOS and Netware, I'd say the client was well within their rights to tell him to sod off when he billed 5 grand for what amounts to about 2 hours work.
Honestly, 'Earl' doesn't sound like he knew what he was doing at all really. No attempt to use drive recovery tools. He didn't even bother sourcing $30 worth of SCSI cables for a drive swap, instead insisting the client go and buy a new server at $2-3 grand. No attempt to run up a VM to sim it (which, let's be honest, could've been knocked up in 20 minutes on a laptop on day 1). No external drive connecting tools, no serious attempt to salvage the dead box (it had a bad PSU and fans. Like that's a show stopper), nothing. In total, he showed about as much knowledge of IT as you'd expect from a desktop support engineer, yet wanted to charge about 30 times as much.
To his credit, he openly admitted he wouldn't be much use for the job before they gave it him, but really if this was his approach then his honest answer should have been 'I'm not remotely capable of doing this for you'. So yeah, if I were the client I'd feel a lot like Earl was a random cowboy trying his luck rather than a professional - and reading the story I'm not hugely convinced that isn't what happened either.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
