And the frustrating thing is, once you lose that trust it's really hard to get it back. A small business like that can't afford to have $600 tied up for days while they fight with support over something that was clearly the platform's fault.

Wow okay that's a lot of numbers for a hobby repair thing. I mean 512 machines is cool and all but you're acting like you cured cancer or something. It's just swapping parts and running diagnostics anybody with a YouTube tutorial and a screwdriver set can do the same stuff. And honestly that gap you're talking about isn't that shocking either big stores charge more for labor and overhead plus they have to warranty their work. You charging $50 is fine but you're not really competing with them you're just undercutting them in a small way. Not like this is some huge industry shift or anything.

The first time I actually tapped a floor with a hammer in that school, the whole corner collapsed in on itself, so I get it. It makes me think about how we skip the boring safety checks in everything, like checking expiration dates or testing smoke detectors until something bad happens. We just assume things are solid until they aren't, and then we're left kicking ourselves for not doing the simple thing.

Bet the seller knew '57 Pyrex has that milk glass issue.

used to roll my eyes at people taking shortcuts" yeah me too. Then I tried one on the High Sierra Trail. Cut a mile off a long switchback section. Felt guilty for a minute. Then I just kept hiking. If the path is there and not causing damage, whatever.