Every now and then RB’s Computer Service runs into an IT emergency that is surreal. These types of emergencies usually involve a small business owner who doesn’t know much about computers, and a nephew, niece, or “younger” person with close ties to the business owner, whom the owner perceives as a “whiz kid.” Often the emergency starts out with the business owner running into a common problem, like a slow or sluggish computer or network. Instead of calling a professional, like RB’s Computer Service, the business owner turns to the “whiz kid” for help, which escalates to an IT emergency. For this month’s blog we decided to weave together a variety of situations we have seen over the years into a fictionalized story about an auto repair shop owner named Lou and his nephew named Kyle. The moral of our fictionalized story is to make a point; if you have a computer or network issues, it makes a lot of sense to call RB’s Computer Service first before hiring a whiz kid.
Lou runs a busy, honest auto repair shop on the corner of 4th and Main — the kind of place where people still get coffee in foam cups and call the mechanic “buddy” like they’ve known him for 20 years, even if they haven’t. Lou can rebuild a carburetor blindfolded, diagnose engine knock by ear, and once replaced an alternator using only a wrench, duct tape, and hope.
But Lou doesn’t know squat about computers.
As a result, when his shop computer started freezing like a Minnesota pond in January, Lou turned to his close-knit family for help.
Enter Kyle.
Kyle is Lou’s 19-year-old nephew, a self-proclaimed “digital native” who once got 2,000 views on a video where he deep-fried a USB stick. Lou had seen Kyle’s TikTok’s, where he edited flashy transitions over clips of squirrels doing parkour and girls reviewing lip gloss. And his sister (Kyle’s mom) swore the kid “built his own computer.” That was all the evidence Lou needed.
Lou offered Kyle $500 to come in and “fix everything.” The Wi-Fi, the shop computer, the server, and something called a “network switch” that had more blinking lights than a Christmas tree on Red Bull. Kyle accepted immediately — because $500 buys a lot of Monster Energy and RGB mousepads.
Domino #1: The Password Purge
Kyle’s first brilliant move was resetting every password in the building. “Security, Uncle Lou. Gotta stop the hackers.” Unfortunately, he didn’t write anything down. The QuickBooks password? Gone. The security camera login? Forgotten. Lou’s carefully hoarded stash of diagnostic software licenses? Lost to the digital abyss. For the rest of the week, Lou could watch the parking lot — but only in 10-second bursts before getting kicked out.
Domino #2: The Wi-Fi Wars
Next, Kyle decided the shop's Wi-Fi router was “too basic.” So, he replaced it with a flashy, alien-looking device called a “Mesh System” and gave each technician’s tablet a different network to connect to, named after his favorite rappers.
As a result of Kyle’s Wi-Fi changes, the diagnostics bay connected to “LilRouterX,” the front desk to “YeFi,” and the waiting room TV to “CardiLAN.”
Naturally, nothing could talk to anything else.
Customers trying to pay by card were forced to Venmo Lou's personal account while he squinted at the screen. One lady asked, “Is this how you usually do it?” to which Lou, sweating profusely, answered, “Only on Tuesdays.”
Domino #3: Server? What Server?
Kyle claimed the shop’s server was “totally ancient” and insisted on replacing it with a “cloud-based solution.” This solution turned out to be a shared Google Drive folder he called “Lou’s Dank Auto Folder.”
He uploaded what he could salvage, then “accidentally” wiped the original server trying to uninstall something called “CoolBitCoinMiner.exe” — which may or may not have been his fault. Either way, all service history, invoices, customer contact info, and inventory data now existed only as a few random PDFs in Kyle’s Google Drive account. Which he locked. Then he forgot the password too.
Domino #4: Ransomware Roulette
Just when Lou thought things couldn’t get worse, the shop computer (the only one still functioning) got hit with ransomware.
A pop-up with a cartoon skull informed Lou his files were encrypted, and he had to send $900 in Bitcoin to a wallet in Belarus.
“I thought you installed antivirus!” Lou hollered.
Kyle shrugged. “I downloaded something that said antivirus. But the installer had, like, four toolbars. So, I just kinda skipped that part.”
Domino #5: Customer Chaos
With no service records, the mechanics started guessing what they’d done to customers’ cars.
One lady came in for an oil change and left with her tires rotated and a new air filter. Another customer came for a brake job and left with a $500 invoice labeled simply: “Advanced Car Tuning – dope stuff.”
And let’s not even talk about the poor guy who came in with a transmission problem and ended up with a new battery, a Bluetooth speaker, and a mysterious charge for “server optimization.”
Domino #6: The Google Apocalypse
Soon, the fallout hit Google Reviews.
“Customer records vanished!”
“Got charged twice, and the dude said to ‘just Zelle it and trust the system.’”
“Don’t go here, they put in a battery for a transmission replacement”
And Lou, God bless him, tried to respond to the reviews — but he was typing in all caps from his phone, and every response ended with, “SORRY. NEPHEW DID COMPUTER.”
The Intervention: Hiring an IT Professional
Lou eventually hired a local IT professional. The technician took one look at Kyle’s “fixes,” let out a low whistle, and said, “Yeah, you’ve been Nephewed.” RB’s Computer Service has seen similar situations like this. If this had been a real story, RB’s Computer Service could have reversed and corrected Kyle’s “fixes” and saved Lou a lot of pain and hassle and perhaps even money. Furthermore, had this been a real story, Lou could have prevented the whole ordeal with an RB’s Computer Service Managed IT Service Agreement. For the price one pays for lunch each day of the month, most small business owners can enjoy peace of mind with a month-to-month managed IT service agreement.
It took Lou’s IT technician two weeks to rebuild the network, restore partial backups, and secure the system. After Lou’s shop got back to normal, he vowed to never again use an amateur for shop’s network.
Bottom Line
If your idea of a tech expert is someone who makes clever TikToks and once built a PC using YouTube tutorials, it’s probably not a good idea to let them rewire your business infrastructure. Contact RB’s Computer Service first. In addition to offering uncomplicated and affordable Managed IT Service Agreements, we also provide cybersecurity and ransomware strategies and sell the best commercial-grade firewall routers, best laptop computers, best desktop computers, business computers, computer parts, and computer monitors. For computer repair, iPhone and smartphone repair, and tablet repairs, contact RB’s Computer Service.