In October of 2007 in my Magic City Morning Star News Column I published an article entitled: Computer Repairs in SuZhou City China. The story was legit and I was highly impressed by Mr. Kang the Repairman. As I wrote in the article:
- We were directed to the 3rd floor, which looks like a street market, and while Gerry was asking around about the [English] program, I went for a wander. That's when I spotted the little workshop with a whole lot of screens from laptops. I raced back to Gerry and told him to come and talk to the proprietor for me, but when we got there, the guy shocked me by speaking really great English. He assured me that if the computer was working, then it would be a simple matter to fix the screen, and after hearing that it would only cost 200-400 RMB, I raced home to get my laptop.
After I left Suzhou in June 2008 I worked in Yancheng City for a year before moving to Baotou Inner Mongolia where I worked for 2 years. During that time a friend blew up my computer (long story) and I knocked over a whole mug of coffee on the computer. These two things together with the horrendous dust in Baotou, (not to mention the fact that my computer was purchased in 2003), left me with a computer somewhat worse for wear.
When I came back to Suzhou, my first task to was take the computer to Mr. Kang, whose details appear below.
- Kang Yongjun
- Tel: 18915436805
- Email: kahunakang@gmail.com
- No.456 West GanJiang Rd. U-town, B3158 (3rd Floor)
- Take the escalator from the ground floor (in China 1st floor) and go up to the next level then walk around to the next escalator and go up again. You have to turn right at the top of the escalator and then turn right and follow the aisle. Watch for the Big illuminated signs with the Numbers. You want B 3158.
In the introduction to the article Science IS Faith in Action I wrote:
At the end of August 2011 I moved from Inner Mongolia to Suzhou City in Jiangsu Province China and when I got to Suzhou I put my computer in for repairs at the SuZhou Computer Repair Service.
"Armed with a workable computer I began to buy videos..."
Since that article was not about the Computer Repairs, I did not go into detail about what had happened. What happened in fact, was that there was so much wrong with my computer, that Mr. Kang used a spare casing and wot-not to 'recondition' my computer. I walked in with a thin silver 'no name' computer (it was a prototype), and walked out with a black IBM computer. Total cost was 400 rmb! The reason it was so cheap of course was that I really do not wish to buy a computer in China. A Chinese friend in Baotou got a Chinese Computer with a legitimate English program, but it still threw up Chinese pop-up messages.
Mr. Kang told me that as long as I promised to return the computer once I went home next year and bought a new computer, then he was happy to do this for me. At the time, he installed a 'remote' feature on the computer so that were I to have some troubles in the future I could send him a text message and we could handle the problem by remote.
As it turned out that was a great idea because about a week after I took the computer home, I had a devil of a job with hotmail and the Article Manager at Magic City Morning Star News, and Mr. Kang fixed it all up. It was not however to be the last time he helped me.
On October 20th I was supposed to receive my first salary, but it didn't appear in my bank. When it still wasn't there 3 days later I let the school know and they assured me that it would all be fixed by the next day. It wasn't! The day after I called my F.A.O. (Foreign Affairs Officer) and let him know that my cash had run out and I had bills to pay.
Kind soul that he is, he handed me 2000rmb and said he would have to physically go to the bank to sort out the problem. In the meantime, because I hadn't paid the telephone bill (I live outside the school in a privately rented apartment), I lost the internet as well. I went in to pay the bill and next day expected to have the internet back on - no such luck. (That Bloody Murphy follows me everywhere!)
The following day - a Thursday - I went in to complain and they assured me that the internet would be back on by the Next day. By 11am when I left to take a bus to Jiaxing ZheJiang Province, the internet was certainly not on, and nor was it on when I returned on Sunday. (As Stand-In Editor, I didn't publish anything at Magic City that week.)
Monday I went in to complain again, and that night a technician turned up at my home and fixed the problem. Ahhhh! I could return to publishing! "Not Bloody Likely with Murphy around!".
The following afternoon while trying to catch up on work, the computer began to make the most hideous sound. The funny thing was that all around this building there is repair work going on, and at first, I didn't realize that the sound was coming from the computer.
Because I use the computer in class, it was really going to be inconvenient to give it to Mr. Kang if he was going to need to hold it for a day. Rather than take it to him on Wednesday after class, I decided to hold back until Thursday after class - and of course - yes you guessed it - it shut down on me Wednesday night and threw up one of those scary warning signs.
Bottom line however was that it was just the cooling fan rotor. Thursday after class I spent an hour or so playing with 'Chinese Magic Rings' with Mr. Kang and one of the other store owners, while one of the technicians installed a 'U-beaut' cooling fan.
So now the computer is up and running again, my bills are paid, and all is right with the world!
With Murphy as a constant travelling companion however, I just can't help but wonder what is going to go wrong next!
I'm sure I have an ancestor who kicked a Leprechaun at some time or other!
Anyway, if you are anywhere near Suzhou and you need someone trustworthy to take care of your computer, you can Telephone Mr. Kang on 18915436805 or Email him at kahunakang@gmail.com and make arrangements to get it fixed.
He's a great guy and I met a foreigner the other week who read my 2007 article about Mr. Kang and he told me that Mr. Kang did right by him too!
Best Wishes to one and all. Have a great Thanksgiving and a wonderful Christmas or Channukah and to hell with 'Happy Holiday'!
(For those of you who like photographs with your stories, the Kingscalendar copy of this article contains photographs and comments relating to the village in which I live, and so of course are totally unrelated to this article.)
R.P. BenDedek
Email: rpbendedek@hotmail.com
Mr. Kang's email to me after I published the 2007 article.
Dear Bendedek,
Great thanks for your reply.
Normally your computer will not get bad in short time (at least one year), especially the part I repaired. Even if the lamp got bad in 2 years, I will fix it again free. But I am not sure the keyboard will work or not in coming 1 year, it depends on how heavy you hit the key when typing. The circuit under the key is broken how often. The hinge part, that I put glue on, will work for a long time if you open it lightly.
I never ask much profit than normal. If discount too much, I have to compress time to do more work to keep an average profit. You may imagine to finish maintenance for a machine in one hour or 3 hour is big difference. I hope to finish every laptop by 3 hours.
Right now, Many thing is not right, the factory think if they use good quality material, they can't make money, so they made poor quality product. The businessman think if they don't sale fake product they can't make money, so they did.
But actually, that's totally wrong. All of my customer always like to go to my shop and buy product from me, or have their computer repaired by me. My price is a little higher, because they know take a very good service and after sale service from me by a very good price.
The machine I repaired and maintenance will never get bad in a very long time. I can repair 85% no boot laptop(short or burned or dropped).
Many of my customer is more than customer, became my good friends. Many Chinese leave foreigner very bad impression, partly because they were not well educated. Also their eye sight is so near, they don't know to make more money from same people by many times and very long time instead of by one time. They service well a customer, he will have 10 customers, and then he will have 100 customers after some time.
They haven't go to university or maybe not well educated, not like me. I have 2 diplomas in engineering, and have ever worked for several international company, I had been a white collar worker in previous 6 years.
After graduated from university, I had been Repair engineer in Compal (Vice Biggest laptop computer manufacture), Take care of dell, hp, Toshiba ... motherboard repair and diagnostic, then, Quanta computer (Biggest Laptop manufacture in the world), take care of Sony laptop design, manufacture, and repair.
Test engineer in Electronics in shanghai, take care of test and repair for Motorola industry computer. Senior hardware engineer in Packard bell company (Packard bell is one of section of NEC), during the period, had been to France for hardware training.
I am very happy to communicate with foreigners, they are friendly and know the service. You know many people here think I maintenance and repair computer whithout any cost or only a little cost, so they only like to pay very little. That's very funny.
Kang Yongjun
R.P. BenDedek
Email: rpbendedek@hotmail.com
Related Stories on Computers in Suzhou
A Letter from a Chinese Businessman Oct 24, 2007
Computer Repairs in SuZhou City China Oct 20, 2007
R.P.BenDedek (pseudonym) is the Author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran' (http://www.kingscalendar.com ), and is a guest columnist and stand-in Editor at Magic City Morning Star News. He is also the Editor of the 'Writers Journal' at Kingscalendar.com. An Australian, he has been teaching Conversational English in China since 2003.
Writers Journal Kingscalendar
"The King's Calendar" is a chronological study of the historical books of the Bible (Kings and Chronicles), Josephus, Seder Olam Rabbah, and the (Essene) Damascus Document of The Dead Sea Scrolls.
