On the subject of "Jerk Joseph", what can I say?

Jack Joseph (not to be confused with Jack Johnson, the incredibly talented musician) is somewhat of a Reno celebrity. No one knows why this is the case. The only thing anyone seems to remember about him is that he used to host the Movie of the Week on KAME 21 (now known as UPN). He was in a few local commercials, I think. How any of this made him a local celebrity is beyond me. Finding information about Jack Joseph is difficult - searches on the web return various references to Jack Joseph & Associates Advertising. There are a few references to the Jack Joseph Show, pretty much mentioned exclusively by Greg Steele, a self-proclaimed "Comedy Hypnotist". He lists this show among his references. He's either not from Reno, or he's definitely not trying to impress people who are.

Jack disappeared for a while and then resurfaced in the past few years selling a coupon booklet - the kind you find in your driveway because the distributor is too cheap to send the coupons through the mail.

Although his local celebrity status is difficult to understand, none of this makes him a "jerk".

Roll the clock back about 6 years to when I was working at CompUSA. I worked in the "tech shop" where we fixed computers, installed video cards, memory, etc. and refurbished used computers. One night, not long before CompUSA closed for the evening, Jack Joseph swaggered in and I instantly recognized him. I played it cool as he asked me some questions. He asked how much it would cost for someone to come to his office to move a computer. He needed to move a desk a short distance and just needed someone to unplug the computer and set it back up once the desk was moved. I told him that the cost would be a minimum of $75 for travel and $100/hr for service. He was shocked and I sympathetically agreed that this was a lot of money for the simple task. Nevertheless, that was the cost and CompUSA's fees are non-negotiable. Jack then asked if I would be willing to come by and help him on my own time. To this I agreed and he gave me directions to his office.

After work I went straight to his office and performed the work requested; however, there was a bigger issue that he failed to mention. The computer didn't just need to be moved - it didn't even work. He asked if I would look at it and see if I could figure out what was wrong.I was annoyed by this and should have left right then. Instead, I reluctantly opened it up and quickly realized that it would not be an easy repair. The fan for the CPU was definitely burned-out and the system had suffered severe overheating as a result. At a minimum the fan would need to be replaced but more likely it would need a new CPU, as well. I explained to him that he would need to purchase a new fan and that it might not even fix the problem. Additionally, the system was proprietary and would not accept a standard heat sink and fan. I told him that if he wanted the system to be fixed then he would need to bring it to CompUSA to be worked on.

Upon hearing this news, he began to get aggresive and pleaded for me to fix the computer. It was a bizarre combination of begging and threatening. He used the same tactful techniques that no doubt landed him his spot hosting the KAME 21 Movie of the Week. Although I didn't want to cross Jack Joseph, I nevertheless stood my ground and insisted that he would need to bring it to the shop if he wanted it to be fixed. He then slipped me a $10 bill to pay me for my efforts thus far and asked that I would please get back to him about fixing the broken computer. I took the money, left and never talked to him again.

So, Jack Joseph is a jerk for a number of reasons. There are two primary reasons, though. First, he lied to get me to come to his office to "move" his computer, which he "forgot" was broken until I got to the office. Second, he used somewhere between an hour and two hours of my time and then only gave me $10, when the same service should have cost at least $50-$100, but probably more.

Somehow this conversation recently came up (on Labor Day, I think). I made the comment that "Jack Joseph is a jerk" and Mike decided that the comment should be preserved here on the wonderful blog.

So, now you know the tale of "Jerk Joseph".