Exploiting Client's Budget

[🆂🅸🅳🅴🅺🅸🅲🅺]

OK so i did a post a while ago about the client's budget.
it seems we can exploit this in order to gain USED but working parts from the client's PC.

for example, client wants to upgrade their RAM to 8GB currently they have 4GB installed.
BUT the client's budget is more than enough to buy a single 8GB module.
and there is no point in buying cheaper parts you wont get the excess from the budget.
so i just buy the 8GB one, and take the client's 4GB ram ( effectively stealing it ).

this seems unfair.

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

You're not stealing it that's part of the game and how you progress. You're supposed to keep part of the customer's parts after an upgrade and later use it to assemble computers that you can then sell on PC-Bay for more money.

Also it's sometimes difficult to tell if a customer job is a story job or not. If it is a story job (I think those won't have a star rating requirement) then you will want to build them as low as possible on build or upgrade story jobs. That is: If you can complete those jobs correctly with $300 in parts then don't install $2000 in parts (even if their budget allows it) or you might not be able to complete the later parts of those story jobs when the computers are returned later.

[🆂🅸🅳🅴🅺🅸🅲🅺]

Originally posted by Aquafawks:

You're not stealing it that's part of the game and how you progress. You're supposed to keep part of the customer's parts after an upgrade and later use it to assemble computers that you can then sell on PC-Bay for more money.

Also it's sometimes difficult to tell if a customer job is a story job or not. If it is a story job (I think those won't have a star rating requirement) then you will want to build them as low as possible on build or upgrade story jobs. That is: If you can complete those jobs correctly with $300 in parts then don't install $2000 in parts (even if their budget allows it) or you might not be able to complete the later parts of those story jobs when the computers are returned later.

i see. but in real life you are supposed to return old parts even damaged ones.
what is story job ? i play in Career mode. there is a penalty for using much of the client's budget ?

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Originally posted by Capt.SkuLL:

i see. but in real life you are supposed to return old parts even damaged ones.
what is story job ? i play in Career mode. there is a penalty for using much of the client's budget ?

Most jobs in the game will be "Randomly generated customer jobs" which means you complete the object and return it and that's all that happens. Some jobs however will be "Story jobs" where you will be presented with a lot of "fluff text" in the emails, no star rating requirement and the computers for those jobs most likely will be returned to you at least a second time after you finish it. Sometimes a 3rd or 4'th time before the story is over. If you put expensive computers in them for the first part of the story job then you might not be able to upgrade them later for the 3rd or 4'th part of the story job because it will already have the best parts for example. One of the more famous story jobs in the game is a prince in some foreign country that asks you to fix his computer for free. Hint: If you see that it's not a scam. Do that job. He eventually pays out and it's fun.

[spanki2]

Originally posted by Capt.SkuLL:

so i just buy the 8GB one, and take the client's 4GB ram ( effectively stealing it ).
this seems unfair.

That's nothing. In broken CPU jobs you can take customers' $999 PSU and $500 Mobo and install him $60 PSU and the cheapest $100 mobo. Customer still doesn't complain as long as CPU is replaced.
Yeah I understand why someone says it's an exploit.

[spelljammer]

In this guide
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2114760715
you will find a complete section on how to "steal" from the customer.

[Hidden Legend]

I haven't gone as far as taking the motherboard and psu ect from a customer, but I did take a graphics card when I needlessly upgraded both the CPU and GPU to hit a benchmark that only required the CPU to be upgraded. This allowed me to use the other GPU in SLI on a seperate mission I was playing at the same time. Allowed me to pass easily with used parts.

[🆂🅸🅳🅴🅺🅸🅲🅺]

Originally posted by Hidden Legend:

I haven't gone as far as taking the motherboard and psu ect from a customer, but I did take a graphics card when I needlessly upgraded both the CPU and GPU to hit a benchmark that only required the CPU to be upgraded. This allowed me to use the other GPU in SLI on a seperate mission I was playing at the same time. Allowed me to pass easily with used parts.

it got me thinking, whatever you buy and replace in the client's PC is charged to the client's budget right ? so what if, even if the customer did not request to have his GPU changed and you have money to spare, you buy and replace it with the same GPU then the old one you can pocket. is this what you did ?

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Originally posted by Capt.SkuLL:

it got me thinking, whatever you buy and replace in the client's PC is charged to the client's budget right ? so what if, even if the customer did not request to have his GPU changed and you have money to spare, you buy and replace it with the same GPU then the old one you can pocket. is this what you did ?

But there's no point in bothering with a customer job at that point or a customer at all. If you're buying a new part identical to the one in their computer just to replace the one in their computer and keep the used one you may as well just buy the part from the store and keep it You won't get your money back from installing it in a customer's computer like that. That's not how the game works.

[Hidden Legend]

Originally posted by Aquafawks:

Originally posted by Capt.SkuLL:

it got me thinking, whatever you buy and replace in the client's PC is charged to the client's budget right ? so what if, even if the customer did not request to have his GPU changed and you have money to spare, you buy and replace it with the same GPU then the old one you can pocket. is this what you did ?

But there's no point in bothering with a customer job at that point or a customer at all. If you're buying a new part identical to the one in their computer just to replace the one in their computer and keep the used one you may as well just buy the part from the store and keep it You won't get your money back from installing it in a customer's computer like that. That's not how the game works.

Well, there are two sections to the finance of the job, there is the parts and the labour. If you overspend beyond the parts budget then you make less money on the labour, if you under spend on the parts budget then you make a profit of 100% of the labour cost on the job with the parts being fully reimbursed. This is where the opportunity comes into play. When the customer is willing to spend more on the parts and you have an open remit to upgrade anything in the PC. Therefore as long as you come in under budget in the parts and complete the job to satisfaction then you have essentially got free parts for your future jobs or PC bay sales jobs. All for over-upgrading the PC at no extra cost to you. You don't have to buy identical parts, but you will always have the old one whether you upgrade or replace like for like as you wish.

[🆂🅸🅳🅴🅺🅸🅲🅺]

Originally posted by Aquafawks:

Originally posted by Capt.SkuLL:

it got me thinking, whatever you buy and replace in the client's PC is charged to the client's budget right ? so what if, even if the customer did not request to have his GPU changed and you have money to spare, you buy and replace it with the same GPU then the old one you can pocket. is this what you did ?

But there's no point in bothering with a customer job at that point or a customer at all. If you're buying a new part identical to the one in their computer just to replace the one in their computer and keep the used one you may as well just buy the part from the store and keep it You won't get your money back from installing it in a customer's computer like that. That's not how the game works.

no no .. when you buy a duplicate from store and install it on the client's PC i was thinking that maybe it will be deducted from the customer's "budget" since it was installed. is that possible ?

ALSO thinking about this now, i think its not possible due to the restrictions on client parts. it might
error as "missing parts"

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Originally posted by Hidden Legend:

Well, there are two sections to the finance of the job, there is the parts and the labour. If you overspend beyond the parts budget then you make less money on the labour, if you under spend on the parts budget then you make a profit of 100% of the labour cost on the job with the parts being fully reimbursed. This is where the opportunity comes into play. When the customer is willing to spend more on the parts and you have an open remit to upgrade anything in the PC. Therefore as long as you come in under budget in the parts and complete the job to satisfaction then you have essentially got free parts for your future jobs or PC bay sales jobs. All for over-upgrading the PC at no extra cost to you. You don't have to buy identical parts, but you will always have the old one whether you upgrade or replace like for like as you wish.

But you still have to spend some of our money that we already have, our funds, to buy the parts in the first place. And you're only getting the labor back from the job. So say for example the customer's objective could be completed for $500 in parts but they have a parts budget of $2500, and the job has a labor pay of $250. If you buy $2000 in upgrades to install in their computer yes you get spare parts back but at the same time you spent $2000 out of our funds we have and you're only getting $250 back when you turn in the job so then you're out $1750 out of pocket when the job is done. Yes you get spare parts but it's unlikely to get $1750 worth of spare parts out of their computer. I don't see how this could be even worth the effort to bother with this. Unless you collect the spare parts and build a PC and sell it on PC bay afterwards but that's a big gamble to get that $1750 back from PC bay. It just doesn't make sense in general.

[GameOverRIP]

I just do what specs they want and don't worry about keeping anything, not needed anyway, money is easy to come by once you are around level 8 but that's me

[spanki2]

Originally posted by Aquafawks:

If you buy $2000 in upgrades to install in their computer yes you get spare parts back but at the same time you spent $2000 out of our funds we have and you're only getting $250 back when you turn in the job so then you're out $1750 out of pocket when the job is done.

That's not how it works. Every part installed in customer's PC gets refunded from the budget.
In your case you will get refunded $2000 for parts and get paid $250 labour whilst keeping all the parts you replaced.

[spanki2]

Originally posted by Capt.SkuLL:

no no .. when you buy a duplicate from store and install it on the client's PC i was thinking that maybe it will be deducted from the customer's "budget" since it was installed. is that possible ?

Yes it will work in certain jobs.

Originally posted by Capt.SkuLL:

ALSO thinking about this now, i think its not possible due to the restrictions on client parts. it might
error as "missing parts"

The restrictions you mentioned depend on type of job. There are jobs where you can replace almost everything even if it is not necessary to meet the objectives. That's what some people call an 'exploit' or even 'stealing'.

Upgrade for a 3DMark score:
Can replace: Motherboard, CPU, CPU Cooler, GPU(s), RAM, Power Supply

Fix/Upgrade CPU:
Must replace: CPU
Can also replace: CPU Cooler, Motherboard, Power Supply

Fix/Upgrade GPU(s):
Must replace: GPU(s)
Can also replace: Power Supply

Fix/Upgrade Liquid CPU cooler:
Must replace: Liquid CPU Cooler
Can also replace: Case Fans

Fix/Upgrade other part:
Must replace: Only that part, Can also replace: nothing.

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Originally posted by spanki2:

That's not how it works. Every part installed in customer's PC gets refunded from the budget.
In your case you will get refunded $2000 for parts and get paid $250 labour whilst keeping all the parts you replaced.

That's not how it works in my version of the game (The Vanilla game). Maybe you modified the game some how. I only ever get the labor cost from completing a job regardless of what parts I bought or put into their computer.