One of my old college friends has decided that her brain isn't sharp enough any more to do computer stuff, so she's opening her own business - an exercise studio catering to women over the age of fifty.

One of the things she wants to do is check her client's bone density, to ensure they don't over-stress anything on the equipment.

Now, GE makes a cute little bone density tester that you put your foot into, a membrane full of water expands to cover your heel and it looks at ultrasonic wave forms to determine the bone density of your heel. Presumably, that maps to the rest of your body.

They name this gadget "The Achilles," proving the power of a liberal arts education.

These things are expensive new, but there's a thriving market in used, refurbished medical equipment, and my friend found one of these gadgets just north of Detroit.

So, I half-volunteered and was half-volunteered to drive in to Detroit, pick up the gadget and meet her half-way between here and Rochester, NY. We'd get dinner together and head off to our respective homes.

A plan that sounded simple and foolproof.

Enter fool.

There's a section of Madison Heights that's all small businesses. The street is lined with brick buildings with blacked out or barricaded windows and no signage other than the number. The number isn't obvious either.

But, my GPS got me close to where I needed to be and I pulled into the alley behind the buildings. There were a couple folks loading cases of soda into a truck, so I asked them where "MedPlus Equipment" was. They didn't know, but they knew a guy what did.

So, a few minutes later, I'm at the other end of the block, next to a beer distributor, ringing the bell at an unmarked door.

My contact answered the door, and we went to check out Achilles.

So far so good.

My college-friend had requested that they run the gadget's self-test diagnostic before I packed it up and took it away.

This required a phone call to the guy who normally works on this model of equipment, a few false starts and finally the QA test ran.

It passed, but refused to print the results. Time and Date weren't set. Not a big surprise, the machine had been turned off for two weeks.

More phone calls, and the time and date are configured.

And now the self-test fails.

He retried the test several times, more phone calls, empty the device and refill it with distilled water (glad I brought a half-gallon, not just a quart), change the membranes, and by now it's closing time.

The Achilles tech will be in tomorrow. He'll get it working, and I can pick it up after that's done.

About halfway home it occurred to me that the device should not have lost the Time/Date information. This kind of configuration info is generally battery-backed in anything fancier than a low-end microwave.

As soon as I got home, I hit their website and sent them a message.

The next morning, I got a call from the tech I'd spoken with before. The Achilles tech was taking the device apart, cleaning the pumps, checking everything, it would be ready in mid afternoon.

I mentioned the battery issue to him, and he promised to tell the tech.

Mid afternoon, and there's another phone call. The battery was missing. It's an odd-ball battery that's out of stock at both Mouser and DigiKey. He's found some on Ebay and he's trying to get an overnight shipment.

Maybe he'll have the device ready for a final test and acceptance on Saturday.

So, I give my friend points for demanding the last QA test before I took the device, and I give me points for realizing that there should have been a battery in it.

My guess is that the used-equipment dealer got the Achilles as part of a "Working Equipment" buy. They mostly work with the full body bone densitometers, so this was not part of their main business. They ran the QA test, it worked, so they put it onto EBay and were ready to ship it without every actually opening it for a real refurb.

I think it will work when I go out there next time. The guys impressed me as honest, but maybe not quite so process oriented as one might like. But they've been caught with their pants down once, and they won't let that happen twice.

I hope.