That "missed the feeling of figuring things out" hits home. I hand them a screwdriver and let em learn.

Man, I feel that pain. Spent a whole Saturday chasing a run in clear coat on a silver Civic that turned out to be a tiny piece of trash stuck in my gun tip. Ended up sanding the whole fender down to bare metal and telling the customer it was a "two stage correction" so they wouldn't think I was just messing up. Tool gremlins are real, but at least your bent tip is a cheap fix, I had to buy a whole new gun.

Tagging drives before they go anywhere is the only way I trust it now. I use a label maker and write the date, the machine it came from, and what's on it. Last time I handed over a stack of drives, I took photos of each label and the serial numbers too. That way, if something comes back wrong, I have proof of what went in. It's a pain, but it beats losing a decade of family photos over a bad cable connection.