Residential Computer Repair (continued)

Still let me warn you that many companies tout the benefits of coming to your location. Why not? On-site repairs typically run 2 to 3 times the price of a shop based repair. Most of these computer geeks and computer gurus don't even have a shop, so they can only offer on-site service. Or they're nationally run service organizations that uses local subcontractors. Subcontractors are generally the worst tech support you can get. You're not their customer so they don't worry about coming back to see you as a repeat customer (unless that is they try to steal you from their employer). They generall don't have the authority to do what's best for you, the customer, because they're working for some Yankee who just wants to take your money. These kind of companies are like used car salesmen. We have worked for some of these companies have found that their priority is making a profit not taking care of the customer.

Our philosphy, is give the customer value and he will come back!

Once again, onsite repairs are usually double what shop based service costs. The reason is simple - economies of scale. In other words, a tech can work on 4 or 5 or more systems at a time in the shop. At your place he's generally working on just yours. And if your problem is virus or malware related, much of the repair process means allowing the system to sit there and scan. A costly proposition no matter what the rate is!

The second thing I ask a caller to consider is this, "Is there a chance for data loss?" If your machine is not booting and you don't have a backup of your critical information whether that information is music, tax files, pictures, resumes, or any other important data, then your repair is best handled in a shop. The Computer Hospital offers backup services starting at just $35.00. Ask yourself, "Is my precious data worth $35.00 dollars?" And please don't think you can win the data lottery - many times you only get one chance to do it inexpensively. Don't loose because you thought all technicians are equal. The Computer Hospital has saved many a client their important data after some "Geek" or "Guru" has had a go at it.

It is not uncommon for a novice technician to treat a Windows corruption problem or virus/malware problem only to find other problems with system - most often a hard drive failure. This is another reason to take the opportunity to back up your system.

Finally if you don't exactly know what's wrong with your computer, do you really want a technician sitting at your place running diagnostics to determine the problem. Diagnostics to be done correctly usually requires letting the system do nothing but running test software sometimes for hours at a time before you get a good idea of what's entirely going on with your computer.

The most common question people ask is "What's your rate?" Is that really what you want to know? Shouldn't the question be "How much to fix my problem?" Be careful of the technician or company that minimizes the problem. Most problems onsite are going to require at least two hours, but aggravating factors such as failing equipment or missing software or parts can severely increase time requirements needed to fix your computers. By the time many of these guys get through with you, you could have bought at least one new computer and sometimes two.

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