I would stab the technician who did most of that to my machine - in particular, the passwording and the rebranding? And the little things like enabling numlock - if that’s disabled, it means the owner disabled it. Why would you reset that?

And, of course, there’s the problem of you sticking stickers on my case, that then leave stuff behind when they’re removed? You’d be there with a putty knife scraping those things off LONG before you saw a cent in payment. Damage my case and then expect me to be happy about it? Hell no!

Of course, I’d never take my computer in for a tune-up, but if I did, all that stuff you’re doing that has nothing to do with fixing the problems and everything to do with making sure you get more business would royally cheese me off. Not only would you lose my business, you’d lose the business of everyone I could tell.

And I can tell a whole lot of people.

The re-branding bit I can see goin either way with customers and then the password setting in BIOS and on Administrator is easy enough to explain away if they call about it. There is no problem with it if you provide the password at the end of the work. The hint to call is becuase the tech sets it to a standard and might keep papers better then the customer. If a customer already has thier own I would leave it as is. BIOS well as long as they never have to type it in unless they need in it also makes sense. The majority of our customers won’t even know that BIOS is there to begin with. It is a security measure. Now for Numlock bit there are machines that oddly enough defualt to numlock off at boot instead of on out of the box and most people want it on. It agian is a simple appology and inform them it is just part of your standard process as most of your customers are glad to have that set. You can talk them through it or they will have done it themselves or you make a no charge visit to correct it.

A few short comments.
I to would not like the re-branding of my PC, many people (including those who are not too tech savy) would not like this. To these people a personal computer is exactly that… personal.
I doubt I’d be happy with so many new programs being left on my machine, but that just me. However in the same time I think you could get a few calls from people give a “Holy Moly! What the heck is this on my PC that’s updating!”. Please tell me you give everyone a complete list of everything you have done to their PC?

Nathan,
I’m all for the re-branding of custom built computers, as far as an HP or a Dell I’m not to sure, although I have done it in the past. Most of my customers dont know how to get to system properties anyhow. I dont see any problem with IE. And as far as a personal PC goes it isnt too personal it it has Dell or HP plastered all over it.
I also put a “do not remove” sticker on the case side panel,it is barely visable, Its not like we wrap the whole case in duct tape!

JohnR, IMHO you were a little harsh in getting your point across.

I have to say that all of the re-branding, passwording, password hints, and the stickers as a sales tool seem a bit ridiculous and VERY unprofessional. What ever happened to just having a reputation for doing good work? If you do good work and the customer is pleased, they will call you back and recommend your services to their friends without off of these cheesy marketing tricks

Hi Phil Benwell, Thank you for the vote of confidence

Good luck with the Sheffield Vipers, Site!

Jim Boyd…

4-5 Hours is in extreme cases, where the Customer has a dial-up Internet connection connection, and an old CPU with only 128MB of RAM, Yes Customer like that do exist, ask any Senior members of this site, I’m Sure they would agree.

Jim I don’t think you are understanding fully the password issue. He password protects those as they should be for security purpose. He is I believe giving them the password. The password hint is for if they forget the password and/or lose the paperwork with it. I have said already I don’t know what to think about re-branding I can see why and I can see how some might be annoyed. I do agree about the install of software but I think running or being able to run the multiple scans is good. The scanning should be able to be done from a flash drive or CD/DVD. I would still install AV and Anti-spyware if the computer lacked those but only one of each. The biggest thing of all is not to think about your own reaction but to think about how your average user will react.

If branding and passwording are so tacky, I guess we all need to send Dell, HP, Acer, Toshiba,Mac’s etc, etc an e-mail and tell them all to stom branding , password protecting, and putting basic support and contact information on all those computers.

I’m in the crowd that thinks some of the software changes are a bit too much. I almost completely disagree with every point that says “Install…” Hardware advice is spot on, though.

Automatically removing Norton AV or McAfee AV, despite how much you dislike them, is unfair to the customer. It’s best to help them make an informed decision, not automatically remove something based on your preferences. I almost always let people know that they’re really poor products and recommend something better….but I recommend. That’s key.

Next: Installing Skype with the veiled purpose of selling a webcam or skype phone is a bit sleazy. I know you’re in business to make money, but you should sell first THEN install the product, in my opinion. I’d be willing to bet that a good portion of the people that’ve had it installed don’t use it.

Installing all of those antispyware programs is counter productive. If you want to do a scan, you should build a BartPE or other PE disc, do your scan from that, then maybe choose the antispyware tool you trust the most to be installed. Each one of those has a service running by default.

I think branding the IE Bar and adding your own icon to the start menu is a bit too much. Branding in the System properties is ok, though I wouldn’t do it myself. The sticker, to me, really just seems like a way to enforce your warranty/rework policy.

I think, generally speaking, the bad vibes I’m getting from your list are that you seem to just install and make all of these changes without giving your customer the option. The computer is theirs, not yours. If I misunderstood, and you go over everything you intend to do (and let them pick and choose, if they like), then no harm no foul. One of the things computer techs seem to forget is that even though something may be technically superior, useful, or whatever…the end user needs to feel comfortable with their system and may be frustrated if you change something they use or are used to.

Hi,

The list of things you do looks really extensive, but such a job onsite will require a very long time, atleast by the looks of it. And time for my customers and me is money.

And most of the times, annoying registry entries, spyware and malware are best dealt with by just giving the system a clean new start.

Perhaps better results could be obtained, by just reinstalling windows and necessary apps, by the means of an optimised/updated unattended install cd. This would certainly take care of all the issues that you try to solve above. In a much practical and time saving way.

And if the system is a bot low on ram, customers extra money could perhaps be spent on RAM, rather than having to perform the above optimizations onsite with a slow system.

Kind Regards.

I don’t agree with installing lots of software on a customers PC. Thats why most of the programs I use are portable. As for branding, I can see it if I build the PC. I also love to see some of the rates being tossed around on here. $90 for a clean up? Wow, thats about what the local shops get for a reinstall here. If you quoted someone that price here they would laugh you out of town. The cost of living is much lower here. Its very rare to see anyone making more than $20-30 an hour for anything.

I’m definitely going to save this for later as I have my own methods of maintaining/repairing my PC, but nothing as concrete as this.

In fact, I think *most* computer users should have a resource such as this because far too often expensive computers break down, or suffer from sub-standard performance due to lack of maintenance, mostly because the majority of computer owners out there know nothing about maintaining a computer for long-term use.

And, this is even more of a problem since the world has seemingly gone “broadband”, which is by no means a bad thing, but increases the risk for computer “infection” by far.

Interesting discussion. Unless I’m missing it, do you do any sort of data backup for the customer besides setting the system restore point? My biggest fear in working on other people’s machines is losing their data (sometimes it’s not even your fault). Everything else can be replaced.

I’ve been using Drive Image XML (free) and have been very pleased with it. It runs quickly and I haven’t had any problems with the drives that I’ve restored. It sure beats paying for multiple licenses of Ghost, Acronis, etc. Has anyone else used it?

I agree with most here in that Nathan’s maintenance/clean up routine is WAY overkill. I have a local friend/competitor who employs a similar approach in that he always does more work than is necessary and positions himself to sell accessories as part of the deal. I know, to each his own and the bottom line is satisfied customers. He and I argue over fundemental strategies constantly as my approach is always simple, honest and addresses only issues that I can qualify. Friendly expert advice on problems is good P.R., puts people at ease and gains customers without going far beyond overboard.

I almost forgot;
window+pause (system properties)Advanced>Preformance>settings>custom and turn on the last 3.
c:\drive rightclick properties>turn off allow indexing service.
start>run>msconfig turn all of - turn only necessities on.

I ask first about the antivirus