Live and learn?

[Felix]

Recently I went to a clients house to fix an issue that they had with Itunes,
It wouldn't wouldn't install or uninstall. I kept getting an error message relating to "Bonjour". Long story short the charge we agreed upon up front was $70. It took me about 2 and a half hours in total. After troubleshooting and trying everything in the world I decided that we needed to backup her files and reinstall Windows. I decided to do this an Hour and 30 mins. Into the job. After I got it all done I really felt that I should have charged more. But I
also felt I had to uphold the agreed upon charge to FIX the issue.

How would you have handled the situation?

[seedubya]

That's a tough one. I would have stopped and spoken to her about it once I realised a format and reload was necessary. It would be easy enough to negotiate even a small increase in the fee at that stage. You say something like, "When I spoke to you about this job I was expecting a different scenario, now it's turned into a three hour job I'll need to charge a little more; normally I'd be charging $180 for this but, under the circumstances, I'll be happy to do it for $105". If at that stage, she kicked up a fuss, I'd have finished the job and put it down to experience.

[Felix]

Originally Posted by AdvancedComputerGroupInc

There is probably a few ways you could have handled this, but the way you did it is probably of the popular vote, and the easiest.

Another way you could have approached it would have been to explain to the customer that the error is beyond normal repair techniques, and the required fix will require more time, and the extra cost would be $xxx

When we do service residential accounts, we will not get too involved with Itunes, or AOL. Both have technical support hotlines, in which they can call and they will gladly help them for free. Never mind the fact that both software programs can be a pain in the neck to work with.

THANK YOU! I don't want to turn this into another Apple vs. Whatever thread,
but people NEVER believe that a program made by Apple can cause so much havoc. AOL drives me nuts to, people think that they have to have that piece of cr*p installed on their systems to be able to access their email accounts.

[abe]

whoever doesn't belive that apple products can wreck a perfectly good windows system, has not worked with too many computers, itunes being the worst, it seems as if the apple developers don't understand the windows platform.

Abe

[Blues]

I think the easiest solution and the best in the long and short of it is to eat it and move on kick yourself and think I need to not make this type of mistake agian. If the customer is happy and you do get paid it won't be a lose they hopefully refer you to others so more business. If you tell them at the end it will be more money they are likely to become a bit disatisfied and not as likely to call agian or recommend you. The only good option that would earn you more money short term is at the point it becomes beyond usual situation and may require a reformat inform them that you quoted one hours work but this looks to be more and would require more. The alternative here is phrase it as such to measure thier response and easily back out into a no extra charge if thier reaction appears very negative. Ultimately I would likely just go with the option one and eat it just avoid sticking myself in that situation in the future. When you quote tell them the time you are basing it on and that it may be extra if it turns out to be more complicated task. I would use the word complicated as most other words might make you appear to be under skilled for the task.


Side note: iTunes is not that bad, minus the DRM crap in the earlier days, how ever all the crap they try to shovel at you with it has become an issue. Quicktime is not bad either there was a time when the free didn't do full screen, total bs, but that has been fix though I do hate how it is tied to iTunes like Windows and IE. Though I admit just like with Windows and IE I use them both just hate them being married to one another and inseperable.

[TimeCode]

Originally Posted by Felix

AOL drives me nuts to, people think that they have to have that piece of cr*p installed on their systems to be able to access their email accounts.

Show them aol.com and tell them that using their email that way will keep their computer running faster. I've never had anybody insist that I install it after that.

Originally Posted by Blues

Side note: iTunes is not that bad, minus the DRM crap in the earlier days, how ever all the crap they try to shovel at you with it has become an issue. Quicktime is not bad either there was a time when the free didn't do full screen, total bs, but that has been fix though I do hate how it is tied to iTunes like Windows and IE. Though I admit just like with Windows and IE I use them both just hate them being married to one another and inseperable.

I always uninstall bounjour as well as the other unnecessary crap that they install. Just like all other major-program programmers, they are egoists. Their software has to run at startup. Their software has to have 30,000,000 threads. Their software is the most important.

There is no difference between the programmers at Apple, Adobe, Symantec or any other...

[Pc Fixed Right]

You could have done this and saved yourself a headache and getting cheated out of money due to you

Here are the steps:

Start -> All Programs ->Apple Software Update
Tools -> Open Downloaded Updates Folder
Move the following Downloaded files to the C: root directory: itunes.msi and Setupadmin.exe
Start -> Search for cmd
Type cd ../ twice to navigate to the C: root directory
Type setupadmin.exe hit enter
Type itunes.msi and hit enter
The installation begins

Now iTunes will install as normal but without the Bonjour service.

[Computer Brainiacs]

interesting pc rixed right.. nicejob

[Felix]

Originally Posted by Pc Fixed Right

You could have done this and saved yourself a headache and getting cheated out of money due to you

Here are the steps:

Start -> All Programs ->Apple Software Update
Tools -> Open Downloaded Updates Folder
Move the following Downloaded files to the C: root directory: itunes.msi and Setupadmin.exe
Start -> Search for cmd
Type cd ../ twice to navigate to the C: root directory
Type setupadmin.exe hit enter
Type itunes.msi and hit enter
The installation begins

Now iTunes will install as normal but without the Bonjour service.

I thank you very much, but she also had some other issues. She admitted to trying to use a registry cleaner, I think that bjorked her system.

I looked and didn't find a solution as simple as this one. How did you find this?

By the way, THANK YOU!

[Pc Fixed Right]

I had an issue awhile back and found this so I saved these steps incase it came back =)... I probably should have bookmarked where I found the information but I did not

the registry cleaner problem can be easily solved by going back using system restore and any missing windows files could be returned with sfc /scannow or a repair install and or you could use dial a fix and flush all software distribution and re register all the active x, direct x, ole etc as a repair install sometimes messes these up.

Edit: but again it all depends on what you were dealing with at the time