Comments on: Frustrations of the Computer Business

By: Tonya

Tonya — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 05:25:54 +0000

1. I have signs on the wall and clause in the workorder the customers sign saying that equipment left more than 30 days will be sold to recuperate labor/parts. Day 29 comes around and the customer calls, “Can I pay you in 5 days? That’s when I get paid.”

2. Or “It’s not too bad. It shouldn’t take you too long.” I get it on the bench and it turns out to be Fake Alert, WinAntivirus, Vundo, PersonalAV, Antivirus 2009 and 200 different infections in Malwarebytes and Spybot. Nah, not TOO BAD!! AND there happens to be 5 different accounts that I had to scan. On an XP machine with 256MB RAM. I have to temporarily install more memory just to get the multiple scans done before I become a little old lady.

3. Customers coming in and talking about personal non-computer related stuff that takes up an hour of what little time I have to work with. Please tell me how you get these people out without seeming rude.

4. First time callers wanting free phone support.

5. I don’t do home visits now that I run my own business because the last time I did the customer’s kids (3 of them) were climbing up on the chair I was in and jumping off onto the floor while the customer was asking me how to do this and that and why it happened and didn’t remember her password to the DSL box. So I’m on the phone with Windstream to get the password retreived/reset while the kids are literally bouncing off furniture and the walls.

6. People calling the tower a hard drive or modem. One person opened the case, took out the hard drive and brought only that so I could clean off viruses/spyware, install a new anti-virus and run windows updates. One lady gave me the monitor instead of the tower calling it the brain….apparently she didn’t have one to think with and was seriously mistaken.

TIPS: Get a work order signed and get the money up front for parts and/or half the quoted labor. Have a monitor, keyboard and mouse set up in the waiting area to prove that the computer boots and connects to the internet before they leave with it. Have the customer sign a copy of the virus/spyware reports to have proof that as of the date they walked out with the computer it was clean. Beg them to use firefox. If you use AVG, set it to the highest security (9.0 has a security feature to block possible dangerous sites) and install WOT (Web of Trust) firefox extension and show them how to read the ratings. If filesharing software is installed include a clause in the virus/spyware reports saying that you are not responsible for re-infection because of this. Don’t start doing free stuff for any one (especially a relative) or you’re in for life. Let your answering machine do it’s job when a customer is calling every half hour to see how the job is going and hope they don’t hop in the car and pay an “in person” visit.

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 06:43:06 +0000

Hmm, just reading through some of these, and I can agree with them all, I have owned my company since 2004 and have alot of these problems, and unlike Mark Thompson, I have been lucky enough for my 3-4 clients like that, that they have all had back doors

By: ChickGeek

ChickGeek — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:26:44 +0000

That there is so many good ideas in my head and physically it’s difficult for me to accomplish them.

I dream about new apps I want to create, software and flowcharts at night.

By: Computer Repair Royal Oak MI - C! Tech Solutions

Computer Repair Royal Oak MI - C! Tech Solutions — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:50:19 +0000

My biggest complaint right now is that there aren’t 2 of me to handle all the work I could be doing.

By: Mark Thompson

Mark Thompson — Wed, 13 May 2009 17:02:24 +0000

Married female clients who claim their husbands never leave work early and whose residences do not have back doors.

For Example-
Sound of car pulling up
She: “Oh no, that sounds like my husband’s car”
You: “Where is the back door?
She: “We don’t have a back door”
You: “Well, where did you want one”

By: Nathan H

Nathan H — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 00:39:26 +0000

I hate it when people are more than willing to pay £75 for a guy to spend 1 hour fixing their washing machine that cost £375, but yet the are very reluctant to pay you £35 an hour to fix their pc that cost £3000

Business customers I always ask for a 50% Deposit upfront.

And i always get cash upfront for any parts, no matter who the customer is, been burt once before never again

By: Sash

Sash — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:12:32 +0000

It’s like everyone here is inside my head, I work as a “little tech” in my office and I am basically the receptionist/secretary/accountant/ and catch all for the company I work for. My gripes are this:
-the man in charge of the company will do ANYTHING for a dollar, including working with shady people and doing shady business
-trying to get the nag calls away from my techs, you wouldn’t believe the BS people ask, I once had this poor old man call me and ask if I had the number to Yahoo because his cursor on his write email field wouldn’t work
-cheap ass people, be they of lower income or high income
-Any type of professional business (Docs, Dentists, Lawyers, Etc) that drag ASS paying their invoice, they want us to drop everything we are doing and immediately come to them with a problem, but don’t want to pay up front and pay their invoice I guess whenever they feel like it
-old people with computers, I may go to hell for that statement, but it’s true.
-people that are too ignorant to use their antivirus and antimalware programs
-when someone comes in says “I don’t know what’s wrong with it, just fix it” I will usually tack on an extra 25 bucks to someone that is rude
-I haven’t seen this one mentioned yet, the people that drop off their machine, and call an HOUR later to see if it’s ready and what’s wrong with, I am like “you’re computer hasn’t even gotten on the bench yet, we have people in front of you” like they are the most important person ever
-being a female, I cannot stand the sexist buttholes that will pass right by when I am speaking with them because they spot a male tech in our tech room, I also tack on an extra 25 bucks to them too
WOW, I feel so much better, thanks Technibble

By: Charles

Charles — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:19:38 +0000

Wow! I want to thank you all for reminding me why I got out of this business 2 years ago. I think I experienced all of these situations. Robomonkey pretty much summed it up for me. I’ve dealt with them all and don’t miss it. I miss the work, not the customers Those looking for free work drove me nuts. I had people calling me at home all the time for instructions on how to do things I should be getting paid for. The tech trap was a bad one too. I lost a few friends that way. They would invite me over and then expect me to do services for free.

By: On Call PC Solutions

On Call PC Solutions — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 13:59:46 +0000

Wow… Where do I start?
I totally empathize with you. Before I was even a store tech I was pretty computer savvy and somehow was able to fix some problems that store techs couldn’t. I also fixed PCs for my coworkers. I also did it for free (but not if hardware was needed). This kept me very popular. Well once I acquired my original mentor he took me to the side and asked me why I was giving away my experience. He explained to me why I should charge. This is where I began to learn about how shice people can be. I had one customer after another flake and bail out on paying. At the time I was charging what those annoying freebie techs charge… $20 – $30 PER JOB NO MATTER WHAT. Well after being burned about 97% of the time I gave up on doing work for others and focused on college (Network Administration & Security Mngt) work. During that time I was a group home counselor. I took a job at Circuit City as a “PCI” (Computer Repair) Tech. I learned so much about how to charge people and gained additional experience working on systems. After I left there, I got a REALLY COOL IT job that I currently have as a LAB System application analyst / Assist / Intranet Developer / blah blah blah. With all that, my passion is truly just fixing PCs and working directly with people. So I found myself in a situation like yourself, wanting to pursue this passion. I started writing goals (what are your goals) and doing a lot of research. That’s how I found TechNibble.com. I was literally astonished by the content here. I purchased the business startup kit, got my business license and continued to write my goals and what it is I wanna do. One of the things I did was take Bryce’s “Terms of Service” template and modified some of it to account for my non paying customers. If you read the Terms, and I ran parts of it through an attorney to be sure I was right, you’ll see that your liability is greatly diminished. That is absolutely no excuse for shoty customer service though. It just protects you. Plus I had to sit down and really think about the lessons I learned and write an appropriate protocol for future events. It sounds like you mean well but you keep making the same mistakes. Another thing I had to do was be a little more selective about who my target audience is. African Americans and Latinos are not a bad group. You can usually tell who among that group will try to stiff you. You do that by stating what your fees are. If they thought it was gonna be free, this will automatically filter them. Next you have to put into your terms of service something protecting yourself. …”For non paying customer… 30 days after agreement… after 30days PC will change ownership to “your business name””. Also you should get a business license. Its really cost effective and can attract more serious people. If you use the Business Tool Kit it can help you look a little more professional. Vista Print also can help with your image. But even with all of that, you still have to be polite, non arrogant, and respectful. I am African American and most of my customers are African Americans I work with in the hospital system / Lab system. I have been tracking my customer acquisitions and referrals. Even in the bad economy, I am busy everyday working on people’s computers, or selling laptops. My customers’ payment rate is for the last several months 100%. I account this to God’s favor and my coming up with new ways to do things and how I am marketing my brand (my business). Last night I was leaving bible study, when a guy who is notorious for trying to get me to do free data extractions stopped me and my kids for some “advice”. I promptly told him to give me a call so I can schedule him an appointment. He knows I charge for those. Did he call? No. Did I avoid giving away services and wasting time? Yes
I hope all this rambling was helpful. Here is my regular email. ra2676@gmail.com

By: The Desolate One

The Desolate One — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 10:58:14 +0000

Oh MAN, have I got a lot to say about THIS one! I don’t own my own business, but I’m very computer savvy, and will take “jobs” from time to time from people at my day job. What a pain in the behind it can be. There are some people who truly need the help, and are afraid to take their computers to REAL shops because they know they will be paying FULL price. I am African American and live in a black / latin part of Los Angeles. For the most part, these types of communities have people in them that don’t believe in paying full price for anything that they can get a deal on, and that includes computers. The “deals” I’ve been approached about consist of things like installing bootlegged versions of Windows, upgrading computers to make them run faster for RIDICULOUSLY low amounts of money, preserving computers for people that are still running Windows 95 and 98 (and once even a Windows 3.1 machine!), people trying to milk me for free repairs for the rest of my life, based on the fact that I only worked on their computer ONCE……that’s gotta be a favorite one of mine. I can fix someone’s computer (for dirt cheap I might add), and for the next 6 months to a YEAR, everytime something goes wrong with their computer, they try to get me to come back to their houses to fix it for FREE, with their excuse being, “well, you’re the one who worked on it in the first place) insinuating that everything that goes wrong with it after that point is MY fault, because I must have done something wrong to it.
I really love fixing home computers, and am as good at it as most good store techs out there, and have been told that I have fixed problems for people that that couldn’t be figured out at shops that people have taken their computers to. But what really gets under my skin are the scam artists out there that come t me because they hear that I charge a good “ghetto” rate, and I can fix computers as good as a store, so I get these referrals of people with the most immoral of intentions. I guarantee you all that I have some stories that can rival those of you that own shops. Before I started declining checks as payment, about 75% of the checks I’d get from people would bounce. I once upgraded a computer for a gang banger, who’s girlfriend was a co-worker of mine. I told him all the parts to buy so that I could get it running rally fast for him. He bought all the parts and gave them too me. I installed all the hardware and software, made tons of adjustments, and got the computer running rally fast. When it was time to pay me for the “labor”, he scoffed at me to told me that I must be outta my “f**ckin mind” if I thought he was going to pay for labor, then threatened me that if I harassed his girlfriend about the deal at work, he’d “have something” for me.
I once work on an old lady’s computer at her home, as she was referred to me from a previous satisfied customer. Her computer was riddled with viruses. I got it all cleaned up, and installed some anti virus software. I told her the price over the phone, so she knew how much she owed me before I even got there. When it was time for her to pay me, she went into her bedroom and came out pushing a small dolly. On the dolly was a 5 gallon Arrowhead water jug…..FILLED WITH COINS. Pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. As she rolled the dolly up to my feet, she looks up right into my eyes and told me that I’m going to have to count out the exact amount of the payment because hr arthritis really bothers her and counting out that amount of CHANGE would make it flare up. Needless to say I was so disgusted by that experience that I walked out of the door (without taking the change) and chalked it up as a loss of my time.
There was once a lady who’s computer I upgraded (changed the RAM, installed a bigger hard drive AND cloned the smaller HD onto it, installed anti virus software)…in other words, I got hr old Pentium 4 computer running as fast as it was going to go for the money she was willing to pay me. For almost a YEAR after that, EVERYTHING THAT WENT WRONG WITH HER COMPUTER WAS MY FAULT AND I WAS EXPECTED TO FIX IT FOR FREE. A couple months after I upgraded her computer, she bought a new printer and couldn’t get it to “work”. She called me, and DEMANDED that I came over to “fix” it. I explained to her that if it was “new”, she probably needed to install the drivers on the disc that came with it so that the computer could “see” it. She interrupted me in mid sentence, saying that she wasn’t going to do “all that” and that I’d better come over there and fix it because I’m the one who worked on it in the first place and if it didn’t work, it’s because I did something wrong to it when I fixed it. I promptly hung up in her face. This woman kept on me for MONTHS, calling me, leaving threatening phone calls about fixing her computer, (of course I was saving all her messages on my voice recorder). I eventually had to involve the police. They heard all the messages she left me, and I explained the situation to them, starting from when I first worked on her computer. They asked me if I wanted to file a complaint, and I asked them if they could simply go to her house and talk to her about leaving me alone. Sure enough, they went and paid her a visit, and I never heard from her again.
I wish there were some sort of personality filter to be able to automatically weed out the crazies when accepting computer jobs. There are some really good moments when you see a customer that’s so satisfied because their computer is working “right as rain” after you’ve fixed it for them. Then there is the “dark side of the moon”, the people who are out to rip you off and the ones that are just CRAZY.
If anyone wants to share their computer woes with me directly, I’d be glad to hear them. You can reach me at:

the.desolate_one@yahoo.com