We’ve all heard of of the dodgy car mechanic that will say all sorts of things are wrong even though you only brought your car in for a simple oil change. People are beginning to fear a new type of tradesman, the dodgy computer repair technician.

So whats wrong with the computer repair industry?

The problem with this industry is there is a low barrier of entry. Simply register a business and off you go. Most other important professional jobs have some sort of a standard qualification they need to have, like a dentist, doctor or a vet. All of these jobs also have a governing body that enforces its standards of competency and ethics on those who are self employed.

In this day and age you cannot deny that the job of a computer technician is less important than any of these high end jobs. All of these businesses would store their most important information on a computer such as their list of clients, accounting information or bookings. Without these they would be in big trouble.

Sure, there are many qualifications out there such as A+, MSCE, MCP and Cisco to ensure some competency, but most clients don’t even know what they stand for let alone what they entail. In my six years as a professional computer technician, I have only been asked about my certifications six times, and most of those where in my early days. The A+ certification is a sign of basic computer technician competence but there is nothing to stop you from starting a business without it; and having it doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to actually do business ethically.

On the other hand, I find in the world of being a self employed computer technician, certification doesn’t really mean anything. I have seen certified technicians who don’t know a thing, and un-certified technicians who are absolutely amazing at what they do.
Unfortunately for these amazing, yet un-certified technicians in the world of working for someone else, job recruiters use certifications to thin out the list for the potential employees so the un-certified technicians are less likely to get a job.

Something else that is wrong with the computer repair industry is the level of business ethics that are being used. Just yesterday I came across a computer that had a CPU and Motherboard failure. The client took it to the local repair shop and they installed a new CPU and motherboard. However as most experienced technicians already know, Windows rarely works after a Motherboard and CPU change so the shop did a repair install and gave it back to them.

In my experience, I have never seen a repair install work 100%, there are always weird bugs afterwards and this incident was no different. Internet Explorer wouldn’t accept any URL’s entered into its address bar, the Windows license key that the system was currently using wasn’t the same as the clients legitimate copy stuck to their case. There were many other small bugs caused by registry problems and if the repair shop only did a few clicks around the desktop they would have spotted it.

They called me to come fix it which is when the client was telling me what they did with the other repair shop. Let me just say they weren’t happy paying $800 for a non functional computer. Even though that $800 was for the parts only, one would expect the computer is working properly after they pay it. Its businesses like these that give the whole industry a bad name.

If they had asked me to replace the parts, I would have replaced the parts and charged a little more to format and patch the system. Although it would cost more, they would be getting back what they expect, a usable computer.

Now we come to the price problem. People seem to not view computer technicians as a professional occupation and try haggle us on price. Would you haggle with your dentist? would you haggle with your doctor? no! because its a professional occupation and you have to expect a fee.

I believe part of the reason why we arent viewed as a professional occupation is because most families have a cousin/nephew/colleague who “can fix computers”. This leads to a “why should I pay you $60 per hour when my cousin will do it for $20?” kind of attitude. When they decide not to pay your $60 per hour fee they often look on sites like Craigslist and call out a $25 per hour technician. When this inexperienced technician does a bad job, suddenly the client thinks that all the people in the computer repair industry are scammers!

Sure, there are also expensive technicians who don’t do a good job because these stores hire inexperienced teenage boys to work on the clients computers which gives the high cost computer repair shops a bad name.

So we have cheap technicians and big expensive ones giving the industry a bad name. Our services are undervalued because their cousin thinks he “can fix computers”. Competent and experienced technicians often have trouble getting jobs because the employment agencies use certifications as a filter and instead hire certified but inexperienced technicians. Many of these technicians take low paying jobs in the corporate world so they can get their foot in their door, which further devalues the our services in the eyes of employers… that’s whats wrong with the computer repair industry.

What do you guys think?