Admin Password on Check-in

[Mainstay]

Hi All,

How do you handle collecting admin passwords from customers on check-in?

Most people report they have no password. BS. You have a password, you just don't know it. But, of course we don't want to get confrontational with someone who is checking in a computer. And we definitely do not want to be setting up each computer on arrival to absolutely check if there is a password in effect...

... and sometimes, 5% maybe, actually don't have a password.

So the computer gets looked at later in the day, and of course we get hit with the need to enter credentials... so we call the customer for clarification. This all takes TIME... mucho time. And then the customer is calling back to find out where we are at with the repairs... actually we are NO-WHERE because you cannot remember your fricken' Apple password.

And while resetting a password on a PC is relatively risk free, it is a horrible experience on a Mac.

Any suggestions on how you handle this?

Cheers!

--Matthew

 

[trevm999]

Take them through changing the password upon check-in (assuming it doesn't sound like a hard drive failure). You don't want to know/record a password they probably use for other things anyway.

I haven't done Mac resets in a while, but it was pretty straight forward, as long as the user isn't encrypted. Just the keychain gets lost. I even walked a user through it over the phone once.

 

[Kitten Kong]

I just ask them outright for any login passwords they have.

Once I have it, it's noted in pcrt.

I tell the clients who are not exactly suspicious, but concerned, that I can't remember half the passwords I have, yet alone clients ones.

Also that I don't snoop. It's only for the repair of this machine, and afterwards if they want to change it, I'll show them how to.

But I won't keep track of the new password, for when they forget it after driving home..

 

[trevm999]

I tell the clients who are not exactly suspicious, but concerned, that I can't remember half the passwords I have, yet alone clients ones.

I used to think that too until one day a computer came in 6 months later without the password written down and I was able to recall it and type it in. That is no guarantee for a client.

A password is a secret. If you don't make them give up their secret, they're probably trust you more when you tell them that you don't snoop.

 

[Mainstay]

I'm not sure I am making myself clear. This isn't a confidentiality or trust issue (or liability issue). It is a matter of effectively rendering services without getting bogged down with resetting keychains or hacking a system. Users simply do not know their passwords to their own systems. The one's that start with "try this one..." make us groan.

We run all the hardware tests w/o ever logging into a system, but then we need to see what they mean by "its slow"... only to hit a roadblock of not knowing their passwords. So the conversation goes around and around w/ them either having to actually stop and think, or we have to perform complex password resets.

Just not sure how to encourage people to actually know and provide this information. I mean, if you dropped off your car to the mechanic and didn't leave the keys, they wouldn't call a locksmith to re-key your car just so they can perform their maintenance routines. It would sit there until you provided the keys! But we have users that walk in after three days of dilly-dallying on getting us this info, and then stand there and have the audacity to ask "will it be ready by this afternoon?".

 

[trevm999]

You're not going to be able to change users, no matter how many analogies you come up with. Don't think of it as 'getting bogged down', think of it as a service you offer, and get the procedures down pat. Find out if they can give you access to the system right at check in, if they don't know it (or say there isn't one) make them sign something that says you can reset it if required (for a fee if you want, if something came in saying they didn't know their password you would help them). If it's something more challenging, like a Microsoft Account, charge them extra.

 

[Mainstay]

Find out if they can give you access to the system right at check in

This is quite time consuming as we'd have to setup the workstation (not a problem for laptops (unless the problem is it won't turn on or output), but we don't want to be inviting customers into our tech room, nor do we want our receptionist tied up with setting up a station at the front counter.

make them sign something that says you can reset it if required

This could work... But then we change a password, and in the case of ones linked to AppleID's, then we need to follow the trail and update their password on their various sub-devices. Just a lot of headache.

How do you handle it? This isn't unique to my shop.

 

[trevm999]

This is quite time consuming as we'd have to setup the workstation (not a problem for laptops (unless the problem is it won't turn on or output), but we don't want to be inviting customers into our tech room, nor do we want our receptionist tied up with setting up a station at the front counter.


This could work... But then we change a password, and in the case of ones linked to AppleID's, then we need to follow the trail and update their password on their various sub-devices. Just a lot of headache.

How do you handle it? This isn't unique to my shop.

When I was doing this kind of thing, it wasn't a big deal to reset the password. I mean, we always got permission first, but I never had to deal with this account tied to ID kind of thing (Are you saying that Apple ID's get linked to admin login like Microsoft Accounts now?)

But I'd say there is no magic thing you can say to your customers to help with this, you just have to look at your own procedures and see what you can do to make things flow easier.

For example, when I was a bench tech, there was a period of time when we had some really bad service writers, and I had them call me up for every book-in, since that was the most logical point to get the proper information from each customer (they are there, at your store prepared to deal with this right now) without creating a bottleneck down the road when you're playing phone tag.

 

[johnrobert]

This has never been a problem for me I always make sure I get them to write down password
they have to know when they log in every day.

Recently I was fixing Icloud on site and every time I logged in it wanted the double login from her iPhone she would not stay around.
I found her in the basement doing laundry, then I needed it again I had to search she was in the garden picking flowers very annoying on top of a difficult fix, never did get it to work
I will never try to fix Icloud for Windows again wasted 2 hours



I did a house call and she could not remember her login password I had been there 2 years previous and for some reason
I remembered it, it was -- horse -- if it had been an obscure password I would never have remembered it
she was amazed I remembered it. sometimes things just come out.

 

[Mainstay]

This has never been a problem for me

I don't understand your post... you first say this has never been a problem for you but then go on to describe exactly the frustrating experience I am asking about.

Perhaps it is just the cost of doing business, but it is highly annoying at the least.