Am I expecting too high a standard of customer service?

[Jacob Anthony]

Hi guys,

I am a newbie just on the edge of starting out properly in the repair business

Just wanted to hear your thoughts on the kind of service I've had from another pc repair business in my area.

I had a dell dimension pc given to me from my mum is she didn't want it any more because it had stopped working. When I got my hands on it I diagnosed a failed hard drive so I got a new one from ebuyer. When I got the new hard drive I opened up my mum's old dell and fitted it no probs.


I then realised I that my my old windows xp disc was not working, but rather than ordering and waiting for a new disc I took up the chance to test out another competitors offer of £35 for a fresh windows installation.

I popped in the shop last monday, ordered a collection from my house on the tuesday night and paid £40 upfront (£5 collection and delivery + £35 for the installation). I gave them my home number and my mobile number for them to contact me if there were any issues. They say it'll be collected between 6 and 9pm.

Tuesday night comes and there's no collection and no phone call. So I go in the next day to ask about it and re-arrange the collection. No explanation or apology was given only a "we'll definitely collect it at 6pm tonight" which shouldn't really be a struggle as my house is only 2-3 minutes drive from their shop. That night, I'm kept waiting again with no phone call, until at 10pm someone bangs on my front door. The guys says his car had been locked in the local car park (which I know closes around 7). So I give him the pc and explained what I wanted him to do again. He says it'll be done by the next afternoon (thursday), if there are any issues he promised to phone me.

Thursday afternoon comes and there's no phone calll again. So I call them and they inform me my brand new hard drive is faulty, that they can't get a 3.5 " IDE hard drive from their suppliers and that they could only supply me with a second user IDE hard drive. So I agree to have a second user one fitted and that I would return the faulty drive.

For the past two days I have now been waiting for them to complete the installation of the hard drive they installed. The update I got last night was that they were waiting to installl two drivers and that it would be complete today so that I can have the pc back today. I called them again at 5 pm expecting them to say that the pc would be delivered tonight.

However I was mistaken, my pc won't be with me until at least monday because they have to install an audio driver. I told them if they want me pay for the hard drive (I'd already paid for the xp installation) and take the pc off their hands, as I know how to find and install an audio driver, then I'd be happy to do so.

Their answer was that they'd prefer to hold on to it and complete it themselves.

Before you ask, as this place was the only repair centre in my town I had no other option but to try them.

What are your opinions on this? Is this normal service that customers can expect from a pc repair centre.

Surely customers should recieve better communication than this or am I expecting too much?

 

[Martyn]

Poor service but you answered your question. He has no competition and obviously cannot be bothered. If you are starting up against that then you're onto a winner if that is how he treats all his customers. Give good service and you'll be a winner.

 

[Cambridge PC Support]

what Martyn said

(........)

 

[Three Dog Net]

wow, are you ever getting the runaround. They would rather hold on the the computer and FURTHER INCONVENIENCE the customer over an audio driver? That you, the customer, said is no big deal and that you can go download yourself? I mean, it's a dell, it takes 5 minutes to locate and install a driver.

They're not going to last long doing business like that.

First step for you, though, is to eBay some Windows discs. Get XP Home and Pro, try to find discs for standard, with SP1, with SP2, and with SP3. We get some computers where the keys they have won't work with a SP3 install if they're too old, you have to install SP1 for example, and just update it. Also get Vista with all versions you can. We found a Vista disc on ebay that has all versions, 32 or 64 bit that installs the correct version based on the key entered. You can even find .iso image files of all these on certain sites that I'll refrain from mentioning, to avoid any problems here. (Hey, sometimes your Vista disc goes fubar, and you are desperate! )

Anyway, you should rip all your Windows discs to .iso image files and save them to wherever you save your important stuff, like a file server, or external HD. That way, whenever your disc bites the dust, you can just burn a new one and not delay any repairs.

And once you get going with the business, refrain from talking about your competitor. I know sometimes you would like to tell your customers, or prospective customers, that the other guy is a joke, or what have you. Better to just not acknowledge him at all. Bad mouth him, it's liable to come back and bite you somehow. If any customer were to ask, just shrug your shoulders and smile...they'll understand.

 

[Pc Fixed Right]

Definate run Around tactics right there. Did you ask how they determined that your brand new HD was defective? My guess is that they didn't even bother formatting the drive prior to trying to install windows on it as it comes unallocated. If that is the case than you should open up a shop right next to him lol and advertise that you fix what he breaks....

 

[Jacob Anthony]

Thanks for your feedback guys, I really appreciate it. The other thing that irks me is that people like this tarnish the perception of this industry as a whole.

 

[Martyn]

Thanks for your feedback guys, I really appreciate it. The other thing that irks me is that people like this tarnish the perception of this industry as a whole.

Well I don't it that way, there are good and bad companies in all industries. I see it as a great opportunity for you, I wish the situation was the same in my area.

 

[Alan22]

Thanks for your feedback guys, I really appreciate it. The other thing that irks me is that people like this tarnish the perception of this industry as a whole.

Yupp, I agree. I don't know what it's like in the UK, but here in the US there are no barriers to entry in this business. Perform the necessary legal filings to register a business and that's about it. There's absolutely no regulation as with other service professions.

 

[joydivision]

In the UK you don't even need to register as a business but you must inform inland revenue of any income even if you don't make a profit.

Things can get a bit complicated though, if you're working from home you need to make sure the mortgage company or landlord will allow it. There can be planning permission issues too.

You may have to pay business rates to the council even if you work at home but there are a lot of ways round that.

 

[MrUnknown]

What are your opinions on this? Is this normal service that customers can expect from a pc repair centre.

Surely customers should recieve better communication than this or am I expecting too much?

Were YOU happy with the level of service you received?
Would YOU feel okay doing this to another human, specifically a client paying you money for your time?

Take your answers and go on that. Don't strive to be just like everyone else.

 

[dnt810]

FYI... If I were you, I'd demand my computer back and be done with them before he makes more work for you and charges more. I just have a gut feeling from reading the post, that he may be "supplementing his income" because he doesn't have many contract customers. (and no wonder)

-Don

 

[jj2000]

Poor service but you answered your question. He has no competition and obviously cannot be bothered. If you are starting up against that then you're onto a winner if that is how he treats all his customers. Give good service and you'll be a winner.

could not agree more.poor service is inexcusable and if you can provide a decnt service at a decent price i see no problems in outclassing this clown.

 

[Jacob Anthony]

Thanks for all your words of support guys. The guy still has my pc after saying on saturday it would be done this morning. I visited the shop again lunchtime and he said he hadn't had chance to do it this morning. I went in this evening after work and there was a different techie there. He assumed as it was still on the workbench it was still being worked on and the last note he had on their system was that it was still awaiting drivers! He said he would be in the shop tomorrow so it would get done tomorrow.


It's making me more determined to startup my own repair business, only problem is I don't drive yet, as I've never needed to learn! Have any of you guys got any tips on getting around this until I can drive?


Cheers again guys

Jacob

 

[Kitten Kong]

I would start work from home, away from the house if at all possible. Make it a dedicated workshop so to speak, and get your customers to drop off their pc's direct to you.

As for getting your old pc back, personally, I would go to the shop tomorrow, and irrespective if it was completed or not, get it back off them. Don't take, any cr@p off them, ie still working on it, havent quite had chance ot test it.. blah blah. Also DO NOT pay them a penny more, than has been previously agreed. Also get the new hard drive off them, ie the one they had tested as faulty.

As has been previously mentioned, getting any drivers is a doddle. This sort of inexcusable excuse for customer service is downright wrong. You should have no problems in outclassing these guys.

As an aside, what size ide drive, were they trying to get for you?, when they couldnt get one from their suppliers?, as the majority of suppliers still stock 3.5 ide's.

Personally I think this was a way for them to earn a quick buck, stating they couldnt get it, but ohh look we've had this laying around for a while.. yep that'll do the job kinda thing.

 

[Jacob Anthony]

***UPDATE***

I finally got the system back from them today and they hadn't even installed any updates for xp, it's still on sp1! So. if I didn't know what I do about the need for updates my system would have gone down again in a couple of weeks.

I mean every time I've ever done a fresh install for someone I've made sure the system doesn't leave me without every possible update having been installed.

I'm now having a problem updating xp which I have described here, could you guys have a look at it here and help me out (again!).

thanks a million

Jacob