Buying Parts

[parttimetechie]

How do those of you who own your own tech business get parts like HDD, ODD, RAM, etc for cheap so you can resell it to the customer? Is it any particular site, or a specific person you deal with?

 

[ATS]

I mostly use newegg, sometimes eBay, or just a google search for the part and click "Shopping", then I raise the price up a bit on the customer.

 

[parttimetechie]

Do you have stocks of these at your shop or do you buy on an as needed basis?

 

[ATS]

The only thing that I keep with me is cables, sometimes a spare HDD or two. I have a plastic tub that I put in my truck with network cables, hard drive cables, USB cables, USB extension cables, etc, etc. That way if I need cables I already have some with me.

I don't stock any parts. I have a few things that I have taken out of old machines and haven't sold on eBay and don't have a use for. I suppose if I needed to I could sell them off to a client, but they are not packaged or anything.

So basically, no, I don't stock parts, just buy them as needed. Some things I can get locally, mostly networking equipment like routers and switches.

 

[parttimetechie]

Do you do mostly in home work or shop work? Ive done shop work where we upsell, but I personally do in home work where I tell the customer to go buy this, wondering if I would be better off to tell them I can get the part and then upsell it?

 

[ATS]

I do mostly on-site work in the customers house, once I find that I need to replace a part I will let them know about how much it will cost (always give a high estimate, but let them know that it will most likely be less than that) then I'll order the part and when it comes in I'll call the customer and let them know.

 

[parttimetechie]

They seem to be pretty happy with that? What kind of an upsell do you quote them?

 

[fixitdaz]

A good place to get some parts are cpc you can get some parts cheaper elsewhere, but for ease and quoting it is ideal as you get a catalogue with all the products and prices in it, I use them and have a trade account so we settle the bill every 30 days.

 

[ATS]

They seem to be pretty happy with that? What kind of an upsell do you quote them?

Depends on the item, cheaper things like cables, keyboards, mice, special adapters, etc get a higher upsell, (maybe as much as 100%), and more expensive things get less, hard drives, motherboards, monitors, (2-10%).

 

[parttimetechie]

Interesting, I will have to remember that. What stops the customer from doing their own research and buying it on their own?

 

[Justdropthem]

This is what I do: I do not stock any part except Mouse, Keyboard, HDD, Cables (USB cable, SATA converter power cable, Parallel cable, & Power cables), and sometimes, RAM.

I go directly to the market if I need to buy any other part to fix any customer's device.

Most of the time, I give the customer higher price. Depends on the way the customer present himself/herself to me.

 

[ATS]

Interesting, I will have to remember that. What stops the customer from doing their own research and buying it on their own?

Nothing I suppose, I just say that I will take care of it for them, then they don't have to worry about getting the wrong thing. My guess is that if they can diagnose that a piece of their hardware is bad, order it, and install it themselves they probably wouldn't call me in the first place.