Explaining to callers you don't do break/fix

You could also "outsource." I hate doing phone screen repairs, or ginning about pulling laptops apart.
Anything more than a battery, ram, or HDD replacement, goes out. Of course I do all the software stuff.
In your case you could outsource the break/fix clients.
Better to keep money coming in than see it go elsewhere.
 
mr m said:
Do you remember the displays of 95% of the worlds VCR's relentlessly blinking 12:00 12:00 12:00?
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That brings back memories...
I was they guy that would set your VCR clock for you! If I walked into your house and the clock was blinking, it wasn't by the time I left.
 
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Ok I was going to reply to this yesterday but got busy.

I think we don't all have the same definition of what break/fix is. This is what I see online and what it means to me:
The term break/fix refers to the fee-for-service method of providing information technology services to businesses. Using this method an IT solution provider performs services as needed and bills the customer only for the work done.
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On here it seems like it means doing any work for anyone that is not part of a contract. To me break/fix deals for with businesses, but I would agree that break/fix means any IT service provided based on time/material cost.

However on your website, you list prices of onsite and in shop work which wold be "break/fix". If someone calls with a virus removal do you tell them no?

But some of this same work is going to happen for a business under contract. Say for instance if a power supply goes out in a workstation. If it's out of warranty would you replace the power supply? Your site says you don't do hardware repairs for laptops, tablets, or phones. I assume that you are doing hardware repairs on desktops?

I guess what I'm trying to get at is do you mean you don't want any walk in / residential work outside of a contract? Well I see your hours now and you state you are appointment only, so that would rule out walk ins.

Seems to me by definition you are advertising break/fix on your website and that is why you are getting calls about it. I believe to you break/fix is hardware repairs. If you don't want people calling about hardware repairs you should update your website to state that you do not do any hardware repairs at all.

Now you do list this in your FAQ:
  • McFarland IT Solutions is strictly a service provider and consulting company. Any hardware that a client wishes to upgrade or install on their computer is asked to purchase the hardware first, prior to the service call, or if parts are needed to replace a failing hard drive they will be ordered and billed upon delivery.
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I don't have a bedside clock and I use my phone as an alarm. When I wake up bleary eyed and still half asleep, trying to find my glasses and read the time on the phone is an exercise in futility! I'm glad the alarm stops when I shake the phone or turn it upside down, so I don't have to try pressing the "will you shut up!" button.
I'd be stumped to know what time it was until I stumble out of bed into the kitchen to see (I'm late again!) the microwave displaying the time! lol
 
Just to be clear. I don't have a problem with break/fix. I just don't have the time to be dealing with it much.
 
I prefer software issues. A monkey could do the "fix" part and the diagnostics can be difficult without a lot of expensive, ever changing parts laying around to test with.
 
Kirby said:
A monkey could do the "fix" part and the diagnostics can be difficult without a lot of expensive, ever changing parts laying around to test with.
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Great response, except for the fact that it's a lie. You don't need a lot of stuff in order to diagnose a computer.
 
sapphirescales said:
Great response, except for the fact that it's a lie. You don't need a lot of stuff in order to diagnose a computer.
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...and you don't need a lot of stuff laying around to fix them either. Once diagnosed, just about anything is available next-day. I'm actually surprised that to this day how little stuff I need to keep on-hand.
 
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Seriously? You never have to put in a different power supply or memory to test a computer? I've had computers where I had to pull the motherboard out of the case and put it on the desk, connect a known good PSU, put in known good memory and a known good processor just to eliminate all hardware possibilities except the motherboard. I've had cases with bad USB ports which I had to unplug, and I've had situations where I was sure it was the motherboard, but when I pull it out of the case and replace everything, it works.

I don't know how you guys are doing things differently that you don't have to have test parts laying around, but I would certainly like to know.
 
A few years ago, when I needed a partner in Minneapolis to take over my break/fix calls, I found a very good company and now they send me quarterly checks for 10% commission. That lead me to want to do more partnerships, so now I have a handful of others that I refer out and get 10-15% for. It's worth doing and it's easy to do the cross over as it's a referral. I say stick to your guns on what you do, unless you know you can flip them MSP :)
 
Kirby said:
You never have to put in a different power supply or memory to test a computer?
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Hardly 'a lot of expensive, ever-changing parts'. You only need one PSU, perhaps with a couple of adapters, to do anything that's not a laptop or AIO; you only need one universal laptop PSU for the rest. Perhaps half a dozen memory modules. Altogether, not my biggest investment.

I have seen so few CPU failures – that is, where only the CPU has failed with no other collateral damage – that it's not worth even testing for it, imo. If I'm down to the motherboard and CPU as a pair, that's what gets replaced (or, more likely, the machine is BER by this point).
 
NJW said:
Hardly 'a lot of expensive, ever-changing parts'. You only need one PSU, perhaps with a couple of adapters, to do anything that's not a laptop or AIO; you only need one universal laptop PSU for the rest. Perhaps half a dozen memory modules. Altogether, not my biggest investment.

I have seen so few CPU failures – that is, where only the CPU has failed with no other collateral damage – that it's not worth even testing for it, imo. If I'm down to the motherboard and CPU as a pair, that's what gets replaced (or, more likely, the machine is BER by this point).
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I was thinking more along the lines of testing motherboards. You have AMD and Intel. Just Intel has sockets 1150, 1151, 1155 and 2011 just for the more or less recent/common stuff. May still need 775 and might run into 2066 at some point. That's 6 motherboards or processors, depending on whether you want to pull the CPU and test it or put known good stuff into the motherboard. Then there's DDR 2, 3 and 4 memory, DIMM and SODIMM. That's a lot of expensive parts.

I have a touch of obsessive/compulsive and I keep forgetting most people don't do this the same way I do. Most techs, when they come across a tough problem, go straight to "wipe it down". I HATE wiping computers down. Some customers have data all over the place, programs I've never heard of and no idea what program they use to read email. I'd rather spend half a day fixing a tough problem than an hour tracking down what I think is probably all their data, then getting it back into place sufficiently that they won't call me wondering why the icons don't look the same after a wipe down. And that was a bit ramble-y.

My point is, if I tell a customer it's a bad motherboard, it's because I have exhausted all other possibilities. One time, early in my career, I told a customer he had a bad motherboard. I had done all the testing I could with what I had on hand. He replaced the motherboard himself and it still didn't work. Now, I'm pretty good at what I do, so there is every chance he zapped the new motherboard putting it in, but now, when I say "bad motherboard" as a fact, it is a fact. That means I've pulled the motherboard out, connected all known-good parts to it, cleared the CMOS and, if none of that worked, pulled the battery for an hour and tried again. I never throw parts at a computer simply assuming I was right. Now I do tell the customer "I think it's a bad motherboard". But I never claim that as fact unless I know it to be fact and that requires a lot of expensive test parts lying around to prove it as a fact. So I think the issue here is that we do things differently. When I give an explanation to the customer it is exactly 0% BS and 0% guesses unless I tell them I'm guessing. So I think the difference here is how we work.

And I mostly agree on the CPUs never going bad, but not always. I've seen some the customer has allowed to repeatedly overheat until the computer won't boot at all and then bring it in. And the wiring in my area is generally sub-standard. One time I was installing a new computer and the case was shocking me. But the computer wasn't plugged in. A current was going through the monitor and into the computer, electrifying the case. That burned out the CPU too, without the computer ever being plugged in directly.
 
I love doing break/fix repairs. Most of the computer shops around here also don't do them so I get a lot of business that way. I love having all of that knowledge and experience under my belt, I love when customers come to me with unique problems I haven't dealt with before so it gives me a chance to go search and learn something new.
 
Most break/fix request I receive tend to become a new computer with data transfer. I even tell them to stick a USB thumb drive and transfer it themselves if they want and I could import their favorites quickly.

If the client has to choose between backing up their data, replacing a HDD, and the 1 - 2 hrs. of service, I tell them in all honesty that it is more cost effective buying a new computer. Full warranty and much better hardware specs (even a basic computer/laptop will be many times better than their old one).
If it's a small fix like a PSU replacement or bad memory, obviously we will replace these.

A virus removal will take 2 hrs.+ If the OS needs to be restored to factory default or reinstalled (no OS image on different partition), this will take 1.5 hrs.+
Add these up and a new computer is the better choice.
 
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