I feel bad.

[atlasmike]

Well I have been on my own in the computer break fix/small business world for about three months or so now. Last two months were slower than, well you know what. But from some reason this first week on June, my business has exploded.

I have done more work in the last week than in a month. At this pace I may be able to pay my self a little something at the end of the month. . But, I got a call out of no where today. From a real estate management company. Just a little place. In fact it is a little bungalow that you wouldn't even think was a business. But it was clean inside (phew). The owners computer is old. An Emachines he bought like six or seven years ago.

It is running slow and is has some damn ask search redirects and tool bars that are annoying him. So I go there to help get it going for him. I only had an hour as he had some conference calls he had to attend to. I was able to get the PC to run a little faster for him. Webs site load better and it doesn't freeze anymore. But I didn't have enough time to really get in there and clean it out.

The tool bars and redirects are still there. I ran some quick tools like JRT and ADwarecleaner. I went into the registry and deleted some stuff that I saw that wasn't good. If I had more time I could have gotten it cleaner for him. I just didn't have 4 hours to spend. I feel bad for taking the On-site fee from him where in my mind, nothing was really accomplished. He said when he has more time, he will bring the PC in to me and let me do the work in my office. He didn't seem mad. Maybe I am just over analyzing this.

 

[katz]

On jobs like this, I will remote in after hours where I can leisurely scan/repair over the course of an evening or two. Works out well for both parties.

Oh, and great to hear your workflow is picking up...send some of that my way, will ya!

 

[mraikes]

You ARE over analyzing. As a general rule, I don't that kind of work onsite simply because it takes too long to do correctly. BUT, on occasion I'll encounter someone (like your customer) that doesn't have time for the whole nine yards. So I do what I can in the time allowed, having made clear to the customer before accepting the appointment that it's not the best scenario. Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.

On the plus side, your guy seems to understand the situation. On the plus plus side - do what you need to make him happy. Real estate folks are a great niche, and in fact it was one agent years ago that got the ball rolling for me. They talk to each other, they all have technology that they don't understand, they rarely kibitz, don't usually complain about price, they just want it to WORK. Yesterday.

Treat him well and get him talking to the other agents in his office. Maybe even create a "move in special" for his real estate customers to setup their computers/printers after a move at a discounted rate. If he thinks it will make him look good - he'll refer you to others.

 

[cypress]

You sound like me there @atlasmike lol. I had one like that yesterday, clean out a PC that hadn't been turned on in months and install a new printer. Laptop took awhile because so much crap was on there and to boot it was an old Vista Laptop. I have tried to tell her to upgrade to a new machine but she just wants to stick with what she has. I set up the printer right after but then she needed to head out. She wants me back for another visit to show her how it works. It works out in the end but I feel like I could have done more if I could get her to bring it on site. She is the type that just wants the problem fixed and very understanding. How you carry yourself is key.

I love your site by the way. Very nice.

 

[atlasmike]

On jobs like this, I will remote in after hours where I can leisurely scan/repair over the course of an evening or two. Works out well for both parties.

Oh, and great to hear your workflow is picking up...send some of that my way, will ya!

That's a good idea. I can do that easy. Or I can offer him my managed services that I do this every month.

 

[atlasmike]

I love your site by the way. Very nice.

Thanks Bro.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

Also, I will say I find that with tools like JRT, Rogue Killer, and ADW, I seem to get a lot further in cleaning a system in a short time than I used to. Where I used to scan for a couple of hours, these apps seem to pick up most things in about 30 minutes, then I am just mopping up at that point most of the time unless there are some stubborn things in there.

 

[ToddWelch]

Don't feel bad about it, the customer put the limit on you not the other way around, if you had more time I am sure you would have cleaned it up for him so instead of doing it all on one visit you will need to take a second visit. Never feel bad about taking money if you did work for it.

 

[glennd]

"I'll do the best i can in the time we have. It normally takes 2-3 hours on the bench. The downside of not doing it properly, of course, is that any traces left behind can cause a reinfection very quickly and you're back where you started. There's also the risk of data loss caused by the malware and/or the process of removing the malware so we should also be doing a backup. It's always better to let me have it for a day. Still, we'll do what we can and see how it pans out then we can figure out what to do next."

 

[Larry Sabo]

No need to feel bad, although you would if he had called afterwards to say his computer died completely after you left and you subsequently determine that the hard drive is toast. On old, slow PCs, it's a good idea to check the hard drive health first, as that's a common cause of slowness, as you know. Takes just seconds with CrystalDisk portable. Next thing I always do, is set it for best performance, which usually makes an immediate, noticeable improvement in speed. Third thing I do, is install CCleaner and use it to check what garbage is installed, disable crap start-ups, and set CC to run on start-up then close itself, uncheck cleaning Windows memory dumps, log files and the Search app; then reboot. If the drive is not healthy, I first try to make a data back-up with Fab's before doing anything else, as I might not get a second chance. In the next half hour, I go after other crapware/malware with d7, ADWCleaner, JRT, etc. Finally, I install my remote support app (password-protected AmmyyAdmin), verify that it connects to the server okay and explain that I can probably fix any remaining issues remotely when it's mutually convenient. Forgot to mention that I also check CPU temps somewhere in there, and if high, peek inside the case and check the heat sink and fan for dust.