GTP
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- Adelaide, Australia
What are the Chinese characters next to "Services" and "Flat rate repairs" for?
[REQUEST] Just Recreated My Website (Hows It Looks?)
- Thread starter Abet Computers
- Start date
Abet Computers
Member
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- 20
- Location
- Toledo, Ohio
Your PCMD
Well-Known Member
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- 3,356
- Location
- Gainesville, TX
The site does look better, however:
You: Hi, welcome to Abet Computers, how can we help you?
Client: Yes, there's something wrong with my laptop can you look at it for me?
You: Absolutely. We will do a diagnostic check and contact you once we find out what the issue/s is/are.
Client: Great, here is my contact information. Just call me when you see to the laptop. Thanks.
You: Your welcome. Have a great day and we will be in touch.
Meanwhile, you spend 90 minutes going through the machine only to find that the hard drive is faulty and in caution state.
You: Hi Mrs. Client, it seems that your hard drive needs replacing. We can backup your data, install a new hard drive and reinstall your operating system for a total of $175.00
Client: Thank you for finding my issue Mr. Abet Computers. I just cannot afford that right now so I will have to pass on it. I'll be there shortly to pick it up and pay you your fee of $9.99
You: Not a problem Mrs. Client.
Meanwhile, again, at the end of the month you have 30 clients. Of those 25 just paid the diagnostic fee of $10 for a whopping profit of $250. However, you realize rent is $300/mo, phone is $50/mo, utilities are $100/mo, internet is $50/mo, oh, and you have to eat. So your bills are $500/mo, not including your home bills and you only have $250 when you should have had $1000 for the diagnostics alone.
That is just an analogy mind you, but you SHOULD get the point. Here's a quick Google search. I wonder what your competitors are charging. I see some are FREE DIAGNOSTICS. However, I called 3 of them playing the customer role. Told them I was in town visiting relatives and my laptop was going stupid. How much would you charge to look at it and tell me whats wrong with it I ask. They all said it was free to look at it, but they would have to come out to do so (all told me they are not a retail store) but it would cost on average $25 to come out.
So now then, you charge how much again? $10? Crunching the numbers of lost revenue makes my head hurt, and its Monday.
And what happened to Mrs. Client? Well, since her visit to you, she told her son what you said was wrong with it and he ordered a new hard drive off Amazon for $50 and installed the operating system for free. So Mrs. Client was out a mere $60
SYSTEM DIAGNOSTICS $9.99
You: Hi, welcome to Abet Computers, how can we help you?
Client: Yes, there's something wrong with my laptop can you look at it for me?
You: Absolutely. We will do a diagnostic check and contact you once we find out what the issue/s is/are.
Client: Great, here is my contact information. Just call me when you see to the laptop. Thanks.
You: Your welcome. Have a great day and we will be in touch.
Meanwhile, you spend 90 minutes going through the machine only to find that the hard drive is faulty and in caution state.
You: Hi Mrs. Client, it seems that your hard drive needs replacing. We can backup your data, install a new hard drive and reinstall your operating system for a total of $175.00
Client: Thank you for finding my issue Mr. Abet Computers. I just cannot afford that right now so I will have to pass on it. I'll be there shortly to pick it up and pay you your fee of $9.99
You: Not a problem Mrs. Client.
Meanwhile, again, at the end of the month you have 30 clients. Of those 25 just paid the diagnostic fee of $10 for a whopping profit of $250. However, you realize rent is $300/mo, phone is $50/mo, utilities are $100/mo, internet is $50/mo, oh, and you have to eat. So your bills are $500/mo, not including your home bills and you only have $250 when you should have had $1000 for the diagnostics alone.
That is just an analogy mind you, but you SHOULD get the point. Here's a quick Google search. I wonder what your competitors are charging. I see some are FREE DIAGNOSTICS. However, I called 3 of them playing the customer role. Told them I was in town visiting relatives and my laptop was going stupid. How much would you charge to look at it and tell me whats wrong with it I ask. They all said it was free to look at it, but they would have to come out to do so (all told me they are not a retail store) but it would cost on average $25 to come out.
So now then, you charge how much again? $10? Crunching the numbers of lost revenue makes my head hurt, and its Monday.
And what happened to Mrs. Client? Well, since her visit to you, she told her son what you said was wrong with it and he ordered a new hard drive off Amazon for $50 and installed the operating system for free. So Mrs. Client was out a mere $60
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Archon Prime
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- Canada
GTP
Well-Known Member
- Reaction score
- 9,164
- Location
- Adelaide, Australia
Archon Prime
Well-Known Member
- Reaction score
- 1,231
- Location
- Canada
GTP
Well-Known Member
- Reaction score
- 9,164
- Location
- Adelaide, Australia
Dang! I'll have to get someone to look at it! Do you know any good techs? Lol
Yeah, I knew it couldn't be the almighty Opera!
I realised after I posted the pick it may have been an extension. In this case it was/is uBlock Origin blocking remote fonts and cosmetic filtering.
Mr. Ingram's Computer Repair & Shoppe
Well-Known Member
- Reaction score
- 811
- Location
- (Call me Jacob)
I know one thatll find out the problem for $10
Archon Prime
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- 1,231
- Location
- Canada
Abet Computers
Member
- Reaction score
- 20
- Location
- Toledo, Ohio
Funny on how people hate on a $10 diagnostics, The main reason I charge $10 is because as a technician it is YOUR JOB to know and what it takes to do YOUR JOB!! There is a simple flow chart as a technician you should follow and for the years of work you do you gain experience. In return you can start to see patterns on common trends and know what things are happening by you guessed it LISTENING TO YOUR CUSTOMER AND KNOWING WHAT QUESTIONS TO ASK. Or is it maybe that my specialty is asking commonsense questions to customers ?? I certainly hope not but commonsense is the least common thing in this world..................
a customer comes in and says the computer is not powering on?
a customer comes in and says my computer is running slow and pops up these messages saying my computer is infected
a customer comes in and says my computer is no longer taking a charge
a customer comes in and says my computer keeps restarting.
a customer comes in and says my computer will no longer play videos on youtube.
a customer comes in and says my computer keeps blue screening.
a customer comes in and says the internet keeps dropping.
you get the point???
All of these answers are very common and any technician should know these answers off the to of there head.
It is your job to ask questions to pin point the answers down even closer if you need to.
it does not take 90 minutes to run a diagnostics test.
Yes I get burned once in awhile by doing the $10 diagnostics I may have to spend an hr testing things in return its an issue that's not worth repairing or just one of those things where you can't find the repair. or even have the cheapskate come in.
I have policies in place to avoid these things. So before passing judgment on someones way they do business that is not like yours, Please know I am doing fine by doing it this way.
a customer comes in and says the computer is not powering on?
a customer comes in and says my computer is running slow and pops up these messages saying my computer is infected
a customer comes in and says my computer is no longer taking a charge
a customer comes in and says my computer keeps restarting.
a customer comes in and says my computer will no longer play videos on youtube.
a customer comes in and says my computer keeps blue screening.
a customer comes in and says the internet keeps dropping.
you get the point???
All of these answers are very common and any technician should know these answers off the to of there head.
It is your job to ask questions to pin point the answers down even closer if you need to.
it does not take 90 minutes to run a diagnostics test.
Yes I get burned once in awhile by doing the $10 diagnostics I may have to spend an hr testing things in return its an issue that's not worth repairing or just one of those things where you can't find the repair. or even have the cheapskate come in.
I have policies in place to avoid these things. So before passing judgment on someones way they do business that is not like yours, Please know I am doing fine by doing it this way.
Abet Computers
Member
- Reaction score
- 20
- Location
- Toledo, Ohio
Thank you I agree, I will look into this.
Mr. Ingram's Computer Repair & Shoppe
Well-Known Member
- Reaction score
- 811
- Location
- (Call me Jacob)
~~Placeholder~~
I saw and read your above comment, I got several things I'd like to agree and discuss. Currently in panic mode at the store at the moment. 1 week off = crazy busy!
I saw and read your above comment, I got several things I'd like to agree and discuss. Currently in panic mode at the store at the moment. 1 week off = crazy busy!
Your PCMD
Well-Known Member
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- 3,356
- Location
- Gainesville, TX
You dont do logic board level diagnostics do you?
"a customer comes in and says I dont know whats wrong with it"
Do you honestly think a customer wants to be asked a series of questions pertaining to their computer that they just brought in expecting YOU - as you put it - "is YOUR JOB to know and what it takes to do YOUR JOB?"
In the end, its YOUR business. You obviously run it how you wish and you charge what you wish. In my original reply, I did say I don't (we don't) know your demographic. But I can tell you here where I am, you WILL go out of business charging $10 to "check it out". When I started 5 years ago I was charging $20 while 2 other shops charged zero. Guess who still is in business? And I started charging $40 2 years ago for diagnostics.
You stated you've been burned a couple times. But you should not have been burned in the first place. I am just curious to know why you don't charge $25, $30 or more for diagnostics and waive that fee if the customer gets it serviced?
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Archon Prime
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- Canada
@Your PCMD and I have roughly the same demographics, whereas Toledo, OH has 280,000 pop. we both charge 40.00 for diagnostics. I honestly could not see myself doing free or lower than 40.00 for doing it. You should be able to easily do that. I would be wasting way too much time on free support. I'm nice enough to help people that call in to me about quick tech questions, but I'll never attempt to fix it over the phone for free. That's just bad business and won't help me with paying bills.
As for "knowing all" when doing probing questions, most of the time sure, if it's something simple you can tell them the problem. but 80% of the time, you'll need to run diagnostics to figure out what the problem is. I wouldn't want my doctor telling me that I have a broken leg, 5 minutes in telling him what my symptoms are without physically "diagnosing me" and later on turns out I have malaria...
As for "knowing all" when doing probing questions, most of the time sure, if it's something simple you can tell them the problem. but 80% of the time, you'll need to run diagnostics to figure out what the problem is. I wouldn't want my doctor telling me that I have a broken leg, 5 minutes in telling him what my symptoms are without physically "diagnosing me" and later on turns out I have malaria...
Mr. Ingram's Computer Repair & Shoppe
Well-Known Member
- Reaction score
- 811
- Location
- (Call me Jacob)
So I got a minute here, Disk-cleanup is running....
So I charge $20 for diagnostics for a price quote.
$20 minimal. no matter how sad or stupid of a fix it is.
Just today, guy came in. internet wouldn't let him view pages, connect via wifi at my shoppe, problem still happened.
found his problem within 30 seconds. his system time was WAY off....
No idea how.
Changed it to the correct time/day/year. problem fixed....
He can now use ebay.com and is happy.
I made $20 and am happy.
~~~~
I used to be $40, but lowered to $20. and I now enforce that as minimal for even 30 seconds of my time.
Because it wasn't 30 seconds that fixed the problem. It was me staying home every Friday night in front of a computer screen that solved the problem, and my Friday nights aren't free.
~~~
back on topic. Your website is looking much nicer now!
I do wish there was more than 2 slides on the top slider.
So I charge $20 for diagnostics for a price quote.
$20 minimal. no matter how sad or stupid of a fix it is.
Just today, guy came in. internet wouldn't let him view pages, connect via wifi at my shoppe, problem still happened.
found his problem within 30 seconds. his system time was WAY off....
No idea how.
Changed it to the correct time/day/year. problem fixed....
He can now use ebay.com and is happy.
I made $20 and am happy.
~~~~
I used to be $40, but lowered to $20. and I now enforce that as minimal for even 30 seconds of my time.
Because it wasn't 30 seconds that fixed the problem. It was me staying home every Friday night in front of a computer screen that solved the problem, and my Friday nights aren't free.
~~~
back on topic. Your website is looking much nicer now!
I do wish there was more than 2 slides on the top slider.
Abet Computers
Member
- Reaction score
- 20
- Location
- Toledo, Ohio
so to take that same scenario, I take it back to the bench, see that when I load a website I get invalid certificate meaning System clock is off so i open it up pull the cmos battery test it with the mutimeter its only seeing 1.5 instead of 3 ( if its a laptop and more indepth besides taking off 1 panel. I charge $60 to disassemble.
i call and tell him, I found the issue and we can fix it, the cost is $34.99 my minimum flat rate fee + a cmos battery replacement of $3.00 so i pop in a new one set system time. my total tuneup and out the door he goes.
I had 5 sliders and it was slowing the load time a lot. so I cut it back.
Just a quick comment -
I like the site but it's a bit "faceless". Who's the owner/manager/techs? Again yesterday I got thanked for having my picture in the "About" section of my website. On-site clients like to know who is visiting them and that they are who they say they are. In fact I wrote next to my picture that I want them to know who is coming to visit them. I know this doesn't work for someone who has many techs in the field, but it seems to make a big difference with my onsite visits.
I like the site but it's a bit "faceless". Who's the owner/manager/techs? Again yesterday I got thanked for having my picture in the "About" section of my website. On-site clients like to know who is visiting them and that they are who they say they are. In fact I wrote next to my picture that I want them to know who is coming to visit them. I know this doesn't work for someone who has many techs in the field, but it seems to make a big difference with my onsite visits.
Tech bud
Active Member
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- 27
- Location
- Oshkosh, WI
Now I'm afraid to post my site, I hand coded it newb style haha
GTP
Well-Known Member
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- 9,164
- Location
- Adelaide, Australia
Put it up and face "The Pack!" lol
frase
Well-Known Member
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- 3,682
- Location
- Melbourne, Australia
looks good to me; Just 2 things.
1. Services maybe have an anchor list at top of page that directs straight to a specific service.
These are the services we provide - maybe in an accordion style which opens text or image to a more detailed list
I found you have a lot of services listed but someone browsing maybe impatient and want a specific thing - IE DC Jack Repair - click takes user straight to item.
2. Are you targeting MAC only or PC? Get rid of that horrid mac image on contacts page - no need for it there.
Lol Barcelona
haha Cmon TechBud we are all curious now
1. Services maybe have an anchor list at top of page that directs straight to a specific service.
These are the services we provide - maybe in an accordion style which opens text or image to a more detailed list
I found you have a lot of services listed but someone browsing maybe impatient and want a specific thing - IE DC Jack Repair - click takes user straight to item.
2. Are you targeting MAC only or PC? Get rid of that horrid mac image on contacts page - no need for it there.
Lol Barcelona
haha Cmon TechBud we are all curious now
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