People coming to your house

[JustMe]

I've yet to run into a situation where someone was uncomfortable with having me pick up their stuff, even when I don't give them my address. I'm still not sure how I'll handle if they do.

Three years ago I had someone who was uncomfortable with me coming to his home. I met him at a neighborhood strip mall and he spent an hour trying to get my home address . Even when I told him "No, I will not give you my home address", he kept going on and on that he wanted my home address if I fix his stuff.

I told him good luck finding a tech to fix his equipment as he has MAJOR TRUST ISSUES. I do business on my terms, not his.

 

[windah]

Thanks for the replies guys, it's been good to hear your opinions

 

[MobileTechie]

Three years ago I had someone who was uncomfortable with me coming to his home. I met him at a neighborhood strip mall and he spent an hour trying to get my home address . Even when I told him "No, I will not give you my home address", he kept going on and on that he wanted my home address if I fix his stuff.

I told him good luck finding a tech to fix his equipment as he has MAJOR TRUST ISSUES. I do business on my terms, not his.

I don't blame him if you were taking his stuff. Who'd give their laptop to someone without knowing their address?

 

[RegEdit]

was uncomfortable with me coming to his home.

End of conversation for me. I don't want to get murdered. I'd tell them to call someone else.

 

[RegEdit]

For those of you who do pick up and delivery, do you tell them in advance to have the computer by the door for you to pick up? All too often when they make me walk in and unplug it, I wind up spending WAY more time there, and they also want me to reconnect it when I bring it back. I guess it makes sense that they want to see that it works when you bring it back though.

 

[ATTech]

For those of you who do pick up and delivery, do you tell them in advance to have the computer by the door for you to pick up? All too often when they make me walk in and unplug it, I wind up spending WAY more time there, and they also want me to reconnect it when I bring it back. I guess it makes sense that they want to see that it works when you bring it back though.

When I pick it up, I want to take a look at to confirm the issues and make sure I'm not picking it up for a simple CD Drive install that is actually a logic board replacement. Special circumstances excluded, I'll set it up so they can confirm that it's working. I don't mind spending 15 minutes or so setting it up and confirming it works. If they are pushing for me to stay and help with stuff I'll say I have another appointment booked (I usually have something I have to get to) and leave a link for remote support.

 

[RegEdit]

As a bare minimum you should have both General Liability & Error / Omission Liability.

I'm going to take a chance and do on-site calls without insurance for another 6 months until my business license expires, then I'm going to focus on doing online intellectual property protection for movies, music, software, etc. Basically I'm gonna get out of the "highly regulated" $100 PC repair business and get into the $2,000 intellectual property protection business... hopefully.

I didn't even ask my insurance company how much it would have been to purchase home owner's insurance to cover injury if a customer were to slip and fall on my property. My insurance rep said she would have to do some research to get me a quote. $1,000 maybe?

Hell, it's expensive just trying to operate a damn taco truck in LA. Did you all know that the city requires that these vendors park their trucks at a special commercial facility. You can't park a food truck overnight at your house! So they have to pay for storage rent among other things. Everything is so regulated! No wonder businesses are leaving California.

 

[Benchtech]

I'm going to take a chance and do on-site calls without insurance for another 6 months until my business license expires, then I'm going to focus on doing online intellectual property protection for movies, music, software, etc. Basically I'm gonna get out of the "highly regulated" $100 PC repair business and get into the $2,000 intellectual property protection business... hopefully.

I didn't even ask my insurance company how much it would have been to purchase home owner's insurance to cover injury if a customer were to slip and fall on my property. My insurance rep said she would have to do some research to get me a quote. $1,000 maybe?

Hell, it's expensive just trying to operate a damn taco truck in LA. Did you all know that the city requires that these vendors park their trucks at a special commercial facility. You can't park a food truck overnight at your house! So they have to pay for storage rent among other things. Everything is so regulated! No wonder businesses are leaving California.

It's the cost of business....I'll be paying $77mo for ins....

 

[JustMe]

I don't blame him if you were taking his stuff. Who'd give their laptop to someone without knowing their address?

The thing is I wasn't taking his stuff. We were there just so that he can meet me.

He doesn't trust taking it to a repair shop since they can go out of business anytime and close their doors, doesn't trust anyone in his house since they may look around and see his stuff, doesn't trust anyone looking at his data.

Like I said, MAJOR TRUST ISSUES.

I told him that the only person he could trust to fix his problems were himself and that he better start learning. I had already pegged him as a problem customer who I do not need.

And after all that, he kept asking me for my home address! There is no way I would give that to him.

 

[TenYardFight]

ha! regulations like that are the only reason I'd ever come close to considering buying a taco from a truck!

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

 

[RegEdit]

regulations like that are the only reason I'd ever come close to considering buying a taco from a truck!

True. Some people think that taco trucks probably violate health codes, but in fact they are MORE regulated than physical restaurants. So they provide great food at around half the cost. In LA there's food trucks all over the place. Around Santa Monica near Sony, MTV, and all those other entertainment buildings there's just tons of these trucks that line streets like Olympic. They even have Sushi trucks.

 

[frase]

Well this is the place of businness that I have registered from legally so why should it be any different than any other shopfront? I have an office inside the house where I greet customers, a room which is right off the front door. Here I generally get the customer to sign any needed documents and whilst they are doing that I am going over their pc/laptop exterior for any damage already visible. This can come in very handy in the long run Outside I have my workshop situated as not to untidy my office space, great to get away from the missus @ times as well.

I have furnitured my office inside the house professionally, that does have shelving etc for Items of interest for customers. As well as my Quals and other legal documents easily visible on the walls.

I only have two cats which are generally out in their outdoor area that we built them during business hrs - its a bit of different story keeping the place tidy when you have a toddler about customers are always cool about general untidyness @ times, what can you do?

 

[RegEdit]

Upon further research I've come upon a couple of companies that WILL INDEED insure my business when customers come to my home, all as part of my home owner's insurance. State Farm is one of them. Yes there is light at the end of the tunnel!!!!! I love staying put to do my work. Let them come to me.

But now I'm contemplating whether or not I should do on-site calls or not after reading what might happen. I HATE doing them, especially in summer time. It's a pain in the ass to get myself all nice and clean, to load all of my gear into crates, have someone breathing over my shoulder when I work on their PC, etc. Homeowner's insurance is not going to cover my away visits so I might just accept drop off's only. I don't want to be payin' no $77 a month (or whatever) to insure against someone tripping over my gear when I do an on-site visit, so that they don't bilk me for back surgery.

 

[GoHighVoltage]

I would never recommend people coming to your home. This puts you, your family, wife, children at risk. Why give complete strangers a reason to come to your home? Not only is it an insurance liability, it is a dangerous activity.

I can see how this would get abused with people showing up all hours of the day or night, plus the risks with having your address become a public ground.

I watch the news every day. You see crazy stuff happen all the time. There is too many crazies, criminals, sexual predators, etc out and about to start inviting them to your home.

I do completely mobile repair. I do all repairs at their location, or by remote repair. Never will have my home an open domain to any risk.

Too many people think, wow, I have been doing this for years and never had a problem. Ask people that were robbed, burglarized, attacked, kidnapped, etc, if they thought it could never happen to them either.

BE SAFE. Never mix business with Home.

 

[Xander]

Living in fear...

I would never recommend people coming to your home. This puts you, your family, wife, children at risk. Why give complete strangers a reason to come to your home? Not only is it an insurance liability, it is a dangerous activity.

That's why I have insurance.

I can see how this would get abused with people showing up all hours of the day or night, plus the risks with having your address become a public ground.

Never had it happen. Worst I've had is someone send their son over just outside of business hours to drop off his system and that was partly my fault for taking the call outside of business hours.

I watch the news every day. You see crazy stuff happen all the time. There is too many crazies, criminals, sexual predators, etc out and about to start inviting them to your home.

Would that be Fox News? I hear there's killer bees out there, too. And that you can catch malaria from toilet seats!

How much safer are you walking into a complete stranger's home? How much safer are they by letting you in? By your reasoning, we should all be unemployed because it's too unsafe to leave your houses/shops.

You say you do remote repairs so you expect that Joe Public should be fine with handing over his credit card number to you? Or just letting some voice on the phone access his private data on his computer?

I do completely mobile repair. I do all repairs at their location, or by remote repair. Never will have my home an open domain to any risk.

Too many people think, wow, I have been doing this for years and never had a problem. Ask people that were robbed, burglarized, attacked, kidnapped, etc, if they thought it could never happen to them either.

Drive-by shootings also happen. I'm sure with greater frequency than kidnappings, especially in America (vs., say, Mexico).
By your reasoning, that should keep you indoors, right?

Less than 1/3 of kids are allowed to play outside of their yards. American culture and, from what I hear, British are so worried about protecting their "precious snowflakes" that their overweight cherubim never learn to play, have less friends (no, Facebook doesn't count) than any other generation and are well on their way to become a fear-filled paranoid bunch of brats. (I won't even go into illiteracy) Good luck on them running your country in a few years.

(Not saying things are perfect up the the Great White North but the U.S. has about 6 to 8x the gun violence we do. A school shooting there is local news, but national here.)

 

[GoHighVoltage]

EHousecalls, This isn't an argument or debate. I was just voicing my opinion and how I do things.

You can do whatever you are comfortable with and feel safe with doing.

Insurance doesn't cover injury or something worse to your family.

How much safer are you walking into a complete stranger's home? How much safer are they by letting you in? By your reasoning, we should all be unemployed because it's too unsafe to leave your houses/shops.

You say you do remote repairs so you expect that Joe Public should be fine with handing over his credit card number to you? Or just letting some voice on the phone access his private data on his computer?

Yes, I put MYSELF at risk when I go to a strangers home. Point being, I am putting only me at risk. Not my wife or children. Joe Public is contacting me to do a service for them. They are in control.

Just as they would contact a Plumber to come to their home to do plumbing repairs. They do not have to hand me credit card numbers, they can pay with paypal, or check, etc. Credit Card numbers as far as safety of your family is like comparing apples with oranges.

You are missing my point altogether. If you feel safe with strangers coming to your home, and don't mind them seeing your family, children, and living arrangements, then that is totally fine, it is your choice. If you are single, and don't have any family, then I can see you have little risk. All your choice. But don't condemn someone leaning towards safety then risk.

You are coming off like you are mocking me for my decisions and way of doing business. I don't condemn or mock the way you do business, so don't condemn others views.

I have been a volunteer Paramedic for 22 years, so I don't need to watch the news to see all the rapes, murders, and things that go on in real life to know, IT CAN HAPPEN to anyone, ANYWHERE.

Like I said, I am not debating anything. You do what you want. I am simply stating my view and how I handle my business.

I do very well with my clients and business just the way i handle it, and I don't put my home, family, wife or children at risk with complete strangers openly invited to my home. Mobile On-Site Repair, and Remote repair is just as it states. That is what I do and for good reason.

 

[gikstar]

Bottom line is this: Do what you feel most comfortable with.

 

[RegEdit]

Not only is it an insurance liability, it is a dangerous activity.

By the way Farmer's Insurance will cover customers coming to your home. For me it was only an extra $60 a year (or something like that) under my homeowner's policy. Most other companies will charge an arm an a leg for a separate policy.

Yes, I put MYSELF at risk when I go to a strangers home.

It might be MORE of a risk going to their place. I guess if you have a wife and kids then it's a concern, but I have never had a problem with customers coming to my place.

 

[ATTech]

I was just voicing my opinion and how I do

And he was just voicing his opinions on your opinions; You can't have it both ways. Albeit, his was a little combative towards the US, he's welcome to voice his opinions and reasoning against yours. If you don't want it to be a debate, then don't debate with him, but that doesn't mean he can't provide logic and reasoning that support his opinions just because they aren't the same as your opinions.

 

[GoHighVoltage]

And he was just voicing his opinions on your opinions; You can't have it both ways. Albeit, his was a little combative towards the US, he's welcome to voice his opinions and reasoning against yours. If you don't want it to be a debate, then don't debate with him, but that doesn't mean he can't provide logic and reasoning that support his opinions just because they aren't the same as your opinions.

I think we already established that. As my response said, I wasn't debating anyone's opinion or how they do it. I was stating my opinion. Not to have my opinion dissected line by line.

Like I said, if you don't have a family to be concerned about, then I see how there is less risk. But if you have a family, wife, children, you are putting them all at risk.

For Example, you could be inviting a convicted child molester to come to your home, or a convicted rapist, or maybe one that hasn't even been caught yet. So why introduce them to your family environment?

Not to mention, that you put your home at higher risk for burglaries, as neighbors get use to strangers coming and going out of your home, and you could be setting yourself up for someone just to see where you operate, etc.

Maybe some people don't care, or don't even think about it. Or maybe it depends on your area. Although crime is happening everywhere.

I am simply recommending people to make safe decisions, and safe business operations.

Just a fellow Tech, Helping fellow techs. I don't dissect peoples views or opinions line by line.

No problem. Have a great day. Be safe.