Recovery Discs

[swany971]

I'm trying to think of some add-ons I can offer to a customer when I'm fixing their computer. One thing that came to mind was recovery discs. Burning a disc that the customer could use to bring their computer back to the time I fixed it. Is anyone else doing this? If so, how did you create the disc? And, what other attachments can you offer a customer, other than a RAM upgrade.

 

[Mac]

redundant....

What will they need you for after that?

 

[tkrabec]

redundant....

What will they need you for after that?

Most people I've run across want to be educated about what I'm doing. Some learn and do the tedious stuff, then call me for the more serious stuff. I'm willing to bet most people would still call you out to restore from that disk.

-- Tim

 

[gunslinger]

I agree, most people call us out not because they cannot do something, but because they don't want to. Pretty much anyone with a little common sense can get on google and fix a computer having issues or reinstall for that matter. Its just easier to pay someone else to do it when its not something that you are into.

 

[Mac]

Now im not %100 sure what swany means by "add-ons". If you mean for free im against it.

But if you mean you want to charge them for the disks. Well then its a different story


To me its the equivilent of taking the car the the mechanics then after they fix it they give me a toolset saying here you go mate. Next time use this to fix it.

You both agree that they will probaly get the tech to do the work

"I'm willing to bet most people would still call you out"
"because they don't want to"

So whats the point of the disks?


Going by what i charge..
Say you have 50 customers..
5 use the disks and dont call you... 5 x $99(min) = $495
the other 45 call you out anyway. wasted $ on disks 45 x $0.50 = $22.50
=======================================
lost $517.50


Im not trying to be rude or smart or anything but to me its illogical, irrational and totaly unreasonable to even consider doing this.

 

[jazz]

Hmm.. Giving recovery disc's to clients who you build and sell the entire computer would make sense, and that i think should be charged too.

But maybe i would bit a bit reluctantt o give recovery disc's with the system image to the clints with all their drivers and software on.

How long do u think will it take the client to finally get a grasp of the things needed to restore this disk ? He'd rather spend 30mins fixing it on his own than calling you.

 

[ninjaman001]

Don't most new PC's come with a recovery disk or partition? I know of many times when someone called me to fix their computer, showed me where their computer was, and handed me "these recovery disks things" and asked "can you fix it?" Only the tech savy client will try to do a restore on their own, and most tech savy people won't call you in the first place. At least not until they get to a point where they realize that they weren't as tech savy as they thought they were. Many times this disk will be available to YOU when you are called out the next time and will make YOUR job a lot easier.

 

[gunslinger]

My thoughts exactly ninjaman001. Don't forget to charge the ones that tried doing it themselves a little more because almost always they make it harder for us to do the job.

 

[tkrabec]

Many machines (my new HP laptop included) have the recovery disks on the HD, and you need to make a copy, the sell a copy of the disk from the manufacturer for $25-30. I am planning on offering a quarterly image of machines for clients, to help aid in recovery.

 

[Holzster]

One thing I do for my customers is if I am reimaging a PC, I make copies of the disk(s) put them in a paper sleeve & tape them to the bottom of the PC. This only costs me 30-35 cents and maybe 2 mins. time. But when I show the customer what I have done, so they will not have to "look for those dang disks" (like most of them do) they love it, & it puts me to the top of the list for there referals to there friends/families/Co-Workers.
For less then 50 cents & 2 mins time it is well worth it to me.

Holzster

 

[ninjaman001]

What I have started doing is image the pc after I have fixed it. I place a "custom" cd label on it with my company info and place it in one of those plastic sleeves with the adhesive backing on it. I stick this to the side of the pc and then put a mailing label on the front of that sleeve again with my contact info. This seems to impress the client and it keeps my name in mind when they need something. I've done this twice since this thread started, and it has even led to 3 referrals.

 

[darren1270]

Nlite?

Has anyone used Nlite? If so do you like it and is it easy to use?

http://www.nliteos.com/

Thanks,
Darren

 

[gunslinger]

Nlite is actually pretty easy to use, just be careful what you remove. If you use XP this tool is almost a must have. Also be sure to test your version inside a virtual machine before making it your primary OS.

 

[darren1270]

Thanks Gunslinger! I tried it yesterday and it worked quite well. I had an old machine laying around that I am thinking of selling or maybe just donate to someone. All I really wanted to do was slipstream sp2. I think I will build another disk with some addons such as avg, firefox, etc....

Darren

 

[specialist]

What kind of imaging software do you guys use to create restore CDs?

 

[greggh]

What kind of imaging software do you guys use to create restore CDs?

Acronis True Image.