How to Find a Good Computer Repair Person

People who are afraid of computers / computer knowledge should buy branded goods from companies like dell, IBM, HP to avoid geek squad problems

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Hi! Love your feeds.

I’ve been looking all over your “live” and “home (blog)” pages for an RSS feed that contains the MP3 version of your videos. You obviously do convert your chats to MP3, but I cannot find any syndication for them. Right now my choices seem to be take the bandwitdh hit and get the videos by RSS, or grab the MP3 versions manually (yuk).

I’d appreciate it if you’d go the extra step and create RSS feed for the audio versions. Or, embarrass me and email me where they are that I haven’t found them.

Thanks!

I disagree with osi_layer. It does not matter what machine the person buys they will still want tech support from someone who is personable and knowledgeable. The biggest problem with us “geeks” is many do not have much of a personality so their social skills are somewhat lacking. You need to have these skills along with your computer knowledge to be a safe successful tech. I am one of those one man shops who go to peoples home and I have had moderate success with my side work. I do IT support for a major corporation during the day and just do these side jobs for extra money.

Dave
http://www.dagcomputer.coom

I’d say non-geeks should simply make sure not to dismis of geek friends. Geek friends, make sure you have them ;)
make it a community effort, don’t go to companies - go to friends. Even if they can’t fix it, they will most likely be able to help you determine how critical the problem is and perhaps hint you the problem area, so that when you do go to a repair company, you will know what to expect.

/wrigley

First of all, The comments by “wrigley” smack of simply using people. If you have a true friend, then by all means ask for advice/help. This may come as a shock to some people, but tech-folk don’t sit around on their days off waiting for YOUR stuff to break.

I started out repairing vacuum tube stuff. TV’s, Hi-Fi’s, car stereos (anybody ever fix an 8-track?). In the 80’s I learned pretty quick that there are some people out there who expect something for nothing. It’s not the 79-cent transistor, it’s knowing how to find it that counts. You are paying a good repair person for their knowledge, experience and expertise, not the replacement parts.

And the media (movies,TV) have managed to turn us all into the “butt-crack-brigade” with their depictions. I Remember “Snyder” the apartment manager on some 70’s TV show. Not to mention the slanted “rip-off” reports that I have witnessed on the 6 0′clock news over the years.

David is absolutely correct about being personable as well as technically competent. My problem is that I like to repair PC’s, but I don’t really want the hassle of running a business. And working for a third party means “dancing to someone else’s music”, and paying a middle man.

So be kind to your repair persons! Most of us who are worth our salt are pretty honest. Beware of the shops who offer “free estimates” you can’t tell what’s wrong with an electronic device by looking at the outside of it. By the time you determine the cause of a failure, you have already done 99% of the work, and you have to make a living somehow.

Both home users and also businesses looking for a good computer repair technician to handle their technology needs don’t always have the best luck, mostly because they don’t know what questions to ask when trying to find the best and right person for the job. When I talk to a lot of computer repair technicians running their own businesses, they often falsely believe they should be trying to compete with the low hourly rates of technicians from Best Buy and Circuit City (“Geek Squad” and other counterparts), when in actuality these people are not always the best qualified to handle complex issues. And no one working in the computer consulting business is going to be able to really offer the best diagnoses and solutions when they are making $20 an hour to do so (because they’re going to have to work an awful lot of hours, thus taking away from the quality of support they can provide and the time they can spend with each customer). Similarly, those that pay $20 an hour for support often end up noticing they are dealing with the whole “you get what you pay for” syndrome. In short, it often pays to pay a bit more for personalized service, particularly if computers are vital to your business OR your home life.

I agree that computer repair techs competing on a price will run themselves out of business if they are competent but not business savvy enough to charge a proper rate for services.

There is a cost of running a business-advertising, tools, overhead costs, etc that they don’t seem to realize. Also price is not what you should be offering to clients. It should be experience, knowledge, & service.

It’s a quality thing that small business techs don’t understand.