I know how to fix it!

[i2omani]

Guys,
how many of you get these calls. like today some ID10T called me and asked me , how much to diagnose his laptop for? (I advertise free diagnosis)

That exactly what he said, i took apart my laptop to change the fan, but i want you to come and diagnostic it for me

I said " Sir, if you already know how to take the fan apart you probably don't need my help, you can fix it your self 'CLICK'".

[Simmy]

Do you charge free diagnosis even if you travel to the customer? I would change that policy.

It sounded like he was asking you for a price to diagnose the problem and expecting to pay some money though? Either way, I think you could have tried to turn it into a job and offer to replace the fan for him. Or quote him for an hours labour to confirm it is the fan. I imagine the bloke was thoroughly confused if you hung up on him!

I used to offer a free diagnosis, but I stopped it purely because people took the piss. People expected me to travel to them and then walk out without a penny if they weren't happy with the quote I'd given them. "Free *anything*" attracts bad customers IMO. I offer a no-fix/diagnosis-no-fee which I think is fair. That was, I walk away unpaid if I decide I don't have a clue what the problem is and not when the customer decides they don't want to pay for my services.

I now think that even offering a free diagnosis if they bring the machine to you is a bad idea. You do all of the hard work, figure out the problem and then they can just bugger off and try to fix the problem themselves leaving you without any money.

EDIT - mini rant about people who phone up for free advice. I had a girl phone up the other day saying she'd put her laptop hard drive into a friends laptop and reinstalled windows onto it (the cd drive in her laptop didn't work). XP booted on her friends machine but it didn't boot when she swapped the hard drive back to her laptop. I told her the problem was the different hardware in the laptops and her method wouldn't work. She then asked if putting her friends cd drive into her laptop would work, to which I replied "that's one way of doing it". Before I could get another word in she said "hmmm...ok well I can do that myself *click*". I was bloody livid! I live in the hope that something has gone drastically wrong for her, like she accidentally put a screwdriver through her LCD.

[Heriberto t.]

i give free diagnostics but only if i fix the computer for you. other wise its $20 bucks. I have given free advice on myspace before, its not the same as phone support. Usually when people want phone support, i tell them there are many things that could be wrong, and that im busy so they'll have to make an appointment. just my 2 cents...

[ithinkyou5.0]

hahaha screwdriver threw the screen :P always teh nooby mistake "hmm it wont boot.. maybe if i stab it >.>" if its over the phone i give a free diagnosis and usualy sugest that they bring it over there really no way i can see to bill someone for a phonecall. but often problems cant be diagnosed over the phone anyway so then i just say ill come have a look. but diagnosis or repair an hour of my time is an hour of my time i could be spending it elsewhere fixing other problems so why should i charge any less?

[MrMille]

Free anything is insane, from a business perspective.

If you guys are saysing "free (if I get to fix it)" isn't free in any sense f the word.

You are simply tagging free into the clause with no intention of being free, ever,
as the fee you charge for the repair, will include the time to diagnose.

Free* blah blah is only for people who haven't a clue how to fix jack.

[Blues]

You can advertise that you waive the diagnostics fee for any jobs.

[14049752]

Originally Posted by i2omani

Guys,
how many of you get these calls. like today some ID10T called me and asked me , how much to diagnose his laptop for? (I advertise free diagnosis)

That exactly what he said, i took apart my laptop to change the fan, but i want you to come and diagnostic it for me

I said " Sir, if you already know how to take the fan apart you probably don't need my help, you can fix it your self 'CLICK'".

Maybe it's just me, but I don't see what's so bad here. Granted, the guy took the system apart and probably made things a lot worse, but why would you be so rude to him? Just politely decline the work, either telling him that you don't work on laptops, or you prefer not to work on laptops that are already disassembled.

[basic]

Originally Posted by 14049752

Maybe it's just me, but I don't see what's so bad here. Granted, the guy took the system apart and probably made things a lot worse, but why would you be so rude to him? Just politely decline the work, either telling him that you don't work on laptops, or you prefer not to work on laptops that are already disassembled.

I agree. Unless there is more to this story, I think you kind of jumped the gun.

[camp.cool007]

Wow. I'd make a special service charge just for those people. (Might be a tad bit problematic though)

[nonchalant]

Im very wary of giving diagnostics over the phone.

Once a customer has a pretty good idea of cause of the problem (and the likely resolution) it allows them to go away and ring around for the best possible price on the repair OR to go away and ring cousin Joe with the info so he can do the job for them for free.