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Computer Repair Warranties
Do you warranty your computer repair work? Some computer technicians don’t warranty their work at all while others warranty their work, but have very specific terms in what is covered and what isn’t. I personally provide a warranty on my work and in this article I would like to tell you why its a good idea to warranty your work and how to avoid it coming back and biting you.
First of all, lets talk about the advantages to you of providing a warranty on your computer repair work. One of the biggest advantages of offering a warranty is that it builds almost instant trust with the client. The client wants the problem to be fixed right the first time and not have to spend any more money fixing something that should have already been fixed. A work warranty shows that you are confident in your skills and that you will look after your client.
Most other computer technicians don’t advertise that they warranty their work and by doing so, it differentiates you from your competition. Think about it from a clients perspective, you open up the Yellow Pages book and see 2 pages full of computer repair services. Most of them can do the service the client wants, all of them look fairly professional and most of them are fairly close to where the client lives. The client doesn’t want the cheapest price because they believe you get what you pay for but they don’t want to get ripped off either, so what makes the difference? a computer repair warranty can.
Long before I ever advertised that I warranty my own work I pretty much had an unspoken warranty anyway. If you are paid to fix something and you didn’t fix it right the first time, charging for it again just isn’t right. When an issue returns that I was supposed to have fixed properly returns, my reputation and abilities takes a hit in the customers eyes so returning to fix the problem is a good chance to patch this damage and make things right.
Also, since I don’t like having to go back to a clients place and without getting paid, it makes me a better technician because I am much more thorough. Since it takes more time being thorough (doing everything you should do as a technician, but not “padding out” the call) and educating the client on how to avoid the problem from occurring again, you can also charge more.
I have seen hundreds of clients so far this year and so far I have only had to go back to the clients about four times in total, all of the times it was caused by something I overlooked.
I am sure some of you are thinking that the client will probably blame every single future computer problem on you whether it was related to the work you did or not and expect you to fix it for free. This is where you have a work order outlining your warranty terms.
First of all you must put a time limit on your work warranty. Most issues, if they are going to return will return in a few days after the service date so you might want to make it a week or two after the service date. You don’t want to make it too long because this gives too much time for the client to get themselves in trouble with a new problem.
You should specify warranty voiding conditions such as the accessing of porn sites and the use of Peer-to-Peer applications since as there is a high chance of the client getting a virus when using these. If you find any these on the clients system then the warranty is voided and the problem it is considered a new issue. You should also mention that if you find the computer has been tampered with outside the normal use of the computer then your warranty is also voided.
Of course, whether the client has done any of these warranty voiding conditions, it often comes down to opinion so it might we wise to write that you or your technicians make the final decision. To make sure the client doesn’t get upset about this and think you are trying to get out of honoring your warranty, be sure to educate the client on why the virus is a new virus or show the evidence that the computer has been tampered with.
Do you warranty your computer repair work?
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Excellent. Never thought of warning people away from porn sites/p2p seems obvious now though. Am going to have to draft something up now!
I put my warrenty policy right on my website so there is no question about me having one or not. It has been there since I built my site.
Excellent advice, Bryce!
Bryce – great stuff here and thanks for opening this discussion. I’ve offered a warranty since I began and feel just as strongly as you do – I just do not believe in charging again for something that I previously fixed or tried to fix. That said you have given me some ideas to tweak my warranty to protect myself better – thanks again.
I had a long time client that was a senior citizen. He requested I work on a printer and word processing software problem. The repair was minor, a couple of missing drivers and a program deleted. I fixed the problems, was paid for the service call and thought all was well. A few days later I received another call from the same client for a similar problem. I looked over the PC, figured I missed something and made the repair at no charge. A few weeks later I got another call from the same person, same trouble as original call…. bottom line, the client was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, and his actions were the root cause for the service calls. How would you have handled a warranty call like this? I didn’t charge for the multiple calls.
There are always going to be situations that slip through the cracks. Depending on how advanced this guys alzheimers is, show him (or his wife/carer) that he is the cause. They can’t expect you to cover changes he made.. From there, you can say you can lock down the machine and charge accordingly.
I agree if I messed up I don’t charge the client, but on the other hand if they want me to “clean” the computer from the virus or Trojan / spyware I tell them there is no guarantee that the system will stay clean since some of these buggers just keep coming back. I will charge them then to reformat a system. for cleaning I usually use a BartPE DVD and run every cleaning u can use and it works 95% of the time. I also tell clients if they use accounts with admin rights it’s their problem. I have a web programmer kill 2 computers in 2 weeks by going to some website (not I will not try to figure out which one) I finally told the boss he no longer get admin rights on his main login, but I made him a 2nd login account to login. the rest of my clients can not install anything so even if they do get infected the most you have to do is delete the infected profile. ALso I have been using OPENDNS for my dns server and locking down what websites the companies can goto, some of the end users complain but the owners love me for it.
@Bryce – Do you have anything for a example for warranty terms that I could look at? And where do you put your warranty terms? (For Example: Invoice, work order, website or what?) Just curious. I myself don’t imply a warranty on my labor but if the same exact issue/problem comes back within a few days then I will fix it for free. I don’t want a reputation as a Bad Tech that doesn’t fix things and charges a extreme amount for the same issue. It is sort of hard to do warranties because of especially malware/spyware. I don’t warranty work on a computer that has been compromised by malware. But I do warranty hardware that I have installed.
@Andy and @mflstc – I seen your warranty terms on your websites and it looks good. I’m just wondering if a customer would ever challenge it in court. I would have to have a lawyer draft something up to cover everything. But I guess something is better than nothing whether you have a lawyer draft it up or just yourself.
Bryce,
Great idea here and kind of a coincidence for me. I’ve always implicitly warrantied my work, with the terms understood by me but not stated to the customer – it seemed better to just do good work and not charge for my ‘go-backs’ unless there was obvious tampering or reinfection.
The coincidence was a potential client who asked me several incisive questions about what distinguished my services from Best Buy and the like aside from price. So far it doesn’t appear I won the customer over since she values price over personal and flexible service, but that’s okay because now I understand much more about what makes my services unique because our conversation informed my analysis. And I’m happy to let clients who only value low cost experience service from Best Buy. In fact, I recall receiving the worst laptop warranty service from them several years ago that probably inspired me to create my business as truly customer-service oriented.
Best,
Rob
Great advice. I dont know how many times I have to tell people the very same things. Glad I’m not the only one.
I warranty for hardware — and most of the time I’m putting in something new so it has it’s own warranty anyway. If it’s used I’ll give them a warranty as well, but for a shorter duration. Anything like virus/spyware/malware protection and I give them only a week, and only after installing protection on their system.
thanks for the advise…i really learn a lot from this site…
Good post Bryce. I think it’s critical that the warranty terms be clearly stated the customer when necessary.
I always warranty my work for a couple of weeks, but have not put anything in writing. As you said acting in a responsible manner pays off. We have a multi county reputation for taking care of the client. People come from as far as 50+ miles, because they know they wont get burnt here. I have even fixed things after a week or so caused by P2P or porn.
Technibble is a great website.
Thanks
I have to admit I do not offer much of a warranty. Personally it is hard for me to take responsibility for a computer I have never sold, used, maintained or worked on before. I try my best and if its my fault I would fix it of course. But I don’t feel its my responsibility.
Case and point.
I had an old lady who went to a competitor who sold her $250 in work and upgrades for a dial up problem. I went to her house after and discovered a bad phone cord.. pushed it in a bit more.. and bam worked no problem. A few days later she calls back and says the dial up isn’t working anymore…I mention booking another appointment and she says angrily “ive already spent $300 on this computer!!!” Would you warranty this?
@Computer Heroes – You don’t need to warranty hardware but it’s a good idea to offer a warranty for “service labor”. Thus, if you mess something up or forget to do something you go back and fix it for no additional charge. But if you discover that a hardware component failed you simply tell the client that hardware is not covered and give an estimate for the repair.
I believe that there are several very big mistakes that are being made here !
First, ALL, absolutely all, work done by a professional (taking money) is accompanied by a warranty. Depending on country and/or state (in the US) this warranty is implicit and regulated by federal and state law.
The warranty applies to ALL work done and to ALL sales of hardware.
Generally, in most cases, this legal warranty is at least 2 weeks for labor and at least 1 year for hardware !!
Second, in absense of WRITTEN documents regulating warranty issues within the federal regulations you have absolutely no other issue than to comply to any warranty request. For many crafts and businesses you can contact your chamber of commerce or trade for details.
Third, written warranty limitations are void if they do not respect federal or state legislation. An example : you buy a motherboard at Fry’s. This motherboard has a minimum warranty of one year (there is no way the warranty could be less as federal law regulates a minimum warranty of one year). Now imagine that you resell this moterboard 3 months later to one of your clients. You will have to warranty this mobo for one year starting on the day of sale !! eventhough you yourself have only seven months of warranty left from Fry’s (naturally this only applies to new articles. Used articles may have shorter warranty periods, minimally these are usually 3 months)
It is very important to understand this completely, as you WILL be held to this sooner or later. It is equally important that you regulate all your warranty exceptions explicitly on your (signed) work order.
Last, once again as a professional you are disavantaged as pizza techs do not need to warranty their work (no bill, no warranty)
I offer a “limited warranty” on all computers I sell. The warranty is very specific as to what will repair, replace, or refund. This generally only includes hardware. The way I have it, the customer has to literally agree to the whole warranty in its entirety and initial. Then the warranty is valid for the specified time. The specified time is based on how long my vendor will warranty the machine. This way, if a device failure occurs (which has) I won’t have to take the full brunt of the cost.
I generally don’t warranty in the same manor Malware removal. This is what I do. I use AVAST primarily for those services externally or internally. The cool thing about AVAST is this boot time scanner it has. Once you update the software, and run the boot time scanner, it creates a log of what was removed. After the process is done and I have tested the machine and found it to have no viruses. That is logged. I print that log and show the customer what I removed in each sweep. This is proof that I did the service. If the computer is clean at that point it is the customer’s job to keep it clean. I help them by telling them that porn accounts from like 95% of virus calls I get and the other 5% is from Limewire or something like it. Then I help them by giving them tips on safer computing.
Now you should be looking at a black and white screen,you will need to use you arrow keys to navagate down about four spot’s “untill it says start at last sucessful boot attempt.
I’ve tried everything on the net that people said to try but nothing works. How much would Fry’s cost to repair this problem?
Basically in CS you work with learning how to program and applying that to specific areas like web programming, database programming, etc.
Deskside support is slowly being phased out (where the repair tech comes to your desk). PCs have gotten so “cheap” that it’s less expensive for a company to have a few spares on hand, swap out the hard drive and poof!
The tech repair guys (unless you want to strike out on your own and target home and small business users) are low paid employees due to the commoditization of PCs.
….things they don’t tell you when buying a warranty. I have a warranty with microcentter. I guess I fell to read the time line…I reread the warranty, no time line as to how long they can keep the computer. I took the computer to the service department, one week turn around, then a call back, two weeks or longer (business days). I call the manager, and ask, you could keep it for six weeks? He had a lost of words….there is no time line to repair the computer.
Hey, great article. Another idea that has really hit big for my company and might be an option for others: my supplier here in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada – Memory Express – has for some time now been offering their own in-house hardware replacement warranty. It is so good that I don’t even ask my clients. I buy pretty much all hardware with their 4-year warranty and am able to pass it on to my clients because it follows the serial number and not who bought it! Defective hardware is replaced as many times as necessary up to the full four years, and outdated items are replaced with the next best model. This is one of the best deals one could hope for. I’ve noticed that other companies have tried to imitate this but none have done exactly the same. Check this out at http://www.memoryexpress.com/Information/IPRDetail.aspx and maybe your supplier might want to do something similar. It’s more than worth it for the supplier, the tech, and the client.