Craigslist Caper

[GreyWolf]

Well let's put it this way your neighbors kid is free for checking their PC but it's all in the question of VALUE / EXPERIENCE of what they are getting.. Sure I'll offer free checkups for your rolex's please send them P.O. Box 277 .... 6-8 weeks turn around ;-)

In my book I don't give a flying you know what about competitor X cause chances are you'll end up fixing their mistakes on a so called free deal.

I'm like @Porthos I'll wave the diag fee if they do the repairs with me else wise I made more for a short period of time and I didn't have to deal with penny pinchers.

 

[Porthos]

I'm like @Porthos I'll wave the diag fee if they do the repairs with me else wise I made more for a short period of time and I didn't have to deal with penny pinchers.

Because of my experience, One quick look either in shop or remotely if possible I usually know what is wrong and have an Idea on cost. If they are not willing to pay at least that amount I just say I can not help them.

 

[Tony Hutton]

If a customer is unwilling to pay a diagnostic fee then you probably don't want that kind of customer anyway. Don't worry about what your competitor charges. One benefit of charging a fee is that you weed out the tire kickers and time wasters. When I had my phone repair shop, I could always tell whether a customer was serious by two questions when they called: 1) if the first words out of their mouths were "how much", I knew that they were just shopping around for the cheapest price, and 2) If the first words were "do you fix", then I knew that they were serious about getting their phones or tablets fixed.

 

[Porthos]

If a customer is unwilling to pay a diagnostic fee then you probably don't want that kind of customer anyway.

Not always, I have not had to charge the diag fee in years. The tire kickers are gone as soon as I give them an ESTIMATE and the ones not willing to pay the price I give them up front without a actual diag are already weeded out. Again, My estimates are 95% spot on.

 

[frase]

I just learned my competitor offers a free diagnosis. And I am $50. Hmmm..

If you dont want nonpaying low clients good for them. I don't call a plumber and get free diagnostics, call out fee is $80 in itself.

 

[NETWizz]

i think he has tried different mice. His OS doesnt seem to be playing nice either. I expect lots of corruption and conflicts.

I have never worked with Linux. I suppose i can make such a 'live CD' somewhere?

I wouldn't start working on this one because there is the implied warranty of merchantability that goes with any work you do or direct him to do (see Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act), and unless it is on a C&C Milling Machine or something like a laboratory instrument, it is not worth the risk in my opinion (especially when you direct him to to start running advanced tools like Linux Live CDs). You assume liability.

I would tell him that he can try a different USB port, try that mouse on a different computer, or try a different mouse on that computer, but other than that you cannot support software that old. That you suggest a replacement computer.

 

[NETWizz]

no offense taken! I take all helpful advice/criticism.. Its how we learn.

Yeah, I just got off the phone with this guy. Definite tire kicker. He told me he was able to load vista on top of his Windows 7 and it seems to work although still no USBs. He says he is happy. No money basically. Nice guy though but definitely I need to be aware of these people going forward.

He is nice now, but wait until he or someone nice like him plays the blame game. If you do work, make sure to get a signed work order/quote and inventory as well as forms indemnifying you for things like data loss though keep in mind you cannot really completely disclaim your own gross negligence, and it doesn't matter anyway because reputation is worth everything.

I am just saying if something happens and it is in your possession, it doesn't make it your fault, but an old system is likely to have a problem. I once worked on a Dell laptop running Windows XP cleaning it of Malware 13 or 14 years ago... made a backup image I keep for a few weeks before touching it. Then I returned it after having it in my shop. Needless to say the internal hard drive died probably from being jostled during transport. At any rate this thing was already old and had a 20 GB hard drive (back in the day), but I took responsibility for it even though it wasn't my fault. I happened to have a 40 GB hard drive laying around, which was at least a couple years newer than the one in this system, so I replaced that drive, restored the image, ran a complete drive check /w bad sectors to ensure the drive was 100%. Then I removed ALL the malware again. Drilled holes in the old hard drive, and simply returned it fixed and better than I got it.

 

[Diggs]

I have never worked with Linux. I suppose i can make such a 'live CD' somewhere?

You should have Linux both on a CD to use in diagnostics and installed on a (older) machine for experience and if nothing else to be able to use ddRescue for hard drive recovery. There is nothing better at a tech level than ddRescue IMHO. Beyond that for me it goes to the recovery experts. If you don't already have older machines laying around (you will soon enough) pick up something inexpensive on Ebay you can install and experience different Linux distros. In my early days I had my "experimental" machine with a bunch of different drives I'd plug in and out with different Linux distros or Windows experiments.

 

[RetiredGuy1000]

yeah i installed Linux Mint i think its called...an ISO image on a thumb drive. Then another thumb I have a bootable rescue disk for Linux. Although I tried booting into it and my laptop didnt recognize the usb. So I don't know if I saved everything using a different file format or what. I have some learning to do when it comes to Linux but Im willing to learn..

I like your idea of picking up a cheap laptop...Actually, i have a PC i just need to put a PSU in it as well as a ssd. That will work fine.

 

[nerd2u]

Don't focus on being cheaper than your competitors be better than them and charge accordingly

Sent from my SM-G870W using Tapatalk

 

[HCHTech]

Don't focus on being cheaper than your competitors be better than them and charge accordingly

Exactly. Enough segments of our economy are already in a freefall race to the bottom. There is no need for services to join them. I try to set my self apart by offering the best service and I'm not ashamed to say so or defend my pricing because of it. If folks want to go somewhere cheaper, just let them. There will be plenty of folks who appreciate the tradeoff of higher price for better service. Those are the customers you want.

 

[Diggs]

Although I tried booting into it and my laptop didnt recognize the usb.

Then you need to massage the BIOS to learn what the settings are to make it boot from USB. Probably shouldn't be done on your daily driver.

 

[Rosco]

i have gotten a few of my favorite clients from craiglist and most of my least favorite. The amount of time you spent on this client is way more than you should have. TO be fair we have probably all done this in the beginning. In the beginning i found to be a lot hungrier for work. Now that i have very consistent work if someone doesnt call one day i take it as a gift from above and enjoy it. You will get better a weeding out the tire kickers. I can tell pretty much right off the back if someone is going to want to really spend money. Just be nice and wish the tire kickers luck!


They charge now for computer service listing on craiglist? When i used to post i would do it at 12am so i was first on the list everyday.

 

[timeshifter]

yeah i installed Linux Mint i think its called...an ISO image on a thumb drive. Then another thumb I have a bootable rescue disk for Linux. Although I tried booting into it and my laptop didnt recognize the usb. So I don't know if I saved everything using a different file format or what. I have some learning to do when it comes to Linux but Im willing to learn..

Look into a device called an iODD. It's an external hard drive enclosure, USB, that you add your own SSD to. On the drive there is a folder called ISO. Simply copy an ISO image file to that folder. You can have up to 32 ISO files on there. The iODD has a little LCD display. You can select which "disk" to boot from. Indispensable!

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00S3G12E6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[River Valley Computer]

We have been in the computer business for 30+ years from doing specialty memory upgrades (4KB to 16KB) to modern day computer repair and sales. From the very beginning we didn't charge for diagnosis. We have found that we might lose 2% to people not wanting it repaired. They're not carrying their desktop 20 miles and bringing it into the store if they didn't have the intention of resolving the issue. Many times we turn it to a sale of a new or refurbished system. I (owner of the stores) personally find it a little offensive to charge for diagnositics. Most of my staff have many years of experience and can pretty well tell what is wrong really quick, What does irritate us are the people that call up on the phone and want us to diagnosis it over the phone - the majority of the time we say bring to in - we might need to do some tests that we can't do over the phone.

 

[RetiredGuy1000]

thank you both. Will definitely look up the iODD!

River Valley, what about a situation where I am availing myself to meeting at the client's home or business? I agree with you that an in-house diagnosis charge is unnecessary for all the reasons you cite, But what if someone wants you to come to their place? Seems to me a diagnosis charge of $50 is in order. Because what if you drive out there and they decide not to do a repair? You are out your time. Its less of a hassle if they came to see you, but more so if you went to see them.

 

[Diggs]

what about a situation where I am availing myself to meeting at the client's home or business?

I charge 1/2 my hourly on-site rate for estimates and explain it that way to them. They see you meeting them half way and it provides goodwill. Many times I'll do the same thing when I go on-site for something simple like their printer doesn't work. I show up, plug the printer into the wall and all is good. I'll split my normal rate with them. I'll also check updates, anti-virus, HDD status and a few other things for a few minutes to show good support or drum up more business if something is wrong

@add - But, this is usually non-refundable against future work as the site visit is different and incurs additional expense rather them bringing me a computer.

 

[GreyWolf]

if you can't get the usb to work here's a fun tool to get access to it via cd/dvd drive https://www.plop.at/en/bootmanagers.html

 

[River Valley Computer]

thank you both. Will definitely look up the iODD!

River Valley, what about a situation where I am availing myself to meeting at the client's home or business? I agree with you that an in-house diagnosis charge is unnecessary for all the reasons you cite, But what if someone wants you to come to their place? Seems to me a diagnosis charge of $50 is in order. Because what if you drive out there and they decide not to do a repair? You are out your time. Its less of a hassle if they came to see you, but more so if you went to see them.

Good point - I didn't mention in-house. For situations like that we charge a $79.99 service call which includes .5 hours then $60/hr after that in .5 hour increments. I thought you were predominantly B&M.

 

[frase]

I use Partition Magic Via USB - Linux based

Wtf is the .5? I charge $80 initially / then 35 each half hour. Things are sorted within an hour though.