Recently, I have received e-mails with a common theme. “How does one deal with a repair situation that he cannot handle?” To those of you who have been doing this for years, you’ve undoubtedly run into this situation at least once. For those of you who have not, I will tell you how I would handle it.

First thing to remember is that no one is expected to know everything. This concept is really scary when you are just starting out in the repair field. It is perfectly OK when you come across a situation where you have done everything known to man in order to make the darned thing work, but it is still a no-go situation. Below, we will look at some basic methods that you can use to retain not only your business with that client, but your pride as well.

• Welcome to a tech’s best kept secret: message boards. Any geek with more than a year’s experience in computers knows that IT-related message boards are an invaluable resource. Two of my favorites are the Lockergnome and the Computing.net message boards. Both of these sites have an enormous following and are flocked to by geeks and IT pros alike. As long as you can describe the problem clearly, providing all of the necessary information to help you, chances are you will have a lot of success here.
• Who do you trust? Do you have a fellow IT person that lives in your hometown whom you can trust? Luckily, I do. His name is Charles from RelyPC here in Bellingham,WA. We worked together on a previous networking installation job and just hit it off from the start. We don’t talk that often anymore, but we have a mutual respect that allows us to work together to solve common problems. When or if I come across a problem that I cannot seem to get resolved, I have been known to call him to see if he has some ideas that I might not have thought of. Please understand though, I am not recommending that you pick some guy randomly out of the phone book to become buddies with. This person needs to be someone that you trust so he does not turn around and use your moment of weakness against you. I know of two techs this has happened to, so beware!
• OK, I give up! Sometimes when you are really slammed, it is just not really worth it to continue to run the bill up for a client that you know you are not able to assist. If you find yourself in this situation, you’d just be better off referring them on. Keep in mind that this is a last resort. Once you do this, it is unlikely that you will ever see this person again or even receive a referral from them, either. Try to refer them to someone that you trust if at all possible.

No matter what, you should not let a bad situation get the best of you. All right, I realize that a number of you are going to be e-mailing me with your opinions that likely differ from what I have explained here. That is to be expected. However, this is what has proven to work in this industry for many years. I have been doing this a lot longer than most people my age and can honestly say that this policy has served me well in the long term.

Do you have a different method of dealing with this type of tough situation that you would like to share with me? By all means shoot me an e-mail and tell me about it. I would love to hear how each of you handles this type of circumstance.