Another Big Box Store PC Repair Ripoff

Whenever big business gets into a technical field such as repair, red flags ought to go off in every consumer’s mind. Without highly knowledgeable management and a tiered structure of technical expertise, customers are at the mercy of whomever has the job land in their lap.
Making matters worse is the sorry state of resources available to technical people so they can actually learn their craft. It has always been very expensive to teach the real skillset of basic computer repair (how would you like to give 30, perfectly good, systems to total novices for them to take apart?) and the pressure for profit results in inexperienced technicians being taught by untrained, slightly more experienced, people who’s only real accomplishment is to have avoided a catastrophic mistake.
What; use a voltmeter to check that power supply or a diagnostic to see if the hard drive is failing before we reinstall Windows? Geeze, nobody ever taught me to do those things!

My first computer (aside from commodore and spectrum) was built for me many years ago by a friend from spares I scrounged from the school I work at. I quickly learned to build my own and have never bought a store pc. The friend in question now comes to me for help. What I am trying to say is the cost of buying a pc and having a ‘technician’ repair it is beyond my means. (Single parent, part time work, struggling to pay the bills). I learned because I had to. I did a course at a local (UK) college and found I was giving the ‘tutors’ advice. Other students telling them they had lost their XP password and the ‘tutors’ telling them that there was nothing could be done short of a re-install. I often intervened to tell them the password could be bypassed and reset. Amongst other issues the ‘tutors’ supposed were catastrophic. I have also had many pc’s from friends and friends of friends who have taken them to be repaired to be told it was not repairable. I have fixed them all. Without fail. For free.
So I believe there is an element of technicians not worthy of the title and industry after a quick buck. Maybe I am old fashioned, but what ever happened to service? Where an easy repair would be given freely, to accumulate customer loyalty? I never charge my friends for the help I give them. I like the work and the challenge. I admit that sometimes I am dismayed when a ‘tech’ says ‘At least £40’ and I do it for free and they don’t say ‘well here’s a fiver’ (UK speak for five pounds!) but to me, that is the nature of the beast.
A computer store, some years ago opened close to me. I had a problem on my own machine I was unable to fix. (My knowledge then was still rudimentary). I believed, it turned out correctly that the problem was with my video card. I went to the shop, explained to the technician. He gave me a video card, told me to try it and if it worked, come back and pay. If it didn’t, bring the card back, no charge. It didn’t work, I took the card back and he said bring the computer in and I’ll look at it. He fixed it and charged me only the original £10. Service. Not very surprisingly, the shop closed down some months later.
What I am trying to say is when the ordinary guy is ignorant of the technology, there will be rip-off merchants. But I must add, when I try to explain to people about internet security, how to avoid problems and a little knowledge can save money, they don’t seem interested.
I try to do good where I can. Not just in pc repair, but in all my involvement with people. And in this case, it seems the gentleman was not aware of the pitfalls. And fair play to the guy who intervened.

As an aside, which I think is relevant I used to repair ‘white goods’. Fridges, freezers, washing machines etc. Me and a mate decided to go it alone. We bought a van and priced ourselves way below the going rate to build up a customer base. We soon found that we were not getting many jobs. We gave up and went back to working for somebody else. We still got the occasional call asking to do a repair. So, rather than turn down work, but not really wanting to do ‘foreigners’ in our leisure time, we decided we would make it worth our while and quoted silly prices, way above the going rate. We never had a job turned down. This suggests that the consumer expects a hefty fee to equate to good workmanship, while an economical fee suggests shoddy workmanship. Neither we, nor our work changed with our charges. Only our willingness to take on jobs. I’ll allow you to decide who was wrong- us or the consumer.

I do agree that 7 out of 10 computer technicians do rip off customers of does sloppy jobs. I run a computer repair firm in New York and I always properly diagnose and repair the problem at its root cause and charge exactly what the problem truly cost. I guess I am one of the few honest computer repair technicians around.