My clients who bought a new Vista-equipped laptop have finally transported all their software and Internet settings to their new machine. Well, they did not really transport all the software. They bought new copies of Outlook and Office because that is what they are used to on the old machine and they did not like the alternatives. Between the fees they paid me to help them (regretfully, minimum), the new software, and the laptop itself, their total out of pocket expenses are about double the cost of the laptop by itself. In addition, it took them several days with calls to me and a couple of visits to help them sort out the new features. I do not know how to evaluate the cost of frustration.

These additional expenses should not be surprising. Anyone who has ever bought a new house knows that much additional expense will be accrued landscaping, doing window treatments, and generally converting the shell into a useful place to live. The same thing applies to laptops.

But any tutor who wants to build a clientele of repeat students is well advised to be honest about the various costs involved. If a client wants to learn Adobe, and has purchased a copy during one of the sales they have periodically, then advise that spending a little more money to get a classroom in a book with CD is a good thing. The additional cost will wipe out the savings of buying the software on sale, but is probably worth it for seniors who are going to be spending a lot time teaching themselves. They might object that since the software comes with documentation and some tutorial advice, they do not want to spend more money — particularly for something they might not use. At this point, what you do depends on your relationship with the student. With some you can politely insist, but with others, it is best to simply say, “OK,” and get on with it.

One client informed me that her new laptop did not need to have additional software because it came with Microsoft Office installed. She was genuinely crushed when I told her that was not strictly true, and she would have to spend more to get everything she wanted.

While these depressing thoughts were forming themselves into the basis of a column, I accidentally obtained a copy of a Consumer Reports article, Guerrilla guide to tech support: tips from 23,000 computer users (PDF). The essence of this article is that factory supplied tech support satisfies about 42% of the customers. Private people like me score much higher. That’s good. The average charge for an in-home visit is much higher than I charge. That’s bad.

Of course, my targeted market segment by definition tends to have less than average disposable capital, so one might not expect to be able to charge the average rates. But when I talk to other people who do similar things to what I do, they all cite considerable customer resistance to paying almost anything. They will risk their computer in the hands of a friend who had a similar problem once rather than obtain expert advice. Such is life.

Click here to read about my new tutorial on helping seniors. The new version has grown considerably over the original. It has more topics and anecdotes, and fewer typos. While you’re at it, check out my expanded tutorial on decision theory.

[tags]senior learning, adult education, senior computing[/tags]