PC Repair Business - Hints and tips

Grade_A_Reject

If this thread was a PC it would be obsolete by now. :rolleyes:

motorguy

ukbill69 wrote: »

Im in the pc repair business and have been for over 2 years now and in last 6 months ive seen 100's of new companies/websites coming online. Its all it workers out of jobs. Im thinking of other ideas, as these people are undercutting to make a quick buck.

+1

Legit, tax paying companies with reputations to protect will be undercut by people trying to subsidise their dole money with cash in hand work...

nrg13

ukbill - that's all well and good, but how many will stay the course? I think few will have the capital to seriously pursue this unless they have other income.

As I've said, profits have been paltry to begin with, but I'm prepared to wait. Not many people on the dole can afford £50/wk on advertising on the off chance it will take off.

I had 3k left over from IR35 contracting last year which has helped (admittedly, the bank balance is still hovering around 3.1k) and after a month it still hasn't rocketed.

Any hints and tips for someone starting out? What's been the best advertising/marketing method(s)?

pgilc1 - It's a risk in any industry really. Quite a few of my customers seem to have horror stories of people who have let them down - misdiagnosis, rushed jobs, never returning calls etc. Basically, odd-jobbers who aren't putting the proper effort in. Only one job has gone badly for me - had to return to the customers site 3(!) times - it was a real niggling fault, but I (just) made a profit out of it all, and the customer seemed happy.

ukbill69

ukbill - that's all well and good, but how many will stay the course? I think few will have the capital to seriously pursue this unless they have other income.

I think these people are going to kill my business. Small firms dont take good to under cutting tax dodgers in these times. No one has money, so its all about the price with the customer, not service, not whos best. PRICE!

One thing I ask, do your customers test your knowledge when they call?

NO they dont, its like can you fix.... what price.... ill get back to you.

motorguy

ukbill69 wrote: »

I think these people are going to kill my business. Small firms dont take good to under cutting tax dodgers in these times. No one has money, so its all about the price with the customer, not service, not whos best. PRICE!

One thing I ask, do your customers test your knowledge when they call?

NO they dont, its like can you fix.... what price.... ill get back to you.

Any scope to drop your prices until things improve Bill? It might be better to make enough to keep you ticking over?

Also, what about dropping your hourly rate, but adding a little to parts prices?

chrisb1357

Hi all,

I have been reading this thread with intrest after using the search feature on here and found it. I am currently been out of work for 6 months after working 9 years as a IT Technician. Having not found another job to goto yet i have been thinking is it worth starting up on my own giving support to home users or is it not worth it.

Any thoughts on this as i thought its worth asking on here before jumping the gun.

Chris

Ellis456

Nice thread,

I fix/problem solve friends/familys pc's in my spare time, I charge £15 to take a look. My last was my sister's friend, she said her computer was shutting down, so I said I would pop around, took a look and yup was heat related, also her graphics card was dieing on her, so replaced it with a spare of mine and also gave the heatsink and pc a good clean and was up and running again.


Now you would think easy peasy but no, she calls my sister a few days after, she says her her pc is taking too long to shutdown, I told her when I was their that it was related to software and that could be fixed another time when I was free, yet now it's apprently "all my fault", she also complained playing games she could see differnt colors, I told her that's because I has upgraded her graphics card and was now showing 32bit colors not 16 yet again it was "my fault" and I should now come out "for free":rolleyes:.

Guess what she used a pc repair bloke before me who never fixed her problem at £40 an hour and 5 visits!, I fixed her pc problem within 30 minutes for £15!!!.

Some people just really dont get it, I told her to go use her usless £40 an hour bloke as im not fixing her pc's anymore!.


Really it's a right headache, people will blame you for any future problems on their computers and you should fix it for free.:mad:

toasterman

Ellis' scenario is likely a common one, although I don't know if it's necessarily the user's fault.
Some will undoubtedly try it on to get all they can for free, but a lot of it is misunderstanding.

Before you go it's got one problem, after you leave it's got another.
All they know is it's different.

For example, I'm alright with IT stuff, but cars I know nothing about. When I took my old Rover to a garage for a service a few years ago, only to find out a bit of the exhaust pipe broke a week later, I was convinced it was the Rover garage's fault.
I'm far too British/cowardly to complain (plus I thought it might just be a coincidence), so I got it fixed at my now-preferred garage, and never went back to the first garage again.
I didn't have any servicing on it at all after that - I think maybe it really was the rust and cobwebs holding it together.

Edit: That said, when I looked at someone's "internet problem" only to find out they were stealing cable with a chipped set-top box, and that it had stopped working because the cable company had found out, I was less than pleased to get phone calls at a later date telling me "it's still not working", when I'd told them the easiest/cheapest way to get it working was to pay the cable company for the actual service they were receiving!!

Turnip_Edd

:undecided... I was a 'temp' with (rhymes) ChecktheSkies earlier in the year..

bit of an eye opener... you get given calls & a part (yes 1) and go out on your route around them all. If any job turns out to need a different part, from that issued, then you are 'encouraged' not to 'FAIL' the call.. but get someone to pop out, from office & meet up on the road, with another part so you can (hopefully) fix it FIRST TIME! Stats are all that matters..

the engineers used to have 'stock on board' but that was scrapped... so now you have possibly 2 visits(& mileage/time) and still have to work till your finished.

did a week...

Turnip_Edd

toasterman

Turnip_Edd wrote: »

(rhymes) ChecktheSkies earlier in the year..

bit of an eye opener... you get given calls & a part (yes 1) and go out on your route around them all. If any job turns out to need a different part, from that issued, then you are 'encouraged' not to 'FAIL' the call.. but get someone to pop out, from office & meet up on the road, with another part so you can (hopefully) fix it FIRST TIME! Stats are all that matters..

On a similar line, I wonder if anyone reading this has tried any of the others like this?

There's a company called Getronics who do support for Dell warranties.
The theory is that when you phone Dell for support, you talk to telephone support - they resolve it if not. If it's a hardware fault, they work out what it is, and dispatch an engineer, where you come in.

According to Getronics' advert for engineers on Jobsite/Reed I was reading, you get £20 for fixing a PC, £30 for fixing a server, but no expenses/fuel allowance and no guaranteed workload.
Also, the amount they claim you can earn is ridiculous - quotes of up to £300 in some adverts. Nobody is doing 10 client sites a day, unless they're not sleeping.
Dell claim all their engineers are certified - which they are, with a DCSE Dell engineering exam.

A friend of mine had one of these guys in their office recently and got chatting to him - and it's estimated you can fix a server in 40mins and a PC in 20mins, and if you can't, they want to know why. Likewise, it's estimated you reach your next destination in avg 45mins. Surely depends where it is?
Overtime (weekends) was priced at £16 per day extra.