PC Repair Business - Hints and tips

MikeFishcake

Oh, and for what it's worth, here was our T&C sheet that everyone had to sign when booking equipment in to our workshop:

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1. Data and Software
Although we (the engineers) take every care to make sure your data remains intact, we can not accept responsibility in the extremely unlikely event that data loss or corruption occurs. It is the owner’s responsibility to ensure that any critical information such as documents or photos are backed up.
In the case of data recoveries, due to the thorough nature of our data recovery procedures, previously deleted files can re-appear, even if the hard drive has been previously wiped. This may include any unwanted or unexpected files located in the “Temporary Internet Files” folder, or received as an email attachment.

2. Operating System (O.S.) installation
If you are having an OS re-installation, we can only install it if a valid license is present. This procedure deletes every single file on the computer, so it is up to you to ensure all your files are backed up and that you have the installation software for any applications you use.
PLEASE NOTE THAT MICROSOFT OFFICE IS NOT A STANDARD PART OF WINDOWS. Although some systems come with Microsoft Office (including Word, Excel, PowerPoint) installed at purchase, if you can’t supply your Microsoft Office CDs and license key, it can’t be installed. The same applies to software such as Photoshop and any other commercial programs.

3. Security
It is the owner’s responsibility to ensure that any security software is installed once returned. We will not be held responsible if any malicious software appears on the computer after it leaves our workshop.

4. Repair / Evaluation Schedule
The waiting time is usually just a few days; however in some circumstances, our workload can be dramatically increased and this waiting time may be longer. The engineers will advise the owner of the current approximate waiting time. If any replacement parts are needed, there may be an extended waiting time depending on availability from suppliers. Any equipment not collected within three months of evaluation will be disposed of.

5. Fees
A minimum repair charge of £20 is payable at the time of booking in. This may increase in the case of complex repairs including (but not limited to) notebook motherboard evaluations, data recovery or OS installations. The minimum charge will be included in the cost of any repair performed. The owner will be informed of this charge when booking in. Our standard rates are £20 per half hour and £35 per hour. We will not go ahead with any extra repairs without gaining the owner’s consent first. We can only accept payment in the form of Credit/Debit cards or Departmental Purchase Orders. The receipt must be presented in the workshop as proof of payment before the equipment can be returned.

6. Electronic Failure
In the case of faulty electronic components (such as power sockets for example) in extremely rare cases, electrical ‘arcing’ can be caused, the electronic components on a notebook motherboard can be stressed, and failure can appear to occur after a notebook PC has been booked in. In this case we will not accept responsibility for funding replacement components.

Customer:
I (the customer) am aware of any potential issues that may arise during the evaluation of my computer equipment. I have read and I accept the above terms and conditions.


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motorguy

MikeFishcake wrote: »

And for the love of all that is good and true, whatever you do, DON'T provide a service building new PCs for people. With rapidly shrinking margins and price wars with the big manufacturers, it's just not worth it any more. Apart from the fact that you won't be able to beat the likes of the Dell weekend offers (or HP, Acer etc), any calls you get from people will immediately piddle all over what tiny markup you made on the systems anyway.

Totally correct, plus they will expect your hand built machine to come with a 24/7 on site warranty for EVERYTHING that goes wrong. A friend of mine took dogs abuse over the phone from a customer demanding he come and fix the computer as it wasnt booting up. He drove 20 miles to the guys house in a snowstorm to find that the power lead had dropped out of the back of it.... :eek:

tootech

I work in the PC repair/ IT business - it is a hard job to earn a good wage from, especially the home user market. If you consider how much you charge out at - say £35 to £45 for the first hour, and take off your overheads, fuel, insurance, advertising etc that may leave you with £25 to £35. How long does it take to get to the job - 20mins?, half hour, that's nearly an hour there and back. So your £25 to £35 wage has almost halved. What if you need to take the system away - maybe halving your wage again.

Most home system repairs come in at about £60 to £75, so that includes virus/spyware removal jobs, ADSL faults, wireless setup/gremlins, PSU failures etc. The price is dictated by your customers ringing around different companies, not how nice you are, and also by how quickly you can get there. People are very impatient when they cannot access their email and ebay!

To make up my money I nearly always take the jobs and work late to do a visit or have 2 or 3 systems in for repair at once - take the job, juggle them all later. If you don't, someone else will.

Selling replacement parts does make good money - doubling up on memory, routers and PSU's are the most common ones I see.

Funnily enough I only come across 1 or 2 idiots a year, and like others say you can normally sniff them out on the phone - I ramp up the price and then see if they still want you to come out - often they don't.

Margins on new builds for me are about £100 to £150, but I have to deliver and install for free, that way I give a better service than PC World etc. It still takes an hour to build, hour to install Windows, 2 hours to deliver, setup and come back - it's money but not good money.

Small businesses do pay well, they also expect 100% commitment and service which is ok when you start off and there is not too much work, but when you are flat out earning your money, trying to focus on that wireless access point that is giving trouble whilst removing viruses on 2 machines and installing Windows on another and.... answering the phone can be incredibly stressful.

Employing someone to do the phone and paperwork stuff is nice, but not affordable for small businesses.

My view......as you have probably guessed is that it is a great way to earn a second wage/work from home.....but for a main wage to support a family and mortgage, na, it is a shortcut to being dead through heart failure.

Scott.

DaveBar

Good thread!

I'm considering going self employed at this as I have a good customer base I can tap into. One thing I'm always aware of though - if you touch a users PC, then you're then often responsible for all future problems on that PC in their eyes - regardless of what you did.... unfair I know, but that's how it goes!! :rolleyes:

motorguy

DaveBar wrote: »

if you touch a users PC, then you're then often responsible for all future problems on that PC in their eyes

Yeah that was pretty much our conclusions on this thread. Sounds like 'easy money' before you start but it rarely works out like that. A friend of mine only does PC Repairs / Networks / Broadband solutions for businesses. He openly asks if its a home PC or a business PC when people ring him, then declines the business if its a home machine - says its far too much hassle.

partybase

Hello All

I Have recently passed my ict degree and now want to setup my own ict technician business repairing and servicing personal computers and laptops for customers at either there home address or at a business property of my own

does anyone have any ideas how i would go about this or even and were i could possibly get the relevant information from

thank you in advanced for any help

Hestia

failing that, try business link or your local chamber of commerce for help re: start ups, running a business in general and potential pit-falls. Good luck

partybase

i had a look on the website advised business link and according to the site there aint any licences that i would require apart from a regulation.

does that mean providing that i follow the regulation that is required i would be able to set this up as a limited company and start advertising for business or is there other things that i am not noticing that i would need to do first, this will be a gamble for myself as i want to leave my current job and go straight into business on my own

viv0147

I think you need to consider insurance and get yourself an accountant and away you go good luck.

Savvy_Sue

partybase, as we already have a fairly comprehensive thread about this I have merged your question into that. Have a read from the start ...