Oleg
Bellsouth Fastaccess
Premium
join:2003-12-08
Birmingham, AL
| [video] ABC Crash Get Burned Computer Repair
Do research first before going to the computer repair place.
»www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7PFU4spHJQ |
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RR Conductor
RailRoadDude
Premium
join:2002-04-02
Redwood Valley, CA
 ·Comcast
2 edits | No worries here, when I have computer problems I turn to a computer geek, myself  I don't usually charge myself either, though I do sometimes have big arguments with myself, that can get ugly lol
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You've got to stand for something, or you'll fall for anything. |
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BlitzenZeus
Burnt Out Cynic
Premium,MVM
join:2000-01-13
Beaverton, OR
 ·Verizon FIOS
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| reply to Oleg
Sadly nothing new in the world of uninformed users. Many of these companies give the good ones a bad name. They can try to defend their high rates, but in reality they can't. If people are really going to these places they might as well consider buying a new computer, or ask a friend to come over going to many of these rip off artists, especially geek squad. However I will say that to Geek Squad's benefit they usually won't charge you unless they find, and can fix the problem, which is a common practice of good shops.
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My hourly rates:
$25 per hour.
$35 per hour if you want to watch.
$45 per hour if you want to help.
$75 per hour if you tried to fix it, and failed.
$125 per hour if you called tech support, and didn't fix the issue while making things worse |
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cdru
Go Colts
Premium,MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN
| said by BlitzenZeus  :They can try to defend their high rates, but in reality they can't. The most expensive company was $100 plus 6.6% sales tax. My guess is that they have a $100/service call minimum or $100/hour. Yes it does seem high, but if that was their stated rate before and the customer excepted, there isn't too much room to complain about being burned.
Running a business where you prorate a $100/hour job that takes 5 minutes to $8.33 isn't going to make you money? How many tradesman contractors such as electricians, plumbers, hvac techs, etc have a service call fee that is around $100 too? Most. |
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Jeffrey
too dark too early
Premium
join:2002-12-24
Dix Hills,NY
clubs:
·Optimum Online
·Verizon FIOS
 ·Vonage
·magicjack.com
1 edit | said by cdru :said by BlitzenZeus :They can try to defend their high rates, but in reality they can't. Running a business where you prorate a $100/hour job that takes 5 minutes to $8.33 isn't going to make you money? How many tradesman contractors such as electricians, plumbers, hvac techs, etc have a service call fee that is around $100 too? Most. That's the thing. I don't find $50 to $75 a big deal for someone to come to your house and diagnose this problem.
My drier stopped working back in February, and I hadn't a clue what happened. Called an electrician, he came over 10 hours after my call, was here for 10 mins and found the problem. Dryer was only getting 110 instead of 220 from the box, and charged me the $75 visit fee only.
Guess what? He gets a call again the next time my ass needs an electrician.
The fact of the matter is that as a consumer you're paying for the lack of knowledge. Surely it would have been free (or next to free) if a person could unplug their PC, open it up, and plug the power cable back in. It's a 5 minute job, but they didn't or couldn't do it. So guess what? You gotta pay someone.
I know zero about dryers and electricity, so paying a guy $75 for 10 mins worth of work to have the peace of mind knowing my dryer wasn't broken was $75 well spent, especially considering I lack knowledge about all things electrical. (I can change a lightbulb, but that's about it.) 
If any of these guys had charged for items not broken, then I could see more room for argument.
--
"Honesty may be the best policy, but it's important to remember that apparently, by elimination, dishonesty is the second-best policy." - George Carlin
[my ramblings] |
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sivran
Long Live The Suite
Premium
join:2003-09-15
Arlington, TX
clubs:
·RoadRunner Cable
| reply to Oleg
Loved the CRT dropping in the vid.
And the "don't know our RAM from our hard drive" bit, where it showed a picture of the animal Ram.
But let's jump into the geek's shoes a minute: he's going into a situation blind, having only an often useless description of the problem. Granted, first time he punches the power button, that hard drive failure message the bios so kindly provides should be a dead giveaway to open the case, and once the case is open, bam: unplugged power cable. But beforehand? The customer may ask (and did in the video) what might be wrong, and the tech may just start throwing out possibilities. Once the machine is powered on, all those ideas go out the window of course. Kinda like so:
"So what might be wrong with it?"
"Well, it COULD be any number of things. The motherboard, the ram, or the hard drive, or even corrupt windows files.."
*punches power button*
"Oh, it's the hard drive."
OTOH, in the video, it looked like a couple of those guys had the thing on and still couldn't figure it out. Those guys... need to find a different line of work.
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The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon profitable cause... |
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Oleg
Bellsouth Fastaccess
Premium
join:2003-12-08
Birmingham, AL | O yea corrupt windows files when you can't even get into OS |
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cdru
Go Colts
Premium,MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN
| reply to sivran
said by sivran :OTOH, in the video, it looked like a couple of those guys had the thing on and still couldn't figure it out. Those guys... need to find a different line of work. I'd want to see the entire video before passing too much judgment. It's hard to tell from a 3 second clip how long he's been there. While "Is it plugged in" is one of the basic checks that should be done, I know it's not my first thing. I'll usually check to see if it shows up during boot, appears in the bios, etc. I couldn't tell if he had done other steps first and I doubt anyone else could either. |
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Oleg
Bellsouth Fastaccess
Premium
join:2003-12-08
Birmingham, AL
| reply to Oleg
Here is another video the same lies.
»www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxqx4hgeKgQ |
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Oleg
Bellsouth Fastaccess
Premium
join:2003-12-08
Birmingham, AL
| reply to Oleg
More »www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmNrm9vHBHs |
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Oleg
Bellsouth Fastaccess
Premium
join:2003-12-08
Birmingham, AL
| reply to Oleg
»www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHrbid_uf4k |
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RR Conductor
RailRoadDude
Premium
join:2002-04-02
Redwood Valley, CA
·Comcast
1 edit | reply to Oleg
I'd feel a little guilty charging more than 10 bucks to plug a cable back in, I'd probably do like that one shop and not charge anything, I mean, come on. This business has some good people in it, but there are a LOT of crooks and greedy people in it too 
--
You've got to stand for something, or you'll fall for anything. |
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Camelot One
Premium,MVM
join:2001-11-21
Sarasota, FL
clubs:
| reply to Oleg
As pointed out at the VERY end, AFTER they've stated how much these companies "overcharged", Geeksquad......the group most of us independents base our pricing off of, was more than DOUBLE any of the "high" prices. And with a 2 week turn around time on the appointment.
$50-$100 for a qualified tech to come to your home is certainly within reason.
And then there is the idiot factor that hasn't been pointed out. All of these videos create a "simple" problem of unplugging either the IDE or the SATA power cable. Neither of those cables just magically come loose in a stationary DESKTOP computer, unless it's been mishandled(dropped, kicked, etc), or the user has been inside the case. So while I tend to charge little to nothing for simple fixes, I would be inclined to add an idiot fee upcharge on something like this.
I also think based on the above, these "tests" are crap. Yeah its an easy problem to identify, but its also one that should never happen. (in a stationary desktop) So for a tech to take 24 minutes to crawl under the user's desk and run down the list of COMMON problems seems perfectly reasonable.
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Intel Q6600 @3400Mhz/GA-EP35-DS3P/2x 2048Mb G.Skill/Seagate 750.10/EVGA 8800GT's SLI/Silverstone 850W/Custom water cooler |
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sivran
Long Live The Suite
Premium
join:2003-09-15
Arlington, TX
clubs:
·RoadRunner Cable
| quote:
I also think based on the above, these "tests" are crap. Yeah its an easy problem to identify, but its also one that should never happen. (in a stationary desktop) So for a tech to take 24 minutes to crawl under the user's desk and run down the list of COMMON problems seems perfectly reasonable.
While it's true that a cable is unlikely to become completely disconnected in a desktop, it's not out of the realm of possibility for it to become loose and it's still such a simple problem to spot and fix that any tech who takes much longer than a few minutes to find the problem obviously skipped some basic steps. It'd be painfully obvious as soon as the machine was turned on.
And let's be honest here: the symptom that unplugging the drive creates is pretty much the same as that which a dead drive creates, and that's quite a bit more common than an unplugged cable. The fact it was just an unplugged cable just means the tech gets to say, "Good news! Your hard drive ISN'T dead!"
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The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon profitable cause... |
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Oleg
Bellsouth Fastaccess
Premium
join:2003-12-08
Birmingham, AL | I agree with everyone here about unplugged IDE or SATA cable they could of put a bad hard drive. |
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Oleg
Bellsouth Fastaccess
Premium
join:2003-12-08
Birmingham, AL | reply to Oleg
Haha installing hardware in laptop computer will cost you $39 load of crap  |
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