Cheap computer repairs!

[wmrcomputers]

Fixed price PC repairs in and around stafford. £20 call-out & labour no matter on how long it takes! Extra fuel fee applies outside of Stafford. NO FIX - NO FEE!
See www.wmrcomputers.co.uk for more information

 

[Admin]

Hi wmrcomputers, welcome to Stafford Forum

I will leave this blatant ad here for the time being, as I assume you are going to contribute to The Forum elsewhere and join in the discussions. If that turns out not to be the case though, don't be surprised to see your advert disappear

Have fun, and don't do anything I wouldn't do!

 

[tek-monkey]

Not a bad price (although says £25 on your site?). Good luck with it

 

[Sofa]

£20 flat fee? No matter how long it takes? Really?

 

[My Name is URL]

I imagine he'll make a good markup on parts to cover the labour fee?!?!

 

[ToriRat]

I already have a complete technical and parts service covering me- My Hubbyrat He just made my pc water cooled so now Ican play WoW all day without thermalling YAY

 

[wmrcomputers]

Not a bad price (although says £25 on your site?). Good luck with it

The £20 is an offer to you lovely members of Stafford Forum

 

[wmrcomputers]

£20 flat fee? No matter how long it takes? Really?

Yes, really!
I'm only just starting up (although done this work before for a long time), so need to spread good word and get my name around

 

[wmrcomputers]

I imagine he'll make a good markup on parts to cover the labour fee?!?!

Not at all, but I can see where you came from.
Basically, We have a large family, and therefore with the lovely Tax Credits system, i don't actually need to earn much to be better off in work. Therefore, this fact is passed onto my customers to save them being ripped off elsewhere.
Obviously, IF parts were required I'd make a tiny mark up for ordering them in, but I'm talking about £5 on a hard drive, and I get good prices anyway, so they still end up cheaper than PC world in most cases even once I've chucked in my tiny fee!

 

[db]

Not a bad price (although says £25 on your site?). Good luck with it

The £20 is an offer to you lovely members of Stafford Forum

excellent! welcome to the forum

i think, for people who know about computers and can repair them themselves (i.e. the people in this subforum), charging for stuff like this can seem loopy.. people forget that a lot of people out there struggle to set their video, let alone upgrade their RAM, so £20 to get it sorted seems like a no-brainer..

i've often thought about doing this sort of thing myself, but in the end i'm too lazy/prone to procrastination.. if i were you, i'd start offering a "PC spring clean" service as well.. this is an easy way to make decent money by just opening a PC, giving it a good clean, defragging the HDDs, etc. - the sort of thing that seems very daunting to your average dad!

edit: as an example, here is a similar sort of thing offered by a guy i know: Clicky McClick

 

[Sofa]

Looks like a good deal to me. PC World are not going to offer service like that!

 

[tek-monkey]

IIRC PCWs inspection fee is about £50, before any work is done.

I used to work in a shop fixing PCs, and had the pleasure of looking at some of PCWs work. I once had to write out a report for a customer to take back to them, going into great detail about how the faulty screen on a laptop they'd sold the month before was not caused by a virus. They insisted a screen fault was because the customer hadn't purchased Norton with the laptop, and had used AVG instead. Absolutely un-****ing believable, but obviously the customer knew no different.

 

[wmrcomputers]

IIRC PCWs inspection fee is about £50, before any work is done.

I used to work in a shop fixing PCs, and had the pleasure of looking at some of PCWs work. I once had to write out a report for a customer to take back to them, going into great detail about how the faulty screen on a laptop they'd sold the month before was not caused by a virus. They insisted a screen fault was because the customer hadn't purchased Norton with the laptop, and had used AVG instead. Absolutely un-****ing believable, but obviously the customer knew no different.

That's a bit naughty!!
Although, a local computer store i cant really mention, charged one of my OAP customers £20 just to lift their tower onto a bench and boot it up. The customer had graphics issues but when the shop in question turned it on it worked, so they sent them away saying "see how u get on as we cant do anythiing until it faults" and ripped the old man off £20 for the priveledge!! They were in the shop less than 3 minutes!!!!! The best part of it - there wasn't even a screw holding the graphics card in place and as soon as you plugged in the monitor YOU KNEW! I charged the couple £10 just to cover my fuel & time... and I felt guilty for charging that much for 5 minutes work, even though they were chuffed to bits that I'd solved what the shop charged them £20 NOT to fix.

keep people happy and we'll all be rewarded is my motto - but with that kind of attitude, they should be closed down.

Back to your original comment though - a screen problem because they hadn't purchased Norton..... what next!? Tell customers that because their kettle lead has blown a fuse, they need a full new setup with 1TB hard drives and 42" plasma screens??

 

[Sofa]

They insisted a screen fault was because the customer hadn't purchased Norton with the laptop, and had used AVG instead.

That sounds fairly criminal to me. Which firm would that be, or near which part of town should I not be looking to go to to avoid that sort of service?

 

[db]

what next!? Tell customers that because their kettle lead has blown a fuse, they need a full new setup with 1TB hard drives and 42" plasma screens??

brilliant, i'm gonna see if that excuse works with the missus

 

[Toble]

what next!? Tell customers that because their kettle lead has blown a fuse, they need a full new setup with 1TB hard drives and 42" plasma screens??

Thats a bit excessive for a kettle, isn't it?

 

[tek-monkey]

They insisted a screen fault was because the customer hadn't purchased Norton with the laptop, and had used AVG instead.

That sounds fairly criminal to me. Which firm would that be, or near which part of town should I not be looking to go to to avoid that sort of service?

That was PC World. You gotta bear in mind they're box shifters, the staff are trained to sell not to advise (apart from where their commision comes in anyway). Although if you have a repair center, you should be able to fix stuff. Especially if its your kit, and in warranty! This was such an obvious fault it was embarassing. I wrote out a detailed description of what was wrong, exactly what the fault was, which components were affected and why there was no way it could be software related. I even included the shop phone number and my name at the bottom, and asked them to call me if there was any doubt whatsoever that I was wrong. They refunded her almost immediately, and I sold her a new one that afternoon based on what she actually needed (and saved her a few £ too, on a faster machine. 512Mb on Vista, I ask you!)

As for the £20 charge just to boot a PC, much as I'd like to pour scorn on the company I can't. The fact is that if you run a business with premises, staff etc. then every minute you're doing freebies is a minute you could have been earning money to pay your rent and staff wages. Times aren't great, and its shops as well as customers that are feeling it. From my experience in a customer facing roll if there is no fixed fee, it leads to arguments because people will always know someone you charged less, and expect the same. The thing is, every fix is different, so what do you charge? A fixed inspection fee solves this, you do basic work within that fee or difficult work is diagnosed properly and costs advised. The easy ones balance out the complete gits that take 2 days of diagnostics to repair. You can't charge on time taken unfortunately, people won't buy it. They will with a car, or for a guy on their washing machine, but I've seen first hand that they won't accept it on PCs (hence why I think yours is a good business model, although maybe not for you!). I'll be completely honest and say at the start I didn't see it that way, and wanted to give away freebies. I soon realised it doesn't add up though, and if you do someone a favour it often comes back and bites you in the ass.

 

[db]

Fixed price PC repairs in and around stafford. £20 call-out & labour no matter on how long it takes! Extra fuel fee applies outside of Stafford. NO FIX - NO FEE!
See www.wmrcomputers.co.uk for more information

i hope you do laptops, cos i just told forumite BBC to give you a ring!

 

[BBC]

i hope you do laptops, cos i just told forumite BBC to give you a ring!

Laptop is all fixed!

Top man, professional and friendly and very reasonable fee considering he had to completely dismantle my laptop to fix it.

I'm very satisfied with the job carried out and the service provided.

Highly recommended!

 

[wmrcomputers]

i hope you do laptops, cos i just told forumite BBC to give you a ring!

Laptop is all fixed!

Top man, professional and friendly and very reasonable fee considering he had to completely dismantle my laptop to fix it.

I'm very satisfied with the job carried out and the service provided.

Highly recommended!

... and a great customer too, the feedback is very much appreciated!! Not had the time on the forum lately as been busy building a chicken house (dont ask!!), so off now for a look around in the other threads.
Take care all!