Is your computer company looking out for you?
Or are they looking out for their own bottom line at YOUR expense?
We seem to go from 0 to 60 in just a few seconds it seems. Take Tuesday for example. After getting back to the office after running crazily around all day on Monday, only to find that I was one of 120 or so customers without power – negating my ability to click into a customer’s computer to fix a small problem, it didn’t really occur to me that the next day might get harried. The first call came in “Server got knocked out when the power went down.” While walking up to that office door, the second call came in with nearly the same story. Then the third with a different, but, nonetheless, critical issue.
While the server had gotten zapped, it had only nixed the PS/2 ports – and USB was still viable for getting through start up screens on the Windows 2003 Small Business Server (SBS) – NOT one of my favorite platforms. Either way, we were going to be able to get the server back up in just a few minutes.
After getting the USB issue cleared up, the office network was still down. Aargh. This one turned out to be the Dell PowerSwitch Gigabit switch being zapped in the electrical storm. Thankfully, for just such occassions, I keep a 24 port Baystack switch around. Not quite gigabit, but works nicely for just such a situation 🙂
The goal of any computer technician should be to get the customer up and running and back to business as soon as possible. Unlike some of our local computer repair “peers”, Lizardwebs doesn’t immediately start trying to sell you new equipment. If the customer is down, he or she is losing money. I guess if we were a little less honorable, this WOULD be the time to gouge folks, but that isn’t the way Lizardwebs rolls. The customer knows he has a problem or two that needs to be rectified, but now he will be up and running and can make an informed decision on what to buy after some analysis and careful consideration. Besides, it’s nice to be able to go to the grocery store here in Clayton and not hide from my customer. Our customer was charged $75 bucks for a service call. He can keep the switch as long as he needs it. And he was running in about half an hour.
I have almost zero doubt that one of my “peers” in particular would have pitched a new thousand dollar plus server and a new pricey switch as the only solution to the problem. I’ve seen the company do it many times now to a number of different clients. And then, of course, charge for hundreds of dollars (or more) of “service” that wasn’t needed to actually resolve the problem. Remember, if your computer technician isn’t solving the computer problem, but instead answering with “You need new computer equipment” on a regular basis, then you need a new technician. There’s more to being a computer technician than being able to order new equipment and run setup.exe.
If you need a new computer technician to SOLVE your problems, you need to call Lizardwebs.
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