On Mon, Nov 28, 2005 at 01:47:31AM +0000, Wayne Stallwood wrote:
Actually some of the machines that pass by me end up going out charged at a somewhat less than our hourly rate simply because if I charged them for the full time it (sometimes) takes to rid a sickly Windows box of all the spyware, malware and viruses it would quickly become uneconomic for the customer to proceed.
To draw further on your comment about garages charging for oil changes, services etc. don't you think that if computers cost from 8 grand for a base model up to 50 grand for a full on gamers machine/workstation that people would be more willing to pay for the amount of work it takes to fix them and they would probably keep them in good service ;)
You are quite right in what you said about it becoming uneconomic for people to have computers fixed, much easier to buy a new cheap dell every time your old computer starts to go slow and that will come with wizzbang OS 7 with all the updates on it and the 3 month trials for anti-virus, anti-spyware and a decent firewall. Of course after 3 months they want the best part of 50 quid to keep them working.... but you don't want to pay that, you already paid for the computer, why should you pay again? (The cynic in me suggests that they are 3 month trials so that it shortens the "life" of the computer so that you are buying a new computer much sooner than you would otherwise). I also figure that most people don't care about anything enough to want to learn how to keep their computer operating nicely, (or for that matter their car, household appliances etc.) they would rather be sat in front of tv watching "reality housewife murder operation swap factor".
There is also the aspect that there are many dodgy computer repair shops around, I know of a local one that charged a neighbour of mine 150 quid to re-install Windows "because it has a virus" (all that had happened was the anti-virus software had quarantined the virus and on boot put up a message saying "you need to manually clear this virus, or similar" and they gave him the machine back after just wiping the disk, reinstalling the OS and not putting any drivers on the machine. They then told him that the fee didn't include getting updates and drivers etc. and that he would have to put all his data back on the machine! They hadn't even taken an image of the drive before they started! (these are the kind of "shamen" that Ten is reffering too I think)
Thanks Adam