My viewpoint of the horror within the computer repair industry video!

johnburns — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 01:07:24 +0000

Keep coming back for my view point of CBC.ca television show Marketplace. What you should know before you call a geek in to fix your computer. http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2007/10/03/geeks/
You may think I am bagging Marketplace and the college repair team and yet I am not. I am wishing to thank them in providing a wonderful training video in teaching home based PC computer repair business owners in how to look after customers in there business. It also allows the computer repair industry to put in place, proper operating procedures and standards. Yes the computer repair industry is unregulated and we need to lead the way in regulating ourselves. The number at the beginning of the black text is the time within the video of where something of importance for you to take a look at or what it means to me.
The blue text is my view point on this subject
00:10 It will not be fixed today.
Why not?
I would say “how urgent is it for you to get it fixed” Our rates vary depending on your urgency and becomes cheaper the longer the PC is away. I would also offer a rental PC so as to allow the person to keep operating of course they would pay for the rental.
02:01 But every Tech has a different approach to figuring out our problems.
It is so important to have a checklist to follow whilst troubleshooting, it took me many years to discover what to actually put in the checklist. A simple $25.00 postcard would have shown the memory error on boot and also by carrying a spare motherboard speaker may have picked up the error with beep codes, check out www.bioscentral.com for a complete list of beep codes for different bios on motherboards. Bob Hurt is the owner and is also the owner of Data Depo a diagnostics company from America, some 7 years ago i was the Australian Distributor for Data Depo before I got into franchising.
02.04 Some of them think by passing the computer parts around will help or listening to it:
This is part of a troubleshooting process and is part of a checklist of swapping parts into different PCI slots, it is quite evident that Marketplace has no understanding of why a repair technician would do it this way and yet in my view point i get it that she is rubbishing this process of troubleshooting the problem. The listening part could be for many reasons, such as the crunching of a faulty hard drive or listening for the beep codes that the computer gives for when it has a faulty part. See above Bios Central web site.
02:10 or maybe speaking to the computer in its own language.
I am guilty of swearing at a computer. I have never done what this repair guy is doing.
02:43 We asked the team to give our computer a small common problem.
Yes I agree that it is a simple problem to fix and especially if you knew up front what was wrong with it. Again if the repair guys didn’t nickel and dime there business by not having a Diagnostic card called a Post card in there tool kit which is designed to tell them exactly what was wrong with it.
02:50 Steve Gazzo the computer wizard guy says we are going to exchange ahhh the ram module with umm with one that has been ummm blown, Then Marketplace: so there are some little bits on here that are missing and Steve Gazzo then says right:
Gee what is going on here, the computer wizard Steve Gazzo is now also just as guilty as the poor repair guys that Marketplace have brought in, he is also guilty of playing the role of going along with the over dramatising of the story of destroying the reputation of the whole computer repair industry. Steve Gazzo is it blown or is it missing the little bits? A little Unfair Steve.
03:02 A simple problem a broken ram part that should cost about $25.00 bucks to replace.
Marketplace you’re forgetting about the freight?
You’re forgetting about the actual cost of the repair person coming to your home.
You’re forgetting about a business man in earning a fair margin plus his time.
Your forgetting that the ram module may have been purchased some 3 to 6 months ago for when ram fluctuates like gold, going up and down in price all the time.
You come from the view point of an employee in not caring about your own time as you are paid no matter what, therefore you place no value on TIME.
Did marketplace pay Humber College North Campus for the use of the time taken in taking down the computer repair industry by using the facilities of the college and the 3 employees of the college.
03:20 OK so we have a dead motherboard.
I cannot understand why a company would say you need to go and buy a motherboard, it does not make sense to me, why would a repair company say you need to go and buy a motherboard. Yes we are only hearing what Marketplace is saying. The repair guy is saying, it is a dead motherboard, yes wrong diagnosis. What would the customer do with the motherboard once they have bought it, call back the repair guy to fit it.
03:56 Did you hear the hard drive making different sounds.
What is going on here? The repair guy is asking a question and possibly is referring to the hard drive as the total computer, there are a lot of different terminoglies within the marketplace for what you call a Computer box, I have heard people call it the hard drive, CPU, power box, tower, I have even had customers bring in there monitors thinking that this was the computer. To be continued.
04:34 Steve Gazzo stating = Complete ludicrous you can’t make any kind of diagnosis that quickly.
Steve you have to stop generalising things and with the right equipment such as a diagnostics postcard you are able to diagnose the problem very quickly and if the post card does not work listen for the beep codes.
04:57 My professional advice is the Motherboard. Ah you have to have taken in, you have to replace the motherboard. They must be trained in saying: My professional advice. Lack of training in diagnosing computer problems.Keep coming back for my view point of CBC.ca Marketplace. What you should know before you call a geek in to fix your computer

Tales of a Computer Repair Business » The video explained

My viewpoint of the horror within the computer repair industry video!