Never tell people you know how computers work

[GabrielT]

So I was wandering around the internet awhile back and stumbled on this comic by The Oatmeal and I instantly knew that he understood me.

If people were willing to pay me to fix their old crap I wouldn't feel like I was getting the short end of the stick. Apparently doing things that normally get you money in the world only end up getting the word spread that you can fix things and that no one ever has to pay you.

Suddenly people look at you with anger and disgust when you ask them if they will give you any monetary reward for getting under their dusty computer desk and seeing if you can fix the damn thing.

 

90% of the time you end up doing WAY more work than you ever intended to do and god help you if they don't have their windows sticker on their case.

Edited December 13, 2010 by gabrieltessin

[joel.monteiro]

I only do that kinda work for friends,and unknown ppl i refuse if they dont wanna pay,but if he is a good friends,friends then i will do it.kinda pain in the butt though.

[endorphiend]

My rule of thumb: I only fix something for free if it's an extremely close friend (i.e. someone I would trust with the keys to my apartment). Even then, I'll usually snag a free dinner out of the deal because in reality I'm saving them $100+.

Edited December 13, 2010 by endorphiend

[t0asty]

yeah just because I built a computer and know my way around it, everyone thinks I know how to fix every software issue they have. I have no clue about a lot of that. I google it, and figure it out. Its not that hard...

[SpeedCrazy]

yeah just because I built a computer and know my way around it, everyone thinks I know how to fix every software issue they have. I have no clue about a lot of that. I google it, and figure it out. Its not that hard...

Thats mainly what i do. But the more i learn the more i am expected to know.

[molotovdaskwerl]

me and a friend are thinking about doing computer repair in our area for cheap

 

it's clever because half the work i do, and i'm assuming most of you guise do too, is looking up the problem on the internet

the rest is the magic of acquired knowledge

[GabrielT]

me and a friend are thinking about doing computer repair in our area for cheap

 

it's clever because half the work i do, and i'm assuming most of you guise do too, is looking up the problem on the internet

the rest is the magic of acquired knowledge

The problem is people like to know what you are going to be doing to their computers to fix it right away.

[Deathmineral]

The problem is people like to know what you are going to be doing to their computers to fix it right away.

that's why you give them vague answers. "I cleared your memory, I cleaned your cache and cookies, and defragged your computer"

 

People don't understand that and most likely won't ask any further as to what you're saying. You don't really have to mention the stuff you do, just mention really technical things they probably won't get.

[molotovdaskwerl]

that's why you give them vague answers. "I cleared your memory, I cleaned your cache and cookies, and defragged your computer"

 

People don't understand that and most likely won't ask any further as to what you're saying. You don't really have to mention the stuff you do, just mention really technical things they probably won't get.

tha's actually brilliant business advice, as far is such a line of work is considered

if me and my friend start doing this, we'll see how well it works

i don't know well being stationed in his apartment will look

[sack_patrol]

I've fixed PCs for friends but I do demand payment since it's still work. There's only a vrey few I'd fix stuff for, for free, and if they told someone else I could do it, then I would ask him for $$. If he doesn't like it, gtfo with ur bs n dun waste my time.

[El_Capitan]

You know what's a shady move, but brilliant at the same time?

 

Say you're fixing a computer, and one of your policies is, is that if a computer part is bad, you'll upgrade without charging a fee. The customer would just pay the price for the new component, while you get to keep the bad part to "use the good parts leftover to fix bad parts on other components".

 

So if they have a GTX 580 that "went bad", they'd buy a new video card while you kept the "bad one".

 

However, the only drawback is if they still have a warranty. I guess I fail at shady business tactics.

[ocre]

that's why you give them vague answers. "I cleared your memory, I cleaned your cache and cookies, and defragged your computer"

 

People don't understand that and most likely won't ask any further as to what you're saying. You don't really have to mention the stuff you do, just mention really technical things they probably won't get.

technical???

lol!!!

 

My electronics teacher used to tell me, "no matter what, always make it sound way more technical and complicated than it really is."

 

So for the above circumstance he would mouth off something like,

 

".....with considerable time spent troubleshooting very thoroughly I have concluded several important issues that needed to be dealt with accordingly. There seemed to be a large congestion of data, which was no longer useful, that was taking resources away from the system and causing wasted cycles which lead to your pc slowing down. Also fragments of data were in unfavorable placement which lead to slow seek times and poor performance on the hard disk which i tackled with appropriate measures......."

 

Bla bla, i could go on and on but you get the picture.