Priority levels – How we determine urgency?
Everyone thinks their problem is urgent, but, in all fairness, we have to look at it in relation to everyone else. Microsoft has a great ticket system that helps determine the severity of the issue and helps set your expectations appropriately. We’ve implemented something similar as you can see below:
1.Is it for Business use, student use, or strictly personal use?
2.Is the problem completely preventing your ability to work?
3.If you are able to use the computer still, are you able to work around the issue for the short term?
4.If you can work around the issue, is it preventing a great reduction in productivity?
* If it is not personal use and is one of the above mentioned scenarios, it is considered urgent and we will do our best to turn around results within 4 hours. Otherwise, standard turn around time is 2 days for most cases, and depending on parts that may need to be ordered, can take up to 1 week. With that said, we sometimes can take on a job immediately as the call comes in.
Like any business, there are busy times and slow times. Usually, we surprise people with how fast we turn jobs around, but to keep expectations realistic; big box stores and some small places seem to have customers’ computers in their shop for a week before they get around to it.
Minimum charges
Any service is a minimum of $50 diagnostic fee in the shop.
The reason for minimum charges is simple, although some people wonder why if it took ten minutes to fix while they wait, why charge for an hour?
1.It took years of education and experience to know how to do it that fast.
2.Being able to do it this fast saves you time, which has value. We could milk the clock to give the illusion of more value, but that’s just silly wasting our time and yours.
3.The time it took communicating with you on the phone, email or in person, coordinating and quoting. Sometimes we take more time quoting and planning and talking about maybe doing a job than what the job actually takes. If we only charged for the time it actually takes to do the job by the minute, we’d lose money and go out of business.
4.Some people have many more questions, which cross the line of quoting (an inquiry) and turns into a consultation, which is a billable service. Try going to a big box store or other large tech company and see if you can just “pick their brain”. They won’t give you two seconds. They quickly refer you to their price list and ask you what service would you like to schedule. Each question is answered with “what service would you like to schedule?”. We will always give you a chance to vent and explain the issue and get a quote, but if we determine you will be taking more time, we have to inform you there will be consultation charges for further detailed discussions.
Warranties
LCD Screen replacement warranties
Laptop LCD screen replacement warranties are 3 years assuming manufacturers defect. Unfortunately, cracked and physically damaged screens are not covered by the warranty. Screens do not crack by themselves. Major manufacturers of laptops such as Apple, Dell, Toshiba, etc. do not recognize cracked screens as a warranty issue, and, therefore, do not provide free LCD replacements.
LCD displays are very fragile. Even if you apply little pressure from the back of the screen, it is easily cracked. Improper use of protective sleeves and cases may cause bulky items to press against the laptop screen, causing permanent damage. The first thing that comes to mind in these situations it that the screen got damaged due to being defective.
Even with no signs of any other external damage present, please, remember that SCREENS DO NOT BREAK OR CRACK WITHOUT THE USE OF EXTERNAL FORCE.
Laptop DC Jack Repair Warranties
DC Jack repairs can require soldering on the motherboard and is sensitive work. There is a 30 day warranty on DC Jack repair warranties, but does not include physical damage. Laptop power cords plug inside the laptop (not like Apple laptops), and so if a person or pet trips the cable while plugged in, it can rip the DC jack off the motherboard. Even just a partial tear causes poor or no connection and then the battery doesn’t charge anymore.
Take precautions, like having the power cable run in such a way that it doesn’t lie in the path where people or animals walk; especially young children running around can hurt themselves too. Don’t keep it plugged in when you are not around to monitor it. If you can think of a way an accident can happen, take precautions to prevent it.
New computer warranties
New computers have a standard one year warranty with extended warranties on individual parts, direct through the manufacturer (sometimes because it is a clone/custom built computer. If your computer seems faulty and you would rather replace it, which is faster than wait for a warranty replacement, we need to restock, fix and resell to get our money back, and we can no longer sell it as a brand new computer. We will need to resell it at a lower price as the warranty is already partially used. Restocking fees may apply.
Any warranty for any product or service
If we determine it is our fault or the fault of our equipment, we will cover you somehow. If we determine there is nothing wrong with the computer, not our fault or something you did, we will not cover it and can fix the issue for you at a reasonable rate.
Virus removal warranties
It is almost impossible to make warranty claims in this area. But, if you notice some popups or suspicious behaviour that was supposed to be fixed and wasn’t or came back within 10 days of being fixed, we will repair again at no extra charge.
If too much time has passed, you could have easily downloaded a virus again via an email attachment, link, website you visited, USB you plugged in from an infected computer; or you may have another computer infected on your network, or you may still be using a traditional modem that is not protected from the World Wide Web with a Router. If we notice any of these issues, as in the case of a repeat problem, we can not guarantee the service. What we can do is help you find the source of the problem and make recommendations to prevent the issue from recurring.
The best practice is to not open attachments or click links from untrustworthy sources and don’t download pirated software, music or videos. Torrents are a guaranteed way to get viruses. If you insist on putting yourself in situations where you will get viruses, you have to either learn to remove the viruses yourself or pay for expert help every time.