Repairier's duty of care re data.

[db]

as we know there are
are two classes of technicians:

1) those who is inexperienced

and

2) those that know what they
are doing

the inexperienced will
always take the easy way
out and charge by the hour
even for chasing goose due
to their incompetence or
bad judgments.

the experienced however,
will charge by the job and
will treat the customers machine
as their own and

perform the same steps to
repair it as they would do
on their own machine.

further the experienced will
always provide some guidance
to help the customers.

what separates the inexperienced
from the experienced. Is understanding
what is quality control, quality
assurance and customer service.

these qualities ensure customer
loyalty, trust and the promotion
of the business to others.

these qualities also separates the
trolls from the rest of us on
the newsgroups.

unfortunately, there are too
many idiots pretending to
be technicians and trolls
pretending to know what
are best business practices.

however, I am pleased to say
that I am in total agreement with
you when you elude that the
machine should be given back
in better shape than how it
was brought in..

the prime objective for all
business's and newsgroup helpers
is to provide quality service,
good customer service and support.

..
--

db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces
- Microsoft Partner
- @hotmail.com
~~~~~~~~~~"share the nirvana" - dbZen

 

[Twayne]

In

You're mistaken - if the customer ALREADY, so as to not
delay you (since your a contractor), then you don't need to
make a backup, as long as the customer agrees that anything
since his/her last backup will not be retained.

So, you don't worry about how big a mess you make of their
system. That's a rotten attitude for anyone repairing a
computer.

No consultant would give their time away free on a normal
basis when working for customers, in general. If a backup
takes 1 hour because you have to search for files, iTunes,
other music, Kodak files, etc... then that's real time you
should charge for.

Search for files? Do you understand how to back up? Why would
you search for any files? Done properly there isn't even any
program to install. You connect a cable, initiate the backup,
and go do something else while the backup runs.
It sounds to me like you charge twice for the same period
of time: The time the backup is running and the time for
whatever other product you spend the time working on. That's
totally unethical and is un-acceptable for anyone with any
scruples of any kind.
Or do you just sit and twiddle your thumbs during a backup?
If that's the case, you need help with some time-use training.
You do the backup for YOU, so that YOU can give the machine
back with the same data it had to begin with. If it turns out
to be a bad drive, then you get to sell a drive; great. But
you still put their OS back, and their data. And it's only one
drive to backup most of the time unless you don't know how to
disconnect the other drives.
There's something you don't understand or just don't "get"
about this stuff. Whether I need it or not, the first thing
that happens here to any machine that will run is to back up
the boot drive. Otherwise it's a phone call to alert the
customer to his possible data loss and increased price BEFORE
I expend the material/s and time.

Remember, the reason you're there is because THEY CALLED
YOU FOR YOUR SKILLS TO AID THEM - they should pay for your
time, all of it.

Consultant?!? Now your'e switching gears. Are you consulting
or repairing computers?
Going to a consultant to get a compute repaired is like
taking your car to a consultant so he can tell you why your
front left tire is flat and how to fix it! A consultant does
not do repairs, he "consults" with someone. A repairman
doesn't consult, he repairs.
I'm beginning to wonder whether you're actually "leythos"
of the BUTT, impersonating him again. Guess I'll have to check
that out because this mail is certainly untypical of Leythos.

HTH,

Twayne`

 

[Twayne]

In

You must be missing a lot in the world.

In every case I've come across, there was more being used
than the My Something folders for customers systems.

So? You connect a cable and let it backup! What, 3 minutes
maybe at the outside to start the backup? Of the whole boot
drive? You just disconnect the other drives and forget them
unless they turn out to have parts of programs on them. That's
easy to know ahead of time and usually only pops up if they've
been installing to an external drive.

As for connecting a cable and letting it rip - sure, you
connect a USB drive, say a spare 100GB USB drive, and copy
the basic files, then you go hunting for the ones that are
not in the users profile that they can see, and you copy
them.

Huh? You back up the whole drive with an app on your end that
uses VSS. It's stupid to look for what has to be backed up.
Get real. So yeah, you click and forget until it's done or
crashes.

While they copy there is little else you can be doing,
since you can't start the repair until you've done the
backup.

Oh, yes there is. Work on another customer's machine. If there
are no others, then you get to twiddle your thumbs; damned if
I'd pay you to do that!

So, if the tech is onsite at a customers location, the only
call at that location, do you really think they are going
to leave for an hour and come back? That's complete
nonsense.

That's also NOT the situation you presented. This is your
first mention of such a situation, in fact, an obvious attempt
to troll this off into a different direction. You're grasping
at straws now since nothing you've yet said indicated onsite
work.
Besides, if I'm at a customer's location, he's available to
talk to and to alert to possible problems the vast majority of
the time. But I still say, from what you've already said, that
your service charge would be high enough to cover that
scenario. Oh, and one more thing; just because a backup is in
progress is no reason to not be able to run other programs and
troubleshoot if you really wanted to. Throttle back the backup
a tad and have at your troubleshooting. Any way you look at
it, it's stupid to do nothing during a backup if the need for
one is indicated, and it should be free, actually.

If you happen to be working for one of those roving in-home
fixers, you're not going to do a backup anyway. Those are the
biggest ripoff artists I've ever come across.

The tech is going to stay onsite and wait for the backup,
it would be a loss to leave the site and have to sit in the
parking lot listening to the radio....

By your own definition, how would it be a loss? Because you
can't charge for the thumb twiddling time? This might be one
of those times a backup isn't necessary, especially since all
the disks & programs are also going to be available, or should
be. How do you even survive if you come across a
media-machine? Woof!
T here are a LOT of things you could be doing while the
backup runs, being collected on YOUR drive, with YOUR program
unless he's already set up for it. Which is doubtful. It
doesn't take long to backup an OS and any data that lives on
that same physical drive; it's an opportunity to do other
things for the customer, like cleaning, blowing out dust
(safely), going through Even Viewer, relevant to the problem
logs, etc. etc. etc..
If you actually do onsite repairs, well, you're doing them
wrong.

I've seen customers with 200+ GB of pictures and video that
take hours to complete a backup to a USB external drive -
try it yourself sometime, and that's if the malware hasn't
borked the ability to copy the files...

I not only "tried" it, I do it every day for three machines.
Full images once a month, incrementals nightly otherwise. 200
GB isn't going to take that long to back up unless you're
using some incredibly old equipment, and if the customer
doesn't have his own backups.
If it's on the OS physical drive, I'd still back it up. If
it's on another drive, I just disconnect the drives. I've even
been known to pop a customer's drives into my own sandbox to
get a better handle on what it's really doing.
All it takes is a phone call or to ask whoever's looking
over you shoulder whether they already have images backed up,
if you really want to charge for them. It sounds to me like
your customers must get a lot of bad surprises, something no
business should ever allow to happen.
There ARE circumstances where I wouldn't back up the
customer's data but I make no secret of it. For instance,
should they have used EFS and several other things that would
be discovered during the first set of tests.

The more I read from you, the more I begin to think you
actually don't have the foggiest what you're talking about.
And for that same reason I have to wonder if you are Leythos
or BUTTS impersonating him again.

 

[Twayne]

Excellent post, db. Don't know who you were responding to, but
at it shows you're a thinking man.

HTH,

Twayne`


n

 

[The Real Truth MVP]

Don't put my name into this thread. I have been saying for years that
Leythos is a dumb idiot and a liar. Now that you finally see that for
yourself you can't believe it and try to accuse him of being me
UNBELIEVABLE!



--
The Real Truth http://pcbutts1-therealtruth.blogspot.com/
*WARNING* Do NOT follow any advice given by the people listed below.
They do NOT have the expertise or knowledge to fix your issue. Do not waste
your time.
David H Lipman, Malke, PA Bear, Beauregard T. Shagnasty, Leythos.

 

[The Real Truth MVP]

There is nothing un typical about it. You left the idiot brainwash you for
years. What did you finally wake up?


--
The Real Truth http://pcbutts1-therealtruth.blogspot.com/
*WARNING* Do NOT follow any advice given by the people listed below.
They do NOT have the expertise or knowledge to fix your issue. Do not waste
your time.
David H Lipman, Malke, PA Bear, Beauregard T. Shagnasty, Leythos.

 

[Leythos]

In

So, you don't worry about how big a mess you make of their
system. That's a rotten attitude for anyone repairing a
computer.

You're not stating what I've said, you're twisting it and you know it.

Search for files? Do you understand how to back up? Why would
you search for any files? Done properly there isn't even any
program to install. You connect a cable, initiate the backup,
and go do something else while the backup runs.

And What backup would that be?

How do you go "Somewhere else" in their home and not still be spending
time?

It sounds to me like you charge twice for the same period
of time: The time the backup is running and the time for
whatever other product you spend the time working on. That's
totally unethical and is un-acceptable for anyone with any
scruples of any kind.

You're nuts, completely nuts.

If you go to a customer, they ask you to clean and/or rebuild their
machine, you're going to be on the clock from the time you hit their
door until you leave with the computer fixed.

So, if they have no good backups, you have to backup the computer,
that's read time that you bill them for.

If they have a good backup already, you don't need to make one - it's
the customers call.

Not all people are smart enough to backup all of their data and not all
backup programs actually find all data.

One the backup issue is resolved you start the work....

Lets say the machine is hosed and you have to reinstall the OS, you've
brought XP SP3 and Office 2003/2007 SP's with you, but that leaves 80+
more updates that have to be downloaded to complete the job - it would
be stupid to not charge them while the ADDITIONAL sp's/fixes are
downloaded and installed from Microsoft Update.

Or do you just sit and twiddle your thumbs during a backup?
If that's the case, you need help with some time-use training.

And what is it that you propose a tech does while the computer is
running the backup for any length of time - considering that the tech is
most likely in a customers home or at a customers office - should the
tech offer to do the dishes or take out the trash?

You do the backup for YOU, so that YOU can give the machine
back with the same data it had to begin with. If it turns out
to be a bad drive, then you get to sell a drive; great. But
you still put their OS back, and their data. And it's only one
drive to backup most of the time unless you don't know how to
disconnect the other drives.

Ah, but you're missing the point - the backup is not for the TECH, it's
for the CUSTOMER to help them not experience data loss from a drive swap
or malware cleaning. It's the customers data, their choice to backup or
not, and they pay for their choice. It's not like people have been
unaware that they need to backup files on a regular basis - it's only
been common for 30+ years.

There's something you don't understand or just don't "get"
about this stuff. Whether I need it or not, the first thing
that happens here to any machine that will run is to back up
the boot drive. Otherwise it's a phone call to alert the
customer to his possible data loss and increased price BEFORE
I expend the material/s and time.

If you're not charging for YOUR TIME to backup the CUSTOMERS DATA FOR
THEM, unless they ask you not to do a backup, then you're screwing
yourself.

Consultant?!? Now your'e switching gears. Are you consulting
or repairing computers?
Going to a consultant to get a compute repaired is like
taking your car to a consultant so he can tell you why your
front left tire is flat and how to fix it! A consultant does
not do repairs, he "consults" with someone. A repairman
doesn't consult, he repairs.

LOL, now you're twisting again. Any consultant level engineer will be
able to do far more than a "Tech", that's why you don't seem to be able
to understand this stuff - you are what I believe is a Geek Squad entry
level tech and you don't appear to own a business or work for yourself,
at least not from your lack of time/cost understanding.

I'm beginning to wonder whether you're actually "leythos"
of the BUTT, impersonating him again. Guess I'll have to check
that out because this mail is certainly untypical of Leythos.

LOL, It's me and you can email me to get proof - but, in my 30 years
I've never not charged for time spent to repair a customers system. If
they want a backup and understand data loss without a backup, well, it's
their choice.

 

[Leythos]

Oh, yes there is. Work on another customer's machine. If there
are no others, then you get to twiddle your thumbs; damned if
I'd pay you to do that!

You seem to think that we're talking about customers that brought the
computers to YOU, but you seem to have missed the idea that many tech's
go to customers locations - so, if you're at John Smiths home to repair
his laptop, how do you drive 30 minutes to another customers home/office
to work on their machine during the backup?

You should open your scope a little.

 

[Twayne]

In

Don't put my name into this thread. I have been saying for
years that Leythos is a dumb idiot and a liar. Now that you
finally see that for yourself you can't believe it and try
to accuse him of being me UNBELIEVABLE!

Quite believable, actually, if you consider that YOU emulate
others.

 

[Unknown]

You'll have to kind of ignore Twayne. He is very narcistic.

 

[sgopus]

especially if the customer is an american!

This adage does not apply in France where Customer is always wrong
and should be taught a lesson!

hth
.