How do I find good local computer help?
Hi, everyone. Leo Notenboom here for askleo.com.
And boy, do I wish I had an answer for this question, especially local to me,
as you might imagine, many times I run into problems
with my machines and I end up fixing them myself because I can.
But I know that that's not the case for everybody.
And rather than trying to basically spread
myself way too thin helping friends and family that are local to me,
I would love to be able to point people at someone else, a company, a business,
a local computer repair solution that basically I could trust to deal
with the problem in an ethical and cost effective way.
Good help is really hard to find,
and that's never, ever been truer than it is when it comes to computer repair.
So what I'll describe here,
I realize that this is a problem everywhere, not just local to me.
In fact, if anything,
it's probably more of a problem elsewhere since I live in a fairly tech dense area.
So what I want to do is I want to go over
some of the things to at least consider some of the straws, if you will,
to grasp at to see if you can find someone who can help you.
If you're finding yourself in a situation
where you need some computer repair, some computer help,
it ultimately all comes back to reputation.
There are good people, there are bad people.
There are people that really understand what they're doing.
There are people that cost a lot.
There are people that cost a little.
There are friends, there are family,
there are services, but it really all comes back to reputation.
Any of those characteristics that I just listed off, they could be good or bad.
They could be out to get you.
They could be out to scam you for your
money, or they could be out to honestly add value.
And I do believe that there are a lot
of services, individuals and scenarios where they're truly interested in helping
you in solving the issues that you're coming across.
So it really all does come back to, what's their reputation like?
How do you find someone's reputation in a situation like this?
I would start by looking for local advice by that.
I mean, doing things like asking your
friends that have computers what they do, where they go, if they have someone
to recommend, or if they have experience with some of the options in your area,
look for local computer help groups, often libraries and senior centers
in particular, have something, something that is often completely free,
if not inexpensive, and geared towards helping people
that don't have resources to get help elsewhere.
If they have classes, if they have opportunities,
you have an opportunity to get in there and attend a few classes and figure out if
these are people that you are comfortable with getting assistance from.
And as always, ask around, right.
If somebody you know has used the services of a local senior center or a local
library, see if they've had a good experience, go to a local computer store.
And I say this specifically for computer
stores that don't have their own repair option.
I realize that this is sometimes hard to find, and sometimes you won't know
until you go in there to find out that they have their own local repair.
But if they don't have their own repair,
then they're going to have somebody to point you at.
They're going to have recommendations
for where you can take your computers or software for assistance.
Check out those recommendations and see if they might possibly fit for you if they do
have their own repair and support services.
That's great.
Don't just sign up, but once again, drop back, see if you can find out
some information, some references, some history,
some of the experiences other people have had with that specific company.
This is one of those cases where a tool
like Yelp might actually turn out to be helpful.
Yelp, we often think of as being specifically for restaurants,
but in reality they often will have reviews and other information about
other things, things other than restaurants,
including computer repair, like anything, especially in the restaurant scenario.
Yelp can be gamed.
We know that, but it's data, and it's data
you can read and evaluate for yourself
and decide whether or not the balance of the information that's being presented
there is worth trusting is worth believing.
The same is true for just Google reviews.
If you do a search for a local repair
shop, either generically for computer repair in your location,
or if you have the name of a local repair shop and you Google that very often Google
will present you with also some sets of reviews that people have left on Google.
Com. That's another source of information.
Same caveat.
Of course it can be gamed, but it's data that you can use
to hopefully make a slightly more informed decision.
Now, one of the questions that I often get is what about the chains?
A lot of these large,
nationwide or worldwide computer chains offer support, and honestly,
it's a coin toss.
My experience from what I've heard from people is simply that it's a coin toss.
Some of them are really good.
Some of them will do what you want
and nothing more and actually charge a reasonable price for it.
Others not so much.
And I think it also has a tendency
to change over time, because often these large chains have some
turnover in their staff, and ultimately it's the staff that makes
the difference as to whether or not it's going to be a legitimate operation or not.
So once again, it's something to look at,
but I would if at all possible, see if you can find any source of reviews
or references or independent local information
that would allow you to at least make a slightly educated decision before
deciding whether or not to use one of these services.
So what I do?
Like I said, I'm not your typical computer user.
Nine times out of 10, 99 times out of 100, I'll deal with it myself.
I'll order parts, I'll repair my machine, I'll get a new machine.
If I've got a problem, especially if it's under warranty,
then I will make extensive use of the computer manufacturers resources.
That's something you should probably do anyway, just because it will give you
a sense of what kind of a problem you're looking at so that you can kind
of determine if that local person is feeding you a line or not.
But using the computer manufacturers resources as much as is possible
to potentially be able to resolve issues yourself.
Well, that's my approach.
I do want to talk a little bit about cost,
because this is a problem for a lot of people.
I get that I mentioned earlier
that sometimes places like senior centers and libraries offer some kind of resource
for this thing, and very often those resources are free.
Avail yourself of those if that makes
sense, but realize that for businesses, it's their business, right?
They're trying to make a living.
They have to charge for their services in order to put food on their own table.
And often it's a not insignificant charge,
because often what we're asking for in terms of repair is a not
insignificant amount of their time and their expertise and potentially parts.
So be careful.
It's worth remembering that good support is worth the money.
Really, it's cheaper in the long run to have something fixed fixed correctly
with assistance than it is to have to deal with something over and over and over
again because the first guy didn't get it right.
On the other hand, sometimes repairs can be so expensive that it might be better
to cut your losses and consider a replacement scenario.
I hate doing that.
I really hate doing that because I really hate discarding good hardware because
repairing it is going to be more expensive than replacing it.
I try and avoid that wherever possible.
And if you find yourself in that situation, I understand money is
a big issue, and paying for repairs can be very costly.
Sometimes it really is cheaper just to replace the machine.
If you find yourself in that situation,
then at least see if you can't find a way to recycle repurpose,
donate that hardware to an organization that may have the aptitude to repair it
themselves and then maybe turn around and sell it so that they make some money
or use it so that they don't have to spend money on new software or new computers.
So that's kind of the options that I'm aware of.
That's kind of.
What I understand is a very difficult situation.
It's very difficult for me to answer.
Like I said, I don't even have an answer for locally.
Here other than like I said, the local senior center or the library.
But I'd love to hear if you have other
experiences, if you have good advice for people that are looking for reliable
trustworthy, cost effective local computer repair and support
for updates for related links for any of the comments and recommendations
that some of our readers might leave, visit
askleo.com/25661
I'm Leo Notenboom this is
askleo.com.