Going Into Business As A PC Repairman

I've also been thinking of doing this for a long time, possibly with a business partner so I'll be watching this thread closely. Can anyone advise on the legalities involved?
 
Jonny69 said:
I never found anything that couldn't be fixed. If you can't rescue it then a re-install fixes it ;)
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Well no, but you can get some pretty nasty problems that are very time consuming/costly to fix. Say you've got a dead PC with no BIOS beeps:

-Check connections, unplug all devices, run mobo outside of case etc. No joy.
-Swap out PSU. No joy.
-Swap out RAM. No joy.
-Swap out CPU (requires spares for multiple socket types). No joy.

So it turns out to be a dead mobo. You've already sunk a fair bit of time and it relies on you having a wide range of spare cpus for testing. The problem can be fixed but it's not easy, you've then got to make sure that any replacement mobo you install is compatible with all the existing hardware (not easy if it's a really old socket, maybe they have an AGP gfx card, maybe even ISA peripherals).

By the time you've gone through all that it is quite a lengthy/time consuming process and you've gotta end up billing someone a few hundred quid to resurrect an ancient system which probably wasn't worth more than that in the first place!

Obviously such scenarios aren't that common, but that's the kind of thing that would scare me if I went into this business.
 
Nice thread, worth the read. I can't really offer more than what's already in here - just get a decent looking website and be friendly, also try to explain things we were all noobs at one stage.
 
pingwing said:
My advise is just dont! It'll sap the fun out of pc's and life in general trying to explain to everyone what you are doing and why you arnt breaking it :(

But if your going to do this, make sure you outline that nothing can be solved over the phone or via email (unless its something really simple like whats the admin password that they might have forgotten), other wise your just going to become the free/generous pc whipping boy.
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I did the same thing back along and was making money out of it but then it started to get too much. It became the only thing that dominated my life. My partner got sick of me always on about computers, people either ringing or turning up out of the blue and people dumping pc stuff on me.

As of today I hate the whole IT industry. The fun of customizing and building pc's has long gone and I dont find anything about IT interesting let alone the stupid IT humour that is banded about. I dont even deal with pc shops anymore, everything I do now is internet based so I dont have to entertain some nerd in a shop who over charges for cheap bits. Im gutted because I used to love tweaking and building things :(
 
Overslop said:
...Was hoping I might be able to get some tips - anything could help really! :)
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http://www.technibble.com/

This should help you get started. Plenty of information and tips for new PC repair businesses. They also sell package of sample documents that you'd likely find useful.

Speaking from experience - target your market, network with other businesses and earn yourself a good reputation. There's plenty of business out there for those that want it.
 
I'm Thinking of doing something like this, having worked at OcUK for some time in tech and been in the game for 15 years, I have seen my share of faults, To be honest I have nothing to lose by doing this.
 
Be prepared that once you touch somebody's PC that anything that goes wrong is your fault.
Here's my latest one -

Bloke rings me to sort out his daughters laptop because it is very slow, so I get it sorted and they are happy.
1 week later he rings me because his internet is slow, so I check mine first on Broadband Speed Checker and it reads 9,860 which I'm chuffed about.
I go round his on his normal PC & laptop and both read 128 :eek:
After messing with his MODEM I tell him to sort it out with his broadband provider which is the Post Office!
He rings me this morning saying that the problem is down to the laptop I fixed because it all went wrong after that.
I explain that it is also wrong with his normal PC so I go round with my laptop and it also reads 128 on that.
He's convinced (because of the Post Office call centre) that I've broke his broadband with the laptop.
I'm going round tomorrow to talk to the call centre myself.

Other classics include -
After you fixed my PC my printer worked for a month but then went faulty which I believe is your fault.

After you fixed my PC my monitor stopped working after a week.

After you fixed my PC I couldn't install Office on it.
I go round and find it's a warez copy and he hasn't got a serial number.

And so on .......
 
dmpoole said:
And so on .......
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Yep, people seem to treat computers like any other piece of consumer electronics like a DVD player, it's either working or broken and because we've 'fixed it' everything installed on it and it's connected to should work fine.
 
Flukester said:
Kettle lead ?, that won't fit in a pc ;)

Seriously though, I believe a 'kettle lead' is a hot condition IEC, errr used on kettles (female), you need a normal IEC female for a PC PSU :)
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to explain this simply...

AMPS!!!!

a 'kettle' lead has a 13A Fuse
a PC lead has a 3A Fuse
 
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Remember to put away ~30% of your earnings over £6000 into a high interest savings account for when the self assessment payment deadline is looming, even though tax is a constant, it's nice to earn some interest on the money that will eventually go to it. Oh, and make sure you register with the taxman within 3 months (IIRC) or it's an automatic £100 fine. Pay your class 2 rates by direct debit so you don't have to remember to pay the bill every quarter.
 
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