Most computer repair companies don't
like to work with individuals. They'd rather deal with big firms. This leaves you, the
home computer user, with very few options if anything goes wrong with your machine. You
could take it to a High Street company; you will have to go to all the trouble of taking
it there, and then leave it for several days. Then they will charge you an arm and a leg
just to look at it. Plus a fortune for anything they decide needs replacing - always
assuming they were right about the fault, which isn't all that likely! We never cease to
be amazed by how expensive the high street megastores are. *To read the results of a recent independent investigation of high street
pricing practices click here and then come back. We
think we've made our point! Warning: DO NOT buy computer components from the big
stores, and especially not the ones which sell everything but the kitchen sink.
The Summer 2008 Argos catalogue has the old version of the My Book 750GB external hard
drive for £200. Yes, £200. You can buy the
more recent version, the My Book 2 at the same capacity for £84 from our
online store (link above). Or there's the Sandisk Cruzer Titanium 8GB flash drive. From
Argos, it's £90. From our store it's £18. Bit of a
difference, wouldn't you say? That's
a perfect example of people who know not what they are selling to people who know not what
they are buying. Oh, and they quote the 'seek time' of all their hard drives. This is
normally measured in thousandths of a second. For some reason Argos are quoting it in
Meters. Doesn't fill you with confidence, does it?!
If you want service that appears to be dirt cheap, then please go elsewhere. We aren't
dirt cheap. But we are reasonable. More importantly, the
price we quote you is the price you pay. Other companies, if they're
charging by the hour, will end up being very expensive. We know how much time it takes to
do most things before we turn up, and we charge accordingly. That means that we can
usually give you a binding price over the phone or the internet before we even come to
you. There will be times when we don't know what needs to be done until we see the machine
in question, but we will then try, after examination, to convert the price to that of one
of our fixed-price services, so that we will be able to give you a price before work
starts.
At Home
Computer Repairs, we do sometimes work for companies which are household
names, but that is because they've asked us to. Our main thrust is to help people who may
be new to computing, or who have used computers for a long time, but have other things to
do in their lives, rather than learn the ins and outs of computers. We first discovered
computers in 1972. There was no such thing as a PC then. By working with them every day
(in a high-tech British military electronics company) we had no choice but to learn how to
use them the hard way, because the manuals weren't exactly clear! The same happened when
the PC did come along. There was no-one to ask. So we all did it the hard way, and learned
a lot in the process.
Here's our phone number to tell us your
needs. If we're busy - and we're very busy these days, please leave a message. This
necessary; we get so many unsolicited calls these days that unless your number is already
known to us, we won't reply unless you leave a message telling us what it is you want us
to do for you - and we can't reply if your number is hidden!
Tel: 07838 23 63
25
This is why we're here. When you need
something done, no matter what it is, we can usually help. It was easy for us, being in a
firm like we were. We would work at it until we figured out how to do a particular thing.
People are often afraid to ask about computers because they think their question is
'silly'. It isn't silly. Even a Formula 1 driver had to be taught how to drive a car. This
is the knowledge we're passing on. We don't know everything, either! It's amazing how
often we get to the house of a customer who has a problem that we've never seen before,
after all these years. Including things that should be impossible! But we have a think,
and eventually work out what the problem is. If you're unable to contact us by phone, or
want to take the time to get as accurate a description as possible of your problem (good
idea!), then below left is the link to our Contact Form. Just tell us what you want, and
we'll get back to you. On the right is the usual email form to use instead if you want.
A lot of firms
say their prices are 'from' a certain amount. So they look cheap. But they
aren't. You will often find that a company will say that the
price for a particular job is 'from X'. And of course people keep that figure in
mind, which is what they're meant to do. When it comes to the bill, the amount will be
much higher than the customer had imagined.
They say they'll sell you cheap computers,
too. If they are cheap, then they're no good. Simple as that. But actually, they aren't
usually cheap. You'll often see a picture of a computer that is priced at £299, and again
you'll remember that price. When you look at the small print, you'll discover that to make
it work, you'll need the 'optional' extras, like a monitor and a copy of
Windows, and enough memory to make the system work reasonably, and even a keyboard
and mouse! Hardly 'optional'! Add that all up, and you are back to a true price of £500
or more, at which point you will find you could have bought a better system for less
elsewhere.
Remember:
'If you pay cheap, you pay twice'.
Currently, we can't bring ourselves to provide any complete computers for
less than £500 - £600, for the simple reason that if you ever buy one cheaper, unless
you know what you are doing, it will cost you money to have us come along and upgrade it
to and make it as good as you thought it would be.
However, paying a lot of money doesn't need to mean good value either.
Here's a case in point. Unfortunately, it's most often this way round - that someone
bought a computer, and then had a problem and spoke to us, in our experience.
Case History
One recent customer had bought a
computer from a company who are famous for letting you go in, order, wait, and then your
item turns up. They also sell kettles. She took it home. She was pleased - at first. She
shouldn't have been. Her teenage son couldn't understand why it was running so slowly.
Simple; it only had 256Mb of memory, which is one of the classic ways that the High Street
vendors save money - about £30 in this case.
This was trumpeted by the
sales catalogue as wonderful. It always is. In fact, that amount of memory is what the
computer needs just to wake up. Try and actually use it for anything much and it will slow
to a crawl. All the other main components of the machine - monitor, printer, etc were also
of a very poor specification. On top of that, we then had to tell her that the £800
she'd spent on the computer was silly (we didn't put it like that - she wasn't to know)
and that we would have given her £350 for it at the most.
She also had to pay us for
the extra computer memory and our expenses to upgrade her computer to something she
thought she had in the first place because a catalogue had impressed her so much. All
told, she spent double what she should have.
So, from the above, you can
see that the amount to pay is the correct amount for what you are getting. Too
little, and you will have to pay to upgrade the machine to something worthwhile. Too much,
and you may have a good machine, but you shouldn't have paid so much for it. This seems
obvious, but unfortunately it's all too easy for the unwary to be bamboozled by ridiculous
advertising claims.
While we're at it, if you
still want to go ahead and buy a computer from a High Street megastore (and you
shouldn't), here's a bit of free advice: Never, under any circumstances, buy an extended warranty for a
computer! They are
incredibly expensive, and are completely pointless. With the money you spend on the
warranty, you could buy a new computer just as good as the one you've just purchased. The
warranties are how they make their huge profits. The cost of all hardware is always going
down. Replacement costs are always less in the future. The warranties on their computers
are typically several hundred pounds over a few years. If we had to come to you after the
first year, the most we would charge for anything (other than for any hardware that needed
replacing, which isn't very likely after only a year) is about £110 or so. The extended
warranty would cost you a lot more than that. Just say no!
Here are the components of a
couple of machines that we have built recently, in case they happen to fit your needs. The
first is a midrange machine
and the second is more suitable as a gaming machine.
We don't feel the need to
try to increase our charges to customers. We want you to be happy with our service so that
you tell your friends. We get about 60% of our business this way. Once we know what you
need, we give you a fixed price. The amount is payable at the time the work is done.
For payment, if you have an internet connection, we can accept all major credit / debit
cards. We also accept cash, and cheques if backed by a card.
Finally, we use certain software every day on our own computers, simply because it is the
best there is.
If you have an internet connection (and you wouldn't be seeing this
otherwise!), then you had better be using antivirus software. The 'best in class' for home
computers is made by the now world-famous company called Kaspersky, of whom we are proud to be affiliate parners. They do a combined antivrus / antihacker program offer at
a superb price, given the fact that in a recent test by a famous computer magazine it was
the only one that had a 100% pass! You will almost certainly have (or have heard of Norton
Antivirus) on the computer you own. It used to be good. It isn't now. Please use the link
above to see the offer for Kaspersky and other superb software. It
is not an option, If you are on the Internet then you should have
this program. Kaspersky aren't the only providers of firewalls and antivirus software that
we rate highly. Go to our Offers
page and you will see the ones we do rate.
** The British
Bankers Association have made it clear that if you are the victim of internet banking
fraud, by someone getting hold of your banking details from your computer, and you don't
have what they consider to be good quality and up-to-date antivirus software, then they
will hold you liable, and will not reimburse you for your loss. Well, they can't argue
with Kaspersky Internet Security - it has the best detection rates in the business! If you
don't have it, get it here now!

Think about
becoming an Affiliate, and earn yourself some money back while helping us help other
people! Just click on the link above for more.
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