Why Are Computer Repair Price Lists So Hard to Find?
The question on the tip of every computer owner's tongue when they need repair services for their PC is, how much is this going to cost? Depending on the age of the machine, some personal computers are not worth the investment of hundreds of dollars of labor charges to try to fix the machine.
Unfortunately, there is no price list at most computer repair businesses. Many businesses charge a flat hourly rate to fix your computer, regardless of what the problem is. You can save up to 50% of this hourly fee by bringing your computer in to get it fixed instead of making the technician make a house call. That means you'll have to disconnect all the cables and keep track of which holes in the box they plugged into, but it is well worth the savings you will realize in the hourly rate of the technician.
Computer Repairs
A price list for various computer repairs, if you could find one, would include maintenance and repair items. In fact, on of the few fixed price list computer repair items you will find is a maintenance tune-up for your computer.
During a typical tune-up, the technician will check the health of your PC. The technician will see if your PC is infected by any viruses, spyware, adware, malware, or unsafe or suspicious cookies. The technician will then remove any problematic programs and install software that will vaccinate your computer against future problems of the same type. The technician will also check and adjust your Internet security and privacy settings to help prevent future security issues. Finally, the technician can adjust filters that provide safety for your children while they are browsing the internet.
Computer Upgrades
Another service you might find on a computer repair price list is a list of computer upgrades. Virtually all upgrades involve the purchase and installation of some type of hardware, like new memory, a new graphics or sound card, or a new hard drive. The labor charge for installing the new hardware means the computer repair organization will rely again on its hourly charge, making a computer repair price list unpredictable.
This argument, against creating a computer repair price list, seems invalid when you consider that there are only so many parts on a computer that can be replaced and upgraded, and all those items are installed in a uniform manner, across platforms, from one PC to the next. Every peripheral, for example, needs to be located close to the outside front or back of the box so that the user can plug a cable into it.
It seems as if a computer repair organization ought to be able to track the time it takes to change a video card, take the average of that time over a representative sampling of different machines, add overhead and profit for themselves, and create a predictable computer repair price list.
