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Satisfaction

This is what you won't see from me:

That computer system you purchased a little less than a year ago cost you in the $500.00 - $1000.00 range. You call the store you bought it at and tell them the problem. You do have a one year warranty and probably spent that extra couple of hundred dollars and got the extended warranty. You should be taken care of, but your not. The computer guy at the store informs you that the warranty only covers hardware defects, not software. After you find this out they tell you don't worry, they can fix the problem, but at a cost. This is where the computer world gets very frustrating. The problem will cost you around $200.00 if you take it to them.

Oh well, it's only a couple of hundred dollars, but wait, what are you getting? Not much. They will reload your operating system and the software that came on the restore disks. A restore disk is software that came with your computer to put it back to the way it was the day it was new.

But what about the documents you have created, Internet bookmarks, downloads, and customizations you have made to make your computer yours? Well, to save that data it will cost another $100.00.

You are up to $300.00 and you will get your computer fixed. Well, kind of. You take it to them, wait a week to get it fixed and get it back to your home. Your printer is missing, your Internet does not work and your Microsoft Office is missing. Now what? Get your manuals out and try to figure out how to get all that stuff working again. I hope you have all your software and documentation. If you have problems you will have to contact your ISP, Internet Service Provider, the printer manufacturer help desk or any other type of support you may need to get things running again. Did I mention that most of this support is being outsourced to India and a guy named "Bob" will be helping you but you can't understand a word he is saying. You could have had them come to your home and do the repair for an additional $100.00, but the printer, Internet connection and any other software installations would have cost you more money.

You forgot to add you had a little wireless network setup. No big deal? Wrong, get your checkbook out.

Once you add this all up you are into them for about the same price you paid for you computer! Your computer is up and running, but why was it in that shape to begin with? If you don't know this then the vicious cycle will start over again in several months.

Here are a couple of scenarios of how we believe it should go:

Problems Fixed with Remote Assistance

You call the store where you bought your computer a little less than a year ago to find out that you have a software problem, it is not covered by your warranty, and they want a small fortune to fix your problems. You know about TechAlternatives and give them a call. Keith will talk to you a while and try to determine where the problem is coming from. If it is something that can be fixed remotely I will make a secure connection to your computer and resolve the problem. You will be watching everything that I am doing and will have to give me permission to make the connection. This will cost you $40.00 per hour. Most problems can be resolved in an hour. As I am fixing the problem I can remain on the phone with you and tell you where this problem came from and how to prevent it from coming back. Now you have a functioning computer and know why you got in trouble and how to avoid the problem in the future.

Operating System Reloaded at Your Home

After talking with Keith the problem sounds like the operating system, Windows, has been compromised. You have spyware, browser hijacks, or viruses. These can be fixed, but it is in you best interest to reload the operating system, and put tools in place to prevent these nasties from coming back. This is something that can't be done remotely. I will have to work on your computer. You can bring it to me, I could pick it up and take it with me, or I can work on it right in your home. You have decided to have me come to your home. You have the restore software that came with your computer. You have a high speed Internet connection and the information you need to get back on line with it, if needed. You are just the casual user that has some Word documents and spreadsheets. You have a few pictures you downloaded from your digital camera. The amount of data you have to save is under 4 GB (Gigabytes). I charge a maximum of $175.00 for an in home repair, desktop or laptop. Here is what you get for $175.00 or less:

  • Up to 4GB of data will be backed up and scanned for viruses
  • The operating system will be reloaded to factory defaults
  • You will be reconnected to the Internet
  • Your printer will be configured
  • The operating system will be service packed to the latest available
  • Windows Updates will be ran until they are up-to-date
  • An Anti-virus program will be installed and updated
  • A spyware program will be installed and updated
  • Data will be copied back to your system
  • An office package will be installed if requested

When I am done you will have a system that is running fast and ready to go back into the Internet world, but much safer and ready to be attacked, and ward off the threats.

Operating System Reload at Your Home with a lot of data to be saved

After talking with Keith the problem sounds like the operating system, Windows, has been compromised. You have spyware, browser hijacks, or viruses. These can be fixed, but it is in you best interest to reload the operating system, and put tools in place to prevent these nasties from coming back. This is something that can't be done remotely. We will have to work on your computer. You can bring it to us, we could pick it up and take it with us, or we can work on it right in your home. You have decided to have us come to your home. You have the restore software that came with your computer. You have a high speed Internet connection and the information you need to get back on line with it. You have tons of data that you want to keep. You have music and photos. The data adds up to 20GB (Gigabytes).

This amount of data will require me to setup a small network to save your data. This is no big deal and can be done in just a few minutes. The saving of the data will take time. The cost of this will be a maximum of $175.00 for the in home repair and $60.00 per hour to save your data via a network. A lot of data can be saved in an hour but it is hard to tell until I start to copy it. If the copy is going slow you will be given options to try to keep the cost as low as possible. If the copy takes an hour the charge would be $235.00. Here is what you would get for $235.00

  • A small network will be setup to retrieve data from your computer. We will provide the network and needed computers. Anything over 4GB will require a network to be setup. Your data will be copied to our computer and scanned for viruses.
  • The operating system will be reloaded to factory defaults
  • You will be reconnected to the Internet
  • Your printer will be configured
  • The operating system will be service packed to the latest available
  • Windows Updates will be ran until they are up-to-date
  • An Anti-virus program will be installed and updated
  • A spyware program will be installed and updated
  • Data will be copied back to your system
  • An office package will be installed if requested

The saving of this amount of data can very. It can take from one hour hour and up. If the operating system has been compromised the initial copy of the data can be slow. Once the system is back up and running the copy will be much faster.

When I am done you will have a system that is running fast and ready to go back into the Internet world, but much safer and ready to be attacked, and ward off the threats.

You Have a Bad Hard Drive

You power on your system and it says "Missing Operating System". After taking with Keith it is decided that you have a bad hard drive, but your system is out of warranty. You do have your recovery software. The data that was on your hard drive is more than likely gone. We can talk about data recovery options if you would like, but lets just say you want your computer back up and running. I will find you a hard drive for your computer at the best price available. You will be charged for whatever I pay for it, including shipping, if there was any for me to get it. I charge $175.00 or less for an in home repair, desktop or laptop. Here is what you get for $175.00 or less plus the cost of the new drive. Example 160GB $40.00 w/ Free Shipping:

  • The new hard drive will be installed
  • The operating system will be reloaded to factory defaults
  • You will be reconnected to the Internet
  • Your printer will be configured
  • The operating system will be service packed to the latest available
  • Windows Updates will be ran until they are up-to-date
  • An Anti-virus program will be installed and updated
  • A spyware program will be installed and updated
  • Data will be copied back to your system
  • An office package will be installed if requested

Give an Old System New Life

You have a computer that is three years old and is running horribly slow. You don't have the software that came with it. The only thing you do with this computer is surf the Internet, email and an occasional Word document. Your copy of Microsoft Office is borrowed and you don't have that anymore either. The system is a Pentium III or 4 and has 256MB of RAM (Random Access Memory) After talking with Keith you find out that a copy of Microsoft Office will cost you about $200.00. He has found the recovery software for you and can get it for $35.00. The service is going to cost $175.00 to have him come out and do it. It will cost about $400.00 to get this old computer going again. Here is where "discover your options" comes into play. Linux shines on older hardware. Depending on how old your system is determines what distribution of Linux you should run. After talking with Keith you decide that your hardware is not that old and he can get 1GB (Gigabyte) of RAM for it for $23.00. Since he is going to do the service he is not going to charge you for putting the RAM in the system. PCLinuxOS would be a great Linux to run on your system. There is no learning curve because you just surf the Internet and use email. OpenOffice is an Office package that is compatible with all of your Word documents and it's free. If it is decided that you do want more software there are over 5,000 packages that are free and you just click on them to install them. Sounds good doesn't it. For $200.00 you get:

  • 1GB RAM added to your system
  • PCLinuxOS 2009 loaded onto your computer
  • The system will be configured with your high speed Internet
  • OpenOffice will be loaded for you
  • We will spend an hour going over Linux and how to use it. PCLinuxOS' slogan is "Radically Simple" and it is.

You now have a rock solid system for surfing the Internet that is very fast, and the only thing you paid for was a little RAM and some service.

This is how I believe it should be. When I leave you home I want nothing less than you being completely satisfied. I will do everything within my power to make that happen. Guaranteed!