One of my good friends asked me to build him a computer and said "no, go get a dell, it'll be a bit more expensive but if anything goes wrong, you can call them."
He forgot about it for a few weeks and asked again but I gave him the same spiel and offered to help him pick out parts. He gave in and ordered a dell. 4 weeks later, his hard drive corrupted and had to call tech support. They sent a tech out to replace the drive and install from the restore disc.
I told him, he saved himself time because i wouldn't be able to help till for a week and even then, he'd either wait for an RMA from the HDD mfg or buy a new hard drive.
I'm in the minority who would happily fix their stuff for free, especially if I'm going to be putting down roots in the neighborhood. I'd just be up front and tell them I don't promise any miracles and if they really get annoying about it "yeah, you know I just don't know what to do here. Might want to take it to geek squad."
1. Problem solved
2. Reputation intact if not increased.
3. Profit.
When I first moved in to my house, my neighbor told me he did fence work. So I asked how much he would charge to put up a fence. He told me to just get the materials and we would do it. Not knowing him very well I rented some tools and proceed it to do it by myself. Later that day he told me that I was doing it the hard way and if I could wait to the following weekend he would bring his equipment and we could knock it out.
I took him up on the offer. On Thursday he stops me and tells me that he had something come up and could not get to it that weekend, but his crew didn't have any work to do for Friday. He paid his guys to put up my fence and did not charge me a dime.
Needless to say I will work on his computer anytime for no charge. BTW that is what neighbors are for.
I've purchased 3 laptops and a desktop from Dell. Never had an issue.Are you sure that you don't actually hate the guy ? Sending him to Dell ?
I've purchased 3 laptops and a desktop from Dell. Never had an issue.
I agree that people should help each other out. As I've stated, though, that's hardly been my experience. With most people it's take, take, take... and on the rare occasion you ask for something, they disappear into the woodwork. Furthermore, you and your brother know each other far better than my neighbor knows me. I can't imaging hitting a someone up for services before I can remember their first name.
If you fix it, you will be considered responsible for it until doomsday...
if he had offered beer....i would have straight up told him to fill a cooler. ill work for beer...if i can drink while i work and theyre not in a hurry (and wont run out of beer)
because god damn, after having me drunk and working on computers, nobody is going to ask me to do it again.