Scheduling Computer Repair

I recently received a contact from our website that said they sent their laptop into the recommended repair place for some computer repair warranty service.  When the laptop was returned, all of their files were gone.  They questioned how a computer repair company that was supposedly reputable could get away with this kind of treatment of their customers.  Is there a way this could have been prevented?  

With computers today there are only two kinds – those that have a problem and those that will eventually have a problem.  This means that almost everyone who utilizes a computer will at some point have a need for computer repair and will need to find someone they can trust to do the work.

Trust is a big factor when hiring someone for computer repair or any other type of service.  In marketing there is a formula that is referred to as the Know – Like – Trust factor.  A person needs to know who you are, like what you are doing and trust that you can do a good job.  With computer repair trusting that that the technician will preserve your data is one part of the equation.

A sad scenario today is that many computer repair shops treat computers just like any other appliance.  There are only concerned with returning a working computer.  Your data is not their concern.  They may even assume that you have backed up your data (and of course this is something you should do).  However, the problem may have happened before you could accomplish a current backup.  When you bring the missing data to their attention, they will simply refer to the small print in the warranty that states that saving your data is your responsibility.

Think of this like an appliance repair technician that destroys all the food in your refrigerator without warning but then feels he did his job because he fixed the ice maker.  Keep in mind that no computer repair company is legally obligated to save your data; the liability for this would be cost prohibitive.  Make sure that you cover data recovery when you contract with a local computer repair technician.

Online Computer Repair

The place where I see this happen most often is with warranty services on laptops because people usually send their laptops to a computer repair facility in another city and don’t usually talk directly to the technician.  They fill out a form online for warranty service and then take the laptop to the closest mail service and assume that the company on the other end understands their needs.

These types of services are specifically designed to be cost effective, which means they have little if any respect for the data that is stored on the laptop. Over and over I have had people tell me horror stories of how they sent in their laptop and it came back wiped clean because the primary objective of the warranty service provider is to return the laptop to factory specifications which often requires reformatting of the hard drive and reinstallation of the operating system. 

 We warn our customers that they will probably lose all of their information if they are sending their system in for computer repair and to back up the entire hard drive.  We can make a mirror image of the drive for them as a precaution before they send it in for warranty work.

 What is an image backup?  It is an exact copy of the entire system not just certain files.  If and when your computer is returned and has been wiped clean, you are able to restore the image backup exactly as it was prior to sending it to the computer repair facility.     

Most people don’t take into consideration the work involved when you have to reinstall your programs, restore your backup files and then recreate our settings such as passwords, printer drivers.  Think about recreating your address book, your photos and all the other information that has taken you time to accumulate and set up just the way you like it.

Then there is the sensitive information on your system that would be exposed to an unknown computer repair technician.  If you are considering sending your system out for warranty work, you may want to remove this information from your computer first.  If you leave it on the system, make sure that you are using strong passwords.

A convenient way to keep sensitive data from being accessed is to move files, photos, spreadsheets and other data to a external hard drive or a flash drive.  If you are using a program such as Sentry Backup, call and have your technician make a backup just prior to removing the data and sending the laptop in for repair.

 Unfortunately, none of these last steps will work if the computer went down prior to making the backup.  This brings us back to where we started – trust.  You need to trust the computer repair technician in whose hands you place this most valuable asset.

 Our motto is “Protect the tools that fuel your business.”  We understand that your data is more valuable than the system itself and we take the necessary steps to ensure it is protected.   Call us today for your computer repair needs.