Someone Charged My Aunt $100 To Factory Reset Her Laptop!

[Gizmo j]

She didn't know that you could factory reset her laptop for free by going to the security settings.

I called the business asking why they charged her $100 to do something that's free and they hung up.

 

[nakedfrog]

I mean, if you want to know, the answer is "because they can".

 

[Captante]

She didn't know that you could factory reset her laptop for free by going to the security settings.

I called the business asking why they charged her $100 to do something that's free and they hung up.

Who can we pay $100 to for a factory-reset of the OP?

 

[IronWing]

Because the kind of customer that is going to take a computer in for that service is the kind of customer who is going to be very high maintenance so they are building the inevitable follow-up phone calls into their billing.

 

[Kaido]

She didn't know that you could factory reset her laptop for free by going to the security settings.

I called the business asking why they charged her $100 to do something that's free and they hung up.

Technically, everything is like this. Changing your air filter & oil in your car is super easy. Cooking is easy. But there's a reason people pay for oil changes & $8 to Panera Bread for a grilled cheese sandwich...having someone do it for you is worth the money if you need & want it done, and they have to carry the overhead of running a business, paying taxes, paying employees, doing training, having tools & supplies available, etc.

That was actually one of the catalyst events that got me into being a computer guy...I built a couple computers after high school & broke both of them. Cracked the Duron chip & overclocked & fried my Athlon Thunderbird motherboard. Cost $300 each to fix at the time, and I was making $7.10 an hour lol. I vowed NEVER AGAIN and, 20 years later, I'm still here on ATOT, hahahaha

 

[Red Squirrel]

Honestly that seems reasonable, I used to charge $60 way back in the day but now with newfangled Windows 8 and 10 I find it's harder to do stuff in windows now so I'd be tempted to charge $100.

It's not just the simple act of factory resetting that's long, it's having to backup all the data before such as configuration, actual data (music, pictures etc) and then restore it, reconfigure everything etc. Bookmarks, email, any other applications they had etc. Anything that auto remembers passwords they probably won't know what it is, so have to hunt that down as well.

Typically I image the machine before I do anything to it, then image it after I'm done so that next time I have to do it I just restore that image. If I missed backing up anything then at least I have an image. Though sometimes I just rsync the entire thing over instead of an image as all I really need access to is the raw files. But all that takes some time even though lot of it is just spent waiting.

I try not to deal with that anymore though I find it's just not worth my time and I'm not as well setup for it as I used to. if I lost my job I'd consider getting back into it though but even then, there's just not enough demand to make it worthwhile. All the money is in phones and tablet repair now and each one is different and requires a whole different procedure to deal with so even then it's not really lucrative. When anyone asks me about that stuff I just say I don't do it at all and to go to one of the places in town.

 

[Torn Mind]

Privileged info comes with a cost. Don't know what to do? Then you gotta pay people to do that work for you.

I happen to be multitalented
I got nerd talent
I got redneck talent
I got fashion talent
I got listening talent
I got "Street smarts" talent.

 

[Captante]

I happen to be multitalented

 

[sportage]

Knowledge is power. Especially the computer field. I learned most everything I know by watching other people do it on Youtube posts and by googling the problem. If someone can't understand or can not follow directions given on youtube, then look at it this way.... $100 is cheaper than buying a new computer. SO don't think of it as losing $100, think of it as saving $900 by not having to buy a new computer.

I once restored a ladies computer for $10 and a bowl of homemade soup. Great soup!

 

[RLGL]

Evidently she trusted the business more than you

 

[ultimatebob]

Yeah... why didn't you do it for her? A budding GPU engineer like yourself should have no problem with this.

 

[bba-tcg]

She didn't know that you could factory reset her laptop for free by going to the security settings.

I called the business asking why they charged her $100 to do something that's free and they hung up.

I would've laughed at you before I hung up.

 

[JEDIYoda]

This thread delivers.....

 

[GodisanAtheist]

No this thread is DiGiorno!

 

[Captante]

No.... THIS thread is the noid!

 

[VirtualLarry]

She didn't know

And that, right there, full-stop, is why she had to / chose to pay someone.

 

[rh71]

This is why every family needs a tech guy, for better or worse. It's annoying, but you don't want them to be screwed over for simple things either.

It's really not any different for other services. Around here, irrigation companies charge people like $50 for spring turn-on services. Essentially, they turn the water valve back on (slowly) and ensure none of the heads are busted. Umm, that takes me 1 minute. Also you can buy your own compressor ($99) to winterize instead of paying $75+ every single year. I do 3 houses around the family for no cost.

 

[snoopy7548]

Pics of aunt?

 

[BoomerD]

Only $100? They must have given her the senior discount...

 

[ch33zw1z]

Good, people often think tech service should be super cheap and or free. Pay the man.

 

[Spacehead]

This thread delivers.....

Pics of aunt?

Delivered!

 

[JEDIYoda]

Delivered!

Yes!1 It has delivered!

 

[MrSquished]

If I wasn't around to help my mom backup and have her laptop reset and then restore her OS and data, I would be more than happy if she could pay someone $100 to have that all done for her well and properly.