ethics are wonderful, as long as the customer is best served
I'm gonna sound a bit off the wall, maybe, but I've been doing this for a long time, and my understanding of serving the customer has changed a bit. I've done LOTS of "hero" work, included free 90 day versions of NAV, installed spybot and ad-aware for free on a whole bunch of computers. I even included a handout sheet that explained spyware/adware/malware. Out of the hundreds or so PC's I did this to, probably 1% of these people actually appreciated it to the point of even giving me a chance to repair their computer or sell them a new one. This is because wiht a few exceptions, nobody appreciates something that they do not pay for. We have a saying. Milk the goats, feed the sheep. This is not to say that we are untruthful, or take shortcuts. It is only by charging a fair price, dictated by market forces, geographinc location, etc that you can stay in business. We have a best buy 10 minutes from us. We are a small business that has stayed in business for over 12 years. Being a 'good guy' is not the same as being good to our customers. If I ever felt that my boss was being unscrupulous with our customers, I would run like hell. If I find over 30 items, depending on the type of items, with ad-aware and spybot, I recommend a wipe and reload of windows. If I don't, a lot of times the computer comes back 3 days to 3 weeks with the same issues. Nobody will pay you $60 and hour, or whatever the going rate is to waltz through their registry and look for every problem. Don't mis-undrstand me. I LIKE most of the people I deal with, but by doing the job in the most efficient way we keep most of our customers. I know that new PC prices come awfully close in price to extended repairs, but the customer neds to understand that if they do the same things with their new computer that they did with their old computer, then they will have the SAME PROBLEMS. I offer our spyware removal suite, installed with printed help for $30. If they don't want that, it's OK with me. I also tell them that their ISP probably has anti virus, etc software they can download and install. I can be specific on what they need to do to protect themselves, but I refuse to tell people what I have had to learn over a long, long time for free so that they can go someplace else and save a litle money. I realize that my situation is different from some of the other members, because I work for a small business as a bench tech. I am salaried, but my productivity is much more than sufficient for what I'm paid. Maybe the best thing to do is have a long talk with yourself as to whether you feel you are at the right place. My boss always asks me stuff like "are you looking for the opportunity to sell more RAM while their PC is here?" and stuff like that. I don't think there is anything wrong with that. Will it help their computer run better? Yes. Will it increse our profit? Absolutely. Capitalism is not a bad word
DR Format