At 12:10 PM 12/1/2005, Thane Sherrington (S) typed:
If a piece of hardware fails and screws up the software (say the HD
dies and Windows is gone) then I include reinstallation of Windows
as part of the warranty. No other place around here (including the
big boys like Staples and Dell) do this, but I think it's just reasonable.
In that case I give them a price to replace the HD & to restore their
system to as close to the way that it was before the HD failure which
includes re-installing the OS & recovering their data to the best of
my ability. I can NOT guarantee that I can recover everything & I can
NOT guarantee that I'll setup Windows exactly as they had it but I
get awful close thanks to my XpPe Cd unless the HD is completely
shot. When I tell the client this I try to reassure them that I lose
very little data if any & that none of the local shops would bother
with their data or restoring Windows to something other than the
default installation. Unfortunately if their HD is completely toasted
there is nothing that I or anyone else can do without a backup other
than maybe send it to Tim but I can guarantee that I'll work harder
to recover more of their data & settings than anyone else in the
area. FWIW I do NOT make image files of their systems prior to them
taking delivery because that would NOT include their data anyway &
for the most part that's what they're concerned about. Making an
image file at the time of delivery only helps the shop re-install
Windows quicker & I find that the shops that do this often say the
heck with cleaning the thing just restore the image & screw the
clients data since it's their fault anyway. Clients don't like losing
their data & whatever I can do to recover it makes me look like a
saint no matter what I charge. I've only had to wipe 2 systems that I
couldn't clean sufficiently so while restoring an image file for
those systems would've have saved me some time but how about all the
time I wasted making the image backup file the rest of the time not
to mention the cost of the media to store them. Sorry but I've got
better things to do like maybe some more research into this or that
computer problem(s).
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Wayne D. Johnson
Ashland, OH, USA 44805
<http://www.wavijo.com>
