Sometimes they need me there

It is common for someone to call me to help them after they have tried other solutions, such as calling their computer maker, Internet provider or another support provider, such as the Geek Squad.

No power

Several years ago I got a call from a man who had a Dell desktop computer that would not boot. He said he had spent 4 hours trying to fix the problem with a Dell customer service representative, located somewhere in Asia.

I arrived at my new client’s place. The computer was apparently dead. Nothing happened when the power switch was pushed. I thought it might be a dead power supply. Since I was there already, I opened the case, thinking to reseat the boards attached to the motherboard. I began by pulling and reinstalling the two RAM cards. I pushed the power button and the machine started up. It took me about 5 minutes to get the machine going again. I believe it is still working today.

No sound

Earlier this week I got a call about a loss of sound on an HP desktop computer. The caller said that he had spent five hours on the phone, over two days, with HP service representatives in India. The problem remained.

Once I got there, I diagnosed and fixed the problem in 90 seconds. The cable to the speakers was in the wrong socket.

Since I was there the new client asked me to look at some other things. The first thing I did was to show him how to use the Vista user interface (UI) since he was new to Vista. I love the Start menu search box so that was where our Vista tutorial began. I typed “Excel” in the Search bar expecting to have Excel 2007 pop up at the top of the results pane. It didn’t. I searched All Programs to no avail. I asked if he knew why Word 2007 was on the machine but not Excel or PowerPoint.

He said that he had bought the machine from Best Buy and paid the Geek Squad to install the machine. He had purchased a copy of Microsoft Office 2007 Home & Student from Best Buy at the same time. He did not know why all of the programs hadn’t been installed. Best Buy had neglected to provide him with an installation disc, and more importantly his Microsoft Office 25 digit product key.

I grabbed the Office 2007 product key from Word 2007 using special software I carry and reinstalled the product using the trial version that HP had put on the machine. Fortunately, I didn’t need to “activate” the install by using the product key because the machine already recognized it from the installed version of Word 2007. My new client is happy with me but not Best Buy, the Geek Squad or HP.

No Internet

Yesterday, I saw a new client who had a router failure. She had tried to deal with the problem by calling her ISP, Optimum (AKA Cablevision). They couldn’t diagnosis the issue so they had her turn off the Belkin router and connect her laptop directly to the cable modem. This reduced her security since the router’s hardware firewall was no longer protecting her and she could not roam her condo with her laptop but at least could access the Internet.

It took me about 15 minutes to reinstall and reconfigure the router so that it worked both wired and wirelessly.

The preceding are instances of when a customer needs onsite support and neither a voice from across the ocean nor a disinterested, low-paid employee of a giant corporation will do. I provide that onsite support.