I decided to pick up the phone and call back. A young sounding guy answered the phone quite nervously. I told him who I was and that I was returning his two phone calls he just made, and asked him if he needed some computer service. He fumbled around with his words and muttered that he called by mistake. I asked him why he was calling me if he was a computer technician (now revealing that I knew who he was) and if he possibly needed some advice or help. At that point he panicked and hung up. I realized that he was indeed prank phone calling my business, but I can’t understand his gain. There are a lot of professional technicians out there, and the pros all have a sense of camaraderie. I have no problem sending my customers to my competition whom I trust to do good work for things I don’t support or in emergency situations where I can’t get to a customer in time. On the flip side, there is no place in the IT world for deceptive and unprofessional tactics. We have a term for how we deal with bad technicians, and it’s called “Blacklisting”.
This leads me to the subject of this article, and that is how to hire a computer tech. In SC, there are no licenses or certifications required to do computer work. So how do you know you’re getting the right service person? The answer is simple and as old as can be. Ask for professional referrals. A real professional will be happy to give up that information. The real trick is to ask for technical referrals as well ones from their customers. A computer service business will have various other service companies that they use and refer on a regular basis such telecommunications vendors and national service dispatchers.
Another red flag is price. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is just that. An established computer service business is going to have an overhead and will cost more than an independent technician. That does not mean that all independent technicians are bad, but you need to do more background checking with them as anybody can pose as a technician due to the lack of regulation. The other thing to think about is experience in customer service. An established service business will return your phone calls, provide receipts, and track your service history. They will also know how to talk to you in a way that you can understand and not try and swindle you by speaking over your head in jargon.
Keep in mind that you may also run into trouble with some of the computer service companies attached to the big chain retail stores. The reports of shady practices in the news such as breaching your privacy and misdiagnoses are usually attached to these larger companies. In at least one of these big name companies that I won’t mention, the technicians are historically forced to be salespeople above service people. They are also usually less experienced as it is usually their first technical job.
To wrap this all up, until South Carolina enforces a licensing program for computer service professionals, the job of choosing the right tech is entirely in your hands. Make sure to ask for the following information:
If someone is still in the stage of their life where they make prank phone calls, can you really trust them with your private data?