[HC-ITSolutions] Computer Technical Support Company

[Johno]

1. You may come to us instead of the manufacturer of the item as it is general knowledge that to be able to receive support from the manufacturer you are going to need that thing we call “Warranty”.


2. We hire a “Voluntary” team as we are not an “Employer”.


3. I suggest you wake up and face the real world, IT is not a cheap industry. I suggest you do some research in the future, have a look at this websites prices - http://www.iyogi.co.uk/

WOW! Your professionalism impresses me greatly. I think you need to let your partner be the one who responds to comments/criticism because you hardly come across well.

Firstly, it's pretty simple to phone a manufacturer of a product if you need help. You don't always need a warranty to get some help - I phoned Apple after my computer was out of warranty for two years and they still helped.

Secondly, why the hell should your team be voluntary if you are making money. Charity shops have voluntary staff as the money made does not go into the pockets of the owners. What about you? Sure, some of it will go to upkeep but the rest is straight into your pocket. Why should you expect people to work for nothing if they get nothing in return apart from knowing they helped make you some money.

Finally, you charge £95.88 for a years "Live Support" whereas the site you linked to charges £109.99. They seem much more professional, have had plenty of media coverage and offer more than just live support (such as a phone line and also software for their users) - You suggest I go and do my research first but I think you are the one who needs to do that.

I live in the real world thanks, I think it's you who needs to wake up.

[Jonster]

Well let's be honest, there are plenty of community forums which offer free help and are actually useful... why would anyone pay £X for support online?

Also, people will always look for the cheapest alternative. If you only offer a monthly subscription no-one is going to pay £5 for 10minutes of your time, are they?

[iJoe]

So, I'm having a problem with my external CD drive that's just not working, I pay you £X for assistance, what if all you can assist me with is take it back to the shop or contact the manufacturer?

And do you have any actual qualifications to offer this level of support or will it just be your volunteers googling for the answers then pasting them to paying customers?

There's really no market for this at this level, you'd be better proposing your business to other companies and organizations who do tend to out-source their tech support.

Also, you're supposed to be a support site, why would someone want to 'like' one of your staffs profile pages?

[.-richie-.]

Hi there, thank you for your enquiry. Unfortunately live support wouldn’t be of much use if there was a physical problem with a piece of hardware, for example, your example of an “External CD Drive”, if it is physically broken e.g. it no longer reads or burns data to disks then unfortunately we wouldn’t be able to fix their problem but would offer a full refund. The hardware section is really based on fixable problems which can be dealt with online e.g. my printer doesn’t print anymore. Also if we cannot help our client with an issue due to it being impossible to provide a solution over the internet then we would give recommendations. You asked if I had any qualifications to offer this level of support, the answer to that is yes. I am studying at Glasgow Metropolitan College, HND Computer Technical Support, working towards vendor qualifications -

• MCDST (Microsoft Desktop Support Technician)
• MCSA (Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator)
• Comptia A+
• Oracle (Database Design and Programming with SQL)

Thank you again for your enquiry,
Richard

[Trinity]

You asked if I had any qualifications to offer this level of support, the answer to that is yes. I am studying at Glasgow Metropolitan College, HND Computer Technical Support, working towards vendor qualifications -

• MCDST (Microsoft Desktop Support Technician)
• MCSA (Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator)
• Comptia A+
• Oracle (Database Design and Programming with SQL)

Thank you again for your enquiry,
Richard

I'm confused. You said you have the qualifications, then you said that you're actually just working towards them. Which is it?

[iJoe]

Hi there, thank you for your enquiry. Unfortunately live support wouldn’t be of much use if there was a physical problem with a piece of hardware, for example, your example of an “External CD Drive”, if it is physically broken e.g. it no longer reads or burns data to disks then unfortunately we wouldn’t be able to fix their problem but would offer a full refund. The hardware section is really based on fixable problems which can be dealt with online e.g. my printer doesn’t print anymore. Also if we cannot help our client with an issue due to it being impossible to provide a solution over the internet then we would give recommendations. You asked if I had any qualifications to offer this level of support, the answer to that is yes. I am studying at Glasgow Metropolitan College, HND Computer Technical Support, working towards vendor qualifications -

• MCDST (Microsoft Desktop Support Technician)
• MCSA (Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator)
• Comptia A+
• Oracle (Database Design and Programming with SQL)

Thank you again for your enquiry,
Richard

Fair play and good luck with them.

I'd suggest as someone else has suggested, using skype for phone support, this would allow you to support users having problems with their OS or internet as this could render them unable to access your site. This could probably have an extra charge to it so don't count this in what I've said below.

I'd also suggest a change in your pricing, rather than live support, or knowledge base or ticketing, why not a one off monthly fee which gives people access to all three? I think more people would buy a subscription allowing them this as peoples problems vary from urgent (where they'll want live support) To simple where knowledge base would do, which would also save your staff some time too if it gets busy.

[.-richie-.]

Fair play and good luck with them.

I'd suggest as someone else has suggested, using skype for phone support, this would allow you to support users having problems with their OS or internet as this could render them unable to access your site. This could probably have an extra charge to it so don't count this in what I've said below.

I'd also suggest a change in your pricing, rather than live support, or knowledge base or ticketing, why not a one off monthly fee which gives people access to all three? I think more people would buy a subscription allowing them this as peoples problems vary from urgent (where they'll want live support) To simple where knowledge base would do, which would also save your staff some time too if it gets busy.

Thank you for the good luck and your ideas! After discussion with Nico we have decided to put some of your ideas in place. We have implemented a “Bulk” subscription which is a monthly subscription of all of our services, thanks for that idea! We have also lowered the price of Live Support.

Thanks again,
Richard