Marketplace

A witch hunt...that's what it was, purely and simply a witch hunt. And i am MAD!!!
Last night, my father in law phoned and told us to watch Marketplace. So we did. And as we watched, we just stared in shock and horror as they aired a show they titled with some catchy name like "Is the Computer Tech Ripping You Off?"
The premise of the show was that they set up hidden cameras and broke a very small part in a computer. They then called in 10 in-home computer techies, including a Doctor Dave tech who Husband actually knows. They had these young guys watching the footage, and commenting on the service and all, and, well, I could have just slapped them silly...they tore every single tech apart, and some of the things they said were either dead wrong, or made no sense. For example, this problem, they said, was easy to diagnose....so they tore a strip off the techs who got it wrong. Problem is, in the space of time in which these techs were making their diagnosis, in some cases, the wrong diagnosis was understandable. What they did NOT consider was that human error does occur, and given a bit more time, these techs most likely would have realised they were wrong and looked some more. For the record, our guy got the diagnosis right.....but they made him look bad by putting in some sound byte where he was making some noise. I don't know if he had been singing to himself or whatever, it really doesn't matter....they made it look like he was making strange noises to "talk" to the computer. Whatever.
Anyway, the biggest thing that bothered me had to do with the prices. I don't know what their source of prices was, but they were way off. Maybe they were looking at one of these cheapie websites where you get what you pay for, and there is no guarantee, no warranty, nothing. I don't know. But in every case, they said the Tech was overcharging the customer. Not once did they consider that the tech has to make a living. Not once did they consider that part of the cost was labour. Our guy tried to sell the customer a part that was much bigger in memory size, which, of course, did cost more than the smaller part....it held something like 4X more space or something. He didn't have the same size as the computer originally had. Why? Because that size part is hard to find, it's pretty much been phased out. The tech tried to explain that, but the narrator made it look like he was trying to screw the customer.
Basically, the whole show set out to prove that computer techs are out to scam you.They were even compared to used car salesmen! That's a low blow, and totally untrue.
Now, I am sure there are SOME techs who are out to gouge the customer and don't care about service and customer satisfaction, but I know for a FACT that there are a whole heck of a lot more who are NOT, and who are now going to suffer because of this show. Now we are going to get less calls, and a lot of the ones who DO call are going to harass Husband and accuse him of overcharging and all the rest.
Sure, it's good and cheap (comparatively) to buy the part and fix it yourself....if you can do it, all the more power to you.....but for the people who don't know how, and NEED someone to do it FOR the, come on! You HAVE to factor in labour and a small markup so the tech can feed his/her family!!!!!! We aren't out to get people. We are NOT scamming people. At least in the case of our company, our prices are fair, you get guarantees and warranties, our techs are TRAINED and know what they are doing....and if they make a mistake, they make it right!