Originally Posted by billege

I used your quote, as it touched on a theme repeated in serveral of posts in this thread.

I do think that your IT guys at work (as I am one of those "IT guys") do have skillz a GS tech won't. I have got to comment on the whole six-pack/cookies thing. My happy ass isn't doing a house call for less than $50/hour, unless it's my mom. That's it.

I got a skill here, worth some bux. I used to "help out" friends, or friends of friends. That is a mess not worth touching. In fact, you almost can't pay me enough for that shit. Yeah, I can snap your ram in for a single beer, instead of the $30 GS charges. The downside: you're going to call me the first time it does somthing "it didn't do before you put the ram in," and I guarantee it's going to be a hassle for me.

I get paid to do a pretty decent job of 1st level support. I know my shit well enough, and I can handle whatever it is you've done to your home PC. However, being your personal support bitch is not on my list of things to do.

I helped the typical "guy at work" buddy. His wife is disabled, she (is published) writes christian children's books at home, PC is down so she's screwed. Typical story that gets me feeling all helpful. I get her PC. Nice Dell, totally fucked over by general luser behavior. I save all her damn emails, contacts, GBs of pictures (she's a photog also), favorites; and, I give her back a clean install with all her crap back on it. One sweet setup, and the best she can do is timidly complain it's "not as fast as it was." FFS. Then, the calls start. Every time somthing's different, or she can't find a shortcut, my cell rings. (NEver give out the phone #) I had a hella time going from free support hoe to "free of crazy PC bitch" without offending the guy or his wife. I finally lucked out when he said "it'd be nice if you can come over and look at our new PC that's not running right (three weeks after they bought it!)." I said straight back "Sure man, housecalls start at $55 an hour." That ended that. (so you know, that's still half-off the going rate in town. Almost any independant shop worth it's shit charges $90 or more an hour for housecalls.)

I guess the moral of my storey is:
PC "people" are like car mechanics. For every 10 bad ones, there might be 3 good ones. Vet who you let touch your box carefully.

Is GS worth it? Maybe, check thier referances and certifications, then bend over, 'cause it's going to be expensive. Just like any other shop.

Also, these people have a skill, that you need to be paying for. Stop taking advantage of the fact you know "a PC guy."