Since it seems like we have so much to say about repairing computers and our experience in the business it seemed like a good time to share with you, 3 dirty little secrets most computer repair businesses do not want you to know. Sure, there is dirt on pretty much every business out there, and to be honest we really don’t blame the industry at all, just thought letting you know a few things about what goes on behind closed doors at a computer repair shop might enlighten you to perhaps start learning a little more about PC repair yourself.

1-They Look At Your Files
Yes, it happens every single day. Customers drop off their computers for repair and while they are in the shop most hard drives are given at least a casual pass over. In our experience it was never with any malcontent, mostly copying movies, music, and well, porn. In most cases this is where everything stops, we cannot remember a single story of a computer repair technician taking someone’s credit card number or something like that, usually just copying media files most people didn’t pay for in the first place.

The key here is if you have anything you do not want them to see, you might want to bury it or remove it. Erotic photos of you and the significant other, dirty little secrets, “home videos”, are all likely to be found. If you do not want people to see them, set them aside. As a young computer repair tech, I remember coming across a local business owners picture collection of himself and who I assume was his wife…lets just say I never really looked at him the same again.

2-They Work On Multiple Computers At Once
Not that there is anything wrong with multi-tasking it is important you know that that 2.5 hours of service you are paying for isn’t likely to of been only working on your computer. Many computer repair businesses bill on desk time, they even bill you for how long your computer is scanning for viruses, a process that can take over an hour! In our computer repair shop we only billed the customer for time we were interacting with their PC, starting a virus scan, then coming back 1 hour later didn’t count as an hour of billable time.

That said, in a lot of places it does so you might want to ask them ahead of time. Large companies such as Best Buy’s Geek Squad are more likely to be less forgiving while small town computer repair places should understand watching an episode of Maury while a customer’s computer scan’s isn’t actually doing work.

3-Many Repairs Are Covered by Hardware Manufacturers Warranty
One of the biggest profit areas in our computer repair business was in used parts or refurbished equipment. Let us explain why, say for example a customer comes in with a processor that needs to be replaced, its past the 1 year warranty provided by the computer manufacturer but not past the 3 year warranty Intel provides, the customer is charged full price for a new processor and the computer repair computer gets to sell the brand new part to someone else but telling the customer they would be happy to “throw away the useless old part” we not saying you should begrudge someone an opportunity to make a few dollars but it might be worth asking. The reason is at least you have the option of telling them you would like to check to see if the part is under warranty.

Anyway, not trying to dump on computer repair businesses, after all we have put in more than a decade in that field. Most of what is listed above isn’t really that big a deal but you should have an idea what goes on with your computer when it is in the shop.