Get computer help now! Sign up for online tech support

Find a trustworthy company to solve your computer conundrums

By Sharon Oosthoek

Your computer has been sluggish all day, but now it’s after 5 p.m. and it has slowed to a crawl. You absolutely have to get it working again, right away. Who are you going to call?

For Rosemary Cooke, a mom in London, Ont., the answer is simple. She dials the number for Nerds On Site, a tech support company she’s been dealing with for many years — and one she can rely on for both house calls and online help.

Reach out for help

Companies such as Geek Squad and Nerds On Site, which has more than 200 technicians across the country, will respond after regular business hours. It’s a bonus for someone like Cooke whose whole family would be affected if the computer was out of service.

“Usually it’s crisis problem-solving,” she says. “We don’t have the skill level to deal with it. Recently my husband tried to get rid of a particularly annoying pop-up problem and seemed to have wiped the whole hard drive in the process. He was distraught. Blake [the technician] was there for us.”

Computers are in more than 64 per cent of Canadian households, so it’s not surprising to learn that Cooke is one of an increasing number of computer users who don’t have the time to haul a machine into traditional repair shops every time something goes wrong.

Here’s what you need to know before calling at-home tech support.

Find a good tech support company

While you can search an online directory, such as Yellow.ca, the best approach is to rely on referrals from friends and family. “Word of mouth is huge in this business. It’s sort of like looking for a mechanic you can trust,” says John Harbarenko, co-founder of Nerds on Site.

While there are various types of certification, Harbarenko recommends hiring bondable technicians from a company with liability insurance so you can trust them when they’re working on your computer either physically or remotely.

Get house calls or online help from your company

Many tech support companies offer both house calls and online support. Some can fix your problem via the Remote Desktop function offered on Windows Vista, for example.

Danny Blunt, owner of Calgary 911 Computer Services, says he prefers to make a house call the first time he meets a client so he can develop a relationship. “I am dealing with something very valuable and personal to a client. We need to know and understand each other in order to gain trust,” he says.

Harbarenko also prefers house calls because he finds he can spot problems he might not spot online. If he sees a laptop at a client’s home for example, he’ll ask if the owner uses it to access the Internet. If he or she does, he’ll offer to scan it for viruses while he’s scanning the desktop computer. And he’s happy to give clients short tutorials on how to fix problems so they don’t reoccur.

Blunt and Harbarenko agree that Remote Desktop is a useful tool, especially if you live in an isolated area. That way a technician (with your permission) can access your computer online and even take over your mouse to solve your problem. You can see everything he or she is doing.

Assess the costs

Blunt says that, depending on the problem, he negotiates both flat rates and hourly fees. Removing a simple virus costs less than reformatting an entire operating system, which could take anywhere from 2 to 12 hours.

Harbarenko charges per incident. A house call in a major city such as Toronto starts higher than in a smaller community, as the cost of living is lower and there isn’t as much travel time to get there. His technicians negotiate an upper ceiling as quickly as they can so there are no surprises.

Discern whether your problem is a warranty or tech support issue

“Typically manufacturers stick to warranty issues. We can come in and go above and beyond. We answer questions like, ‘How can I set up a wireless network?’” says Harbarenko. “And manufacturers are not obligated to fix viruses. People don’t call and say ‘I’ve got a virus.’ They’ll call us and say: ‘My computer is running slow or can’t connect to the Internet,’ and usually the cause is a virus or spyware.”

Warranties usually last from one to three years for parts. Sometimes manufacturers will also cover onsite labour for between one and three years.