So your old laptop finally burnt out and won't turn back on. You've probably stuffed it away in some dusty back room and have been looking around for the newest model to buy. You really don't have it in your budget to spend a couple grand on a computer right now. Maybe it was a relatively new laptop and it just shut down but you can't afford the high rate demanded by the Geek Squad to get it repaired, right?
I know how that feels. At times like these you can feel like a diver stuck in a sinking shark cage in the middle of a great white feeding frenzy. Just stay calm. You don't have to go tossing your entire wallet on a new laptop. In fact, your old one can be repaired and be running like a brand new machine in no time. How you ask?
It's simple, really. The key is 'local business.' That's right. Local Business.
Before I moved out to the triad and founded my local computer repair business with my ingenious computer guru boyfriend Mark, I lived in the charlotte area with my folks. I had an old laptop that I had thrown once in a fit of rage at how broken apart it was. It would always shut off and stop working. I gave up on it and the six-hundred bucks my dad had invested in it had gone to waste, or so I thought.
I was sharing my boyfriend's desktop computer with him whenever I used to visit on the weekends and one day he asked me why I never brought over my laptop so he could take a look at it. I said it was pointless and I'd just have to wait to buy a new one. Sharing a computer with him got to be a bit of a hassle so I finally brought it over in reluctance. He spent the entire day working on it trying out new ideas until finally- the little blue light came on and before I realized what had happened I was staring at the home screen on my laptop. It actually worked. He was able to bring a laptop back from the graveyard which I have never seen done before by any computer technician. I knew he had a talent and that we had to put that to good use. He told me that he used to help out his family friends by fixing their PC's all the time and that he never charged them to look at their computers and made sure he had the cheapest rates so that they could afford the repairs. He told me he wanted to start a true business out of the passion he had formed since he was a toddler when his favorite hobby was taking apart computers and putting them back together again.
So we started a local business, right here in the heart of the triad. We've got a mission to treat every customer like family and always offer our services with our motto in mind. To 'fix it right, at the right price.'
Even if you're halfway across the continent I'm sure there are reputable local businesses in your area as well. The trick is to not give into the impulse of just tossing your old computer as soon as it shuts down. Take a minute to look around online or go into the heart of your city and see what types of businesses do computer repair. Who knows you might just find a couple that wants to help you as much as we like to help our own customers. Having a bit of Faith in local business can pay off in the end...it saves our customers an average of $200 per job and that's because we offer free diagnostic testing and we've lowered our prices to be cheaper then any other computer business in the Triad area.
So don't put that computer in the attic just yet...it might have a bit of life left in it yet.