Business owners who don't do computer consulting may not know that replacing a hard drive takes a lot of work. Take the time to teach your clients how to reformat a drive, which is something you can do for them as part of your computer consulting business.
Many of the people who hire you for computer consulting won't have a technical background but will be business people. So, many people won't understand right away why a broken hard drive can't just be replaced with a new or refurbished one.
As part of managing your clients' expectations, it's important to teach them the steps that go into formatting a hard drive, loading the OS, configuring device drivers, loading software applications, customizing the OS and applications, and restoring data.
Educate Your Client
As the owner of a computer consulting business, you know that replacing a hard drive isn't as easy as taking it out of its packaging and plugging it into a PC. But, many times, your clients don't.
Or they just think that all the OS files, device drivers, and software applications will "magically" appear. All of this may sound very simple, but it's important to explain these things to your clients when you talk about PC warranties.
How does the vendor handle replacing hard drives?
You need to know how the PC companies you like the best handle replacing hard drives under warranty. What kinds of work are covered by the warranty if a desktop PC or laptop hard drive needs to be replaced?
Some vendors say that the hard drive device only needs to be physically replaced and working, and the PC hardware setup program needs to recognize it. Under this type of warranty coverage, the technician's job is done as soon as the empty (blank) replacement hard drive is put into the client's computer.
The True Price
Unfortunately, most PC manufacturers are under financial pressure to cut their support and warranty costs. This means that the clients of your computer consulting business will probably only get basic warranty service. The price of a hard drive for a desktop PC is usually between $100 and $200.
So it's important that your clients know that warranty service on a hard drive replacement doesn't usually cover the more expensive labor costs of getting the hard drive and system back to how they were before the crash.
If your clients hire you to do this work, it could easily cost them $200 to $500 (or more) in labor to get that PC hard drive back to the way it was before it crashed. Even if the work is done by your clients' internal experts, this could take them away from their "real" jobs for a half-day or more.
The Bottom Line on the Business of Computer Consulting
Most of the costs of fixing a crashed desktop PC hard drive are soft costs, which aren't usually covered by the PC vendor's warranty. Because of this, we're finding more and more reasons not to recommend buying an extended warranty for entry-level desktop PCs.
