Repair for a home computer

This is the residential part of the practice: a desktop or laptop used at home, a machine that has started to fail, help moving files you still need onto a replacement, and setup of a home computer. It is one service, arranged by email, and it is separate from business agreements.

If the computer belongs to an organisation, or other people at a workplace depend on it, use the business services. A home visit is the wrong arrangement for a company network.

We ask about the fault, what the computer is used for, and whether there are files you cannot afford to lose. We agree the next step before anything is changed. That step may be advice, a remote session, or a visit to the home.

A remote session happens only if you are content to share the screen and to stay with the machine. You can stop it. A visit is arranged for a time you agree, and the work is done with you at the machine or in the home.

Photographs, messages and documents are not browsed out of curiosity. If a file has to be opened to confirm a repair, we say so. We ask before copying anything, and we copy only what you have asked to keep.

Copies made for the repair are removed once the machine is back with you, and that removal is confirmed. Passwords are typed by you. They are not written down in a note that leaves the job.

Some faults cannot be finished at the kitchen table. If the machine needs to be moved, we agree where it will go and when it will come back before it leaves. You are told who is accountable for it while it is away.

We do not buy machines from you. When the work is finished, the note says what was changed and what was left alone, in the same plain way as a business job.