Good 24/7 Computer Aid Subscription (In US?)
Thread poster: Colleen Roach, PhD
Colleen Roach, PhD
Colleen Roach, PhD  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 23:56
French to English
+ ...
Mar 16, 2019

I'm not sure if this is in the right topic area & I also don't know if one is allowed to post information regarding a specific company. Actually, what I have to say about the company is mainly good, but I don't know if that matters.

Anyway: I only use laptops at home. I have always bought my laptops for years & years from the same well known company. (I'm on my 3rd one now, purchased 4 years ago. I still have sitting at home the one I had before that which I still use occasionally;
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I'm not sure if this is in the right topic area & I also don't know if one is allowed to post information regarding a specific company. Actually, what I have to say about the company is mainly good, but I don't know if that matters.

Anyway: I only use laptops at home. I have always bought my laptops for years & years from the same well known company. (I'm on my 3rd one now, purchased 4 years ago. I still have sitting at home the one I had before that which I still use occasionally; It is still fine -- going on 10 years of age, but uses XP Operating system; the one before that was also fine for years & years until I dumped a coke into it by accident.) (:

I liked to purchase my laptops from this one company as they had a yearly renewable 24/7 technical support system, which was enormously helpful. Sometimes I've had simply things happen --sometimes major. About 9 months ago, I had a TOTAL system crash -- never happened before. I have suspicions about what caused this, but no certitude. Because I had this extended warranty, I was (after tons of telephone attempts to fix it) able to send in the computer to the manufacturer and get a total "reset" back to its early factory days.

PROBLEM: The company I purchased my annual renewable 24/7 tech support won't renew this anymore saying you can only do this for 4 years. I only knew of what must be a NEW policy when I had a problem a couple of days ago that I couldn't figure out on my own. I eventually solved the problem on my own but when I was trying to reach them, they had a recorded line saying: "DON'T WORRY! Even though you're out of warranty we can still help you -- we have a department for that!" I assume this was a per-minute fee based service. The thing is: I must have tried 10+ times to get through to this line and was always disconnected.

Bottom line: I'm looking for help please -- I'm based in the US -- of what people use for 24/7 computer assistance. I have no idea where else to turn as I've always used this one company for this support for like 15+ years. I imagine certain office supply stores in the US that sell computers might have something similar to what I had but I'm not sure how good they are + costs. Advising to find a local computer geek would definitely not be as good as a 24/7 service as one may run into a problem at say, 1 am.

If you are allowed to post names of possible companies or advice here, I would appreciate it. Otherwise, if people know of specific companies (like office supply stores in US) but can't post them publicly, please send me a private message.

Many thanks. Colleen
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Lincoln Hui
Lincoln Hui  Identity Verified
Hong Kong
Local time: 14:56
Member
Chinese to English
+ ...
For practical purposes Mar 18, 2019

I know this isn't the answer you're looking for, but won't it make life much easier to just get an inexpensive laptop for backup (or even use one you currently have), set some some sort of backup infrastructure, go to that computer if you have a problem at odd hours, and bring your main machine in during the day? Even if you find such a service, you're going to be spending an hour troubleshooting something in the dead of night. Might as well just get things done on another computer, go to bed an... See more
I know this isn't the answer you're looking for, but won't it make life much easier to just get an inexpensive laptop for backup (or even use one you currently have), set some some sort of backup infrastructure, go to that computer if you have a problem at odd hours, and bring your main machine in during the day? Even if you find such a service, you're going to be spending an hour troubleshooting something in the dead of night. Might as well just get things done on another computer, go to bed and worry about it tomorrow.Collapse


John Fossey
 
Colleen Roach, PhD
Colleen Roach, PhD  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 23:56
French to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Lincoln: possible solution Mar 18, 2019

Lincoln Hui wrote:

I know this isn't the answer you're looking for, but won't it make life much easier to just get an inexpensive laptop for backup (or even use one you currently have), set some some sort of backup infrastructure, go to that computer if you have a problem at odd hours, and bring your main machine in during the day? Even if you find such a service, you're going to be spending an hour troubleshooting something in the dead of night. Might as well just get things done on another computer, go to bed and worry about it tomorrow.


Lincoln: Thanks for your possible solution. I do have a backup old computer which basically works ok but won't go online (as it runs on XP), but I've become used to this idea of having 24/7 support available when/if I need it. This idea of yours of having a 2nd computer, though, echoes what I read somewhere recently: someone who did a lot of work online had 1 computer reserved exclusively for this. He NEVER, ever went online just to browse news sites, look at various things, etc. He did this to limit all possible "risk" to the "pure" computer which was used just for work.


 


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Good 24/7 Computer Aid Subscription (In US?)






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