Category Archives: Case Studies

Customer Case Studies

The Case of the Unreachable Software (Case Study)

Posted on August 9, 2010 by John Woodman

The Case of the Unreachable Software (Case Study)

Kathy needed help. She was running a small business from her home — one completely dependent upon internet access and two software programs that I frankly hadn’t heard of. Not that it necessarily mattered so much to me that I hadn’t heard of them. The principles for troubleshooting such problems tend to be pretty much the same. But since her problem was with programs that are not commonplace, Kathy was worried. All the more so because her business depends on them.

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Solving a Variety of Consumer Computer Problems (Case Study)

Posted on March 4, 2010 by John Woodman

Solving a Variety of Consumer Computer Problems (Case Study)

It was interesting after my recent varied office session to have a similar situation today with an end-user. Similar, in that it was varied and we covered a lot of ground.

Wayne had saved up a dozen different issues to ask me about or get my help with. And most of these were not everyday items! So here’s what we dealt with today:

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Solving a Variety of Office Computer Problems (Case Study)

Posted on March 1, 2010 by John Woodman

Solving a Variety of Office Computer Problems (Case Study)

Many of my service calls only involve 1 or 2 problems. Today’s service call was different. This afternoon, I helped a customer with at least 9 different issues.

I arrived after lunch to help a local small business complete their move into a new office. As is sometimes the case, when I finished the main things the business owner (we’ll call him Jeff) had called me out for, he had a few additional things he needed a bit of help with.

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What it Takes to Really Fix a Virus-Laden Computer

Posted on November 2, 2009 by John Woodman

What it Takes to Really Fix a Virus-Laden Computer

Click here for the scan you computer.

“Click here for the scan you computer.”

I just got off the phone with a woman who told me she had a computer that was probably well-infected with viruses and other malware, and she wanted to know how much it would cost to fix it.

When I told her the likely cost, she said, “Okay, thank you,” and hung up.

Now I’m sure that Tina will find somebody to do the job (sort of) for less than I typically charge for a job of this type.

And she’ll probably get about what she paid for.

Or, maybe not.

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Cost? A *Minus* $58.64!

Posted on September 15, 2009 by John Woodman

Cost? A *Minus* $58.64!

money2Any good professional knows that sometimes customers shoot themselves in the foot by skimping to try and save a few bucks, and sometimes they come out really well by actually calling the professional for some help.

Recently one of my customers purchased a new computer when her old computer died. She asked me to rescue the data, if possible, from the old computer.   (more…)

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Downgraded, Upgraded, Dead-Graded and Led Astray

Posted on September 9, 2009 by John Woodman

Downgraded, Upgraded, Dead-Graded and Led Astray

Today I had one of those strange experiences.

memoryI was called in to look at a computer that had recently been upgraded by one of the more prominent IT shops in town.

They had upgraded Bill’s hard drive (which had previously been a tiny 20 GB), and his memory — all at a very reasonable price.

Except… now the computer would suddenly and spontaneously reboot after running for about 8 to 10 minutes. Like clockwork.

Odd…

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