Do you run your own computer business?

[Steevo]

If you decide to step out, have your **** ready to go before you do. Or just do it and say nothing, then if asked you can just say you were trying to expand your marketshare, since the customers he brings already go to him, then he won't notice the difference, and you should get a cut of whatever you cross sell of his product lines.

It is wasy for him to be the big fish when ther are no others.

Put on the business pressure and do it with a smile.

Get a Microsoft Prtner Program going for you and get the OS at like 30-50% off and earn extra money, buy bulk and setup a few that you can sell in his store. A $700 PC with a three year limited warranty and 22" widescreen and local support has sold quite a few for me. I make about $200 per and charge for customer screwups at a discounted rate of $25 per hour from the time I leave untill I get back.

You can shop around and get a newegg card with no intrest for 12 months, or 90 days no payments no intrest. Or use a good credit card, or take out a loan.


I have my newegg card and haven't paid them a dime of interest for tens of thousands, plus kept alot of MIR's, discounts, sold off added items, bought combo items to resell, or to build another machine with. Works good for me.

 

[roirraW "edor" ehT]

Sounds like a plan!

 

[Nuadormrac]

Send this guy his walking papers. And true you might lose some of your customers comming in for repairs short term (though just some if you take some people's suggestion for an online advertising, which could be combined by placing some stuff in the papers, and maybe on the radio, if you can afford some short adverts on some of the more popular stations there).

However, think about the long term here for a moment. The store that is building computers, but can't fix them, hence was sending them to you, wouldn't get very far if in building a new PC, he sells it with a stated warranty, but when it breaks umm yeah, he can't get it fixed. Now a customer is up in arms "I payed for this, and the sales contract clearly states, you owe me you thief". It might turn to law suites, but even if it doesn't, word of mouth about a store giving warranties, but then not fixing (he can't) will hurt his sales before long. And guess where some of that lost business for him, might end up going

Alternatively, if he gripes, I'd tell him straight to his face that not only is it unreasonable that he gets kick backs for work you're doing as a seperate company, but that if he's contracting repairs out to you (even verbaly) in selling his computers as the only way it would get done; then in fact each of his computers should be considered to come with an unstated service agreement, for which he should be paying you for covering his arse with his repairs, on a per sale basis If he wants 50% of the repair profits payed over to him, then start selling service agreements with every computer he sells, and give you 100% of the service agreement. Make it industry standard, so that like for instance with a $1,500 computer, he has to charge his customers and pay you $350 off the top as the out-sourced service center covering the services for him, haha

Perhaps after being told that, he'll give up his nonsense, and just allow the customers to take their computers where they want to get fixed, without expecting kick backs for work he wouldn't/couldn't do himself.

Oh, and it gets better for the likes of him, if he can't do the service. If one isn't a tier 1 OEM such as Dell or the like, they don't get those nice hefty discounts from Intel and the like, to help cut costs on parts, in pricing things to the sub-$1,000 and sub-$2,000 markets he must compete. Which means that without the service, he wouldn't be seeing all that much in profits anyhow (accept if he sells after-market parts for a do it yourself). The reality is, if he can't do servicing, he needs you, more then you need him; and so if he wants to be cut throat, oh well. His customers will see the lack of service, when the comps they get from him all of a sudden don't see that warranty coverage they were expecting, and he sold off as part of the condition of sale.

 

[Nuadormrac]

You are taking the entire liability for repairs, lawsuits, etc on the repairs you do. If the mall guy was taking responsibility and guaranteeing the work he could justify a percentage, but taking 50% for a referal is extortion, not business.

This is precisely why Fred told me he hates taking on the repairing of computers other people built. He becomes liable then, and it can turn into a bad computer, he replaces the hard drive, the video card goes bad, and guess who they come to trying to claim liability. The guy they got the system from? No, and of course a video card going bad, wasn't the result of swapping a hard drive. The customer doesn't know however, and aren't thinking as such...

As to what this mall guy is doing, it is extortion; and for people like him, there's another web site which has it's uses

https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/

As Fred also said; for his good customers he could bend over backwards. But if someone (and he also did this with Intel once, when they were involved in something) want to play hardball, "well if they want to play hardball, I can play hardball also". It's their choice if they want to play hardball, or not, but if they do, oh well they made their choice, and he would play them at their game.