Guide · 3 min read
How to prepare for an onsite tech visit (so it costs you less)
Onsite help is billed by time. Ten minutes of preparation regularly saves a billable half hour. Here is exactly what to have ready.
Passwords first
The single most common time sink on a house call is a password nobody knows. Before the visit, locate or reset: your computer login, your Wi-Fi password, and the account tied to the machine (Apple ID or Microsoft account). If email is part of the problem, that password too.
If a password is lost, that is fine and fixable, but tell us during the confirmation call so the technician plans for it instead of discovering it on the clock.
Leave the problem where it lives
Do not tidy the setup before we arrive. If the Wi-Fi dies in the back bedroom, we need to stand in the back bedroom. If the printer fails from your wife's laptop but not yours, both laptops should be home. Problems demonstrated are problems half solved.
Write down the symptoms
Exact error messages, when it happens, and what changed around the time it started: an update, a new device, a thunderstorm, a grandchild's visit. Two sentences of history routinely shortcut thirty minutes of diagnosis.
Decide what you want, not just what is broken
The visit is already paid for by the hour, so think about the small stuff worth bundling in: the phone that will not back up, the browser full of toolbars, the question you have been meaning to ask. Technicians would rather fix five things in one visit than drive out twice.
What you never need to do
Do not buy anything in advance. Parts and equipment are quoted before purchase, and half the time the fix needs nothing new at all.