I got a call today from someone who needed some work done on an Acer laptop. She asked if we were Acer certified, to which I said no and I do not know anyone who is. She was questioning weather we could even work on Acer laptops if we were not Acer certified.
While I understand her concern, I did want to point out what Authorized service centers can do for you and weather you should call one or not.
Authorized service centers are only necessary when you need to get Warranty work done. This means that they can fix your computer for free and will get paid by the manufacturer.
If you need your computer repaired after the warranty or the warranty is void you can call any tech. In fact, if you ask a local shop if they are Acer certified and they say yes, chances are that they are just saying that. All computers have almost the exact same parts and once you learn one really well, you know how to fix them all.
So the question is how do you measure a technicians ability?
You want to question their time in the field and perhaps ask where they have worked before. There is an industry certification called A+ and most computer techs will try to get it at some point in their careers. If they do have the A+ it only grantees that they can read and you must probe for more information about their past experience.
I like to think that I have some good experience so I will share it with you and maybe it will give you a base line.
I have 10 years of actual professional computer repair experience. This does not include working on my friends and family pcs when I was a teenager, it starts from the first day that I was hired to be a tech for a company. I worked for the largest national computer service provider for about 7 years then I moved on to work on more technical systems at one of the big 3 car manufacturers as we ll as the US Army and a major University in Michigan. I do have my A+ certification as well and have hundreds of happy customers if you need a referral.
You should be fairly certain that a tech with my qualifications will be able to take care of your problem. I dont want to toot my own horn just want to give you a base line of what I think a good tech should have.
Here are the bullet points:
Must Haves
- More than 5 years experience as a tech for a medium to large company
- Worked for at least one company that you have heard of
- Willing to show referrals
Nice To Haves
