COMPUTER SUPPORT Tips from the GONZALES, LA Computer Pro – Do You Need That Extended Warranty?
February 14th, 2011 | 
Author: COMPUTER SUPPORT Tips from the GONZALES, LA Computer Pro – Do You Need That Extended Warranty?
Whenever we configure a new desktop, laptop or server for our small business customers for COMPUTER SUPPORT IN GONZALES, LA, one configuration option that often needs discussion is whether or not to purchase the extended warranty.
The answer differs based upon the system being purchased.
Servers – We ALWAYS purchase the maximum available warranty with 7 day, 4 hour service if available. Often, the client might say, “well, if a hard drive were to fail, wouldn’t it simply be cheaper to go out and purchase a new one, rather than pay so much to have the warranty cover the replacement?”
The cost of the hardware isn’t what the primary focus should be here. What’s important to realize is that every minute of downtime, where your entire office is completely inoperable could be costing you a fortune in lost productivity. The value in having a replacement part delivered to your office within 4 hours, without the risk of having a part being out of stock or unavailable for delivery is well worth whatever the cost of the warranty might be.
Workstations – Here is where we rarely spend anything more than what’s included as the basic warranty on the system. It’s very rare that an actual hardware component will fail on a new workstation, and if it did, the cost of a replacement will generally be less than the cost of the warranty.
Being that only one user would be affected by an outage, this is a risk that is usually deemed justifiable in taking, rather than purchase an expensive warranty to insure against the potential downtime. It’s often not too difficult to find a spare workstation for a single employee to work on temporarily while waiting for their computer to be repaired.
Laptops – Here’s another instance where we typically recommend to our clients of COMPUTER SUPPORT IN GONZALES, LA that the extended warranty with “Complete Care” or “Accidental Damage” protection be purchased. Laptops being mobile devices are highly susceptible to damage from being dropped or banged.
Depending on the model of laptop and the part that’s broken (often the screen), the cost of repair can come close to the actual purchase price of a new laptop.
This is why we always recommend to our mobile small business customers for our IT SUPPORT IN GONZALES, LA that purchasing the extended warranty with accidental damage protection for their shiny, new and often expensive laptop is a wise move.
If a laptop comes into our shop in need of COMPUTER SUPPORT IN GONZALES, LA and it isn’t covered by an active warranty, often the news that we’re forced to report to our client isn’t what they would like to hear.
Phillip Singletary is a provider of professional COMPUTER SUPPORT IN GONZALES, LA. If you need IT SUPPORT for your small business, please contact us here at Gonzales Computer Consultanting
Posted in Computer Tips
- The Open Source Dilemma April 8, 2011The Open Source Dilemma In recent years, it has become common for many people to tout open source products and technologies for anything and everything in the modern business, and it often sounds too good to be true. While these products and technologies clearly have benefits, are there drawbacks, and how serious are they? Like […]
- Choosing ASP or PHP for Your Web Site April 5, 2011Choosing ASP or PHP for Your Web Site When putting together a corporate web site, one of the biggest decisions in the planning process is which technology to use for it. The two most popular options are ASP and PHP, but choosing one or the other can often be a chore. Providing COMPUTER SUPPORT IN […]
- Does CPU Speed Still Matter? March 31, 2011COMPUTER SUPPORT Tips from the Gonzales Louisiana Computer Pro – Does CPU Speed Still Matter? If you’ve been using computers long enough, you remember when it was very important how fast your CPU clock speed was. Indeed, the early Intel CPUs were graded directly by clock speed, and it was pretty simple to figure out […]
- Password Security – COMPUTER SUPPORT Tips from the GONZALES, LOUISIANA Computer Pro March 29, 2011COMPUTER SUPPORT Tips from the GONZALES, LOUISIANA Computer Pro – Password Security As someone providing COMPUTER SUPPORT GONZALES, LOUISIANA, I commonly find that people are using insecure, easily-guessed passwords. The most frequent explanation is that the password is “easy to remember.” The trouble, of course, is that passwords which are easy to remember […]
- COMPUTER SUPPORT Tips from the GONZALES, LA Computer Pro – Custom or Off-The-Shelf? March 25, 2011COMPUTER SUPPORT Tips from the GONZALES, LA Computer Pro – Custom or Off-The-Shelf? A common question we encounter while providing COMPUTER SUPPORT IN GONZALES LOUISIANA is whether to custom-build systems from parts. The basic idea is that if you start from the level of parts, you can design a system which is better suited to […]