OK --- I know I promised a whole raft of posts from CES last week, so here's yet another. I met Fred King who is the Vice President of Sales and Marketing for PlumChoice , a Boston-based online PC services group. In other words -- they fix computers remotely. As we discussed their business 
model (focusing on small business) and the demographics of the tax and public accounting profession, it occurred to both of us that there was probably a reasonable fit. However, being naturally conservative and then further trained to be skeptical I wondered about their ability to actually deliver. Fred challenged me to try them. So I did. Not wanting to test them myself (I'd be an absolutely HORRIBLE test case!) I recruited a young marketing executive who had reported to me that her laptop was "very sluggish". I passed her the PlumChoice website and asker her to give them a try. Here's her report. She was VERY impressed --- based on that interaction and my conversations with Fred, these guys just might be worth a spin --- certainly cheaper than many other alternatives.
gll
REPORT: My laptop has been running pretty slow lately (granted it's over 3 years old), so I decided to [take Greg's advice and] give PlumChoice a chance over the weekend. I created an account in just a few minutes and was ready to go. I opted for the "PC Tune Up" service, and set an appointment for just about an hour later (at 8 PM).
They called at 8:30 PM (well within the hour timeframe they give you in the fine print) and with just a few easy clicks of the mouse my technician (Tina S.) was sharing my screen. I loved that, while she was pleasant and professional, she wasn't overly chit-chatty. There's nothing I hate more than small talk with strangers on the phone. Tina S. was perfect.
After poking around on my computer for a few minutes, she gave me the lowdown. Apparently, the "PC Tune Up" ($129.95) was actually more "tuning up" than I needed, and she suggested I downgrade to an hourly rate ($90), which would be enough time for her to clean up my start up tools, temporary files, run a quick defrag, and a few other tricks. That's right - she downsold me. And I really appreciated it.
She realized she didn't need me on the line for the nitty-gritty, so she told me she'd call me when she was done and we hung up. I watched her virtually work on my computer for a few minutes, but quickly realized that it can be a bit dry, so went back to watching TV while she did the heavy lifting. About 25 minutes later she called me back, gave me a full report, showed me a few tricks on my computer (including a cleanup tool she had installed for me) and asked me if I had any questions.
I didn't, so we signed off and went about our evenings. It was a great first experience and I would highly recommend them to anyone else!
[Note from gll -- Thanks to AKL for being a guinea pig, taking the time to test, and especially for the great write-up!]
model (focusing on small business) and the demographics of the tax and public accounting profession, it occurred to both of us that there was probably a reasonable fit. However, being naturally conservative and then further trained to be skeptical I wondered about their ability to actually deliver. Fred challenged me to try them. So I did. Not wanting to test them myself (I'd be an absolutely HORRIBLE test case!) I recruited a young marketing executive who had reported to me that her laptop was "very sluggish". I passed her the PlumChoice website and asker her to give them a try. Here's her report. She was VERY impressed --- based on that interaction and my conversations with Fred, these guys just might be worth a spin --- certainly cheaper than many other alternatives.