

Computer repair with the speed and reliability of FedEx - josephwegner
http://www.fedex.com/techmanager/

======
tzs
There was a "Modern Marvels" episode that took a look at UPS. One of the
things they covered was a huge electronics repair facility that UPS operates
near their hub.

UPS has contracts with several electronics manufacturers to handle repairs.
For example, they handle Toshiba laptop repairs [1].

This happens transparently to the end user. The electronics company has the
customer ship the broken item via UPS, addressed to an address that UPS knows
is reserved for items that UPS is supposed to repair, and they get diverted
from the hub to the repair facility and fixed. The technicians at the facility
are UPS employees, but have received training from the companies whose
equipment they work on.

[1]
[http://www.forbes.com/2004/04/27/cx_ah_0427ups.html](http://www.forbes.com/2004/04/27/cx_ah_0427ups.html)

------
spacefight
Old news, UPS and FedEx have been doing this for years, even decades. Yes, now
it looks like that the offering is targeted directly to consumer out of
warranties, but the service is similar.

[http://www.notebookreview.com/news/fedex-techconnect-
handles...](http://www.notebookreview.com/news/fedex-techconnect-handles-
laptop-warranty-service/)

"One of the best kept secrets in Memphis, Tennessee isn’t B.B. King’s
Restaurant and Blues Club or the exclusive “Itta Bena” restaurant hidden
upstairs; the big secret is a division of FedEx that has quietly been
servicing PCs for more than 30 years"

~~~
pbreit
I can see how it makes sense if there's a delivery component but I'm not sure
what fedex brings to the table otherwise.

~~~
spacefight
The fact they have well trained staff who have been doing nothing but this for
decades, maybe?

Edit: Oh and for repair parts to have on stock/delivered on request, there is
always a delivery component involved.

------
mmanfrin
Caveat: Guesswork ahead:

I think this is smart. It's heading off Amazon and their 'Local' initiative
(marketplace + angies list) and Amazon's end-goal of Local, which I believe is
cutting UPS/Fedex/et al out of the loop. I could see a scenario where
contractors requested through Amazon would deliver your packages for that day
in exchange for no Local fees, or something to that effect. Amazon saves on
shipping, and more deeply embed their customer in to their own ecosystem.

Fedex, by doing this, embeds themselves more deeply in to the businesses they
work with, so that switching from Fedex to UPS or to AmazonShipping is not
just a matter of changing the carrier, but also changing your IT team/some
other logistics team.

------
supergeek133
Little known fact, Geek Squad actually used to have locations in certain FedEx
Kinko's stores (when they were still together).

They decided not to expand the program, figured this was the natural result.

Source: Used to work for Geek Squad.

------
johnward
I worked for FedEx early in my career but I don't know what they are trying to
do here. Maybe leverage the FedEx Services workforce to squeeze some more
revenue?

~~~
crazypyro
To me, it looks like some hotshot business-type decided that their internal IT
didn't have enough work or wasn't close to fully "utilized" in their view so
they decided to basically contract their internal IT dept. out to
consumers....

"Our technicians keep a vast global network of technology running smoothly.
Let us do the same for you. Call us when you have a problem with your computer
or system."

~~~
johnward
I'm pretty sure this is exactly what they are doing. They recognized that
their techs are not 100% utilized so they are going to "farm them out" so to
speak. Based on other commentors UPS and FedEx have already been doing this
for years. I was in the software side of FedEx Services (Ground and Smartpost)
and I did no know this.

They can probably also make a decent margin on those repairs. FedEx and UPS
basically take a loss on some major shipping accounts just to get the volume.
When I was at FedEx the strategy seemed to be swaying to not fight for non-
revenue accounts and let UPS take them. UPS is so much bigger that they can
play that game better than FedEx. The big retailers would just switch back and
forth to however offered the lowest rate.

------
mproud
I’m wary of third-party repair facilities like this, especially for hardware.
Having worked for a first-party repair shop, there are often times so many
obvious fixes that require little to no effort that we would only know simply
from the experience of seeing the issues repeatedly and knowing what works and
what doesn’t, and our ability to get specific parts so quickly, and have
repairs done in a few days or less would set us apart from shady third-parties
who would otherwise take weeks to fix our equipment.

Thorough documentation on repair strategies and troubleshooting for all
computer models is paramount to a good and fast repair.

~~~
rasz_pl
Sounds like hubris This is how professional repair center looks in eastern
Europe:
[https://www.youtube.com/user/1servicecore/videos?sort=dd&vie...](https://www.youtube.com/user/1servicecore/videos?sort=dd&view=0&shelf_id=1)

I also worked for first party RMA house in central Europe. It was mostly out
of school noobs on quick rotation cycle. Teach them to diagnose and follow
solutions book, after that its high speed, low drag to burnout by crazy hours
and shitty pay. Dont even get me started on quality.

There is a sweet middle ground between mega pay by the fix first party
grindhouse and obscure one man we do it all operations.

------
FrankenPC
IMO They need to offer security hardening services. Remotely install A/V and
malware tools (AFTER they run a through analysis). Maybe setup VPN's and train
people how to maintain a password vault and setup a completely recoverable
backup system.

So many people lose so much due to malware and virus attacks. If someone would
go on the offensive to help people maintain basic security, that would be a
great offering. Heck, the internet world NEEDS this kind of thing to minimize
the presence of botnets.

~~~
DrStalker
Of the people that need this service how many are willing to pay money for it?

------
icewater
All these companies provide bad service 3x the cost of local mom and pop
shops. Whether its office max, geek squad, ups, fed ex, they provide inferior
service and quality of repair for an inflated price. Shame on OEM's like
Toshiba for not servicing their own equipment.

------
endlessvoid94
> with the speed and reliability of fedex

Ha.

~~~
msandford
That was my first thought too. They're way better than USPS but the error rate
is still substantial.

I used to run a facility that got ~200 packages a day split between the
carriers. At least a couple of times a month we'd get mis-deliveries, or
packages claimed to be delivered when they weren't, etc. If you figure 60 a
day were FedEx that's 1200 a month or less than 1% error rate. But if I didn't
have a couple of FedEx reps I could call when things went sideways it would
have been a nightmare.

Even with all the technology mistakes still get made.

------
milesf
Or just buy a Mac.

I worked as an IT Pro for over 15 years, and ever since the release of OSX,
I've been recommending people switch to a Mac, especially family. The only
people who call me with computer problems now are those with Windows machines.

~~~
Turing_Machine
The next step is to start saying "Oh, gee. I got rid of all my Windows
manuals, so I can't really help you."

~~~
milesf
Actually, I just say "sorry, I don't do Windows anymore"

