That’s why when I set up Cat Computers, I decided to do everything on a no-fix no-fee basis and not to charge call out fees. I reasoned that the quality of my work would speak for itself and that my competitive prices would ensure that customers would be highly likely to go ahead with repairs once I had quoted a price, so call out fees were unnecessary.

Unfortunately there are times when fixing the problem isn’t possible and broadband connection problems often fall into this category. The reason is because usually, connection problems are caused by an issue with the phone line or something in the exchange and these are complications that only the telephone company can fix . Most of the time, in the case of ADSL connections, that means BT openreach - irrespective of who your ISP is (AOL, Orange, BT etc) - because they’re all selling you a service that is ultimately provided by BT openreach. This situation is changing as more providers take advantage of ‘Local Loop Unbundling’ (’LLU’) and install their own equipment in the exchange but for now, it remains the most common arrangement. Now, the situation is made more difficult for the customer because they cannot speak to BT openreach directly. Only the ISPs can speak to them and it seems that often they’re reluctant to, because they will be charged if the problem is not with BT’s network.

So, the customer has to speak to their provider to report a problem and is asked to jump through hoop after hoop in an effort to try and find something, anything else that might be wrong with the connection because the ISP wants to avoid the cost of a wrongly reported fault. I began to find that most of the time, when I went to help a customer with a connection problem, there was nothing I could do to fix it and so I’d spend an hour diagnosing that the problem lay outside their house and walk away with nothing for my time and efforts - not a particularly satisfactory state of affairs. </p>

It’s in situations like these that I break my no -fix no-fee pledge but I make it clear to my customers beforehand. Basically I ‘ll diagnose the problem for them, and even speak to their ISP on their behalf so that the ISP will get openreach involved if necessary - but if I’m not able to fix the problem because it’s not possible for me to fix the problem, I still want to be paid for my time… I think that’s fair.