Computer Repair and Ethical Considerations for Technicians

Unless you are a technician, computer repair is something you will almost definitely need at some point in your life, unless you are unfortunate enough to live a life without these wonderful machines. Windows PCs in particular need a lot of help because the market share for the Windows platform is so much bigger than all others combined, that it only makes sense to make viruses that attack Windows. The other problem is that viruses are getting smarter, and so is the marketing around them. It use to be that once you learned what a virus-laden website looked like, or which types of internet searches normally yielded malicious results, you could avoid them; not anymore. Now you can get a virus on Facebook with a headline such as “Friend X: I love this website, check it out!” By the time you check it out you have the virus too.

There are many professions in which having a high standard of ethics is extremely important: law, medicine, high level accounting consultants, etc. When professionals belong to a field in which their knowledge vastly outweighs the knowledge of the average member of society, they have an increased responsibility to do the right thing, and basically avoid ripping people off. There are moral, ethical, legal and enlightened self-interest debates to be made supporting this idea. When it comes down to it, you should down the right thing in business because: 1) it’s just right, 2) you have a better chance of avoiding broken laws 3) the quality of your service will shine through and the word of mouth you generate from providing excellent customer service will ensure your future success. The problem is, most people don’t think of computer repair technicians as the type of people who are required to have high ethical standards. While fixing one’s computer, your job is not as important as keeping them out of jail, or preventing them from dying through medicine. It is possible however, to take a lot more money out of their pocket by overcharging and making decisions that you know are bad for them in the long-run. Most people see computers as a necessity and will pay anything to get their computer back. Taking hard-earned money out of people’s hands is wrong no matter how you look at it, and as mentioned before, there are built-in advantages to maximizing value for the client. 

Perhaps there needs to be a national exam for computer repair certification? Maybe that certification needs to come with an oath to ensure that technicians do not violate the trust of their clients. If the end it comes down to this: if you are a client, be weary of being overcharged and if you are a tech, please resist the urge to overcharge, and refuse to say that you understand a problem when you know that you really don’t understand.