Someone's experience needed for: this..

[beear]

Hello there everyone!

 

2nd time posting on these forums, hope someone can help. I think people who work as helpdesk support might have an answer to this question.

 

We've bought a teamviewer licence for our computerstore but eversince we bought it our costumers have been abusing this service seriously. We've already put a disclaimer which says that people have to pay for this service, but haven't really found a way to make them pay for it. Is there a way we can make people get a pop-up screen which shows a payment screen for the costumer to fulfill with credit/debet card? Such as via skrill or paypal..

 

Thanks in advance!

[tslammer99]

First of all, do you have an agreement with TeamViewer? Also how are they "abusing" this system, could you explain more. And yes there is a way to do it, but answer those questions first.

[GameWizard]

here is a noob saying shit(by that i mean me)

but why don't setup a service on your website that they pay for and then an email is send to some email?

i don't have experience im just throwing it out there:)

[beear]

sorry for the late response.. Well the reason they are abusing it is: people are just too lazy and greedy to come to the store, they would have to get their butts up, leave the machine there for a day or 2 (and believe me, some of them really hate to do that, as if they're giving away their soul ) + they would have to PAY for the service. Our costumers developed a bad habit to ask for remote support because they kow it's quick and free (for now ). We try to avoid these support sessions because it's a loss of time.. @GameWizard. I see what you're trying to say. After some research i found out that it isn't so easy to do so, especially since it's hard to "force" them to pay, since a payment box is easily closed..

 

Now, coming to the point: i would do it like this. People can buy support credits via our store or website. Through which they can ask for remote support via a support account.. How's that sound? Now i'm still wondering (i'm a technician, not a programmer, let alone website builder..) How can we do this? Is there a safe way to generate, manage and use these "service credits"? If so, would you know a good website or service that support this?

 

FYI: we do have software that we use for our client database, invoices, etc.. This supports XML. My thought was that the credits bought can be linked to a certain customer nr., which automatically adds those service credits to our database. Would that work? Anyone have any experience with these kinds of handlings? The database is NOT SQL, it is (for now) FoxPro.. (i think it is compatible with SQL server though, not sure however..)

 

Anyways, sorry to annory you with so much text. I hope i didn't bore you I was just looking for a way to solve this particular issue. And also, my boss would be pleased with a system like this. That way, every minute spent on service gets paid

 

So guys, no matter what, thanks for the help and have e good weekend!

[TDP_Equinox]

What we do is bill by 15 minute increments. 
For example; when we do a service call (remote or onsite), we bill $100 an hour, for the first hour, and then bill it in 15 minute increments.
Really, there is no way to "Force" them to pay, without resorting to malicious tactics, and locking them out until they pay a bill (lets not get into that). 
But you can tell them at the start of the call that there are guidelines, and then get the payment before you end the call. 
Honestly, not many people here "abuse" the service. While they don't exactly like to wait a day or two for their computer back, it is ALWAYS cheaper to have the work done on the bench.

I find myself just popping on to take a look, rather than walk them through the steps in a 15 minute process, i can do the exact same thing in 2 minutes, by logging on and doing it myself. 

Alternatively, you can setup a set time for the call to take place. 
When we have a service call that we know is going to take some time, we book them in google calenders with whoever is available and get the same info/go through the same bullet points as if we were setting up an onsite service. 

If you don't mind me asking, what is a bench tech doing on a service call? You are kinda wasting your time by focusing on one computer for an hour.