How do you get tech support when you're self-employed?

August 21, 2011 5:44 PM

A family member struggles with computer skills, but is self-employed and uses email frequently for his work. He has a Mac and a paid Google Apps account. Can you recommend a trustworthy person or service based in LA (or advice on finding one) he could hire to help him with managing his Mac, Google Apps, and other basic computer needs?
posted by Meg_Murry to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

The Genius Bar at the local Apple Store.
posted by empath at 7:26 PM on August 21, 2011

Response by poster: To clarify, this isn't necessarily for things that are broken or for learning new skills. This would be like having his own personal IT guy, who could tell him when something is an issue for the Genius Bar and when something is an issue he can resolve by restarting his computer.
posted by Meg_Murry at 7:35 PM on August 21, 2011

To flesh out empath's answer some more, your relative can pay an Apple store genius to teach him how to use all these things. I used to live near an Apple store and every morning before they open I would see many old(er) people go in for a one-on-one session. I have also seen such appointments while waiting for an Apple genius to swap out parts for me.
posted by babbyʼ); Drop table users; -- at 7:36 PM on August 21, 2011

Response by poster: Sorry, one more clarification: I get the "teach a man to fish" thing, totally. That might be a partial solution, but I'm really interested in finding out if he could hire someone on an ongoing basis.
posted by Meg_Murry at 7:44 PM on August 21, 2011

Have you looked on LA craigslist under services? There will be tech people who specialize in Apple products and can work out some deal with him.
posted by babbyʼ); Drop table users; -- at 7:54 PM on August 21, 2011

Perhaps if you could specify what issues you foresee your family member needing help with?

Your description is that of someone who already has their Mac set-up and is working, so it's hard to see where the cost of contracted general IT help is justified.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:51 AM on August 22, 2011

IT professionals who know what they're doing don't work cheap. The folks at the Apple Store will at the very least help him get a set of apps up and working for him or at least point him in the right direction.
posted by empath at 5:38 AM on August 22, 2011

Well... ahem... I won't spam with a link or anything... but this is what I've recently started to do. That is, being the on-call personal IT guy for small businesses with infrequent need for IT services. So, there's at least one of us out there, though I'm not in LA. For curiosity's sake, why do you think location matters? An on-site visit will be way more expensive than remote support.

Craigslist seems like the way to go here.
posted by ferdinand.bardamu at 6:53 AM on August 22, 2011

The Genius Bar is good for learning how to do things, but might be less than optimal if he needs continuous assistance.

If you can be more specific about what exactly he needs done (for example, does he want to be able to check his Google Apps email using the Mac's default mail client?), maybe you can post this as a gig on the Jobs site, in addition to Craigslist.
posted by estherbester at 12:14 PM on August 22, 2011

You should pay for One to One support at the local Apple store. It's personalized, one to one training from the Apple Geniuses, and goes well beyond the usual good service they provide.

If that isn't available, you should ask the Apple store folks for recommendations.
posted by blob at 7:48 AM on August 27, 2011