Hot take: Remote diagnostics vs. on-site visits for small business clients
I had a client last month with a server that kept crashing at 3 PM every day. The easy call was to remote in and check event logs, which I did. But after 3 days of that, I still couldn't pin down the glitch. I finally drove 45 minutes to their office in Medford, and in 20 minutes I found a dusty power supply fan that was overheating the RAM. That got me thinking: is the time saved on remote work worth missing those physical clues? On one hand, remote saves gas and lets me handle more jobs per week. On the other, being there in person catches stuff no software can see. I ended up charging them for 4 remote hours plus a site visit, which felt like double dipping but the client was happy. Has anyone else dealt with deciding between remote and in-person for a tricky fix?