Support.com is your very own 24/7 tech support

July 25, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

So there you are, working on your computer, doing whatever it is you are doing, and suddenly your computer malfunctions. You may have been writing a letter, working online, checking your finances, downloading some digital pictures from your camera, writing the next great American novel — and poof! — it all just starts to fall apart. Maybe your computer’s been infected by a virus, maybe spyware or your hard drive has something corrupted that’s causing it to act erratically.

So now what do you do? Call someone? Who? And what if it’s 2 in the morning when it happens? I’m sure there’s a Murphy’s Law correlation that says something to the effect that when your computer has a problem, it will be at the worst possible time and when you need something that’s most vitally important.

Fortunately, I’m going to tell you how you can call your very own live Personal Technology Expert who’s available to you 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This person will talk to you over the phone and begin guiding you toward a solution to get you up and running again.

In fact, using your Internet connection, this person actually has the ability to remotely take over your computer and see everything you see on the screen. Being an expert, they will be able to spot things on your screen that you may not even have noticed if you were just speaking to them.

And once they take command of your computer, you just sit back and relax while they examine everything using specially designed software to root out the problem, discover the flaws, actually repair the damage and get your computer back up and running.

Not only will they fix these problems, they will get your computer performing as if it were new, getting rid of nonessential files and eliminating unnecessary background tasks that have been insidiously slowing down your computer’s performance.

Now, I’ll bet you’re thinking that only the big companies could afford having their own on-call technical support team. Well, this used to be the case, but now the everyday PC user can afford to have this kind of hi-tech help, too. Welcome to Support.com.

Support.com is a U.S.-based technical-support organization that’s made up of a cloud-based team of computer experts who are ready to help you no matter what the time of day or night. These Personal Technology Experts can also work together if needed to most effectively solve your computer problems in the fastest way possible.

Typically when you call the company (only within their hours of operation) that made your computer, their goal is to basically get you off the line as fast as possible. They also will only be able to help you with their products and not any of the software you’ve added, nor the peripherals you may have connected to it, such as a printer or a router, which may be the source of your problem.

What you need is a service such as Support.com that can look at the whole picture, a company that’s not on the clock and one that will stay with you until your problem is solved. And that’s exactly what Support.com does. They stay with you until they’ve fixed your problem and have you up and running.

The need for technical support is growing, and wherever there’s a need, you’ll find more of these tech-support companies becoming available. But like anything else when you have more than one, you’ll find good and bad. Support.com has been around for more than 10 years and has an excellent reputation. Their service comes with a money-back guarantee that says if they can’t resolve your problem within five days of service delivery, you’ll get a full refund for the service purchase price.

I’ve personally experienced how effective they are, and before recommending them, I’ve interviewed many who have used Support.com. In every instance, their computers were brought back to an operational status.

Of course, if Support.com determines that your computer has a hardware malfunction, then you’re going to have to bring it in for repair to a qualified technician. But at least you’ll know what’s wrong when you bring it in, and that can be worth its weight in gold as well.

Support.com offers different monthly or annual service plans ranging from Personal, Family, Home Office and Small Business — all of which are very reasonably priced.

In fact, you’d probably spend more on a single home-service call or lugging your PC to a repair center. And by the way, leaving your unprotected PC at a repair store opens up another whole set of security issues where technicians have complete access to your private data stored on your hard drive.

Support.com does have One-Time Fix services, but the best value is to opt for the service plans as they are unlimited in the number of times you can call them for help. And with the service plans, you can call in even if your computer is running well. Why? Because preventative maintenance can help thwart PC disasters from happening in the first place. Support.com will remotely scan your PC for potential problems and fix them before they cause the damage. Nice.

When you go to the Support.com website to register, here’s one last tip. Enter in the Coupon Code COMPAM25 when you check out and you’ll get an additional 25 percent off of any service you buy! Don’t wait until it’s too late. Now you’ll always have a Personal Technology Expert to call when you need them.

For more information, visit www.Support.com.

Craig Crossman is a national newspaper columnist writing about computers and technology. For more information, visit his website at www.computeramerica.com.

2010 McClatchy Tribune