Insurance for Computer Repair

[ecommerce84]

Hi,

Hopefully someone can help me out with an Insurance question.

I have been running a small computer repair business alongside my full time job in the evenings. Up to this stage it has mostly been friends, friends of friends etc, but word is getting around and I am looking to expand, but I am a bit muddled on insurance.

I spoke to an insurance company earlier and was advised that I could take out public liability, which would cover me if I damaged someone else's property whilst I was in their home and 'stock' cover which would cover a computer/laptop/ipad that I have in my possession at home should it be stolen or lost in a fire or flood.

However.....

1. Perhaps I am mistaken but I thought that public liability would cover me in the event that a bad repair on my part burns their house down.

2. If whilst attempting to repair a Laptop for example, I break it beyond economical repair, that there would be a policy that covers this to replace the customers laptop.

The person who I spoke to (who did seem genuinely very knowledgeable) didn't think I would find a policy that would cover these as I should be able to perform competent repairs or shouldn't be doing it. I appreciate what see is saying but I thought insurance was there to cover those eventualities that should never happen but may happen.

If anyone operates in a similar field I would be interested to know whether you have insurance and if so who with or if anyone in insurance could perhaps verify that what she says is correct?

Thanks in advance

 

[Anonymouse72]

CloudComputerRepairs is your man, perhaps a pm or check his recent threads on insurance

 

[Lucky7CompSolutions]

who did you ask? I went with policybee in the end as I needed office insurance as well.

 

[Lucky7CompSolutions]

Hi,

Hopefully someone can help me out with an Insurance question.

I have been running a small computer repair business alongside my full time job in the evenings. Up to this stage it has mostly been friends, friends of friends etc, but word is getting around and I am looking to expand, but I am a bit muddled on insurance.

I spoke to an insurance company earlier and was advised that I could take out public liability, which would cover me if I damaged someone else's property whilst I was in their home and 'stock' cover which would cover a computer/laptop/ipad that I have in my possession at home should it be stolen or lost in a fire or flood.

However.....

1. Perhaps I am mistaken but I thought that public liability would cover me in the event that a bad repair on my part burns their house down.

2. If whilst attempting to repair a Laptop for example, I break it beyond economical repair, that there would be a policy that covers this to replace the customers laptop.

The person who I spoke to (who did seem genuinely very knowledgeable) didn't think I would find a policy that would cover these as I should be able to perform competent repairs or shouldn't be doing it. I appreciate what see is saying but I thought insurance was there to cover those eventualities that should never happen but may happen.

If anyone operates in a similar field I would be interested to know whether you have insurance and if so who with or if anyone in insurance could perhaps verify that what she says is correct?

Thanks in advance

public and professional indemnity insurance will cover you for mistakes made but there is no insurance that will help for no 2 it comes out of your pocket i am afraid, if you think that just because you can fix auntie jo's computer you can make it in the real world fixing computers you sadly mistaking.
I always advice if this is what you really want to do then get some experience first as you can get in a lot of trouble from companies like Microsoft.
if you want to chat more pm me.

 

[ecommerce84]

public and professional indemnity insurance will cover you for mistakes made but there is no insurance that will help for no 2 it comes out of your pocket i am afraid, if you think that just because you can fix auntie jo's computer you can make it in the real world fixing computers you sadly mistaking.
I always advice if this is what you really want to do then get some experience first as you can get in a lot of trouble from companies like Microsoft.
if you want to chat more pm me.

How did you know I have an Auntie Jo?!

I'm not really looking at doing this full time and I will only deal with hardware faults, ranging from replacing charger and USB ports, faulty RAM, cracked LCD screens and Keyboards on laptops to more specialist procedures such as replacing faulty capacitors on a motherboard.

I appreciate what you are saying - I know plenty of people who are 'good with computers' but I'm not one of them. I originally trained and worked in the field for 5 years, but the job bogged me down in the end due to long and usually unsociable hours so I moved on.

Due to my current job, I am very well known, and people have been recommending me through etc. This past week I have done 3 repairs, I have the same booked in for the next 2 weeks - this is all I will want to do, as I want it to remain enjoyable, but I would still like the insurance there as a backstop.

I will check out policybee later on and I may well take you up on that offer of a pm or 2.

Thanks for all your help

 

[Lucky7CompSolutions]

How did you know I have an Auntie Jo?!

I'm not really looking at doing this full time and I will only deal with hardware faults, ranging from replacing charger and USB ports, faulty RAM, cracked LCD screens and Keyboards on laptops to more specialist procedures such as replacing faulty capacitors on a motherboard.

I appreciate what you are saying - I know plenty of people who are 'good with computers' but I'm not one of them. I originally trained and worked in the field for 5 years, but the job bogged me down in the end due to long and usually unsociable hours so I moved on.

Due to my current job, I am very well known, and people have been recommending me through etc. This past week I have done 3 repairs, I have the same booked in for the next 2 weeks - this is all I will want to do, as I want it to remain enjoyable, but I would still like the insurance there as a backstop.

I will check out policybee later on and I may well take you up on that offer of a pm or 2.

Thanks for all your help

Don't forget you need to register for self employment so you can pay tax and insurance, also why only hardware why not software repairs.

 

[ecommerce84]

Don't forget you need to register for self employment so you can pay tax and insurance, also why only hardware why not software repairs.

Thanks for the heads up, but I've been self employed for 10+ years anyway as I run a few websites along side my job.

Hardware is what I trained in, and I am trying to keep it minimal so it doesn't take over my life again - last time though I was employed by someone else, so being self employed will at least allow me to keep my workload manageable.

One quick question if you don't mind, I had a look on Policybee, they didn't seem to have a business sector that matched on their website. Did you find one that matched or did you sort it out on the phone?

 

[Lucky7CompSolutions]

I put down software consultancy and hardware consultancy. the best place you should try and will be cheaper is here http://www.tradesmansaver.co.uk/computer-repair-insurance.