Experiences w/ Computer Service Contracting Entities?

dlur asks: "In an attempt to bring more revenue into my company's pockets (and then eventually mine), I've been trying to find more contract work. I've found quite a bit of stuff, and we've been an HP ASP for some time now, but I'm wondering what all you readers do for contracted service work? There's quite a few companies to contract with including Panda TPM, BancTec, PC SOS, Barrister, and many more. Which companies have you had the highest call volume come into you from? Which had the easiest time filling out their vast amounts of paper trails, or lack thereof? Which companies have you generally had the best experience working with? Are there any other outlets similar to these service contracts and warranty claim work for the big companies (Dell, HP/Compaq, IBM) that you're aware of that might be useful to the readers?"

My experience

[Mensa Babe]

For at least six years, I have been working exclusively as a consultant, but I generally don't use any people or companies between myself and someone, whom I work for (except maybe Western Union). I hate bureaucracy. I send them my code, they send me their money. That's it. Anything more is unnecessarily suboptimal in my opinion. But your milage might vary. It's all about finding a solution which is best for your specific needs. There is no universal solution for everyone.

Re:My experience

[uradu]

> Thank you, mistress of the obvious.

Then again, (s)he's only a member of Mensa.

Ping!

[Troll Sonar]

Ping!

Re:Meep!

[JumpSuit Boy]

quack

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Speaking for myself

[Spoing]

My personal opinion?

Don't.

Look, at first glance such schemes offer ways to simply cashflow issues, in the management context, and defer technical decisions to a known quantity, from a technical point of view. But looking at the wider picture, you're pretty much putting your testicles into a vice with someone who really has little reason to concern themselves with your needs holding the vice handle.

I didn't see where the original question asked about purchasing more of a contracting company's services

Re:What exactly are you trying to do ?

[dlur]

Although it would seem that nobody even bothered to read the article before posting (as usual) due to the only replies so far relating to programming contract work, of which there is nothing even mentioned in the article, this is the jist of what I want to know.

I fix computers. My company fixes and sells computers. We fix our own computers under warranty. We fix HP's computers under warranty. It costs us money to fix our own computers under warranty. It costs HP money to have us fix their computers an

Re:What exactly are you trying to do ?

[dlur]

I re-read my original post 10 times for clarity and also had my girlfriend, who knows nothing of computers, read it and she understood it. I am sorry that my point was lost on you.

No, I do not fix "HP's computers". We, as a company, fix computers sold by HP/Compaq to 3rd parties (businesses or home users) that fail under warranty. We also sell our own "white box" brand of computers. We repair our own "white box" computers both under warranty, and out of warranty. We fix ANYONE's brand of computer out

Have been doning it

[floydman]

I am working as a consultant for the past 6 months for a large firm, through a contracting company(like your's), well, to me as a consultant, its good money, and good experience(ofcorse the exoerience part depends on the project).
One draw back though is, consider the following scenario:

I am here in this company as a consultant, working on code that was made by another conultant before me(and left), the code is not understandable, no one in the firm understands or knows shit about it, and you as a contracting company should solve the problem, and me as a consultant in the firm by your contracting company should magically SAVE BOTH YOUR ASSES, SO BOTH OF YOU FUCK OFFF......:)

Hope you know what i mean now..

/*True story, based on the life of a geek under fire*/

Who to do contract work for

[Themiddleman]

You'll find many national service companies to do contract work for but, you won't want to do business with everyone. For example, beware of a company out of California called Tech-America. I have known the people there in one way or another for about 4 years now. Up until about a year ago, their company name was 4EVRNEW. They would accept work from NSC' and find local technicians to do the work but, they would never pay the technicians. They did this for about 3 or 4 years, racking up allot of debt an