Help & FAQ
Thinking about working with us
Questions prospective clients ask
How quickly do you respond when something breaks?
Anything that stops your business operating is treated as critical and answered within one hour. Everything else is answered the same business day. These commitments are written into the agreement rather than offered as best effort.
How do you charge for managed IT?
Managed IT is billed as a flat monthly fee rather than hourly, so the cost is predictable and we are not paid more when things go wrong. The fee is based on the number of users and devices we cover and on any compliance requirements.
What does a typical agreement cost?
Pricing depends on user count, device count, and whether you carry compliance obligations such as HIPAA or PCI DSS. We quote after an assessment so the number reflects what you actually run.
What is included in the Managed IT monthly fee, and what is billed separately?
Included: helpdesk, monitoring, patching, endpoint security, backup monitoring and vendor coordination. Billed separately: hardware, software licensing, and project work such as a migration or an office move.
Do you require a long term contract?
No. Agreements run month to month, with 30 days notice to cancel.
What happens in the first thirty days?
We deploy monitoring and security tooling, document your systems, and introduce your staff to the support process. Your team keeps working throughout. Anything we find that needs fixing before the agreement can hold is raised up front, not discovered later.
We already have someone doing IT. Can you work alongside them?
Yes. A common arrangement is that your internal person handles day to day requests and we provide monitoring, security, escalation and project capacity behind them.
Do you come on site or is everything remote?
Most issues are resolved remotely in the same session. When hardware fails or a new site needs building, someone comes out.
What areas do you cover?
We serve businesses across San Diego County with plans to expand into Riverside County and Orange County.
What size business do you work with?
Small and midsize businesses, typically those without an internal IT department, and those with one technical person who needs support behind them.
Do you support HIPAA or PCI DSS requirements?
Yes. We work with medical, dental and therapy practices on HIPAA, and with businesses taking card payments on PCI DSS. That covers access control, audit logging, encrypted backup, business associate agreements and the documentation an assessor asks for.
What happens to our data if we leave?
Your data is yours. On termination we provide documentation, hand over credentials, and support a transition to whoever takes over.
How do you handle after hours and weekend problems?
Coverage depends on which plan you are on. We offer two.
Standard covers business hours, Monday through Friday, 8:00am to 5:00pm Pacific. Premium covers you 24 hours a day, including nights, weekends and holidays.
On a Standard plan, anything you report outside business hours is logged and picked up first thing the next business day. On a Premium plan, call (760) 687-9901 any time and you will reach our on-call team.
What tools do you deploy on our systems?
Remote monitoring and management, endpoint protection, email filtering and backup agents. We tell you what is installed and why, and everything is removable if the relationship ends.
Do we have to replace our existing hardware to work with you?
No. The assessment documents what you run and flags anything out of warranty or genuinely unsupportable. Replacement is planned and budgeted rather than demanded up front.
Can you help with cyber insurance requirements?
Yes. Insurers now ask detailed questions about multi-factor authentication, backup, patching and endpoint protection. We make sure the honest answer to those questions is one that keeps your premium down.
How many clients do you support, and can we speak to one?
We support small and mid sized businesses across North San Diego County, and we are happy to put you in touch with a current client in a similar line of work. Ask during your consultation and we will arrange an introduction, with their permission.
How long have you been in business?
Computer Diagnosis and Repair LLC has operated from Vista, California since March 2013.
What happens if we are not happy with the service?
Tell us straight away. Call (760) 687-9901 or email info@cdr-services.com and say you want to escalate. That takes the issue out of the normal support queue and flags it for review.
Escalations go directly to ownership. We are a local company rather than a call center, so there is no chain of gatekeepers between you and the person accountable for your account.
From there we will get on a call with you, walk through what went wrong, and come back with a written plan and dates. If it turns out to be a pattern rather than a one off, we bring it into your next business review so the fix holds.
If we cannot put it right, we will not make it difficult to leave. Agreements run month to month, with 30 days notice to cancel.
How do we get started?
It starts with an assessment. We walk your site, inventory every device, server and line of connectivity, and document where the risk sits. You then get a written scope with a fixed monthly cost, and you decide whether to proceed. Call 760 687 9901 or use the contact form.
Already a client
Questions current clients ask
How do I submit a support ticket?
By phone, by email, or through the client portal. All three open a ticket automatically, so nothing depends on somebody remembering a conversation.
Which method gets the fastest response?
Phone, for anything urgent. Email and the portal are better for non urgent requests because they capture detail and keep the whole thread in one place.
What counts as a critical issue?
Anything that stops the business operating: a server down, a site wide outage, a suspected security incident, or a failure that blocks your team from working. Critical issues are answered within one hour.
What is the response time for everything else?
Standard requests raised during business hours are answered the same business day.
What are your business hours?
Standard support hours are Monday through Friday, 8:00am to 5:00pm Pacific time. Premium plans include 24 hour coverage, including nights, weekends and holidays.
How do I reach you outside business hours?
Call (760) 687-9901 any time. Premium plans include 24 hour on-call coverage, and Standard plan messages are picked up first thing the next business day.
How do I set up a new employee?
Our Client Portal has forms to fill out so we can collect all the information we require to fully onboard new employees for your company.
What do I do when someone leaves?
Our Client Portal has forms to fill out so we can collect all the information we require to fully offboard departing employees from your company.
I am locked out of my account. What now?
Call rather than email, since you may not be able to reach your mailbox. We verify your identity before resetting anything.
How do I start a remote support session?
Use the Remote Support link in the site menu. It opens a session our technician can connect to while you watch what happens on screen.
What is the Client Portal for?
Raising and tracking tickets, and seeing what is open across your whole team rather than just your own requests.
My email is not arriving. What should I check first?
Check the junk folder and any quarantine notification from the mail filter. If the message is not there, send us the sender address and rough time and we can trace it through the filtering logs.
How do I know my backups are working?
We monitor backup jobs for completion and test restores on a schedule. Backup status is covered in your regular reporting, and you can ask for a restore test at any time.
Can you recover a file I deleted?
Usually yes. Tell us the file name, roughly where it lived and when you last saw it. How far back we can reach depends on the retention configured for your agreement.
How do I request new hardware?
Send us the requirement rather than a product. We specify against the workload, source it at business channel pricing with the right warranty, and it arrives imaged, encrypted and monitored.
When do you apply patches and updates?
On a tested schedule rather than immediately on release. Critical security fixes are prioritised. Anything that needs a reboot is scheduled so it does not interrupt your working day.
Something looks like a phishing email. What do I do?
Do not click anything and do not forward it to colleagues. Report it to us and we will confirm whether it is malicious and check whether anyone else received it.
I think a machine is compromised. What is the first step?
Disconnect it from the network but do not turn it off, then call us immediately. Powering down can destroy evidence we need to establish what happened.
How do I add a service or change our agreement?
Contact us and we will scope the change and confirm any adjustment to the monthly cost in writing before anything is deployed.
Who do I escalate to if a ticket is not progressing?
Call (760) 687-9901 with your ticket number and ask for the ticket to be escalated. Escalations go to ownership rather than back into the same support queue.
Still need an answer?
If your question is not here, call us. Existing clients should raise a ticket so the request is tracked.
