Computer repairs keep nerds on the go

GUILFORD - When Cheryl Galako's computer at her business, Tri-Star Trucking in North Branford conked out Thursday, she turned to the Yellow Pages and saw Nerds To Go under 'computer repair."
"I was ready to throw my computer out the window," said Galako. "It was frozenup and I couldn't do anything with it. I called Nerds To Go because I figured nerds must know what they're doing."
Nerds To Go, a 2-year-old company headquartered at 120 Church St., dispatched a "nerd" - a computer technician - and got Galako's computer running again.
"It had a lot of viruses on it. I thought I had virus protection that came with the computer, but wasn't adequate," said Galako, whose 10-year-old company employs five people.
Not only did the technician fix the problem, he installed a free virus-protection system.
Galako said she was happy the technician came to her, so she didn't have to unplug the computer and lug it to the store. "I would definitely call them again," she said.

That's what co-founder David J. Colella likes to hear. Colella, 36, of Old Saybrook, plans a rapid expansion of the booming business, which to this point has served the Shoreline from Branford to Old Lyme.
Colella and his wife, Kristina, are begining to advertise throughout New Haven County, and plan to add 25 more technicians in the next six months.
Today the company employs 12.
"We have had an overwhelming amount of interest," said Colella, a former IBM manager who held management positions with several high-tech companies before striking out on his own.
Even though the company has marketed its services only along the Shoreline, word of mouth has led to calls from throughout the county, he said.
Nerds To Go charges $99 to travel to a home business and diagnose a problem. If fixing the problem will cost more than $99, the service call charge is waived.Colella also recently started a subsidiary, www.campusnerds.com,

to serve area college students at a 25 percent discount. While there are many computer repair companies in the area, Nerds To Go is the only one designed to visit the customer's home or small business, outside of one-mann repair operations.
Colella said his customers know that their service techs will still be available in the months and years to come, and his company is fully insured.
Colella said he only hires technicians with at least five years of experience who are customer-service oriented.
"We're going into people's homes, and interacting with the individual," he said.
Colella attributes the success of the business to two factors: Major PC manufacturers have cut help-desk operations as they've cut the price of PCs, and more people are getting onto the Internet to download music, games and other items.
"When you go online, you are opening yourself up to the world," he said, noting also that technology continues to become more complex.