Dwight Dow admits it was pretty weird to see the cursor on his laptop taking off on its own. But when the spreadsheets for his Austin-based company, Dow Construction, are trapped inside a frozen computer, he said the time saved from not visiting a repair shop outweighed any control quirks.

“When I just have to leave it (at a repair shop), it’s hard for me to do that,” he said. “I don’t have a backup.”

Dow found out about Plumchoice through a radio advertisement. The company, based out of Boston, solves glitches in a relatively unconventional manner — directly through the Internet.

“It’s very tough to explain to people over the phone how to correct a problem because you can’t see what they’re doing,” said Ted Werth, Plumchoice founder and CEO.

Werth, an 18-year veteran of the information technology business, founded Plumchoice in 2001 after acting as the regular “go-to” guy for his family’s computer problems. He realized the same technology used by his former employers to solve in-house glitches — a program that allows for immediate, on-screen repairs — could be harnessed for outside sources, such as home offices, small businesses and college students.

“College students are pretty tech-savvy, but there are times when you need your computer fixed right away,” said Adam Handelsman, Plumchoice representative. “If you have a report due tomorrow and the computer freezes up, we’ll get (the repair) done right away.”

Arranging an appointment is the first step. Plumchoice is not a 24-hour service, but Handelsman said it will be moving up to that soon.

A Plumchoice technician then calls the user, and, after establishing an online connection, will demonstrate each step in the repair process.

Services range from resolving software conflicts to installing home and business networks to cleaning out viruses. They charge $23 for each 15 minutes of online support or a discounted $80 for a full hour.

Allowing a stranger complete access to your computer might sound dangerous, but Handelsman assures customers the process is completely safe.

“You see exactly what they’re doing,” he said. “What (technicians) say when they first initiate a call is to close any files you don’t want us to see, but it’s never been an issue.”

But Percy Adusei, Texas State systems support specialist, said he is wary about the prospect of allowing someone this kind of control.

“It’s like opening up a whole can of worms,” he said. “Some people with less computing skills may rely on this, but I’d rather take it to a computer shop.”

Dow said he wasn’t concerned as much about this kind of issue during his laptop repair as he was with the delays and subsequently larger bill because of his dial-up connection.

“I probably spent a little more money than I wanted to, but it wasn’t their fault,” he said. “They did a nice job and were very honest.”

There was a small glitch that remained even after resolving the largest conflict, but Dow said the technician worked off the clock to get it fixed.

“We try very hard, but you cannot make every customer happy,” Werth said. “We try to be very fair and have a satisfaction guarantee.”

Plumchoice is in good standing with the Better Business Bureau, and, according to a customer exit poll, Werth said, the company has a 93 percent positive rating.

“We deal with a wide array of situations,” Handelsman said. “We figure you can’t afford to have a $75,000 (information technology) staff all the time.”