In tech land, it has become commonplace to obsess over every shiny new device — and forget why we buy all this stuff in the first place.

So here is a reminder about what actually matters to most people with their personal tech: They buy a device or software to accomplish a task, like listen to music, place a phone call or watch television.

But in so many cases, people run into problems with the products. Your cellphone bill may be insanely high this month, for instance, and you don’t know why. At work, your expense reports are impossible to file (perhaps by your employer’s design). The Wi-Fi at home always seems to be spotty. Your TV won’t turn on anymore and the manufacturer’s customer service is terrible. We all go through these headaches, even the most tech-knowledgeable consumers.

That’s why we’re starting Tech Fix, a regular feature in which we will try to make personal technology less frustrating by examining the causes of problems, using data, reporting and analysis to come up with the best solutions.

In the inaugural installment of Tech Fix, I explore in-flight Wi-Fi, where prices have risen as high as $40 a session — an outrageous price when you consider that many people pay around that much for an entire month of high-speed Internet at home. I talk to the chief executive of Gogo, the largest in-flight Wi-Fi provider, along with some other companies offering the service, to understand better the rationale behind their costs, and offer some solutions for getting the best deals. The pricing for Wi-Fi in the sky, it turns out, is far more complicated than you would think.