Computer repair/upgrade: How much to charge people?

[ShyGuy91284]

I know this isn't quite technical support, but it's support for someone else, so I figured this forum would do.

I'm sure a lot of people on these boards have had to repair and/or upgrade peoples computers before. How much do you charge for various services? I'm someone currently in college for a CS degree if skill level has anything to do with it. I've never really been sure what to charge people. I'll probably be soon upgrading someones Laptop w/ new RAM, HDD, and CPU if possible (I'm not very familiar with laptops, so idk about the CPU, but after reading up on the physical installation, I'm guessing it's probably fairly similar to Desktop maintenance). Any suggestions?

 

[oddlink]

at indiana university, they got a group of people who charge 23 bucks per half hour to do whatever is needed to be done, plus money for parts, they say they only charge for the time actually being spent with it

 

[GTiBri]

I usually charge $30 an hour with a 2 hour minimum. Of course, I don't want to work on the side unless it is really worth my time.

I've gone to someone's house and pressed a few keys and it was working fine. I only charged her for one hour though.

I will give you a word of warning though. Once you help someone out, you become the first person on their list to call when something doesn't work. If that's what you want, go for it. I personally don't want to get calls from everyone. I do that enough at work.

Edit:
Oh, and as for the laptop questions: Best bet would be to get the make and model and either check it out online or give their tech support a call as to what ram/HDD/CPU will work in it. Of course if you talk to someone they will try to sell you their stuff. But nothing is worse than getting a 256M stick of ram and finding out that the computer can only take a 128M stick.

 

[NonOffensiveNameHere]

I charge $20 an hour with a $20 minumum. I do grounds keeping in a 55 and up community and Im the only one that knows computers there. And like the previous poster its usually easy like an empty printer cartridge.

 

[SemperFi]

Like what GtiBri said on support. I used to build/upgrade several units a year for my computing hobby. I really never charged for my labor I make the offer that I will sell you my current cpu for current value and upgrade my cpu, memory, video card etc.

That worked well for several years. Then I built the system that kept on giving. I built a system for a friend of mine from church. Well he never met a download from aol that he didn't try. I had to remove trash from his computer every couple of months for about a year. Finally I told him to stop downloading the trash aol offers. Another time he calls I forget what the symptoms were but would happen every couple of days and he left box running 24/7. This was in the hey day of win98. I told him 98 doesn't like to run that long without a reboot and should consider win 2000. He wasn't a gamer just internet and office programs. One day at work (he is a realtor) someone was working on the machines at the office and he proceeds to talk to that guy about his problems. That guy told him 2000 was an office OS and should under no circumstances run it at home.

He then questioned me about this and I told him I had to question this guy's knowledge. He said that is exactly what the other guy told him. I said well it looks like you found yourself another tech and left it at that. About a year after that he asked me if I was going to get xp and I said I already have it running at home. He then shows me some articles that the guy dug up on how xp was a POS. I was like I have 2 machines running flawlessly and he still has 98 hiccuping down the road. What a pain.

It depends on what you want I guess. As a hobby and to help out friends its not worth it to me. I turn down work quite a bit just because of that fact. Basicly I only build/upgrade only when I know the person using is proficient at using a computer. If they don't know where the power button is I refer them to Dell.

 

[SemperFi]

Like what GtiBri said on support. I used to build/upgrade several units a year for my computing hobby. I really never charged for my labor I make the offer that I will sell you my current cpu for current value and upgrade my cpu, memory, video card etc.

That worked well for several years. Then I built the system that kept on giving. I built a system for a friend of mine from church. Well he never met a download from aol that he didn't try. I had to remove trash from his computer every couple of months for about a year. Finally I told him to stop downloading the trash aol offers. Another time he calls I forget what the symptoms were but would happen every couple of days and he left box running 24/7. This was in the hey day of win98. I told him 98 doesn't like to run that long without a reboot and should consider win 2000. He wasn't a gamer just internet and office programs. One day at work (he is a realtor) someone was working on the machines at the office and he proceeds to talk to that guy about his problems. That guy told him 2000 was an office OS and should under no circumstances run it at home.

He then questioned me about this and I told him I had to question this guy's knowledge. He said that is exactly what the other guy told him. I said well it looks like you found yourself another tech and left it at that. About a year after that he asked me if I was going to get xp and I said I already have it running at home. He then shows me some articles that the guy dug up on how xp was a POS. I was like I have 2 machines running flawlessly and he still has 98 hiccuping down the road. What a pain.

It depends on what you want I guess. As a hobby and to help out friends its not worth it to me. I turn down work quite a bit just because of that fact. Basicly I only build/upgrade only when I know the person using is proficient at using a computer. If they don't know where the power button is I refer them to Dell.