How much do you pay for (or charge for) tech support (calls/remote-access/on-site visits)?

[VirtualLarry]

Just curious.

Yes, I know that this is Anandtech, and we are all "computer nerds", and like 99.99999% of you all know how to re-build and fix a PC, but for those few of you that have actually needed external help for something, how much did you have to pay, and for what services?

I'm kind of curious.

Edit: I mean, snide comments about how "I AM tech-support" are fine too, I guess. Something to get the ball rolling. How much do you bill for?

I sort of pretend on here that I have a computer fix-it job on the side, and I sort of do, but, I don't advertise, and it's really more of a hobby income (what little I get, from family and friends), than a real business. I mostly don't even break even on parts (because I give away more hardware than I sell).

I suppose I should try and register as a sort of non-profit. Because that's what it basically boils down to.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Well, I am tech support for me, but aside from that:

https://fitsmallbusiness.com/geek-squad-prices/

Most working-under-the-table, door-to-door type peeps are going to be charging $30-$50 an hour. Geek Squad can charge a lot more because they have physical locations, marketing, lots of techs, etc.

Skilled help is not cheap. I'd also refer you to hourly rates (shop rates vs. individual rates) for auto mechanics, hair stylists, and piano teachers.

 

[skull]

The number 1 rule of business is don't worry about what others are charging, charge based on your expenses and desired salary. How much does it cost to pay for, maintain, insure and gas your vehicle a year? Keep up with tools/diagnostics software, classes, etc.. In my industry we only count 1000 billable hours a year because of warranty work, free bids and all the other behind the scenes stuff the customer doesn't see or pay for. So pick your desired salary, add your expenses to it and divide by 1000 thats your hourly rate.

 

[lxskllr]

I don't typically charge anything. I'm doing it as a favor. If you want to make a business of it, I wouldn't under charge by much. Your skillset's valuable, and undercharging drives down income for everyone. I don't think hourly rates work well for computers. Are you really gonna bill 9 hours for installing win7 because windows is being retarded? A lot of computer work is waiting, so you can be doing other things.

 

[skull]

I don't typically charge anything. I'm doing it as a favor. If you want to make a business of it, I wouldn't under charge by much. Your skillset's valuable, and undercharging drives down income for everyone. I don't think hourly rates work well for computers. Are you really gonna bill 9 hours for installing win7 because windows is being retarded? A lot of computer work is waiting, so you can be doing other things.

How often does that happen,? Every now and then I get a finicky furnace that only goes out once every couple hours and sometimes you don't catch the issue the first time it happens in front of you. I chock that up to non billable hours because I can justify charging $250 to change a $10 part but not $600.

Even if he goes flat rate he would want to base his flat rate off an hourly rate and average job time.

Oh and I lied not giving away free shit is the number 1 business rule in your case. When I first started out I gave a really discounted furnace install to an old lady crying poor. She turned out to be a lying c*nt. No more discounts, you need heat I gotta eat.

 

[VirtualLarry]

you need heat I gotta eat.

Yeah, I like that.

I'd have to look at the rate sheet I made up, but I think that the revision date is 2012 on it, so I think that it bears updating slightly.

I generally charge $50 for installing an OS, maybe that's low, although Win10 has made it easier. (Although, I can now charge that for twice-yearly Windows 10 Upgrades, if someone doesn't want, or doesn't know, how to update - like on those 32GB eMMC CloudBooks, those can be a royal PITA to do Windows Upgrades, due to lack of space. They can also take up to 4hrs or more to Upgrade. Maybe I should raise my rates to $75/install. Not everyone has an SSD.)

 

[lxskllr]

In Larry's case for parts, and assuming he wants to give people a deal, I'd bill normal rate the part cost him. Say an ssd costs $60 usually, but he scored it for $30; I'd charge $60 which will still be cheaper than the big guys, and he gets to pocket the extra $30. Everyone wins then.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, I am tech support for me, but aside from that:

https://fitsmallbusiness.com/geek-squad-prices/

Most working-under-the-table, door-to-door type peeps are going to be charging $30-$50 an hour. Geek Squad can charge a lot more because they have physical locations, marketing, lots of techs, etc.

Skilled help is not cheap. I'd also refer you to hourly rates (shop rates vs. individual rates) for auto mechanics, hair stylists, and piano teachers.

That is an AWESOME link, Dave. Lists several different national and semi-national Tech Support chains, along with some "gig economy" sites.

And yeah, judging by those prices, maybe I should adjust the "Rate Sheet" a little bit. My friends and family of friends have been getting my services for waaay too cheap. (Well, maybe certain friends.) I wouldn't charge my family members, unless it's their place of business that I was working on, although my Mom insists on paying me for services, which I would gladly do for free for Mom.

 

[Viper GTS]

The problem is that the rates you would need to charge rapidly exceed the value of the devices you are working on. It's to the point where nearly anything except a high end laptop is not worth servicing if you have to pay for it.

That said, I do it for family and some friends. Basically if I care about you, or if you're related to someone I care about I'll likely do it. 'It' these days mostly means pull the hard drive out, drop it in a dock, try to find all their data, then wipe/reinstall/replace data. Anything beyond that just go buy a new computer.

Viper GTS

 

[VirtualLarry]

In Larry's case for parts, and assuming he wants to give people a deal, I'd bill normal rate the part cost him. Say an ssd costs $60 usually, but he scored it for $30; I'd charge $60 which will still be cheaper than the big guys, and he gets to pocket the extra $30. Everyone wins then.

I really need to learn to do that, and start charging like Staples or BestBuy prices for PCs and parts like SSDs.

For example, my friend's mom, I sold her a PC like 10 years ago (2.5Ghz Core2-family, 500GB HDD, and 4GB DDR3, Windows 7), and it finally had issues with rebooting, so I sold her another PC, a Gateway SFF with a Sandy Bridge Pentium, 500GB HDD, and 4GB or 8GB DDR3, and again, Windows 7. I still had the factory-fresh HDD that I removed when I bought it new, and I replaced it with a 2TB Seagate Hybrid HDD for my personal usage. I then sold it several years ago to this friend's Mom (with a 1-year warranty, which has expired), and now it seems that the HDD may be acting up.

I quoted her a price, initially, of $100 (Edit: On-site) labor for 2 hours, and $50 for a HDD (1TB 7200RPM, new), or $50 for an SSD (probably a 240/250GB one), so $150 total, a few hours of labor, etc. (I bought a couple of Team Group L5 Lite 3D NAND SSDs, 240GB for $30 + tax ea. recently, and one 480GB for $55 + tax.)

So I would have made $100, minus my gas expenses for drive 1/2 hour each way out of my way, maybe 40mins or longer depending on traffic. Then would have made maybe $18 on the part, if she chose the SSD.

But my wheels are, well, someone ran over them, so I've got a rental, and I don't feel like using it to do tech-support, so I told them they would have to come to me. (They have wheels as well.)

So I told my friend tonight, that if she brought the PC over, I'd install the OS for $50, install the HDD / SSD for $10, and basically charge only $100 for the whole deal.

He did tell me earlier, that one of her relatives was talking about getting her a laptop this Christmas, so I felt like if she initially felt $150 was too much to bother with her desktop PC, and that she was considering junking it, and getting a laptop instead, that perhaps if I made the cost to fix it, the trip, plus $100 to me, then maybe she would consider it.

Edit: I had also previously offered her a PC for $150, which is an Acer slimline i3-4130 or something like that, Haswell i3, 8GB RAM (upgraded), with an SSD (maybe only a 120GB), and Windows 10 (upgraded from Win7 COA). Includes built-in Wifi and DVD-RW.

Which I now realize, I should be charging a minimum of $200 for. I even told her that if she came and picked it up (on BF), that I would make it $120. (It cost me $236 + tax for the main unit - well, several years ago, anyways, for a factory refurb, plus 4GB DDR3, plus 120GB SSD, plus time and effort replacing the HDD, and installing Windows 10. So you see how my efforts, don't make much business sense, unless I was really a non-profit. But even those need revenue.)

 

[VirtualLarry]

The problem is that the rates you would need to charge rapidly exceed the value of the devices you are working on. It's to the point where nearly anything except a high end laptop is not worth servicing if you have to pay for it.

Yeah. I quoted my friend's Mom, initially, $150 for the Acer Haswell i3 slimline, and $150 ($100 for on-site labor, and $50 for the HDD/SSD), to repair her existing PC, which I intially sold her three years ago for $150, with a 500GB HDD and Windows 7 (original factory configuration, as matter of fact). I purchased the PC, when they were introducing Windows 8.0 or 8.1 to the market, so Staples clearanced their Windows 7 PCs for half off, after a $100 off coupon. (Staples used to have MAD coupon deals, especially at the end of the quarter.) So I only paid $200 + tax for a $400 entry-level but usable PC, used it for 2-3 years myself, and then refurbished it back to factory spec, and sold it on for $150. Not too shabby, and she was getting a deal too. (The Core2 / 4GB / 500GB HDD / Win7 64-bit rig cost $300, which was basically my cost on the whole thing. I didn't make much if anything really on it.) So, overall, I "made" like -$50, minus my time and labor, over two PCs, over a span of like 7-8 years.

That said, I do it for family and some friends. Basically if I care about you, or if you're related to someone I care about I'll likely do it. 'It' these days mostly means pull the hard drive out, drop it in a dock, try to find all their data, then wipe/reinstall/replace data. Anything beyond that just go buy a new computer.

Makes some sense. Although, I've done some "SSD + Win10 upgrades" for people, that basically involve just that, but instead of "wipe", it's "physically install new SSD in place of HDD", then "install OS", then either "restore data", and/or "place original HDD into USB enclosure, and give it back to them, in case they need to pull something off of it in the future (that I may have missed)".

 

[Exterous]

I dislike standard computer support anymore so its a mix of unnecessarily high and me saying "I'm not familiar because its not a massive scale enterprise system"

Even when my wife asks for help I respond in that assholish IT manner "Ugh what did you break this time?!"

 

[Carson Dyle]

Last time I used any kind of paid support was probably the mid-1990s, before there were a billion online resources that were infinitely better than talking to someone with three weeks of training answering phone calls. It didn't take long to realize that it was totally fruitless calling Microsoft or Borland or whomever just because I had a problem or I'd found some bug. Not only a complete waste of money, it a waste of my time.