Sticker shock from my $300 virus clean bill.

[mchammer187]

if you normally charge $50-100 an hour since when is $300 a big job?

 

[marvdmartian]

Hey, like the old commercial says, "You can pay me now, or you can pay me later", right? People just seem to have trouble realizing that most of the crap (like all AOL related stuff) is just that.......useless CRAP. You can set up a computer to run like a champ, but put the wrong person in front of it, and it becomes bogged down with 2 tons of garbage, like that one. Besides, you gave them a price break, and if they don't realize that, tell them to go to geeksquad next time.

As far as the transfer goes, wouldn't it be easier to set both computers up on a network, then transfer data? A dvd burner seems like a drastic step to take for transferring 8gb of data, and these people are unlikely to ever see the full potential of a dvd burner, even if you transferred it to their new dell. Just my 2-cents, but it seems a crossover cable is just as easy, and considerably cheaper. 🙂

 

[aircooled]

I stopped working on peoples home computers. Just became a pain in the butt.
Plus most of them had a "you touched it last, you broke it" mentality

At work if it's that fvcked up, we just re-image it. 20 minutes and it's done. Much nicer... 🙂

 

[Phoenix86]

Originally posted by: episodic
I charge about less an hour - but I live in a really poor southern area. Most of the time I can talk them into letting me take the box with them. I don't charge them for 'wait time' at home - like if I've got the computer on the bench reformatting while I'm out eating or something. I charge for face time. I actually have a little timer I hit when I set down in front of the computer. I give them accurate billing for face time.

That's a very honest way of doing things. :beer:

OP, $300/18hours=$16.66/hour, repeating of course. Why feel bad about that?

 

[Avalon]

I did PC repair at a business once. I always felt bad charging the customers $100-$150 for a couple hours of work, because for years I have always fixed my own systems myself for free. I just couldn't grasp the idea that people paid to get their computers fixed 😛

Needless to say, between my co-workers being complete pricks, and feeling guilty having to charge someone to install a burner or a modem that took 5 minutes, I quit. I may pick up work again if I find a more friendly (and organized) place to work at.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: Phoenix86

Originally posted by: episodic
I charge about less an hour - but I live in a really poor southern area. Most of the time I can talk them into letting me take the box with them. I don't charge them for 'wait time' at home - like if I've got the computer on the bench reformatting while I'm out eating or something. I charge for face time. I actually have a little timer I hit when I set down in front of the computer. I give them accurate billing for face time.

That's a very honest way of doing things. :beer:

OP, $300/18hours=$16.66/hour, repeating of course. Why feel bad about that?

Just the way it unfolded. The first day they insisted I get the machine back up and running that night...I told them it would be several hours and it was. Then they undid some of my work by going back and downloading a couple applications I told them were problems.

They really needed to reinstall everything, but refused.

The main problem is like most people they equate the cost of the computer as the limit of the cost of the work...

I usually don't have this kind of problem because with most people I have given a estimate ahead of time. Like $100 if I can be in and out of it in a couple hours (assuming standard virus/spyware stuff fixes it)....then $x /hr if that doesn't work.

At that point I can say it should take 2 hours or 4 roughly.

I prefer to take the box back to my office. I can have stuff run and download while I am doing other things. If I am stuck there whether or not a program is just running I am billing.

 

[timswim78]

Originally posted by: MisterJackson
You should have been more specific up front (i.e. "Mr. Jones, this is normally something I bill $100/hr. for onsite. You can either let me take it home and do the work for $xx.xx/hr, or I can cut you a break by $xx.xx for the onsite rate as an old customer/friend rate.").

I have learned that it's best to clear the air up front. Just saying it "Will cost more if I do the work here." means squat. The customer shruggs that off and figures he'll haggle with you later or that by "This will cost more onsite" you mean $100 instead of $50 for the job. Another problem you've got here is it wasn't clear if you were charging this customer by the hour or by the job. That should be cleared up front.

To talk specifics about money after the job is done will usually get you one of two things: A) The customer will pay, but will likely be left with a sour taste in their mouth, possibly ending any future jobs and/or recommendations for you, or B) They refuse to pay. you've already done the work at this point, so this can only get ugly from there.

If you do side work you MUST treat it as business. If you don't the customer will take advantage of you, or worse consider you unprofessional.

I used to have an older couple that I did side work for. They knew I had a son and insisted that I bring him along with me one time I came over to do some work for them. I didn't want to, but they were in a bind with their PC, I had no immediate sitter, and they were okay with it.

It turned into a thing where they invited my son to the zoo along with their 3 grandchildren. After that trip it was hinted that that cost to them should cover the next job I do for them. Handling that situation was a difficult one as I liked these people, but they were trying to take advantage of me, whether they realized it or not.

My point is, set yourself some basic ground rules and ethics. Stick to those no matter what. This kinda thing is a learning experience so you just modify your rules as you go along to make you a better technician for your customer.

Oh, and as for "They're rich, so....", well again, that means SQUAT. I helped a friend carry a 36" tube TV up a 50 step flight of wet rock stairs outside of a lake house on a 45 degree incline, then carry down his customer's (boss) new 42" Dell plasma and install that, only to see my friend get paid a pittance (I recieved nothing, just helping a friend). The guy we did this for made 50 million last year and runs a small software engineering company. Hell we even commuted 75 miles that night each way and this was the other week when we had that gas scare and prices skyrocketed! 😱

It's almost a universal truth, the richer the client, the stingier they are with their money. But the poorer people always seem to try and give you the shirt off their backs.

/mild rant

* I'm too lazy to check for spelling/grammatical errors, so bite me.

Good points Mr. Jackson.

Alkemyst:
I had some similar problems with a dear friend of the family, although I never charged him for my services. As older people tend to do, he was constantly downloading all kinds of crap that would result in Spyware and Viruses. Maintaining his systems became such a paint that I just did this.
- Backed up everything to another hard drive.
- Formatted his hd with 3 partitions.
- Installed windows, alll his apps, anti-spyware, anti-virus, and etc. on onto one partition
- Copied his pictures and music and mapped his my documents to the 2nd partition.
- Imaged the windows install to the third partition.

Whenever he messed things up, I just restored the system from his backup partition, and everything was good to go, including all of his documents.

If I read your post correctly, it sounds like you tried cleaning up their computer, without backing up everything first. This doesn't sound like a best practice, IMO. If you plan on charging $50 - $75 per hour, I think that you should have the equipment to do an onsite backup. That way you can assure the client that his/her files will not be lost, no matter what happens to their computer while you are working on it.

With all of the work you did, $300 is more than fair. However, I think that you could have saved a lot of grief and time by sitting down and coming up with a written plan and pricing options for the customer. If you could show the customer, that it will cost $200 to backup everything and reformat and that it would cost $600 to try to fix each problem one at a time, they may be more inclined to think about what the options really mean in terms of time, cost, and effectiveness.

Plus, I think that we all know that this computer is bound to get hosed again without a format and reinstall.

 

[Phoenix86]

Originally posted by: alkemyst

Originally posted by: Phoenix86

Originally posted by: episodic
I charge about less an hour - but I live in a really poor southern area. Most of the time I can talk them into letting me take the box with them. I don't charge them for 'wait time' at home - like if I've got the computer on the bench reformatting while I'm out eating or something. I charge for face time. I actually have a little timer I hit when I set down in front of the computer. I give them accurate billing for face time.

That's a very honest way of doing things. :beer:

OP, $300/18hours=$16.66/hour, repeating of course. Why feel bad about that?

Just the way it unfolded. The first day they insisted I get the machine back up and running that night...I told them it would be several hours and it was. Then they undid some of my work by going back and downloading a couple applications I told them were problems.

They really needed to reinstall everything, but refused.

The main problem is like most people they equate the cost of the computer as the limit of the cost of the work...

I usually don't have this kind of problem because with most people I have given a estimate ahead of time. Like $100 if I can be in and out of it in a couple hours (assuming standard virus/spyware stuff fixes it)....then $x /hr if that doesn't work.

At that point I can say it should take 2 hours or 4 roughly.

I prefer to take the box back to my office. I can have stuff run and download while I am doing other things. If I am stuck there whether or not a program is just running I am billing.

You provided good advice, they chose not to listen. *They* wanted to do it this way, not you.

You handled it very professionaly, IMO.

Your comparison to how geek squad would have charged them is valid, heck it'd probably have cost them more when you look at their itemized price list.

 

[FM2n]

I think this has a lot to do with age as well. When I was younger, I didn't know what to charge people for my services, and I always felt too guilty to. Funny how when you work for a company, you don't mind passing the buck to a customer. But when it's your own conscious at work, it's hard to do.

As you get older, you will realize that people will pay based on perception. It has nothing to do with the quality of work or the amount of time put into it. That is why the rude pricks gets paid more than the customer service friendly geek that we are. Because the rude prick is serious and so the customer is intimidated and even respects them, thus willing to shell out the money.

As a photographer, I've seen people charge butt-loads for wedding photography, yet the photographer can't even shoot himself out of a paper bag. The honest truth is, people pay photographers to be artists and to make great photos. This means that they have no idea what a good photo is or what art is. That is why they are paying the photographer: to have good taste for them. Just like in computers. Give them the perception that you deal with a lot of clients and that your time is valuable. They will worship you and value your work, and hopefully not waste it! 😀

Seriously though, if you can sell the perception, people will buy it. You are still doing the work that you are hired to do, but at least you won't have to deal with people who will try to talk you down and what you are telling them is "professional" advice rather than an excuse to make your job easier for the same amount of money.

 

[Zontor]

Maybe buy a TAC with the lifetime service guarantee....😉

 

[habib89]

you provided a service they could not do.. you gotta get paid.. they insisted that you make the house call.. if you were to feel bad whenever you got paid, you'd be doing a lot of pro-bono work

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: alkemyst

Originally posted by: Goosemaster
wow dude...you took too long and they played you...

your experiences in life are not a good indicator in this thread.

nice try though.

?

I work for a PC/Repair/network maintenance/network design company

Nice try?

You took way too long in repairing this job due to a lack of premptive thinking and got paid table scraps for it.

We charge $50 (diag) + $100/hr and our clients are happy

act like you now what you are doing, think about what you do before you do it and stand by your work and people will be glad to pay you that much.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: Goosemaster

I work for a PC/Repair/network maintenance/network design company

Nice try?

yeah WTF is that? this a fly-by-night? Why would a network company deal in PC repair...sort of a waste of money.

Originally posted by: Goosemaster
You took way too long in repairing this job due to a lack of premptive thinking and got paid table scraps for it.

your preemptive thinking is forgetting the thousands of dollars this job owner has made me.

Normally I charge a lot more...these were people that helped me through school though.

I have my own LLC...I report and pay taxes. A lot out there charging less are cash only businesses or just choose to lie.

Originally posted by: Goosemaster
We charge $50 (diag) + $100/hr and our clients are happy

I have billed out over $300/hr for companies I worked for. I am not sure your point.

Originally posted by: Goosemaster
act like you now what you are doing, think about what you do before you do it and stand by your work and people will be glad to pay you that much.

Thanks for the obvious....these are people I have known a long time.

BTW I don't have to act, at my Fortune 500 company I earned not only IS associate of the Quarter, but the whole company as well. The sound you hear is "Cha-CHING!"

After reading your website I suggest therapy.

 

[alkemyst]

for the record I have no problem charging $75+ per hour.

I look at it based on client though.

Sort of how PSP vs Photoshop work.

If I fix a profitable business I go high.

If I fix a business about to shut down, I am more flexable.

The whole story doesn't really come across here.

I am also betting most don't deal with *real* self-employment problems. I report my income. This is why I can contribute to the annual tax rape thread.

 

[ronin2kr6]

I for one sympathize with your money asking dilemma. I've had the same feelings when asking individuals for money, for companies I don't care as much.

Theres just something about looking into the face of folks when you are demanding payment. While I agree with a lot of what was said here (have to get paid for what you do, etc..), it isn't always easy to collect on a bill when you know the person.

In the end, people are right, it's a business and U gotta eat.

 

[yourdeardaniel]

i spent whole day removing virus, porn stuff and get nothing in return. blah