how much do you charge?

[Brinson]

Wow, glad some of ya'll aren't my friends. >_>

If my friends or even people I don't know (over the net) have PC problems or really any problems, I'll try to help them the best I can.

I can't think of how many times I've had to reformat my friend's PC, or my sister's PC, replace hardware...etc. All for free. Because number one, I'm always looking for reasons to do something to a PC, so it gives me an opportunity. Number two, I guess I'm just a nice guy...

I know...these people are terrible friends.

I built a pc for a friend the other day, entirely. Even went to the store to help him pick out the parts. Set up the OS in a dual boot setup, installed drivers, setup the firewall, installed anti-spyware apps, and installed usefuls apps such as browser, some games, office, ect. I also replaced the CD drive in his other machine, reformatted it and installed the drivers for his wireless card.

I can't even imagine how much some of these guys would charge for that.

 

[mikesgroovin]

Depends on the job really...
Virus/Spyware related: $20 - $50
Hardware related: around $50 usually + materials
Simple networking: around $50
Complex networking or server related: $500 a day + flight, car rental, hotel, etc

 

[Kharn]

wow man thats kinda a rip off
so for you to reformat, instal, and update you would charge something ike 160-240 bucks??? at that price they would probably be better of going to geeksquad or something

for friends it usually little things and ill charge 10-20 bucks depending on what it is or if its something really simple ill do it for free.
for other people id do 40 bucks for a reformat and os instalation, thats with them bringing and picking up the pc, and if they want a lega os they have to provide that as wel

He is talking about AUD not USD 160AUD = 141.52USD which is around the £276 mark, which in the UK is WAY over priced.

Currency Exchange Rate Conversion Calculator

 

[carnageX]

Since I live in a small town and I help ppl w/ computers as a side-job, I usually only charge $20 an hour, although I always welcome more if they decide to give me extra xD.

 

[Trotter]

Depends. I fix a bunch for free... family, friends, nothing major. for people at work, I let them give me a little for my time, but not much... usually $20-$50. For something very involved, i would charge more, but I haven't had to worry about that.

The last one I worked on I did for free. I had it for a few weeks, and it was a mess. I ended up having to format it and start over. I tossed on a bunch of little games and told them it was on the house since I had it so long.

Word of mouth advertising is great that way, though.

 

[funkywaggnelz]

Well Crazed and Brinson, I don't see any mechanics offering to fix my head gaskets for free, or anyone willing to give me a car so l'm kinda stuck in that respect.... So something like 20/hr or something similar to do stuff. That's kinda what I was thinking but I wasn't too sure.

 

[veedubfreak]

I dont fix other peoples' computers. No matter how much you charge, they are still going to whine about it. They can take it to geeksquad and pay 3 times my price.

 

[Brinson]

Well Crazed and Brinson, I don't see any mechanics offering to fix my head gaskets for free, or anyone willing to give me a car so l'm kinda stuck in that respect.... So something like 20/hr or something similar to do stuff. That's kinda what I was thinking but I wasn't too sure.

If you're friend knows alot about cars he won't look at things for you and fix things as long as they only take a couple hours?

You guys have bad friends.

Maybe southerners really are nicer than the rest of the world. I always assumed that was just a joke...

I think only a total jackass would charge a friend/family member more than at cost...

 

[Harper]

wow man thats kinda a rip off
so for you to reformat, instal, and update you would charge something ike 160-240 bucks??? at that price they would probably be better of going to geeksquad or something

They are Australian Dollars and too bad that geek squad is in the USA.

2-3 hours of sitting on your *** watching a screen 80% of the time hitting the occasional enter key...

Realistically, I don't think reformatting someone's pc and installing updates is worth more money than doing something of comparable difficulty. Something as easy as sitting down and watching a load screen won't earn you $80/hour. And if it does, it shouldn't...that's what screwed up about capatalism, how poorly we decide how much people's time is worth.

Hour 1 - Backing up customer's data. Or at least moving there important stuff.
Hour 2 - Installing windows. Meanwhile I am "80% of the time" ... "sitting on (my) *** " searching and downloading drivers and scanning the customer's data for virus.
Hour 3 - Installing drivers, testing hardware to see if they work, installing service packs and updates. And then restoring data. And if it's virus related, installing a virus scanner and scanning PC for virus's just to prove to the customer that by the time i walk out that door, their computer is fixed.

Now if I am in the office, then I might only charge 1 hour for the job as I can devided my time with other tasks and jobs, or even go grab a lunch from the local cafe. However if I am on site, I can not do any thing else except for working on that computer. A customer is not going to pay me for my time if I go out for a coffee.

So yeah, why don't you take a cup of STFU next time before you say some thing stupid next time.

Wow, glad some of ya'll aren't my friends. >_>

If my friends or even people I don't know (over the net) have PC problems or really any problems, I'll try to help them the best I can.

I can't think of how many times I've had to reformat my friend's PC, or my sister's PC, replace hardware...etc. All for free. Because number one, I'm always looking for reasons to do something to a PC, so it gives me an opportunity.

Tell you what. You don't know me and I got some computers that need fixing. Can you look at them for me for free?
tell you what, can I out sourse you to do my job? I will not pay you as I am giving you a reason to do some thing with a PC.

Number two, I guess I'm just a nice guy...

Number three, you enjoy being everyone's On-Tap-Techie. Because some people think that you just live to fix other people's computer problems.


For those people that think I am a rip off, then I suggest you look at what it costs to run a business, pay a store front rent, keep a car on the road, and then try making end meet with your little $20 service jobs.

 

[Jorsoft]

Harper everything you've said here is pure Truth. If I could sig your whole thing I would

Harper is a little different situation than most of us because he has a business but he's right. For on-site service you can't do anything else and what he charges is a bargain in any case. On-site around here runs circa $90 USD and most of these folks aren't nearly as skilled as Harper must be by now and he's charging them less. It's dedicated time, too. You can't go out and do stuff while on that job. Maybe Brinson would rather keep a stop watch and charge people only the fractions of a second he was actually clicking buttons but to people who do this professionally time is money and there is way too much liability to cut favors. An hour of our time is worth a certain amount.

It seems there are at least a few around here who just love being that on-tap techie because it makes them feel good or whatever. Sooner or later (or maybe they have already) everybody is just going to take gross advantage of you and your valuable time to fix every little thing and if you're anything like me you'll decide it's just not worth your time being everybody else's computer *****. There's a lot of other stuff I'd rather be doing than reformatting your hard drive for the tenth time this week so you've got to make it worth my while. All it takes is a couple of bad experiences and you'll see the light if you haven't already. Being tech support, and free at that, really seems to give most people license to take you for granted and walk all over you. At least you should be paid for your time.