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What Do You Charge for Tech Support?
war3rd asks: "Years ago I used to offer tech support for friends and family (for free), and ended up doing it for everyone they and I knew. I cut it out because it was taking too much of my time, but I've been getting more and more requests lately due to everything from viruses, spam, spyware, as well as aging PC with Windows 98 and ME (oog!) on them still. I was thinking of saying OK to requests that are convenient, but I want to make it worth my while. So I ask, I'm sure that some of you out there must do this, what is the general going rate for basic user tech support (i.e. getting someone's home machine cleaned up and back to normal email & web browsing capability)?"
"I assume that there is probably some range in different parts of the country, but I'm curious anyway. And let's just assume that I live in the Tri-State area around New York City (can you say 'overpriced?'). I figure I should be able to pull in enough to feed my ever-present desire for better hardware, but on the other hand, I don't want to be a jerk and gouge people who should be able to trust me with their machines. So what to other Slashdot users charge for their tech support services?"
If you're doing it for people you know personally, for instance, your grandpa, sister-in-law or your mum's old schoolmate, in a sense that people are seeking your help as a favor, then I don't think it is easy to ask for something in return.
However, if you really get so many tech support requests, you may consider setting up a side business, that way you have made yourself commercially available and people know they need to pay for your service.
If they don't want to pay, they know not to call you. If they do call you but not expecting to pay, you can give good excuses like you're so busy with your new business that you can only visit them "later" (so much later that they solved the problem themselves).
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
Well, someone tell me what they think of mine (note, I don't have any certifications [yet]),
$50 for the first hour of work. $30 for each addition hour of work I do for them. Usually I resolve the issues in the first hour. If the issues are more prone to fully formatting a box, I usually take it home and charge them $50 for my time at home.. since honestly, formatting / installing drivers takes time but not enough time to waste their money.
If it is something like their computer doesn't work (and its rather stupid) I usually just ask for gas money + $20. I usually always work for a friend, or a friends friend.. I don't do professional calls (e.g. companies) unless, again, are small and a friends company.
Eric
P.S. I used to do the whole "$50 to wipe it, $20 to install hardware, $15 to install software" thing, but when I started dealing with friends of friends, I upped it.
Proceed with Format (Y/N)? Y
Nothing less than $300...regardless of the problem.
...to say "Get a Mac."
My rule is that I will fix friends and family members computers if I happen to have the time and they clearly appreciate my help and don't see it as my obligation. If they offer to pay me, I'll ask for a dinner sometime or just a case of Bass beer.
Trust me, taking money is more hassle than it will be worth.
THIS ACCOUNT IS OFFICIALLY RETIRED/RETARDED.
If they balk, then they can go somewhere else. It's just too time-consuming.
Frostylicious
You couldn't pay me enough!
Not enough.
(...but he best way to go is to try to exchange favor for favor. Both sides are usually quite happy with this.)
Know what I like about atheists? I've yet to meet one that believes God is on their side.
What you need is clearly the best support-system in the world: the Pint Support System.
I ask for One Miiiilllllliiiiiioooonnn Dollllaarrrsss.
Windows in 6 Bytes (IA-32) : 90 90 90 90 CD 19
A six-pack of Sleeman's Honey Brown is a reasonable generic fee for informal tech support to friends.
$50 just to come look at it and determine if I can do anything about it, $50/hour after that (first hour is free). I know some folks that charge more ($75-100 just for the housecall).
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
Not much if I know someone that knows them.
Usually dinner and a favor from family.
If you want to keep them as friends, I would not charge them. Either do it for free - or don't do it at all.
You will find that business professionals like lawyers and accountants generally exchange services. Look for barter opportunities, they are more plentiful especially with family and friends.
man or ugly woman: $20/hr
hot woman: blowjob
No amount of money is worth it!
Linux is free, why would you want to charge? From each according to their ability, to each according to their need. You have the ability to fix computar problems, your friends and families are having trouble and need repairs. Charging is unethical in this situation, pay attention to teh common good - ytou wouldn't like it if you had to pay for Linux, would you?
Right now I'm going to college and I don't have time for a real job so I work here in the IT department as a federal work study intern. It's pretty silly, because I have as much experience as anyone here, and more in some cases, but that's the way the cookie crumbled. I only charge people $35/hr because this is an academic environment and people (outside of administration) are not wealthy. However, I charge the same amount for the time I spend driving somewhere, which mostly means people just bring me their systems and I work on them at home. It works out well for me, because I can make some extra money on the weekends and so on. I don't do too much work like this though, because even at that price it's more than a lot of them can afford.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
CompUSA, as an example charges $75 an hour for labor, so I don't feel so bad charging $50 an hour for my services.
Most people just take it as a tax writeoff anyway.
If you don't have a retainer or any kind of lenghty relationship with the client, I would recommend at least $75/hr.
You could probably go for less, but I would only do so if they pay in cash on the spot. Mmm... Untrackable, untaxable cash......
It's a waste of your time. PC Hardware is as worthless as old 78's in today's world. Make it clear that you will only fix PCs belonging to your immediate family. Another strategy is being rude to others so that they dare not even ask.
I demand the sum... OF 1 MILLION DOLLARS.
$100 an hour, one hour minimum. They provide software. Bottom line, is I rarely do this anymore. It is just not a good use of my time. If they wanted their computer to work right, they would've listened to what I told them in the first place. Idiots.
-J
Fire in the sky
On the plus side, you can always sell beer for cash - and the price of beer is always rising and dollar always falling so you can't go wrong.
I would never charge a friend. Just seems too weird. If I don't have time I would usually just refer them to a url to fix their problem. It's always better to teach people how to fix their problems than constantly help them.
For a non-friend, I would charge 20-30/hour (i am a poor college student so that's more than enough for me).
$60 an hour for regular users.
$90 an hour for large networks.
$300 an hour, if you're family.
Not having to waste all my time on family freebies, priceless.
Go ahead and call me unreliable; reliable is just a synonym for predictable.
I don't charge my family, but last month I decided I may have to change that plan. I spent over 30min on the phon with them doign computer support (no the OTHER any key) and it put me over the cell plan min and cost ME money.
However: I probably won't charge my sister, she's an Emergency Room Physcian... and you'd be suprised how convient it is to have one of those around.
M@
Krispy Cream is people
In my professional life I've charged two hourly rate: $100/hr and $50/hr. I can't ask Ma and Pa Rancher/Farmer for that. I would think that undercutting what the area computer shops would charge would be acceptable. When I did service work at an Apple Specialist shop we charged a $45 bench fee for all computers and a $75 bench fee for all laser printers, just to take a look at them. Then our hourly rate was $50/hr. The markup on parts was anywhere for 40% to 200%. That was in '98. If I charged $15 or $20 an hour and maybe something for gas if I had to drive more than 5 miles or so, wouldn't that be agreeable with these rural customers? They'd have to drive 40 miles one way to get to the nearest town with a computer shop. With gas prices the way they are, that adds up fast.
One thing I don't hesitate to do is recommend buying a new computer. Most of these rural folks have ancient systems, at least by today's standards. If the machine is still useable and they understand that they can't run new software on the old machine, I'll help them fix it, even if it's replacing hardware like a bad HD. I highly recommend they replace the machine if they are trying to run new software on a circa '97 Windows 95 machine. It's just too old. I also never recommend the buying computers at the area Ma and Pa computer stores. I always recommend they buy from a larger company with an established reputation, support and warranty system, and will be here next month or next year when the machine has problems. I recommend Dell or Gateway to those people. I tell them about the back to school specials and help them find a system that fits their needs. I figure that's a much better suggetion than to tell them to go to Best Buy or CompUSA and pick up the special of the week. Sure the individual piece of hardware has a warranty, but if Ma and Pa Computer Shop closes up, they're not going to be able to find anyone else willing to figure out what's under warranty and what's not on an old machine. Thoughts on this?
I always set the folks up with some of the better pieces of free software like Mozilla or Firefox, Thunderbird, AntiVir, AdAware, and others. I tell Windows to auto-update without user interaction (something I'd never do on my own machine, but something that necessary on a novice's computer IMHO).
I'm not sure what the best price range is but I know one thing. We can't afford to do it for free all the time.
I did this back in Hawaii for a while myself. I am horrible at estimating my worth, so I left it up for them to decide. They let me know what they wanted done, and then I would ask them to pay me what they think is appropriate for that amount of work. I recall getting $300.00 for formatting a machine, and installing Windows 98 on it again for someone.
Charge what your time is worth to you. If you're not sure, and you have a day job, determine what you make in an hour at your day job and use that as a frame of reference. Generally, I use a sliding scale. I charge friends & family members little or nothing, or work out a barter arrangement, depending on the severity of the problem and how much time and effort I think fixing the problem will require. If I get a referral from a friend, I charge $15 just for the hour or less it takes to drive to the client's place and assess the problem, then I come up with an estimate of how long it will take me to fix the problem, multiply that by the hourly rate I've chosen for myself, and give the client a flat fee estimate. Generally, clients prefer a flat fee to an hourly rate quote because they know up front how much fixing the problem will cost; quoting your hourly rate leaves them feeling a little up in the air as to what the total cost will be. It also forces me to discipline myself to (a) come up with an accurate estimate, and (b) do my best to finish the work in a time frame as close to the estimate as I can. If I take longer to fix the problem than I estimated, I know I needed to pad more; if I take less time, I know I needed to pad less. If I am able to fix the problem in significantly less time than I estimated, I usually reduce the cost of the final bill - it makes for happier clients, which often translates to more referrals.
if its for family or friends you could do it for free, or for a favor. if its for business, then i'd charge depending on what it is. and if its a hot girl, i'd do it for a little something something...
As someone said earlier, for one-off support issues I solve for friend and friends of friends or small businesses and NPO's I just point them at my Amazon list or something similar.
I don't want the hassle of doing real, taxable business with a bunch of different entities. However a pile of small gifts that stacks up each year is nice and stays under the radar of Irwin R. Shyster.
It's a fair trade, and you don't have to deal with the dishes...
If they want support, ask them to install Lilnux, it's a lot more easy to support.
-No virus
-admin tool are protected
-easy offsite support (Telnet, SSH, vnc, etc.)
-no game whom f0ck your dll !
- put your others reason here
Ceci n'est pas une Signature !
I'm out in north seattle, and I charge $25 an hour.
If you're really cool, (or really hot) that goes down to 20 or 15, and if you're a serious pain (rich, over 60 and annoying, impatient soccer mom with skrypt kiddies/children) you go up to $35.
That's Edmonds tho, in New York, sheesh, I've got nothing to base it off of..
You should certainly charge your friends friends, just like say, a doctor, would do. But dont charge your really close friends and family. Say 'Sorry i just dont have the time, a job like that will take an entire day' or something if it's a big job. If you start charging money from your friends they'll think you're an ass, no matter how justified you are.
For $25 an hour plus $10 if it took more than $30 minutes to drive there. I eventually cut it because it was never ending. Still, I did make enough money to get drunk on.
/* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
$499, but that's for a one-time fix. No more spyware, no more viruses.
--
"Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
"Open source is evil." - Microsoft
Business Relationship only- $30/hr or $100 for Virus/Spyware Detection & elimination flat rate. $5 off the hourly rate or $25 off the flat rate to family and friends. Seems to be just about right- and it's less than CompUSA charges for the same service, so it's competitive.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
For personal requests (friends, family) it is dinner. Preferrably they come to my place. (i drive about once a month)...
Business it comes out to roughly $50/hour plus expenses.
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
They must listen to me gently badger them about switching away from Microsoft applications. Selling them on Firefox is usually easy.
Mention of MacOS X actually perks up their ears these days, as opposed to years past. A few of my office mates have even picked up their first Macs (one took up the advice of trying SuSE on existing hardware).
$100/hr, with a one-hour minimum, adjusted upward or downward depending on whether I like the person/company.
Really, just ask yourself "how much is this worth to me?" and set your rate accordingly...
with a bit of education thrown in for free (most infections come from not-knowing, education will hopefully prevent it in the future)
I give the client a time/cost estimation beforehand, so there are no surprises when the job is done.
So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
I wouldn't expect a non immediate family memebr to bring his/her skillset to my beck and call (electrician/carpenter/etc...) with recompense. Therefore, my skill is available for an hourly cost as well.
$40/hr is a nice figure here in the midwest, USA.
Dave
I range from meals to 150 an hour. depending on the problem, person or orgainization, and exposure. I won't walk into a business and fix one or more computers for a dinner.
With home users, you can have 1,000 customers and make yourself wealthy. You will also be serving 1,000 tyrants with 1,000 problems who if they write you a check for a nickel will think you owe them your first born.
With mid-size companies, you can have 100 customers and make yourself wealthy. You will also be serving 100 tyrants with 100 problems who if they write you a check for $100 will think you owe them your first born.
With large-size companies, you can have 5 customers and make yourself wealthy. You will also be serving 5 people who don't give a rats ass what you do or don't do for them and who if they write you a check for $100,000 will think it's OK if you don't return their call for a few weeks.
This is a slight exaggeration but the basic tenet is true. Don't focus on small fish or you'll be sorry.
I'm a big tall mofo.
... but I get the usual gift of beer or chocolate that goes down well.
I do it for free, graciously, and I'm glad to have the opportunity to help. (for whom? for my immediate and extended family, and about thirty friends).
I'm an IT professional. I think computers and software are terrible, hard to use, pointlessly obscure. Free tech support is the least I can do to make up for it.
The best way to limit my burden is through understanding my friends and family, and explaining at a level they want to understand.
And they stopped calling me.
Well about computer problems anyway.
All they needed was email, a web browser, MS Excel and oddly Basic (which Chipmunk Basic does well enough at)
I'll fix your computer if you babysit my kids next Friday.
I charge $25/hour (USD) for problems, and expressly indicate to the client that most tasks take 2 hours or more. Since I charge the same as the stores for repairs, doing repairs either nets me beer money or the client balks and goes to the store for peace of mind - which saves my time.
------- "From bored to fanboy in 3.8 asian girls" ----------
Only do tech support for the girlfriend. She's the only person that can properly compensate me for the hell of spyware removal.
Free! That's the only way that PC manufacturers and software companies stay in business, all the free tech support provided by enthusiasts. Otherwise, they'd have gone broke long ago.
Charging $60 an hour tends to cut out the bullshit but it's not so much that it prices you out of the market.
Charge by the half hour. That way, little things only cost them $30.
Don't do the supporting. It's not worth it.
Regardless of whether you ask for money or not, the supported will take any further problem with his or her computer personally and run to you as if it was your fault.
I've stopped to give any support to anyone. Regardless if friend, family or stranger. It's just not worth the hassle.
Philip
I tell them $50 per hour plus hardware/software they may need. Then I say that I'll support Linux for free. So far no takers on either offer. :-/
"Insanity is doing the same thing over again expecting a different result."
I base what I charge on how long it will take me to do. One friend needed a basic clean up. All I needed to do was install Adaware, scan, update virus definitions, and scan. I only charged $30, seeing as while it's scanning I'm free to do whatever I want.
Later, I charged someone else $60 for a full reinstall, since it requires more time (backup, install, restore, install other apps).
Just decide how much you want to make an hour, and how much you like the person.
All prices are in Canadian dollars.
Web Design Tips
of 10 things to check/do before asking me for help (anti-virus, spyware, windowsupdate, etc...). Most stuff gets taken care of in this step.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
I guess you could:
1. Set up a business and charge by the hour (e.g. $20/hour)
2. Ask indirectly for a favor, half-kidding or not (e.g. "how about a home-cooked meal sometime," etc.)
No one wants to pay for support of course, but they may be more willing to barter. I've not charged yet, and I know someone who does it even more. His favors have landed him a lot of paying side-jobs. What's gained from networking (social networking that is) could be worth it alone. Plus it's good karma. YYMV
Currently bidding on sig
Cute Single Girl - Free (or maybe a dinner, keeps you in their company longer :)
Anyone else - $20 for simple things like spyware removal (about a half hour of work) $50 for system re-do's.
An optimist believes we live in the best world possible; a pessimist fears this is true.
Back when I used to run a PC repair shop, I charged $29 for a "tune up" or getting their pc cleaned up by removing spy ware, turning off the 100 things running on start up, etc.
Note that this was 3 years ago, and I was located in a small town in Ohio.
Charging a base rate was a lot easier than hourly for this type of thing because I had a ton of people wanting it done. A lot of times it would only take 10-15 minutes of my time, sometimes it took an hour, but it all worked out in the end.
For other service I charged $39/hour in-house and $49/hour on-site.
I don't know anything about the economy in NYC, but I hope this is helpful.
I don't charge anything to tell them to get a Mac.
I do this on a part time basis you want to really regulate what you charge. For example i charge 50hr for clients and nothing to family. but if friends ask you they useally take me out for a beer!!
I do it and tell them to pay me what they think it's worth. I've gotten gift certs to money. Sometimes it works out well for me. Sometimes not so well.
Geeks on call charges $75/hour. You should give them a "break" and charge $30-$50 an hour depending on the client(friend) and the complexity of the task. If they balk at the price point them in the direction of Geeks on call and tell them to have a nice day. I quit helping out all but my immediate family and nearest friends because it always cause rifts and I am nobodys personal tech support. At one time I was fielding calls from at least a "friend" a day for computer help. After awhile I asked what they did for a living and requested free service from them instead. Nobody obliged and I now have a free life again.
1. Family's free
2. Friends pay me in beer
3. Friends of 1 and 2 pay me in $$, as much as I think I can get.
Acquaintances' home systems: between $20-$100 (plus parts), depending on how long I worked. I never charge much, even if I am building them multiple systems or wiring their entire house. I'm cool like that.
Acquaintances' small business: depends on the type of work. I usually just determine the going rate and cut it by 25-30%, and as much as half for some work. For example, if local Consulting Company A wants to charge $3,000 to set up a small network, I'll do it for about $1,500 - quick and easy, won't take up much of my time.
My area of expertise is in hardware (computer engineering major), but I will fix computers if I'm asked. I don't ask for anything in return because only friends will ask, but I have been given money (they volunteer $20/hr) or movie tickets (friend of mine gives me a wad of emergency tickets which are passed out when a movie ends prematurely because of emergency [loss of power usually]) which is nice to know I'm appreciated.
Although I do dislike being the go-to guy for my family and friends because they expect me to take time out and fix problems they created out of carelessness and if I don't, then there will be repercussions. That kind of expectation is hard but I've distanced myself from ex-friends that only wanted to be friends to get help with their computer. There's more than money involved in tech support.
This is honestly what I answer.. I kind of smile when I say it, but I figure if the person says "sure", I'll gladly do tech support for $1000/hour.
I used to do a lot of free tech support type help. I never felt it was properly appreciated though. To me, "thanks" means nothing and I refused money people offered because I didn't want to turn the relationship into that kind of slavery for money transaction. Learning from what I do and the advice i give them to avoid future problems would mean everything to me but rarely happened. People get dependent on quick answers instead of thinking things through.
I stopped doing this and told my wife not to mention my computer skills to anyone. It's a lot like putting down dry catfood that a cat can have whenever it wants-- the cat comes to see me because it likes me not because it wants something. People talk to me because they want to, not because they have problems.
I don't think it's healthy to have social relations founded on fixing other people's computer problems. I've spent time fixing a computer while the owner chats with someone else to pass the time.
Personally, I view my time as more important than a couple of bucks and there are plenty of problems more important than a virus-infested computer.
If it is family or friends I ask for dinner or lunch depending on the amount of work I do. If it is someone from work I charge them $20 an hour. As a graduate student I tend to prefer home cooked meals to money.
b.
Censorship rests on the child's delusion that "If I shut my eyes so I can't see it, it isn't there".
We've had posts in the past for what people ask for OTHER THAN money for doing tech support. I suggest you stick to barter with your friends and family. Sure, people will say barter has this problem too, but with the exchange of money comes responsibility and even with a bold-faced denial of warranty on your part, you're going to be expected to KEEP fixing things forever.
Make certain you want to be in the business of fixing machines on the side for cash for the rest of your natural life.
If you're foolish enough to do this sort of thing on the side, a fair rule of thumb would be about 2-3x your fulltime hours rate for "basic" work (home router setups, Spybot installs, video card upgrades), and 3-5x your fulltime hourly rate for "complex" work (disaster recovery, custom programming).
By those guidelines a 60k professional could charge $70-100 an hour for basic work while an entry level help-desk techno-geek making 35-40k could charge $40-60 an hour for the same task -- and still keep a striaght face when quoting their rate.
...Windows machine? Not enough money in the world. I do 300+ of them at work. ...Mac OS....nothing.....of course, I would never get any money anyway because they don't.....
I'm lucky enough that most of my friends are decently tech-savvy to know how to run an anti-virus scan. Even if they want me to, say, install some RAM or a video card, since they're not on my back for every piece of spyware they get, I usually do it for free; for a few beers, at most. Extended family or family friends, I usually just stay for dinner. If I need to take the PC home, I'll take $10 for gas money (you don't know how long a simple spyware and anti-virus scan can take on a PII 300MHz). If they absolutely need to pay me, then I'll ask for something in the $50 range. Friends of friends, aquantiences, and such, I'll lay down the $50 rule. If it's a longer job that requires more effort -- over two hours -- then I'll go $20 per hour. (Note: Canadian prices)
I live in Jersey City right across the river from NYC. I usually charge $50 for any general bullsh*t and $75-100 for anything else such as windoze reinstall's, upgrades, ram installs, etc but do combo's for cheaper pricing. 1 computer for $50 and 2 for $80.
I have two policies.
#1 I only fix Macs just because I'm a blatant Mac Bigot. I've turned down close family members who had Windows problems.
#2 - I never charge for my services. I do it for the love of Macs. I only ask them to make a donation to a local animal shelter for what they think is fair for my work and send me a copy of the acknowledgement letter.
In my area, that's somewhere between $85 and $105 an hour.
I'll only fix direct-family-member's computers. (No cousin's aunt's great-uncle, or anything like that.)
I won't charge money, maybe a roast dinner or something like that...
And as a rule, any computer I fix I install folding@home on. (Hey, how else am I supposed to compete with those 50CPU freaks!)
Why ask for money from friends and family. It is better to have them owe you a favor. Just tell them the going rate of whatever you think is fair and as them "whatcha got to trade." you can get dinners and other things out of it. Then you atleast feel like you got something out of the deal and they feel like you helped them out and gave them a deal. Plus instead of cash you get a social occasion and a great excuse to spend time with them. If they offer an object, just make sure it is worth your time. or think of a list of things you would like to have (keep the price reasonable) and give that to people as an idea list. get creative. you are doing them a favor, have them do something for you in return that is a favor. If they have nothing to barter, then they do not know you well enough to go out and buy you a birthday present either, so they get no services.
I ask them to make me something.
something creative, something they feel they do with a professional or near professional level of skill. that's what I'm providing.
I've gotten paintings, dinners, serenades, lessons and all sorts of things I value more than the $50 per hour I could have extracted.
plus, you can ask family and friends to give you those sorts of things. most of them will enjoy making them.
my livejournal is interesting and worth reading - I swear. I know everyone thinks their blog is interesting. mine is.
Gee, I'm sorry. I would love to help you out, but I really haven't touched a windows machine since about 3.1, and I really don't know the best practices for dealing with modern windows installations. If you ever get a unix box, I'll be glad to help you with that.
Have you tried re-installing?
Problem solved.
don't charge anything. Then downgrade..er I mean upgrade their machine.... and sell the extra parts on ebay.
profit!
...but when I do help out I usually do a good job for free although the last few times people have then given me money just for being so helpful. Normally it's been about £20 ($37 or so).
You can't believe how easy it is to get a blowjob from a university coed whose paper you've just saved from oblivion.
$50 an hour for friends, $100 an hour for strangers, $150 an hour for family.
Family is MUCH more annoying, because every virus or trojan or hardware fault that they pick up from then on becomes your fault, and if you refuse to fix it gets mentioned at every family gathering from then on.
The next Cmdr Taco duplicate will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
I would say first and foremost that there are geographic considerations, though those can be somewhat mitigated by available technology. You might be in NYC, but using some form of shared desktop...netmeeting, even...you could be "fixing" a computer in Kansas...that person will not want to pay NYC rates.
As a massive overgeneralization, I would charge around $50 an hour for absolute strangers, $35 an hour for acquaintances, $25 an hour for friends, and keep it going for free to closest friends, friends who have already or may someday repay the favor with services/goods of their own profession, and family.
There was a good article posted recently that provided excellent guidance on a more advanced form of this same work. Though it was written beyond the level of helping clean up some windows rot here and there, I think some of the main ideas still apply. Click here for the article.
For close friends and immediate family, I won't charge them anything as they do appreciate my time and effort (what are friends and family for right?). After that dinner or a case of beer isn't too much in my opinion.
The intial premise is that those of us with advanced computer literacies have a responsibility to help out those who do not so as to expand the benefits of the technology to as many as possible. It goes without saying that if we provide our labour we should be appropriately remunerated. Generally speaking I charge people what they are willing to pay. If they are not willing to pay enough for me to meet my costs, then the next step is barter. If they have nothing to barter, then I try to find them someone who's needs are less then my own, and can essentially work for free. Usually this means younger people living with their parents and in search of experience.
I do Mac support only and I get tons of calls (I actually can't take any more new clients in addition to my full time job) and I charge $45 an hour with a min charge of $45. Near by there are tech support companies that charge $120 to $180 an hour for Mac support, but I end up cleaning up a lot of their mistakes.
Some people don't even blink at $45 an hour and some people think it's outrageous (it doesn't seem to matter what their income is either).
I can't say what I would charge, I can say I've turned down hundreds per hour with no regrets.
As with the submitter I spent many years doing this for family, friends, and the family business. One of the nicer benifits to relocating a considerable distance from "home" was in this regard.
I've also quit doing contract work to the dismay of several former employer's. It simply comes down to the fact that I earn enough from my place of employment to live comfortably and my time off is more valuable to me as time off. Or as I've said on many occasions: No thanks! That would cut into my nap time.
Ward
Ward
. Silence! Be thankful thy species is unpalatable! .
$40/hr. $100 to reformat/reinstall a system at my place on my own schedule.
I'm going to raise my rate up to $60/hr soon and also start charging travel time.
It's not that bad being the "go-to" guy on a computer. At $40/hr, the owner usually first tries to solve it themself so I'm not stuck with getting called at all hours with stupid questions.
It's sad how many people would prefer to have me come out and run AdAware for them at $40/hr but I've stopped stressing about it. If the rate was too much then they would learn how to fix their own computers.
As far as official numbers go, I've heard of companies charging 40-65$ per hour for tech labor... so if you undercut that, you're at least beating Corporate competition. =)
-Vendal Thornheart
$50 to show up, $50/hr after that. Usually takes about $100 to either wipe enough crap off the machine to get it usable again, or reinstall OS + anti-virus + Firefox.
For those saying "people will just download spyware again," it's not that simple. Once people get their computer broken that badly, they don't really want to repeat the experience. If you install SP2 and anti-virus software, remove all the IE icons and tell them to use Firefox, they will listen to you.
For non-business related tech support (family, friends, etc) I charge nothing.
Why? Simple. I do not want to be held responsible or FEEL responsible to take care of every little issue that goes wrong after I work on a given machine.
My 'support rules' are simple. Bring me your machine (the box only and no house calls). Leave it with me. It will be returned the following Monday with an assessment (what I think is wrong, what needs to be done to fix it, estimate of cost, etc). The caveat is that I will only spend 2 hours total on ANY machines in me 'care'. If I run out of time, it gets pushed to the following week.
This type of support usually aids a non tech-savy user in not getting overcharged when taking it to a 'professional' after my assessment.
Besides, MOST problems are 'solved' simply by updating their virus scanner and/or installing spybot or something similar. It's actually fairly rare that it's a real hardware problem.
Or 40 dollars per visit. First off, this is a fraction of what Best Buy would charge for similiar service, secondly you deserve it, and lastly they will take your advice seriously if they know its going to cost them 40-50 dollars to fix another spyware/virus infestation. If you charge next to nothing they'll ignore your advice, treat you like some idiot savant who doesnt know his own value, and pester you with phonecalls because they have not learned proper PC hygeine.
Sure, you will lose customers this way, but those are customers you'd want to lose anyway. The cheap naggers who are unwilling to learn anything aren't worth the trouble.
...a hand-job would be nice.
So either accept that or the answer is $42/hr
Your pizza just the way you ought to have it.
I usally tell them that one day I will come to them and ask them for a favor that they cannot refuse. That usally stops the request cold.
I also will charge $100/hr for businesses if they want me to do something. $50/hr if it is someone I know but don't have anything to offer in the way of a favor.
I have a number of favors to get sometime, so for my next illicit activity I have some patsies lined up.
One home-cooked meal, or dinner out. I don't work on Win9x machines anymore though.
Beware what you ask for. Support has a habbit of driving even the most mild computer geek crazy.
i ce s.pdf
I used to use a sliding scale, based on how much of a pain in the butt the customer was likely to be. In particular if you have a lot of unbillable trip time. Back in the 90's by take home working for a very large on-site support and repair company was in the low $20s/hr (Midwest Area). I think they billed us around $40/50 an hour. I got a little bit of a bump because I was also certified to do warrantee work, and I could order parts and whatnot.
Flat rate places like "Geek Squad" charge $100-200 per service offered (Install a card, unpack and setup a computer, install a software title). Here's there price list for inhome service:
http://www.geeksquad.com/_assets/pdf/GS_Home_Pr
Find a price under that you can live with. I HIGHLY recommend converting their price a per hour however.
never have a set amount, just say "Whatever you think it is worth" Whenever i say this i get more than i would have had i given a specific amount.
I guess you could spend the $500 you save by buying a Windows PC on the tech support. Or you could spend $100 of it on basic computer skills classes and put the extra money in the bank.
I haven't had any problems with my pc since I switched from IE/Outlook to Firefox/Thunderbird, and last I heard they still weren't making any games for the Mac :)
My in-laws run a small business out of their home and hired a person to come in and help them set up a new computer. The person they hired charges $75/hour for consulting work.
-1: flamebait should really be -1: inciteful
I recently charged $40 to reinstall windows for some lady. It wasn't nearly enough. Fortunately, she realized that and paid me $50. It should have been closer to $250 by the time I was done 8 hours later.
My going rate for personal stuff is $30/hour.
I mainly charge people simply because I don't have enough time to help them otherwise. Its kinda like how Ken Coar (Rodent of Unusual Size) charges for job references. Because he gets so many requests for it.
Or USD 83.47 at the current exchange rate. Any parts are charged at the retail price.
Haven't we had this exact discussion before? Just a few months ago, I believe. Is this another example of Slashdot's self-referential nature??
For the college student who is largely being supported by parents, rates follow for those same parents:
Resurrecting two "dead" PCs with backup of documents and email before reformatting hard drives.
Installing and configuring a wireless network.
Getting a laptop on the wifi network.
Installing necessary hardware in one of the resurrected PCs to get it on the wifi network (this one required a great amount of voodoo, yay Windows 98).
Getting all the machines running Mozilla's browsers and email clients.
Calming a frustrated and frantic father who would start calling Comcast/HP/Toshiba every time a configuration hiccup would occur.
Constantly repressing the urge to say: get Macs!
Total time: about five days of work.
Cost: one pair of Etymotic ER-6i earbuds so I can block out bad music and inane conversations in on-campus cafes and study areas.
World of Warcraft.
Seriously, I'm going to spend about an hour telling a friend how to put his old machine back togethor (simply put in a HD) and I get that much closer to getting my in-game horse.
Penny Arcade's take on the horse situation
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
I get a lot of requests. Depending on how well I know the person or what kind of help they need, the price varies. Obviously making a special trip takes up your time and gas, so I expect to at least get paid for my gas. It's a good idea to let the person know ahead of time what you charge, so that they won't be surprised or confused if you ask for money after performing a job.
Usually when I help friends, I don't ask for money. They end up giving me $20-$50 or so depending on the job, which usually is about the same amount I would receive if I charged a customer.
Honestly, I wouldn't charge family or friends unless it took up a lot of your time and prevented you from doing something productive. They will probably end up giving you at least something for your time if you are successful in fixing the problem. And the best part about helping friends, if they know someone that needs computer help they will refer you. This is when you can go in and say you charge xx amount per hour.
Most problems I see are hard to go by hourly rates. Reformats don't require you to be at the computer 100% of the time. In reality, they only require like an hour of actual work. The rest of the time is just waiting for the OS to install, etc. I haven't tried it, but it may be a good idea charging set rates for specific services. If a computer is slow and infected with spyware, then charge like $40 to do a typical tuneup/cleanup. Install software necessary to prevent the problem from happening in the future, or recommend software packages they can purchase to resolve the issue.
If it's simple and a friend it's usually a six-pack of Guiness. If it's a repeat offender and a friend, then I charge them whatever the going rate for Ghost and a hard drive is at Frye's and make an image when I'm done. Subsequent visits are back to Guiness.
If it's a business, I usually barter with them. If they don't want to barter, it's $50/hour plus parts.
I disagree with what you say, but I'll defend your right to say it to the death - Voltaire
I too regularly fix 4 or more machines whenever I go home for the holidays. I typically receive nothing but their appreciation (with the exception of my younger sister whom is still to immature to appreciate what I do for her and calls me names regardless). However I know that someday if I need their help with something they would help me if they can. My wife says that I am to nice and on occasion I wonder that myself however I figure since I am pretty much an atheist I might need their help to get into heaven if there is such a thing. I guess the moral is you never know when you might need someone else's help so be wary when you start trying to charge the very people whom you might ask for help.
Trust me. I know. You take money, you're on the hook forever.
I have helped many people. Sometimes because they asked, and sometimes because my boss told me to. (This is only partly a consequence of being in IT.) I've helped family, friends, poor people and the very rich.
You know who appreciates it least? The rich ones. They act as though they are (a) entitled and (b) that it really ought to be free, though they'll never admit to either sin. I've had wealthy people expect me to find them a replacement part because I work at a tech company and "must have a bunch of spare parts lying around." Not working themselves, they have no clue that I have a job and actually have to support myself with it, so they have no compunction about calling me in the middle of the day and expecting me to explain the error message on their screen. The self-centeredness is unbelievable.
Then there are the people who think they're just as smart as you and it's merely a case of you knowing which button to push. I call this the "Magic Button Theory." This means they value your time even less.
Bottom line: you're being exploited by most people. Only a few will appreciate your knowledge for what it is, and fewer still will appreciate that this isn't your primary job. In the end, I concluded that any money I made wasn't worth the aggravation. I found a great company to refer those who could afford it.
Those who can't: I can help, and enjoy it. Since no money is involved, I can actually set limits.
A sig is a waste of bits.
If you buy a Windows based PC you get ONE (1) FREE call. One. Then I charge you whatever I am charging at the moment. This ranges from 75USD/ht to anout 125USD/hr. If it is something I really don't like - like Outlook I might double the charge. If it is 20 minutes before the Superbowl, serioulsy - don't even call.
Unix based machines - we'll talk... probably free because I like Unix.
If you buy a Mac I'll support you for FREE for LIFE. You ain't ever gonna call.
This
Those are my rates. I have a dozen or so linux users that I've created right now, and I feel it is sort of my obligation to them to render free service, being that they are sort of experimental. This is all freelance, mostly for friends and family. If anyone's wondering, the majority of my linux users are your typical computer user, and are happy with linux.
I've always done it for free.
Sometimes I'll get something in exchange: money, beer, their old equipment, whatever. I don't ask short of making it clear that I'm always in the market for any equipment they don't want.
If someone becomes a "problem", I don't charge them more, but I make it clear they're a problem. I explain to them what they aren't to do if they want me to help them again.
For instance, I install Firefox on every Windows machine I support and rename the icon "Internet". I explain what it is, it's for and that they should only use IE if their school, bank, whatever doesn't work in Firefox, and then only for that purpose.
If I get a call that their computer is "slow" and I get there and it's full of spyware and I find out they've been using IE exclusively, that's it. I fix their problem and explain why it happened. Usually I don't get another call for that problem. If I do, I tell them I can't help them and they need to take it somewhere.
I prefer this to charging them money. Anyone who can't follow my instructions is likely not to understand problems well enough to understand when I've fixed something and when I've made a mistake. So I go there, fix everything right, a month later, they have the same problem (because of something they did) and expect me to fix it because it's the same problem they already paid me to fix.
I don't see any reason to get into that situation with family or friends. I'm not, after all, concerned with money. I'm concerned with my time.
If I don't like you enough to fix your computer for free I send you to the PC repair place up town. I keep a stack of their cards handy to hand out. Occasionally someone with buy me some beer as thanks, but I never ask for it.
Charge what you think you need to charge. If you want to discourage them from coming to you for every little thing, charge more (like $20-$30/hr). If you simply want some compensation for your time, charge $10-$20 per hour.
Also, decide if you're going to charge for things like travel ($0.36/mile is standard for that) or special services such as backing up their machine, etc.
There is no sig, there is only Zuul.
I've been doing this for friends of friends for over a year now. I've got a USB drive that has an OSS virus scanner, Firefox, Spybot, Adware and ZoneAlarm on it. I clean things up install everything on the drive and leave with a 12 pack of beer in my hands. I haven't had to buy beer since and sometimes have a hard time fitting food into my fridge.
I charge people I know $30 an hour regardless of the problem. I am in the minneapolis, mn
I usually ask friends for beer. Family for food. And friends of family I play it by ear.
:)
It is better than paying taxes on a true business.
...And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me." - Martin Niemoeller (1892-1984)
The only thing I can suggest is to start with "What's my time worth to me?" and take it from there.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
Depends on how professional you come off. $25 for 90 minutes if you're a nerdy college kid who talks like a geek. $75/hr if you can communicate. $120/hr to $1200/hr for professional service.
I get a feeling from your description that I would clean a computer of viruses and spyware for $50 flat fee. And tell them each time they want service its $50.
My experience comes from having some startup business experience with this.
I use to help people with thier Windows problem some years ago. But I don't anymore because I frankly haven't kept up with Windows since I don't use it anymore and haven't for around 4 or 5 years. When I'm asked why XP bla bla... I say, I dunno. I've never used that OS, sorry.
25$ an hour, but it pays up with the "networking" you get to do. The occasional chance not to have sex by yourself (with XXs not XYs) could also be seen as a major benefit (and be deducted entirely from the fee:).
If people know that you are an alpha geek / admin kind of guy they shamelessly call you even in the middle of the night when their machine fucks up.
... problems:
My method for people I don't like:
* "I dunno myself"
* "Call microsoft"
My method for people I like:
* "don't call microsoft"
* Trendmicro / Housecall to get rid of viruses
* AVG / Kerio firewalls for free
* Spybot search & destroy
* explain windows update
* explain firefox
* explain f****** backup
* install popup blocker
* setup schedules for backup, anti-virus and spyware checks
* leave knoppix cd for later emergencies
My method for hot chicks with big
* "I'll be there in a sec' darling
* format drive and clean install
* ghost image / disk partition for backup
* massage and chocolate chips icecream
friends, family.. etc expect the "geek" to sit down and fix their computers. Usually the problem is due to lack of anti-virus, common sence or knowledge. 5 times out of 6 it's usually just trivial tasks which need doing. (Install ad-aware.. run www.pandasoftware.com/activescan , install Search & Destroy Spybot... repeat. Reboot, patch.. reboot. Patch once more.. reboot and clean registry from stupid stuff like RealPlayer.) Finaly, if everything works and I've installed Firefox for them. Now it's time for the complaining "I want to use IE!" or the usual week later call "My computer doesn't work again. You must've done something to it.". No kidding.. they went back to use IE.. how would you know?
It pisses me off that they almost "expect" you to do all this work for them. (Free of charge of course). It's not like I'd ask some relative who's a mechanic to fix my car for free if it breaks down, and I'd probably be laughed at if I have a trivial problem like changing the windscreens.
And dont come tell me it's worth fixing that damn virus-ridden computer for a cup of thé and cookies! Hell no! Charge them for your valuble time, or make them promise that they'll fix your windscreens whenever you ask for it.
For family:
$25/hour
For Businesses:
$75 for the first hour and $50 for each additional
If the businesses want to to a retainer, I usually do something like $350/month for 10 hours and $50 for any additional hours. Retainers are best because they create a steady stream of income.
I should point out that I live in Oklahoma where the cost of living is pretty low. If you live in LA, NY, etc. you should probably shoot higher.
Thats not that bad of an idea. If there was a decent computer for $300 then you could guarentee a fix, just give them the new computer upon arrival. Install their monitor and tell them to start a-new.
1. Give free advice and support to people you know and encourage them to learn more about their computer so they can pass on that free advice and support to people they know. If you can't find an answer for them, help them search the web for answers.
2. Refuse to help anyone with anything related to Microsoft products. Instead, tell them the truth: that Microsoft products are horribly inadequate, insecure (ie. IE) and expensive compared to most Linux distros. Anyone who argues this point is blind to the truth.
Since May 2004, I have helped 42 people/organizations switch to a Linux distro from a Windows operating system (one of those was a business with almost 400 machines). To date, only one of those people still have Windows on another machine, due to her employers' refusal to switch. But, now that she knows the truth, she is thinking about changing employers. 27 of those people have gone on to help others switch from Windows to Linux and I have another 9 scheduled for the next three months.
Word of mouth is the best advertisement and these folks are seeing that the stability, security and cost of ownership on Linux is highly attractive compared to Microsoft Windows.
It gives me a nice warm feeling knowing that M$ will never have 100% of the home PC or server markets.
supporting people creates a sort of indetured servitude, and unless you are moving to do it full time, only support the projects that you have done. consider everything else a favor, and collect when you can. that way they have no real way to drag you down into it and you don't have to worry to much.
Or you can charge 2 x $[your normal consultant rates] and cash in till they find a way for you not to have to support them
I don't suggest this as a good way to run a buisness, just as someone who doesn't want to do helpdesk
75 dollars per hour for home users and basic small business support, nights and weekends, rates can go up to 150. I find the less i charge the more people feel the need to pick at the price. if they are willing to pay the 75 an hour they are usually willing to listen and feel comfortable that they are dealing with a professional. but then again, most of my friends get free support as do family.
So now, whenever a family member asks me for help with their PC, I just respond "I don't do Windows".
I've almost convinced my brother to switch to Linux... the in-laws are proving harder, but I dod get them to dump IE in favor of Firefox. (After trying to get them to dump IE in favor of anything for 2+ years....)
Buy me beer and I am very helpful. No beer, no virus scan.
sulli
RTFJ.
I charge them hard if I'm on-site... especially if it's some residential person who's just too lazy to disconnect their computer and bring it in.
If they bring it in to me I take it home and only charge for the time I actually work on the thing.
IE if I have to run spybot I charge for the time installing it and starting it and then I kick back and watch some tv or flip over to my computer and read slashdot. An hour or 2 later I'll check on their computer and clikc a few clicks and then go back off the clock while it reboots or whatever.
This has worked out well for me and with a KVM switch it's no big deal to work on 2 or 3 computer simultaneously.
G
How will you resolve disputes?
Your side of the coin is that you get some cash for your time. Their side of the coin is that what happens if they feel you didn't do what you said you would.
Nothing says bitter Thanksgiving like your aunt feeling like you shafted her out some cash. At least if you're working for free, you can always say, "I can't make any promises, but I'll look at it".
I'm a web developer and database programmer. So basically my time is money, and a lot of money. I usually charge $150 an hour to do a website, so if someone wants me to stop doing what I'm doing and clean off their computer, I'm going to charge them the same amount.
I use to do the barter system a long time ago as I see some people still do who posted some replies here. The problem I had with that is that someone always feels like they got screwed in the deal. So now I make everyone pay me for computer repair and when I need my car serviced, I pay them for their time. No one feels like they got screwed and no one owes anyone anything.
Best part about it, is that most of the annoying homeusers only have me fix their computers once, while companies usually hire me on as their personal tech.
The weird part is, people act like having paid you makes it safer. They'll take more risks, and listen to your advice maybe a little less, if they've given you a check. It's almost like they think paying innoculates them against trouble.
If you do this as a friend, they know they're still responsible and that you're a nice guy. If they pay you, they think they're nice people -- after all they paid you for something -- and that you're responsible.
It's hard to find the middle ground between those. Exchange of favors, maybe, but only with the right person.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
I have gotten into the habit of carrying several LiveCDs of different uses. I charge nothing because it takes almost no time to burn them. If someone bugs me several times for a CD because they are constantly careless with them, I politely request for a 25 pack or 50 pack of CD-Rs. These packs have become my source of CDs to give out.
I do admit that not everyone is converted, and the LiveCDs do not solve all of the worlds problems, but they generally make my life and more importantly the people who have all the problems' lives easier.
Also, users often temporarily use the liveCD, then just buy a new computer sometime later because "they needed it anyways."
people will choose ignorance. While I hate to be all huffy-puffy about this, people seem to revel in their computer illiteracy. I charge $60/hour for onsite service, and $30/hour for in-house. This is in a relatively small (~100k in the valley) town, otherwise I'd charge more.
If people don't have consequences for letting their computer become fscked up then they will continue to empower unsavory characters to use their boxes as zombies/mail proxies as well as encourage the creation of malware because they don't care to know the difference between clean and unclean software.
I realize that most people don't necessarily want to be computer geeks, but computers are more than a hobby in our day. Owning a computer with internet connectivity now carries consequences that can affect the world. As the world is mostly capitalist, they will start to learn once the problem starts affecting their pocketbook.
-Benj
I have asked for lawns to be cut, fences to be power washed, dog poop to be scooped and other NON-degree type requests. I say non-degree cause I didn't want to help someone who was, say a Doctor, who could help me in ways another who was a lawn care specialist couldn't. Since I have gone to that and NOT money and NOT food requests have dropped to almost 0. The biggest user of my support services is my sister. She will babysit sometime for me after I work on her PC. She gets her PC fixed. My kids get to spend time with thier aunt. I don't have to pay for a baby sitter. I get time with my spouse. We all win.
"If you are on fire you can just stop, drop, and roll. If you fall into Lava you are just dead." - my 5yr old daughter
A pound of flesh, no more or less, not even to the twentieth part.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
EVER. It will be the worst mistake of your life.
Fixing small home offices, yes, small businesses, yes, home users, NEVER.
If you tell a person in business that they should never install any program ever, unless it came in a box and they bought it at CompUSA, they will.
Home users are stupid, call their box a "hard drive" and annoy the shit out of anyone with enough common sense to RTFM and take an intro class at their local community college.
Excellent advice. I usually do free tech support for family and close friends, but if I'm dealing with people I don't know well, I switch into "business" mode and charge approximately $20 an hour. Usually, if it's something like spyware/viruses, I can get their machine cleaned up in just an hour, so its worth their money and my time.
You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
I do it for free for my family (of course) and my friends. My neighbor always tries to pay me, which is very kind of her, but I've never asked for it. It's just part of being a computer guy I guess. Mechanics and Doctors have the same types of requests. Now if you don't want people asking for your help, Astronaut would be a good profession I think.
I've had a reasonable amount of success with a side on-site computer repair business. I charge $50/hour for homes, and $75/hour for small businesses. Those rates are generally acceptable, and also reflect (I believe) the skillset I bring to the table. My "site" (really an affiliate program link, for additional revenue) is here. {Jonathan}
Also cut them out of the will.
I tell my family that I'll support their machines for free, as long as they buy Macs. It's an absolute win-win -- if they use Macs, they don't need support, and I don't get bugged by them. :-)
My family members that use PCs either know what they're doing (more or less) or they stop being able to send email after a couple of months. Sad but true.
I think your price scheme is crap.
I used to do tech support both in-house adn on-site.
Very simple billing.
In-house was $70/hour. minium charge of 1 hour even if all I do it switch the PSU back to 110v form 220v
On-site was $110/hour with the same minium.
Most warranty work was billed at what the company would reimburse. They are like car dealerships in that they have a price book and that is what they pay you for the work.
An example would be $130 to replace a MB. If it takes you 10 hours then to bad. If it take syou 20 minutes then good job.
If you are really doing this as employment, get certified to do warranty work . It was where 75% of our bunisness came from and the classes/tests you have to pass are easier then a 5'th grade math test.
I've made it a small time business. Actually, it's more of an bit more pocket money.
If you can get a couple of people, they end up dumping spyware on their computer and destroying everything about once every 3-4 months. If you change $80-$100 a rebuild (ghost, format, drop data, return).
You have a couple of those, and maybe some website creation on the side, and you have nice little side income, not taxed.
I do live in rural Nebraska, so things are a bit tighter here. I also have some people who bitch about the $25/hour, untill I mention that the other option (a local store) charges $79/hour. I have been thinking of raising rates a bit because I am starting to value my time a bit more preciously.
I would suggest that you charge whatever it would take for you to go back to work once you get home and take your shoes off... that is how I set my rates.
I especially like the ones where it takes me four hours to clean off adware/malware/viruses, But I do take the time to educate the users about good surfing behaviors, even had a guy ask how to surf pr0n safely (that was a long and very akward conversation). I also try to tell people what I'm doing as well as why I'm doing it (what this program does, why I'm using it as opposed to the one that their third-cousin's-second-grade-teacher suggested - no really, I'm not kidding)
Good use of Spyware Blaster and Spybot helps to keep the "it still isn't fixed, and I want you to come and fix it for free this time, again" calls down to a minimum (only had one terrible customer)
"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." -Anon.
If I was in your position, I would do the following:
First off, don't charge anything to anyone in your immediate family or friends. This ideally should be a group of at most about five people.
Second, think about the possibility of trading and/or bartering services, whether formally or informally. Surely at some point it will be beneficial if you can count on free/reduced services from, say, a plumber, or a real estate agent, or an attorney, or any number of people.
Then charge everyone else. I would do it officially and get a business license which is probably not too expensive and you can recoup the costs after 25 hours of work, I would guess. (Again, maybe an accountant or attorney can help you incorporate in this case). Then charge something like $25 per visit plus $15 per hour, or whatever you feel your time is worth. The people you are charging are customers, and you are legitimately providing services to help them. I would certainly "fix it right" the first time and maybe offer a sheet or two of common traps so that they don't have this problem in the future.
There's franchises that already do this, like Geeks on Call (disclaimer: I have no ties with them whatsoever). More than likely you will want to do something smaller.
I suggest creating a company or getting a license (plus listing any certs you have helps) because eventually you might be the guy to help a small business at which you can easily make a lot of money. Also, when its a company (and not "my brother-in-law Steve, he's great") it's OK to charge more because people expect overhead, etc.
I would only do this final step if you're really interested and if it seems worthwhile. You can always have a very high rate that is charged to businesses but you help residential customers for less on the side.
Basically, do it right and all the way or don't do it at all and stick to helping close family members and those whose services you might use in the future. The third step is what can easily cause you to go from a casual helper to someone who can make a decent chunk of change.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
I do this every once in a while for people. I tend to charge around $20-30 an hour, depending on what I need to do. This is typically less than what Best Buy and the other local computer shops will charge but enough to make it worth my time.
I get asked this all the time. I do not charge family, or friends but I let them All know I do this kind of work as a side business and please refer people to me. This is an easy way to clue them in that you will not fix there friends machines for free.
However. Unless they have a specific software issue that requires windows I set them on the path to getting a mac next time around. If they cheap out and buy another PC, I simply do not help them, or charge or barter.
My rate is $65 minimum 2 hours. If its a business I charge more. I do not charge for phone calls or email support but when I am called out I always round up and they have allready called me a few times.
I do not fix win95, 98 or ME. I will only install a fresh purchased version of XP if the machine can't take it then I walk them through getting a Mac Mini or a Dell if they must have windows for something. Most people seem to want more power any how, and a lot of my calls start with I just got this digital camera.
I support my mom, my neighbour, my exgirlfriend and a few friends. All of them were willing to switch to Slackware/Dropline desktops for different reasons (cheap programming environment, plain mail and office uses, no hassle with viruses and so on).
Most of the time they get free support since it is fun to teach them how to use Linux and mostly the boxes are in good shape. Regular issues are "This movie won't display / Codecs", "I can't connect to my Windowsmachines / Samba", "My instant messenger won't work / When MSN changed their protocol again *sigh*".
Back when I was fixing Windows machines I didn't charge anything since it made them feel as if they owned my sparetime and called me whenever they wanted. What's more, everytime it breaks again you are the one to blame.
Your rate should be based on your schedule. Both how busy you are and how urgently they need you. I set up something like this:
It's $95/hour for me to drop whatever I'm doing and come fix your problem right now. Almost nobody ever pays that.
Clients can pick whatever price they want lower than that, and I'll get to their project in that order, when I have time. If their price is too low, I might never get around to it - I might never need the work badly enough. But I'll keep their name and phone number for free.
I try to be honest about how long it's going to take for me to get to something. This allows important economic forces to help me out.
1) I get to have a high "full price" so this is profitable for me - it's what I make my living doing.
2) I give people who need help and can't really afford it a way to make my life easier and a reason not to just be cheap. I pick a time when things are slow.
3)---> I give clients who aren't paying top dollar a good, concrete reason why I don't have to drop everything for them and why they can't be mad at me because I'm busy.
Number 3 is huge, frankly. For a while all my customers were getting at least 50% off. But they knew that that was why I got to schedule them, and not the other way around. Give them the option to pay full price, and either you get much more money or they get much more reasonable.
Disclaimers:
I also have a 2 hour minimum on places more than a 5 minute drive away. None of this necessarily applies to big repeat clients. These numbers aren't exactly my current ones. I'm fairly experienced and this includes a lot of types of work you're not including. I now exercise the right to give stuff on the lower end away to subcontractors if I feel it's appropriate.
Looking for freelance Actionscript (Flash/Flex) or ColdFusion work and/or freelance developers. Email me, put Slashdot
$40 an hour if I have to repair or install winders.
;)
Free if I can stick and ubuntu disc in and never hear from them again
Are you intolerant of intolerant people?
I also used to do free tech support for family and close friends. When those friends started to tell their friends about this great, free tech support they were getting, I started to have calls. Since I had a full time job and part time classes, I really didn't have time for this. So I started charging and it got rid of those too cheap to pay for my services, which cost the following:
- I-don't-know(or like)-you rate:
$40/hour, 2 hours minimum
- Distant relatives and friendly acquaintances rate:
$30/hour, 2 hours minimum.
- Immediate family and very close friends:
For typical problems, free dinner/lunch (pizza and beer as a minimum, but I'd content myself with a filet mignon and a nice bordeaux, if I have to). Anything complex would be $20 per hour, 1 hour minimum.
True, I could have more "competitive" pricing, but my time is too important to me to spend much of it on tech support for not enough money.
De gustibus et coloribus non est disputandum
I only do Linux and hardware support.
I'll install Linux people, set up a good desktop, teach them how to use it, and do upgrades on it ( dyndns, remote maintenance via ssh ).
But people had better not tell me about their Windows issues, because I've already warned them about viruses, worms, spyware and such, and if they continue using Windows when I've given them a better alternative, then they're on their own.
I've found this reduces my tech support burden considerably. I've got 5 remote Linux boxen that their respective owners are very happy with. None of them have viruses. None of them are getting slower and slower and slower. None of them need a reinstall. None of them need me to dodgy up the Windows XP key because SP1 / SP2 are recejeting theirs as being pirated. None of them need the latest copy of MS Office that their buddy burned for them. Basically, none of them have any problems. Sometime people have questions, but for those, I have answers.
You support Windows once, and you'll be back there in 3 months fixing the same friggin' thing.
My standard rate for fixing friends and neighbors' computers is two bottles of Diet Pepsi. Sometimes I have to settle for two bottles of cranberry juice or a case of water when dealing with an anti-soda zealot.
$60/hour. It helps people know that I'm serious about what I do and it also weeds out the requests that I'd rather not deal with. -Evan
I just pretend I don't know anything practical. Common (honest) responses are, "sorry but I don't even own a copy of Windows XP", or "I haven't used Microsoft Word since 1999". Within my business I do offer technical support for paid customers without charging extra, but only provide support over email and of course will only answer relevant questions about my software, definitely not generic computer problems.
I don't charge anything for family members and (really) close friends.
Otherwise it depends on what needs to be done and who's requesting help. Businesses will typically have to pay EUR 40-60, while persons will be charged with EUR 20-30.
Sometimes, if the problem/task is clear and I can estimate the total amount of time it will consume, I stipulate a price for the task regardless of the time it takes.
I won't start the card for under 50 an hour. Although that is the rate for family friends. Of course family is free that's a given. but as for business type problems it's 150 just to get me there and then 100-150 per hour depending on the job.
Networking has always been easy for me as i'm great with math. Database developement or repair doesn't come so easy so that is 150 per hour.
It all comes down to what am i worth.
I don't do this kind of stuff any more. Not worth my time to do it, and get stuck with the problem. I just refer them to CompUSA, where for $100, they get a fixed labor cost.
It's a win, win for me. They get their equipment fixed and I gave them good advice on where to take it. FWIW, I don't work for CompUSA, just spend there.
"Want in one hand and spit in the other and see which one fills up first." - My Dad
For immediate family and close friends I give them one hour free and 25 bucks per hour thereafter for house calls. Also, they are required to buy me either beer or food. For anyone else they are charged 40/hour flat for housecalls and 25/hour if they drop it off.
swanker than you
Family is free...their and my friends pay $50 for system rebuild, or a portion thereof for clean-up and service packs...Oklahoma cheap...
Have you been DaMa9eD today?
I do "house-calls" for friends of my parents, and more often friends of the friends of my parents. What I charge is based on the difficulty of the fix. If all I need to do is install a driver, change a software setting, or clean-out some spyware, then I ask for $20(they usually pay me $40-$50 despite me only asking for $20). If it's something more time consuming like replacing a motherboard/HDD/FDD, then I ask for: "whatever you think my time was worth". Usually they don't like that response and grill me for a $ amount, so I then ask $40 if it took 1-2 hours, or $20/hr if it took several hours to complete(re-install of Windows + software; for example).
90% of the time though, I only ask for $20, and 100% of the time I get payed 2-5 times what I asked for. I'm actually just happy to have an excuse to get out of the house, and always happy to work on a computer no matter who owns it.
It's also fun getting to tell a parent how much pr0n/music/movies their child has illegaly downloaded onto the family machine(note to kids, setting the "hidden" attribute on a folder is pointless. The first thing I do is change folder views to show all hidden/system folders.)
-==- Buy a Mac and leave me alone!
For personal (non-business), I ask for an adequate supply of beer while "on-site". Not really charging, but enough to keep the nusance calls away.
My advice is (and this is much more general than just tech support), don't try and find a middle ground between business and family/friendship. Either you help them out because you want to, and don't charge for it (but make sure they remember it when you need help with something :), or you do it for the money, and charge what you feel it's worth. What do you say when you've charged money for helping your uncle with his computer, and you're unable to fix it? A normal customer can just say "screw you" and go elsewhere, but with family it isn't that simple.
I do some tech consulting (professionally) on the side, and usually charge my clients the equivalent of US$100-150 per hour, depending on the issue. Now, a hundred bucks an hour would be outrageous for some simple home PC fiddling, and I can't charge my friends that kind of money. This means I can't get enough money out of it to make it worth my time, so I would still be doing it as a favour. As long as I'm doing favours, I don't feel right charging for them.
...ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
For friends and family, if it takes me less than an hour, I charge nothing. If it takes me longer, they have to make or pay for dinner.
On the job: $75 per hour on site for PC repair, cleanup, and networking issues.
One the job: $60 per hour in shop for cleanup, repairs, upgrades, etc (this usually ends up being either 1 or 2 hours worth of service plus the cost of parts or antivirus software).
And unlike our local competitors, we do not start charging time until we get there and analyze the situation. We give a quote for how long it will take, and if they decide for us not to go ahead, we only charge a half hour of our time.
I work support for lots of local businesses. It usually doesn't take more than an hour or so, and an occasional slightly bigger weekend project once a year, but the upshot is that I get great benefits. I get wholesale on all bicycle parts. I get free haircuts (at a very nice salon). I get many free meals.
When that isn't practical, I simply decline. I have especially started declining the barrage of spyware, adware, and just fubarred windows machines. It's just not worth my time. The upshot is that people are buying macs in *DROVES*. I can name about ten of my close friends that have gone out and purchased a Mac. I didn't even suggest it to them, only said that any fix I make to Windows will be extremely short-lived. So far I haven't had a single question come my way from those users.
I owned a Mac for a while and sold it to one of the aforementioned people. I actually prefer Linux overall for lots of reasons (control, flexibility, etc.) but I really love Apple for making my life immensely easier. I truly believe it is the people like me in my situation that have spent literally thousands and thousands of hours helping people with Windows that owes Microsoft its success. As soon as people actually have to start paying for it and dealing with it themselves, Microsoft will start to lose serious marketshare. It feels bad not being able to help people out in a pinch, but I have come to realize that it will be better for everyone in the long term to decline such requests. It's doing no one a favor and why prop up on my own shoulders a company that clearly doesn't deserve any more money, goodwill, or marketshare?
or gold at the current exchange rate.
Food, Money or Sex. I like the latter one the best.
I think it is payment enough to find out what type of porn your friends and family are into.
We manage netowrks, servers and entire IT departments for several smaller companies. We're not a 'retail' store front at all. Similar problem is that we do *not*, as a rule, deal with home user/end user systems. However, the employees of our clients would all want their home sysetms fixed. It's part of the contracts now - they get a deal. Non-contract, per incident rate is $100/hr, contract rate is $80/hr and employees of contractees are charged $75/hr and handled by appointment only. Save's 'em $25/hr off the 'walk in price'.
Senior NCO in the fight against entropy. I've seen things, man. Things no one should have to see.....
Give them a Knoppix CD, tell them to open a web-based email account at Hotmail or Yahoo (if they don't have one already) and they'll be back to email & web browsing capability in 2 minutes. Charge them $5 for the media and your time burning it.
If they need more extensive services, like being able to play Windoze games again, tell them the going rate is $80 an hour, you're a knowledgable expert, and you won't go lower than that. I bet this will weed out majority of the requests, but the Knoppix will have helped them and you won't feel bad about brushing them off.
-==- Buy a Mac and leave me alone!
The best tech support fees I could ever expect is a Barista trip - but then, I have pretty exclusive clientele :)
You sir, are a true benefactor to humanity.
"Oh, I wouldn't think to take your money, you'll just have to slave away for me in the RPG saltmines until your debt is paid off! BWAHAHAHAHA! "
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
And I usually collect in the bedroom.
:)
It's okay though, I've only got one client
paul reinheimer
I charge a flat rate of $100/hour whether it's personal or business.
I value my personal time greatly, and if I've got to be inconvenienced to work on someone's computer problems I want it to both compensate me appropriately for my time, and give a little pain to their wallet. This scares most people off, and frankly that's why I set the rate at that. For those that do pay my rate I make sure they get what they asked for and usually more.
I'm pretty liberal on tracking my time, but that of course fluctuates from person to person. The more annoying - the closer I track my time.
There are exceptions of course. I wouldn't dream of charging my folks or my mother & father in-law. OTOH my brother is turning into a multiple-call-a-day person, and that's where I draw the line.
I may come off as a jerk in this post, but think about it. Do you want to work for little or nothing for everyone you're related to, all your friends, all their friends, and so on while you get no time with your own wife & kids to enjoy life?? Personally my time is my time to relax. If they can't understand that they can call Geek Squad and pay more for less service.
Thinking that sounded grumpy,
- Dave
There are two seasons in my world - Hockey and Construction
no money, however, I am a full-time n*x admin and I tell them that if they want me to support their computer, they have to make it easy for me ... I tell them I will install and configure Fedora on their computer and I will admin the box for them remotely, including setting up any substitute applications that they have to use to provide the functionality they need. I tell them I have not used or supported Windows in almost four years and that I do not think it is reasonable for them to want me to learn a system I'm not familiar with just so they don't have to pay for Best Buy to fix their problems.
... my wife ... and she has become a militant penguinista ... I don't think I could PAY her to go back to Windows.
Funny thing is, I've only had one taker so far
utter rubbish
Does anyone here actually make a living at this?
How about advertising this sort computer doctor services? Anyone here do that?
eat shiat and bark at the moon
I'm glad somebody said it.
Helping for free leaves them indebted to you instead of you to them. It's a great way to generate goodwill, as well as a nifty way to receive an unexpected favor later. I'd say it's better to have a positive accounts-receivable column, even if you never see a dime.
Taking money is opening up a can of worms. Blood is thicker than water... but the one thing that's thicker than blood is MONEY. People have this attitude (and sometimes rightly so) that as long as they're paying you, they have a leash on you... they then bother you/demand things from you, often out of proportion to the amount of money exchanged. That's a sticky situation to get into with family, friends, and coworkers. Do you want some kind of disgruntled attitude/tension between you and your friends? I don't.
Just by doing it for free, I've received all sorts of gifts in kind. Those gifts have included computer hardware, gift certificates, beer, lunch, etc, etc. I NEVER solicit such gifts, and I always make an effort to turn them down. That may sound odd, but I actually enjoy working on computers, and my day job already involves helping others (I'm an ER physcian, so I already see plenty of no-pay/self-pay/uninsured patients for free; doing the same to the occasional computer just doesn't bother me that much)
Then there's the simple act of doing something nice for people... sometimes that's its own reward.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
I tell clients running Windows 98 or ME that I will not support them, and that they need to either purchase a new machine, or upgrade the operating system on their old one. No compromises. It's not worth my time to maintain proficiency in rapidly-disappearing older systems. (There was *one* instance where I supported a Windows 95 machine, in 2004, which was running some mission-critical software to interface to a bunch of proprietary control equipment. I quoted them $500 per hour in an effort to dissuade them from contracting me to do it...but they did...guess in that circumstance, they did make it worth my while to support the older equipment.)
For systems which are reasonably recent, I charge on a sliding scale. Spyware and virus removal will be a flat-fee of $35 for home users, $50 per machine for businesses. Repair/Diagnostics are about $20 per hour for 501(c)3 non-profit organizations, $30 for home users, $40 for corporate clients. Plus fees for travel more than 1 gallon of gasoline (about 15 miles, $5), fees for any media I expend while diagnosing their system (i.e. cleanroom boot CDs, diagnostic tools CDs, about $1 per CD and $3 per DVD used), etc.
Never had a complaint about my rates (which are on the low-side of norm for a small consultant, but then again, I have low overhead and am catering more to small businesses and home users than to larger corporations with special projects) and people seem to keep coming back for more, so it must be fairly reasonable.
$20/hr is too little. $50/hr is reasonable, and still MUCH less than having a professional computer company do a service call to a house or business. You need to consider that when you touch their computer, you will immediately be responsible for it during your service call as well after your service call. Imagine your customer calling you up one week later saying:
"my modem isnt working now, but it was working before you worked on my PC... I know a week has passed, but I only just now tried to use the modem, you still need to fix it at no charge"
I suscribed as a Dell affiliate. I tell people with old Win 98/ME that they need a new computer.
I can usually pull out a $600 - $800 machine with 3 years guarantee (without monitor) and get a 1% commission on the sale. And they can call the Dell Call Center instead of me if they have any kind of trouble.
As for close friends, I usually take a look at theitr comuter in exchange of a free meal.
I charge $50 - $80 /hour here in the DC area and my clients haven't left me yet ...
I have traded tech services for things like legal work, electrical work and carpentry. But if I work for cash, I get $50.00 per hour. When I'm done I have them verify that it is working to their liking. I try to educate them about safe computing, but if the mess it up again, I charge them to fix it again. No complaints so far.
I had heard the saying about doing business with family and friends being a bad idea, didn't think much of it. I have definately learned (luckily from others mistakes). I have seen brothers, or aunts & children wind up with animosity that can be rather intense and last for extended periods of time. Avoid making money off your family - it can go so badly, and even the possibility of that isn't worth it.
I will happily help out fam & friends, but the deal is "I work for food". They can call, I'll show up and take care of the spyware, virii, service packs and driver problems. They are usually quite grateful and will fix quite a meal. I usually get steaks, ribs, etc. - plus a 6 pack of a decent micro-brew. Now on top of that they usually feel a little guilty (they shouldn't) and won't call me unless it's rather urgent or severe.
Now if you choose to charge money, be aware of the implied warranty. As soon as you have sold them something, you are now in a business relationship and those are never quite as close. I would expect phone calls on a regular basis, probably before you get home from their place; and if you start to dodge them, well the family relationship is severely damaged already.
My co-workers are regularly making complaints and jokes about their home tech-support problems. I don't have 'em, my "Work for Food" system has worked extremely well over the years.
You come back to your hometown on a visit after being away for a few months. You first stop in and see your parents. You chat for say 15 minutes, and then "Oh by the way, can you take a look at the computer, it's doing something funny". Later that day you're at an old buddies house and again, a few minutes into the visit they're wondering if you could help them out with this problem on their PC. Later that night you go out to an old hangout and suprise, suprise, you run into an old friend who, after the "so how are you doing" is out of the way just wants to ask a quick computer question.
WHY? Why do people assume that I will help them with their PC problems? I have friends who are lawyers, in real estate, carpenters, etc... they don't get badgered to provide services for free. What has happened in the history of IT that makes people feel no shame in requesting that I provide them as a favor the valuable service which I do professionally??
-Lod
Trade your trade, I never have to pay for oil changes, shovle my driveway or buy music... and I always get theee best Spanikopita...... :)
I believe that computer science geeks are stupider then the average human being. Knowledge-able about computers, sure, but that's something most people seem to rather not have.
Anyway not charging money for providing service is going to create a bad world. You're failing to create appropriate expectations if you feel imposed on and are not adaquately asserting yourself.
As mentioned in other areas of the comments, I usually don't charge money or request money for two reasons: 1) the majority of the people are my friends and 2) once you start charging or taking money you are basically obligated to return for future visits / repairs.
:)
In return, however, I've been offered snapple, lemonheads, all sorts of food stuffs (free dinner, lunch, etc.). Being a college student I'll take any free meal I can get
I don't really mind either - a "thank you" is good enough for me and if I can make someone's life a little easier with less hassle, it's a good thing.
Oh, it also gives me plenty of chances to install Firefox as the default broswer (with their approval of course) all the while praising the relatively stress-free experience of using a Mac.
The guarentee is that I promise to do my best. That's what I charge for working on people's cars. It's basically half price, barely worth my time (really), and the warrenty sucks. I make sure they understand all that before I proceed. I don't end up with $40/hr because I spend a lot of time reading the manuals and stuff like that. The 15% markup is because I have to drive 1/2 hour to get the parts. The $2.50 shop charge is just to remind them that they'd pay a bigger shop charge at Goodyear.
Mostly you just have to be assertive and stick to your guns. That's why having a set price works for me. There's no negotiation and no special deals because I like you better.
" Gas, grass or ass,
nobody rides for free! "
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Especially if they are in serious Spyware trouble and cannot get out.
A little less for family and friends.
--
"You've only got one finger left,
and it's pointing at the door."
I usually do it for "stuff and services"... a free meal, a printer cartridge, some blank CDs. Nothing big, but more of "convenience items" that family can offer without worrying about reciting your going rates for your services. The virii/adware get removed, the OS gets installed, and your stomach is full. Everybody's happy.
This way you are not "fixing" the machine - you are giving it back to them in a "brand new" state. If they screw it up again, it is clearly their fault, especially because you gave them written instructions on what not to do. Moreover, your user gets a real education on what it takes to migrate from an old system to a new one. This isn't a way to run a business, but rather a way to protect yourself from being roped into fixing the computer of everyone your mother-in-law has ever known.
For the rare times I see my dad, i don't charge him a thing for his monnthly comptuer fixes. He did learn a lesson where he lost numerous photos's from my sister's graduation, since he paid $60 who essentailly reformatted his win2K setup(which I setup, TWICE!) to WinXP. No backups were made.
I did have to call a line where he had a friend who's son wanted a PC. You can guess who he wanted to help them. I drew a line and just gave them the number to Tran Microsystems(where I buy my systems at).
While I have made no money, I did get a free 40 gig hard drive that he unneccessarily purchased.
I never charge for close friends/family but outside that it used to be £15/hr but it usually depends on what it is. Often from friends/family I end up with a free meal, beer or a favour like fixing my car etc
Warning, comments may not have been passed by the sanity department of my brain.
I charge $60/hr for home and $80/hr for business.
You should offer it free to all for the love of computers.
...is equal to my overtime pay for my employer, that is to say time and a half of my hourly wage. I think that's not only fair, as I would be getting that pay if I were at work; and make no mistake, just because I'm not *at* work doesn't make the cleaning up of other people's problem PCs work in and of itself. Plus, since I'm losing my free time, that means it's more valuable to me, personally.
Of course, once they're using a Mac they quit bugging me. Or they decide I'm too weird to work with, and quit bugging me anyway. It's a win-win proposition, really.
I spend enough time doing fix-it stuff at work (I'm a Desktop Support Tech) and get payed enough that I neither need the money nor want the work. The practical result of this is that I either do it for free or not at all. If it's a personal friend or family member, I work on it like it's my own PC. If it's just someone I know socially, I'll gladly give advice but for actual work will point them to a local PC shop or a coworker who does side work.
*******
"What good is science if no one gets hurt?!" - Professor Chromedome
Travel + Food + Beer = Good Time. Once you start charging for your time you have to start considering taxes. Citoahc
But the pay was pretty interesting. 7 hours usually got me 100 bucks, if that. Here's pretty much my price scale.
Make the computer work, help the user upgrade to better software, and teach them everything. 100 bucks.
Remove spyware, check for virii, defrag disk, and other BS. 25 bucks if it provided any trouble.
Stop AOL instant messenger from popping up automatically. I usually did this for free, but required some grub or something to make me less inclined to bring a pistol next time they called me across town for something so stupid.
Install hardware: 25 bucks.
Do everything: Help them buy a computer, set it up, and teach them everything: +100 bucks. And a nice meal.
Just computer training: 25 bucks.
Those were my going rates, but usually people were too lazy to pay me, or made the same damn mistake again and refused to pay me because all the spyware came back (well, that's because you installed it like I told you not to!), and often I got paid in services and stuff. The best payment was 100 mechwarrior battleclick minis of my favorite faction. That was awesome.
Anyway, good luck.
Just be sure people know you intend to charge them, a family friend who was a complete computer guru used to sometimes help my father with the really technical problems (and hes a software engineer himself), it was never very often, and my parents would sometimes babysit his kids etc, then one day my father was having a troublesome network card problem, this was when Plug and play still meant plug and pray and there were all sorts of conflicts, and switching cards, changing interrupts etc, anyway he came over, managed to get the thing working in about 20 minutes and then asked my father to cut him a cheque for his time. He isn't the type of person who would say anything but I could tell my father was quite hurt, here was someone who he considered a good friend, a long time work colleague and someone who he had helped on numerous occasions turning around, slapping him in the face. Fair enough if the guy was always getting asked for help seeing as he was a real hardware/software wiz but he should of stated his intention to charge for his "services", in any case it would of been cheaper for my father to run out and buy a one of those new fangled pci network cards to replace the old ISA one he was trying to get to work. Again he isn't the sort of person who would admit this, but I am pretty sure he never saw his 'friend' in the same way again.
You should be able to trade your time for their time. Particularly if you can find people that have skills you don't have.
I know people who can easily fix a leaking pipe or lend me some decent power tools, but have no clue about computers... getting on their good side can save you a bunch of money at a later point.
I'm in the tri-state area, and this comes up for me too (I develop software full-time for a living.)
I charge $50/hr for good friends (note: good), and $75/hr for anyone else but am thinking about bumping the latter up to $100/hr. My current customers don't complain about the pricing but rather think I'm underpaid if anything compared to plumbers, etc. in this area. I am not on call at those rates though; we negotiate a mutually OK time after work hours or on weekends.
I have had 3-4 hour sessions for clueless users, updating software (OS + browser + firewall + antivirus + AOL) and checking/cleaning viruses/spyware at that $75/hr rate. If I feel bad its taking so damn long, and I could have done it quicker, I cut em a little slack and give em a half-hour off or something. But they usually ask "are you sure?" so I really don't need to cut them that slack. Sure, they could buy a new PC for the price of a $300 session, but they're well-off enough that they aren't looking at those priced PCs... and they'll need to move all their data to a new PC and you and I know how many hours that takes.
As other posters have pointed out, as soon as someone pays you for your service, you are now the de facto go-to guy for any future computer problems.
I live in New York City, and at first it seemed like a great idea to get paid to tinker around with other people's computers. I charged an initial fee of $75 for a house visit which also covered the first two hours of work and an additional $35 for each additional hour. People enjoyed having someone come to their doorstep and exorcize the computer demons while at the same time offering them tips on how to avoid the same problems from happening again.
But after the first two months I realized that the majority of my weeknights were being consumed by computer-related issues. It is none too convenient to go to someone's house in Brooklyn or downtown Manhattan after work, putz around on their computer for ninety minutes, and then treck all the way back uptown to get home. My girlfriend was not very happy either with all the time that I spent fixing other people's problems. Also, gone were the days when I could tinker around with my own computer, since all the time I used to spend messing around with my own setup was now devoted to others.
Long story short, I no longer do housecalls for tech support, it feels like I have a lot more free time on my hands and as an added bonus I am free to work on my own computer. I still answer the occasional e-mail or phone call for minor computer problems but usually those are relatively minor issues.
When life gives you lemons, you squeeze the lemon juice into your enemies eyes and steal his apples.
Rule: Once you accept money for a service, the relationship changes. I fix computers for the odd friend. I do not charge.
I fix computers for customers who I do charge.
So what about the compost?
I like to garden to relax. I also maintain a triple bay compost area at the back of the section. I generate more compost than I can use. I started offering bags of compost to friends for free.
Some months later, my wife pointed out that the bags I purchased to put the compost in, had cost $200. Works out to about
I starting asking for a coin donation for the compost to cover the cost of the bag, I would explain to the people.
In the first 2 weeks of "selling" 5 bags, I recieved 5 "feedbacks". Previously I recieved none over 2 years, over maybe 100 bags given away.
Comments I recieved were:"
- "But I bought a bag last time, I don't have to pay for another?"
- Recieved a call from the wife of a customer, saying there was a milk bottle cap in the compost. Could she bring it back and get another bag of compost.
- "I don't have any change, can I give it to you later?"
- "Oh, thats a bit expensive. You can get twice the amount of compost from the garden centre.". ( I later learn that thats per bucket, and the liners you can buy for the cars Trunk(US), boot(UK, Aus, NZ) cost $2.00.
I have gone back to giving it away.
In post Patriot Act America, the library books scan you.
Im one of really few people besides any company that know enough about computers(or have been stuipd enough to show it) and everyone calls me, people who know some people that know some people and so on.. for some reason they think i have started a company or something(and make funny jokes about that since im not really that old). so i usually spend 15 minutes to tell them to buy a new computer, this one is screwed..
Mohahah!
Quoting Karl Marx does Linux no good whatsoever. We don't need no stinking pinko-commie-sissyboy-faggot-democrats using Linux.
Find the prices of the local places (Best Buy, CompUSA, mom-and-pop setups), average them, and undercut by about $10-20. Make it known that you charge less than the other places. Voila.
ROMANES EUNT DOMUS
I have been doing this exact thing for 8 years in Southern Maine, and I charge $60.00/hr with an hour minimum. I am in a rural area, but if I was in Portland, ME, or Boston, MA I would charge $75.00 to $100.00 because that is the going rate there.
I have about 500 business and home customers (about 100 steady), and I really try to educate them while I fix their computer so I don't have to go back often, and so they understand what they are doing. I also expose them the alternatives like Linux and Macs, and have actually converted some that were brave!
Most home customers repeat about once a year, and businesses are as needed with no service contracts to allow them to dictate my schedule.
I charge all my friends the same (well maybe a little off...) and since they respect the fact that this is what I do for a living, the requests for free support really haven't been an issue.
"semi-rural area"
"Wear a shirt and possibly even a tie."
Wouldn't bib overalls and a gimmie hat be more appropriate?
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I have been in this situation for yeats. Lateley what I have been wishing for was my own Alteris server. Some way to centralize management of PCs over the internet. Alteris or some other vendor could setup a way for my to setup small workgroups to manage with their enterprise class tools. Then I could get this done fairly easily. I can verify patches and updates are installed, defrag drives, see why word won't do that one thing, etc. from home. Anyone else like to see something like this?
I used to do tech support for friends and family. It bacame a burden when there was no apparent learning among my "customers". They still managed to get social engineered into opening virus infected spam, visiting malware links, installing malware tool-bars. They still continued using MSOE and MSIE in spite of warnings not to use them.
I now say, "I run Linux and don't remember much about Windows", then refer them to the local computer store.
Onsite I charge a flat $40 for minor problems. Big problems are negotiated at a higher rate.
If they let me, I install no-ip (with a password of course) and freevnc (also with a password) I charge $20 to do it offsite. But I will only do this if they have a high speed internet connection.
Remote assistance rocks because you don't have to sit in some one's smelly house or have some ugly old lady stare at you.
The preceding message was based on actual events. Only the names, locations and events have been changed.
I run a small on-site computer support business, doing exactly what you mention. Currently I have three employees. We charge $75 per hour.
I will say that people are willing to pay more for a 'real business' to come out, than for 'Joe Bob in the classifieds'. Before this became a serious full-time thing, I did it as a side job charging $35 an hour. At the low rate, people didn't take you seriously. They knew you were just a fly-by-night operation. At the higer rate (and with real business cards, a dedicated business phone number, and a small ad in the Yellow Pages,) they know you're a serious business, and are more willing to go with you.
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
I then recommend they get a mac, knowing full well that they will probably shy away from the idea and get me another 12-pack in six months anyway.
Everybody plays, everybody wins.
$0.02,
ptd
I'm an animal lover -- they're delicious!
I think the amount you charge for tech support really depends on the economy and the saturation of the market for independent tech support in your area.
I recently relocated from Santa Barbara, CA to the Portland, OR area. Santa Barbara is a very wealthy small city. Many of my clients weren't too concerned with me charging anywhere from $65-$85/hour. Santa Barbara being a small coastal city of less than 100K people, there weren't many other people offering basic hardware/software consulting services.
The Portland metro area (population over a million), on the other hand has tons of people offering independent tech support in a state where the economy is a bit more depressed than CA. I've found that charging my Santa Barbara rates tends to turn people off when there are others willing to work for as insanely low as $20/hour. Meeting them halfway rate-wise and putting in a little extra work than outrageous unnamed electronics stores seems to do the trick. I suppose it's all relative.
As a favor, I don't charge anything for friends & family. But as a favor demands another favor, a good bottle of wine will get them more mileage in solving computer problems.
I sometimes just point people to my Amazon wish list and give them the option to purchase something off of there. It gives them the control to give you what they think you are worth (sometimes dangerous) and/or can afford, plus it is something I want.
I guess it would depend what kind of job it is.
In this house we obey the laws of Thermodynamics!
What a wonderful idea and a great journal to boot.
Thanks.
I am charging $75/h for standard Linux and Mac systems. I get at least 20 requests/week for some infested Windows machines and people begging me like crazy but I decided to stop doing Windows because it is only trouble, headaches, and I just can't stand that fucking crap anymore. Seriously.
As I recently told a friend of mine, "I don't want your money.....then I'll be on your schedule." Unless you plan on making a true business out of it, you're asking for trouble. You're probably better off bartering for other favors from your friends (i.e. you fix their computer...they paint your living room, change your oil, or buy you some beer).
This space intentionally left blank.
It's not illegal, but the person recieving the services has to report it as income and it is taxed at fair market value.
I.R.S.
For friends and family, I let them name their price, the catch being "+ expenses". If the computer is so badly messed up that parts have to be replaced or specific software (that either I or they don't have, depending on the kind of software) has to be purchased, I will bill them for it (however, I will let them know first).
Zagreus sits inside your head, Zagreus lives among the dead, Zagreus sees you in your bed and eats you in your sleep.
I bought my mom a Mac and now that I've only been using Windows for work (and even then, only as a development platform) I can (legitimately) claim that I don't know how to fix broken Windows machines anymore (that's why my company has IT people). So, everyone is basically SOL. On the other hand, if you want to use a Linux or OSX machine....
$50/hr for any Windows machine, because I hate having to un-fuck the Windows machine of someone who can't even be bothered to run Windows Update once in a while and who uses IE even after I've installed Firefox on their machine and told them of the evils that await them.
As for Macs, $50/hr for personal machines and $85/hr for businesses.
For Macs belonging to attractive females, my services are performed for future considerations. Windows-using hotties are charged $50/hr, because no bitch is worth the annoyance of fixing Windows for only the possiblilty of future sexual favors.
I was a former computer tech in the marines and civilian world who changed to a different career field, but I still do some computer work on a limited basis, usually charging 25.00 per hour. It's much lower than most shop rates, and I'm not trying to hawk hardware to my customers.
It does tend to keep those late-night calls few and far between.
They agree to follow my advice. I tell them that I will help them, but they have to follow my advice, without complaints and do some minor adjustments to their behaviour that will in the end help them.
First out was my mom. The replaced her win95 PC with an iBook on my advice. Tech support calls from her went from 3 a week to 6 pr YEAR. Lately she has called, the ISP randomly resets the cable modem for some reason and she has to reboot it. It's OK.
Second was my GF. She wanted a portable to do school work and internet connectivity. So I said to her"Honey, I love you. But I'll be damned if I have to support that XP Dell you're looking at. If you buy it, you won't get and advice from me". She bought an iBook, support issues for 1 year 3 months: One. IPhoto screwed up and I had to reimport the pictures for her. She does call me when MSN is down though, like right now for example.
Third was a company of a friend. They asked me what computers they should buy to replace a broken win2000 box. They type, email and surf. Nothing more. I adviced them to buy eMac for the office and a Dell linux server for the backend. After calling Dell, they ended up buying a Dell front end system close in price to the iMac, with a CRT (!). It was infected with a virus within the day and they called me. Answer: "No, you didn't follow my advice, I don't offer support". Simple as that. Now they're up shit creek and Dell simply states that viruses (or the spyware they got in between) isn't part of their support plan.
My time is valuable to me, so I don't let others treat it like it is worthless.
in the state i live in, if you make less than a certain amount (i forget the number) for the job you have a GE lisence for, you don't have to pay taxes on that income... i've stopped doing work for food a loooong time ago - i can afford to buy my own food thank you very much.
;) that's a separate cost to the client. for "data recovery" and other more complicated tasks, its $100/hr. after all, they are paying me for my "expertise" and professional services. you willingly pay higher rates to other professionals (i.e. lawyers, doctors, etc) don't you? i don't think i'm being unreasonable at all.
on that note, i usually charge a flat rate of $80/hr for standard tech support and repair - which includes OS reinstall IF they have the OS CD with them; I don't do bootleg
What i would do, is find out what a computer repair shop in your town or whatever charges (per hour/service/whatever they charge by) and charge 2/3 or 1/2 of it. Then you can tell that person about the deal they're getting and they'll feel really good about it. Not to mention you'll probably be making more than 50 an hour at the rates some of those no-talent hacks charge to sit there and pretend they know what they're doing... Thats another rant altogether though...
...there is probably some range in different parts of the country...
Which country?
I charge $50 an hour for hardware troubleshooting, no matter who it is - friends, family, business, my neighbor. If I have to reload their OS, I don't charge to put Linux on there. For Windows, I charge them $75 an hour, plus I charge them accordingly for the license, which I buy, if they can't find it. ;)
Charge them 1 1/2 x what you earn at your regular job for the same time (hourly or salaried). Pretend you are working overtime at your job. If they don't want to pay, you don't want to work on their computer. Verbal advice is free. That gets me out of working on a lot of people's computer.
Nuclear family is free
Replacing Windows with Linux - 50% off normal rate
I should probably charge more, but this makes me enough money to pay the rent and have some toys now and then. This topic is helpful.
Also, I just drafted a Fee Agreement that I will start to use. This is a good idea (stole the idea from my Lawyer)...
All of this is in CDN but it still stands. $60.00 per hour for the first hour. Thereafter I bill in .25 hour incriments.
The people who are willing to pay really want your help and are willing to listen when you suggest things.
I don't want to fix their computers, so I charge enough that almost nobody takes me up on it. That used to be about $50/hr, but I've actually gotten some people to pay that, so I'm considering upping my rates to $80.
Help prevent the slashdot effect; stop reading the articles.
That's a great idea, they don't feel like being robbed, and you don't feel like you're charging too little / too much.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
If you really think about it, how much does it REALLY cost you to do a service like that to family/friends? Yet the $50 will go a long way in buying you new hardware.
The $50 (or whatever your flat fee is) also helps you from getting too much business. Sometimes people ask friends/family to do something for them just cause their friends/family and don't expect them to charge. But of course your time is worth something.
I used to do websites for family/friends and it was at first just to give me something to do in my spare time, but eventually EVERYBODY wanted one for their business or the company they worked for, so eventually I had to start charging a fee.
Normal people are wary about being charged an hourly fee because they will always wonder how long it really took to design the site, so I always charged a flat fee. That way I can guaranteed to get paid a certain amount, regardless of the time I put in it.
I do tech support for whoever wants it, free of charge. I've told all my family and freinds, and told them they can tell whoever. I can't program, so I'm trying to support the computer community with a different form of contribution. This also releases me from any responsibility for fixing the computer. If it crashes or anything happens to it, I don't feel bad about it because I did all I could for it.
Exploitation begins at home.
Use your favorite currency calculator.
I get free rent. I got a very good job offer from a company and I didn't have time to look for an apartment in the area. Luckily, my girlfriends family lives right near them and they offered to let me stay there for free as long as I can help maintain their computers (they have 4 girls in the house, so 6 computers total not including mine).
I just fix computers when they're messed up, and I get free housing for as long as I need.
If it's a business: $200 for me to walk in the door. $80/hr for any work that I do. I provide references for them most times too, so they know that they aren't throwing their money away before I even start any work.
For house calls I usually bill $50-60 an hour.
For a friend: Beer or dinner is good enough.
If there was ever , and I mean EVER a way to get Married to a computer, working on it for a friend/family member is it.
They might as well hand out a Marriage Liscence when you repair it, because (assuming you always do it right as I do) any time ever in the future anything at all goes wrong with it they will call YOU.
The trick is getting OUT of doing repairs for friends and family, me I just become my grumpy self, and tell them word for word what I am thinking while I repai their system. THEN They ONLY ask ifits serious and nobody else could help, at that point for FAMILY I will help.
The easiest way to "HELP" a few friends to get them out of the habbit of asking you is copy all their files off, and wipe the machine and when they say where are my files you say "Oh you needed those ?" and after a day or so say Oh I forgot and made a backup, the near scare willl prevent them from EVER asking you again, I promise....
...is a plate of appetizers and a pitcher of margaritas.
I do computer tech support for food.
A get pies, full roast beast meals, dozens of cookies, and cakes all for cleaning spyware or setting up computers.
Its a good deal for me.
I tell them that I purposly forgot everything I knew about Windows, and tell them to buy a Mac.
(Note: I'm not going for a +5, Funny. I actually do that)
1) Spyware infected brower (IE) - Get Firefox, disable ActiveX + give lecture about "just saying no" to ActiveX dialogs
2) Spyware infected OS - Adaware + Spybot S&D + MS AntiSpyware is pretty decent protection + disinfection.
3) Virus/Worm infected - FPROT DOS (dunno about other free antivirus products) to disinfect. Windows Update on Auto, and all SPs + patches installed. Unnecessary services stopped.
4) Default settings on OE with Preview Pane off and Read Messages in Plain Text on.
$100 for complete PC cleanup, $200 for reinstalling OS + cleanup
Oh, and I wouldn't even muck with people who use Win2K (and refuse to upgrade) -- they likely are too broke/cheap to afford you, anyway.
Just the act of asking for money will make a lot of people run for the hills. These are the same folk who think it's ok to bug their doctor if they see her at a restaurant.
If your just trying to reduce the amount of support you have to give out, do what I do: never touch the machine. Ask questions, get all sorts of details,, sympathisize completely, then tell the person exactly what they need to do to solve the problem. This way the onus is completely on them. They have to do the work. They have to assume responsibility for buggering things up. When it comes down to it, most people will do nothing to the machine but they will search for the next sucker to give them free support.
Or you could always use the same excuse I use to get out of long meetings: fein a bladder infection.
I ask half of the going rate for fixing peoples PC. What ever the big dogs are charging I charge half.
If you're really not keen on doing this, as you say in your post, then the answer is "however much money required to make it appealing to you."
Let's face it: this isn't your business. Your rates aren't beholden to creating a profit, or covering costs, or stockholders, or being competitive. Since that's the case, the only factor that should effect your fees is whether or not you'll be sufficiently motivated to do a good job.
I provided support for a guy's small business about 20 miles away from my house; it would take at least 30 minutes to get there and help him keep his POS machines running Win95 alive for another year. I did everything from installing a router to helping him set up FrontPage, to cleaning junk out of a mouse. Typically, he'd take me out to dinner and pay me about $50 (no, never really had a set price, which is my mistake).
The proverbial straw came when he asked if I could put a machine that had never been on the network on it, so he wouldn't have to use the modem to connect to everything (while every other machine was running off a shared dsl line). I opened the box and discovered that it was a pci/ISA machine, and the network card he had was an ISA one.
To make a long story short, I took it as a challenge, and spent the rest of the night trying to remember irqs/offsets, and all those bizzare things I used to do back in '94/95. He was a little concerned, thinking that messing with jumpers meant you were doing something wrong. No, I assured him, getting stuff to work on this vintage of machine required this kind of stuff.
Four hours of work, all old school setup, and I got it working. There was also an element of danger, as this machine had all the quickbook stuff, so when it booted into Win95 and then froze, I was more than a little nervous. But, yes, I got it to work.
I got $50.
I didn't actually see the check until I was in the car, and then I screamed, went home, called a mutual friend, screamed some more about what a cheap bastard the guy was, and somehow this all got back to the guy. Hasn't called me since.
So while it's my fault for simply not stating up front a number, when confronted with the "real" value of what I did, he simply shrugged and decided it wasn't worth it to call anymore. Dunno if his machines are still running. Don't care.
Still, it was an easy $50 or so bucks most of the time; was nice to have that tiny extra bit of $.
Anybody know of a good tool for mid-large sized dev shops??
since I switched to mac 2 years ago, my motto has become 'Sorry, don't know what you're talking about no more'. and believe it or not, but it simply works !!!
My rates:
- $20 an hour for friends and family.
- $40 for everyone else.
What I've found is that most of my family and true friends felt guilty about taking up my time, anyway, and wanted to pay me for it all along. The rest of the freeloaders voiced their bitch and I haven't heard from them since.I have a few rules, though. I only fix spyware/viruses once per customer. I set them up with a free comprehensive solution from the ISP I work at that seems to work really well. If they catch something past that point, it is from their kids on Kazaa, software they have downloaded, or because they have taken off the protections I put in. I'm not going to waste my time on some joker who can't follow my instructions because they are inconvenient.
I'll tolerate anything except intolerance.
My guess is hallucinogenic mushrooms.
An old Uni friend and I have a great deal going, i fix up and harden her laptop, and she does my tax return. Takes me 20 mins to fix her machine, and it takes her 20 mins to do the tax (she is an expat tax advisor for big big big company ( you know 'em )so she can do them in her sleep. If I had to do my own rtn it would take ages and I still wouldnt be 100% sure I had it correct - same for her if she tried to fix up her laptop. The price for me is mutual time saved :) That and a tax bill of $0 that is 100% legal.
You just turn them over. Really. Sort of like a left- or right-handed coffee mug... just rotate 180 degrees.
$50/hr
$75/hr if you watch
$100/hr if you help
$150/hr if you tried to do it first and couldnt
Brothel with broken computers.
what i would love to see is a free linux distro with spyware removal tools and clamav.
on boot up, it should
download latest spyware definitions
download latest virus definitions
mount all windows partitions (obviously only fat32 atm)
clean them
reboot
is there any anti-(windows)spyware software for linux available, it shouldn't be too hard to throw this together if there is (obviously presuming everything is free).
For the grandmotherly ex-co-worker who is counting the pennies until she can retire, I trade use of her car.
For the big-shot salesman ex-co-worker who pulles in 200K/year BSing people, $30/hr, and I really should charge more.
The real difference is that the grandmother can get same-week service, the salesman, I try to get to call a local pro for $100/hr first.
I also don't charge anyone for email followup.
Back in college I did it for free for friend and friends-of-friends for a long time. It was a great way to meet girls, you get to be the guy who saved my 8 page paper, worked out pretty well as long as I did my best to not be a total nerd when I showed up. I got paid in beer pretty frequently. After a while I was getting calls from people I had never even met or heard of, and it was taking up too much time. My roommate was somewhat less technically proficient, but he was more willing to do the dirty work. Sooner or later there was system where he'd check out most of the problems, and if he couldn't fix it, I'd take a look. That cut my time taken up by five fold, and I was dealing with only more interesting problems. Now I charge a case of mirco-brew per hour. Most problems can get solved by a single rack. A reinstall earns me beer for a month.
No less, or you're wasting your time. Too expensive? Not when you save them days and days of lost productivity.
Ok I worked for a company that I did basicly just this for a few years. I would drive to a small buisness/schools/homes and fix computers. I realy started to hate the job because 90% of the time you are the bad guy.
That being said I do a few jobs here and there on the side for customers that arn't a pain in the butt. I charge what I feel is worth my free time. Generaly I charge #100 an hour 1 hour min. I do not warent my work I do not come back for free. If I come to your house/buisness you will be charged at least $100. If people don't like this attitude they won't call me (which I am just fine with, I have a job). But there are those that understand this and when they realy need help they call and I help them and they pay.
I charge 30$ for Windows problems. 40$ an hour for network related problems (pain in the ass). Hardware problems I charge 30$ and I bring it in at a local hardware store and they charge 25$ an hour. People pay it and it's good business. As a student the money rolls in :D
Slashdot 1|0 Productivity
If you can pick and choose your customers, it can make life much easier. I've been doing work for doctors because
a. I don't feel bad charging them $60/hr, which I feel bad charging home users but I think is actually a very fair price for a business.
b. I can convince them to spend the money to set up their computing infrastructure well, which makes it less frustrating to maintain.
So avoid just avoid cheap customers, unless you're good at repeatedly gouging people for their own stupidity.
I used to do tech support for friends and family. And I was more than willing to do it for free. But it simply got too annoying. I got in too many situations where they would second guess what I was doing and offered their own asinine and ignornat solutions. It got to the point where I was tired of saying before I left, "Look, if you're so knowledgeable, what am I doing here? I guess I'll just leave."
If someone wants my help, I''m more than willing to give it. But they really have to want it first.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
Basically, I have a windows XP cd with a slipstreamed SP2 install and the newest patches on hand. I basically reinstall, reset the accounts and tell them to go on there merry way generally. I won't even charge for this if its friends usually because there is little or no work involved. However, when people need to save data I charge $50 flat (or a bottle of good bourbon) for friends and $90/hour for business.
I've been doing this in my free time for about 3 years now. It's easy work (most of the time), and obviously pays well. The only people I don't charge are my family and friends, although that can become really irritating. Most of the time, I wish people in my circle didn't know I know computers so well...
I charge $75.00 an hour w/ 2hr. miin.
"Be wary of the man who urges an action in which he himself incurs no risk."
~Joaquin Setanti
The correct answer is a blowjob. Doesn't matter if the work is for the next door neighbor, the mailman, or gramma. The answer is always the same...
I'd agree that $20/hour is exceptionally low, and suggest that $50 be looked at as low as well. A few perspectives:
1. cost model: If you were doing this as a living, you'd understand that you'd have a portion of your time that you could actually be out billing, vs. a portion you're unable to bill. Researching things, fixing things for people that end up not paying, fixing things that you goofed up the first time and don't bill for the second time, and being idle are all unbillable times. While I've seen models where employeers pretend they can have people 80% or higher billable, this places great stress on the system long-term. At 50%, you're going to have to factor the downtime. So, if you want to make $50,000/year, at 50% billable (on 50 weeks worked), that's 1,000 billable hours a year = $50/hour (easy math). But you might find additional expenses you need to include, like taxes and social security (oops! there goes a huge chunk), health insurance, general liability insurance (if you do this, I'll guarantee you'll eventually have someone sue you for something assuming you have deeper pockets than they do) current and legal licenses to software, a new laptop every year (they get beat to hell traveling), Internet connectivity, cell phone bill, etc. - and you're suddenly up over $60/hour.
2. comparative model: My plumber in my small town charges $70/hour. I'd argue that my nonstop education in technology (vs. his rather static field) deserves at least $10/hour more, not to mention the college education appropriate for it. $80/hour is my "plumbing rate" in the Midwest. Fixing PCs or running cables = plumbing.
3. service model: If you're able to do much more than "computer plumbing", charge appropriately for the job. I'm a certified security analyst, so I charge $155/hour when doing assessments (cheap actually). I charge $125/hour for Cisco engineering.
4. "bill" your gratis accounts: I take care of some little old ladies and relatives in town. I let them know (and occasionally will print a courtesy invoice with the actual charge and credit applied) how much it really costs. I ask them to donate to a charity - the church ladies all do so to our church, and church has new gravel covering the parking lot, utility bills paid and other important things from a tiny bit of computer work from me.
The best thing you can do is enforce that the computer world is a business and a profession. I encountered a "do it for free" attitude when I moved here due to a 20-year-old hack that did so. When you give it away without any cost, you make it worthless and cause people to think what we do is not legitimate. Electricians, plumbers and other technicians all have to feed their families and pay their bills. Neglect your car and demand free repairs, and you'll suffer the consequences. Computer techs need to help the public understand their PC is no different than their car in this manner.
I get this a lot.
In general, household IT support is a no-win situation and people are best left to fend for themselves. If you get paid, you'll feel cheap, and they will expect everything to be perfect.
If you have to do it, do it for free, but make it easy for yourself. Introduce them to ad-aware, or other computer hygiene tools.
If that doesn't work, and you have to do something, wipe the hard drive and install windows XP or 2000, and give a lecture about computer hygiene while it installs. For old machines, there are many linux distros that give you a nice web-browsing, email-writing workstation on a low-capability machine-- sometimes even a liveCD OS is good enough. My wife has an old thinkpad that we keep in the kitchen, it runs "feather linux" and serves its purpose flawlessly-- to look up recipes on the internet, and get email.
$100 per hour, no fractional hours.
The only exceptions is, if it's for a friend, and they're giving me beer and food, then the cost is beer and food.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
Really good Friend: - Pizza
Good Friend: - Pizza & Beer.
Friend: dinner.
Acquaintance (Friend of Friend) etc. - $$$s
I have worked on computers for years and have owned my own shop for just at a year. I charge $50 an hour plus parts, for in home service with a min. charge of one hour and i work by the job in-shop. half the time i go out to someones house and there problem is supper simple. I have on two occasions been called out because a modem reported no dial tone. I head to the door with modem in hand only to find out when i get there that the family pet or kids pulled the cord out of the wall. I almost felt bad hading them the $50.00 bill..... almost
Friend Rate: Close Friends and Family who aren't dirt broke 20$ per hour
Pro Rate: People I don't know who have been directed to me 40$ per hour with a one hour minimum charge. After that I tend to charge by the 1/4 hour.
I try not to have more than one or two "regulars" because it then becomes a legit second job and I really do it mostly to help people who need it and don't know where to go without donating my whole life to free tech support. I also charge for travel time at half the rate I am charging them if I have to drive more than 10-15 minutes to wherever they live. I make no guarantees to be able to fix any issue. If it looks like a really time consuming issue I tend to refer them elsewhere (either to a pro service desk or to buy new hardware) because it rapidly becomes more cost effective for them to buy a new pc and one hour of my time to tranfer the data than have me spend hours of trouble shooting a outdated boat anchor. The reality is for many people this is a excellent deal. To have a person whom they know and trust that will come to their home and fix their computer. Contrary what an other poster said I have found most people I have worked with in this way were very receptive to education as part of the service and have had good luck teaching people good computing habits that eliminated "service calls" from them. It may seem harsh but if you do it for free it can quickly spiral out of control. I also don't want to say no all of the time either because I know they could use the expertice and in moderation I enjoy it. This is the same issue that doctors go through except most people don't ask doctors to come over and give them a free physical.
For me, these "favors" are often paid with other favors.
I don't usually ask for anything. But the people I help tend to offer some compensation.
Sometimes the compensation is more than the actual services rendered. In one instance, I got paid 100 bucks for fixing something with in 5 minutes.
But usually, I end up asking the people I help for something down the road. Like asking for ball game tickets for a game that is already sold out. I paid for the tickets, but the seats were awesome and weren't available through the general public. It's a good idea to keep the people you help happy because you'll be surprised what they can do for you down the road.
I've heard of some dude advertising computer help in return for sexual favors. But I don't think I'll go there.
I've found that there are two types of problems that I get asked to solve:
1) OMG! My computers fecked and I've got a report to do and OMG! the hard drive light was flickering away for an hour and now all my work's disappeared and OMG! It won't boot, all I did was clear out some files and OMG! Look my desktop's so full of crap that starts itself automatically that it takes 20 minutes to start up! etc etc
2) I bought this cheap computer/monitor/software/ it was an absolute bargan - now all I want you do to is to fix it/set it up/debug it/find and install drivers so that I can have something for nothing.
I'll basically sort out 1) for just about anyone - doesn't even have to be friends or family. Hell, I'm just that kinda guy.
However I've noticed I've been getting covered in whole lot of number 2 of late. For some reason people don't get that their 'bargan' was only that because it lacked something - often technical knowledge. Of course this is fine if you have the knowledge to put it right, but you wouldn't go and buy a knacked up car for nothing just because you knew someone who had the ability to fix it for you.
Unfortunately people with problem no 2) often present themselves as people with problem no 1). It kinda makes me suspicious, paranoid and generally cranky when people ask me for computer help.
....whitebox shops around here that do "computer fixin'" which is usually just cleaning up borked windows installs from bad internet mojo, they are getting around (all similar, close enough) 60 dollars an hour for that service. No flat rate I have seen unless it's just a complete wipe and reinstall. If the customer wants all or most of their data intact, they tote the freight for at least an hour or no fixy for cheap. So there's an answer from bubbaland.
And that's why you won't see windows leave the market anytime soon, because this is the LEAST money being made by IT "professionals" off of windows being on almost everyones computer. The LEAST amount. "They" -any random windows IT professional, may claim publically they want excellent products, reality is that windows being as goobered up as it is is a hundred billion dollar (some large @55 number) make-work phony baloney business now,it is designed to perpetuate a near functional but never quite finished by design and intent highly lucrative perpetual cash cow, with thousands of people (or millions no idea really)now grown dependent and complacent on that easy money income. It's not a legit business anymore, it's a crime racket as far as I am concerned, a silent cartel of cooperating profiteers, large,medium and small sizes. From MS itself to the local computer herdsman, it's moo baby moo gimmee the money. Ha!
There's little to no profit in selling computers that work and don't break. Just like cars to beat that old dead analogy horse one more time. The hardware NEEDS to crap out soon after warranty and the software has to be in a perpetual state of beta ware, although it's all "licensed to use for your economic and sanity inconvenience" as a finished product. And that's why there is NO warranty with consumer software as well.
So, sock it to those folks who absolutely insist on using windows, that's exactly what it's designed for, to make you money. It's secondary reason is to function as software, but primarily, it's a cash cow, milk it. Charge em.
Yes I am cynical, no I don't use windows on the intarweb, never. I use linux or mac. I have a few old boxes and a laptop that have windows on them, but there's a decent airgap between them and the WWW, not that it isn't possible, it's that I simply don't care about trying to make windows function on the web, it's like bolting a wing on your yugo and applying flame stickers. Waste of time, IMO. I have never had any desire to even much "learn" windows because it became obvious as all get out with win95 what the scam was going to be, perpetual beta ware that you will be charged for.
And I have a rack full of machines in my basement at all times I am healing. Usually I promise a three day turnaround, depends on how busy I am. If it gets into anything else (hardware), I go to a $40/Hr bench time rate on top. I also charge a pickup/delivery fee of $25 to go get their machine, and bring it back, hook everything up, and give the customer the "safe internetting 101" lecture. If they want on site service, I charge $72/Hour for two reasons:
1) I can only work on their machine, and not a rack full at once.
2) A lot of times home users have screaming kids, barking dogs, or other not so pleasant to be around things going on.
Just like you and a million other people here, I got tired of doing all this stuff for free and started telling people what I charged when they called. Never had one single person blink and now its a full time biz.
Thank Goodness for Microsoft.
Depends on how badly they need their computer working.
Where I am from (Charleston, South Carolina) the going business rate is $125 an hour in the downtown area. When I do work on the side I charge $100 an hour for on-site work and most places are happy to see the cut in price from $125. These figures may not be relevant to most areas due to the big money that goes in and out of the downtown area of Charleston but can hopefully give some perspective.
I say if you are doing on-site business work, $100 an hour (time is valuable). If you are doing it for friends and family, dont charge anything. If the recipients really appreciate it you will get paid in some form.
My rates are - $200 for a full spyware de-infestation or setting up a new machine. Full wipe/reinstall is a bit more expensive - I price it according to the amount of extra software that they need.
:-)
For friends, however, it's different - male friends generally supply a bottle of chilled vodka and some Chinese take-out; female friends often end up staying overnight (and I even cook them breakfast)
Any fool can criticize... And many do.
the more I ask, the more people want my services. I have 3X as many people wanting my services (and not taking 'no' or a referral as an answer) at $155/hr as I did at $50/hr - go figure!
T.J. Schmitz - the man, the myth, the legend - o
If it's inconvenient for me, I just say that I don't have the time, or I do that as a job so would rather not. Or just tell them quickly what they could do, and avoid actually doing the work for them.
As for GFs, friends, family, etc, I just do it for free. You don't tell them that you're going to charge them for computer help, that's just rude. You ask your buddy to help you with an oil change, he doesn't say "It'll cost ya".
Just let it be known that you don't find a large amount of enjoyment in doing the work outside of your job all the time, and the requests will go down.
Is that you must drink the beer while doing the support. Preferably slam two or three before getting started ("I just need to warm up before I get to work"). Make sure to keep the person you are doing the support for in the room with you by constant conversation.
When you start to work on the computer do so in a distracted manner - keep talking and babbling while glancing back and forth at the screen. Horror stories about computer problems you've fixed (real or imagined) are good, but especially comments about things you've done that have fucked up computers. "Yeah I used to think anti-static wrist wraps were for pansies, then there was the time I blew out an entire system from one little spark. Damn, over $1000 in damages, just from my stupidity. Oh, were did I put that anti-static strap? Must have left it at home, oh well, no biggie."
Also make sure to make comments like "Whoops! Hmmm, well didn't really need that anyway.", "So you do shopping on the Interweb? Man you should change your password, that one is too easy to hack." "What are these pictures of? analdogsex.com? I didn't know you leaned that way." "Jesus! You've got more spyware than the Kremlin in here!"
If you are really mean you can also play some nice practical jokes while you are there. You know the stuff - make hardcore porn auto launch when you log in, switch the sounds out for farts. Whatever floats your boat.
Odds are you can do the tech support blind, deaf and drunk anyway but the nice thing is you get to entertain yourself, terrify your friend and quite possibly next time your friend will take the machine to a shop instead of calling you to fix it.
Sometimes my arms bend back.
I addressed this last year in a paper that is helpful to those offering support as well as those asking for it. In PDF - If you care to: http://www.computerate.net/Portals/0/Plight.pdf
Not really an issue for me since I moved a couple of towns away from the family, but it got so out of hand with my brother-in-law that he started screening all his calls, and put the following message on his answering machine:
"Hi, this is Dave, sorry I'm not home to take your call. Please leave a message. If you are calling for tech support, my rate is $30 an hour with a minimum of two hours".
People stopped bugging him for free help after a few weeks.
The problem with charging is not just doing the work, but the follow-ups. Typically the usage behavior of an individual who mucks up their PC with things like spy-ware, viruses, installing bad software etc. is that after the computer is cleaned up and working, they're going to mess it up again.
Then you get the call. "Hey, I paid you $50 to fix my computer and it's still having the same problem!" This can happen literally hours after you've repaired it, and the user will expect you to come back and fix it again for free, because hey, they paid you $50 to fix it and in their minds it's still broke.
So you have to be very, very careful up front explaining to them that "Listen, I'm going to do my best to take care of your problem, but there's going to be no guarantee that the problem won't come back."
The other problem is, once someone has it in their mind that you're a computer expert, they will call you over and over again with questions about any little problem. In most people's minds, phone support is free. Spending 30 minutes on the phone walking somebody through the process of pulling an accidentally deleted file out of the recycle bin is no fun, and they would balk at you trying to charge them for the help.
Otherwise, $30-40 an hour is not unreasonable. They would pay more if they called the local computer shop to help them out.
The Internet is generally stupid
I have many times offered computer support for friends who either have old computers or did something to screw up their new one. I've never actually charged anybody but I have learned a good lesson: don't let them drop it off at your place as if you were a computer repair shop.
It's very convenient for them to drop their computer off somewhere and go have a cup of coffee, or come back in a few days expecting it to be fixed. It's also kind of inconvenient to have several computers which don't belong to me filing up my dining room (personal experience).
From now on, I only help them if they are able to fit me into their schedule to go to their house and work on it beside them, if it fits my schedule of course. I have a day job, you know?. They realize how time consuming it can be, and they are also there for any questions such as "Do you have the driver CDs that came with the computer?" or "Are these the only files you need to backup?"
My house is now free of other people's computers staring at me waiting to be worked on.
this tends to disuade the casual inquirer. you know who i'm talking about, they're the ones who think it's just a "small" problem that they think should only take someone as smart as you 5 minutes to figure out... they don't value your time at all.
in my experience, you need a couple of hours to figure out exactly what the problem is that the end user is experiencing, since most end users are clueless as to even describe what the nature of the problem really is. in addition, when diagnosing the specific problem you were originally called for, it usually dominos into a multiple problem issue.
the 3 hour minimum is helpful because it tells your prospective client that there is a baseline charge. i live in a metro, and most of my work is in the city, but for the occasional suburban romp, i'll charge a nominal fee(half my hourly rate for travel).
some of the issues are for software i am not intimately familiar with. when i come across one of these situations, i tell my prospective that i need to charge for my time while i learn/understand the application. this adds 1-2 hours onto the overall time(for diagnotic understanding, not expert user), and if they're not interested in paying you, they'll find out that a specific software specialist will charge alot more per hour.
finally, if i run into a situation which is a no-win, i pull the plug ASAP, even if it is at a loss. i'll tell my client my opinion/recommendation, and walk away, no charge(I usually make this determination within the first hour).
does this net me any work? sure does. do i get people who balk at my charges? yeah, and i usually don't want them to by my client anyways... it tends to chafe out the non-serious clients, and i end up with a client base who don't sweat paying a minimum of $250 a pop... this usually turns into company owners, big-buck salespeople, and small companies, i.e. people who understand that time=money, and that a service, even technical in nature, has a value. and the biggest part is that it makes it worth my while.
i have quit doing tech support for windows. i will happily help someone with a linux issue (close family and friends anyway) but for windows, i won't do it. if anyone asks you what you charge, hold your pinkie up to your lips and say "one million dollars an hour!"
I finally got to the point where I just started playing stupid.
If it is something that takes more than five minutes to figure out I just say these computers have just gotten too complex for me to understand and tell them to take it to a computer store.
I base my prices on the customer.
I'm an Apple Technician/ Consultant:
Obviously when someone brings in an LC2 from 1990 that they want fixed, I'm not going to charge my going rate of $60 an hour because with 1 hour/$ of time I can just buy 5 of them.
In this case - I tell them it won't be a priority but more of an "as I can get to it" project or I simply offer them an equal or better replacement unit for less.
I also charge based on what the customer can pay to possibly garner future business and word of mouth. Someone in need with little cash - they usually are your best advertising.
I have one customer that I charge $15 an hour to - but he sends me LOTS of business and buys parts from me regularly. He supports a family on a substitute teacher salary!
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
Eventually the people I support ask me to upgrade some component or other, or help buy a new system, etc. So then I take the old hardware as payment for all the previous support. Some people are happy to have it gone and happy to have made a contribution. Those people get better help in the future. Some people ask what the old hardware is worth and refuse to let me take it. Their phone calls don't get returned. The hardware goes into upgrades for all the other people I help, and that makes less work for me. For the most part, this works well. I do avoid the calls from people with nasty computers. You know the ones. Peanut butter and Dorito cheese all over the keyboard. Nasty sticky soda residue down the side of the case. Why do they think I want to touch their filth and rejected food from the past 5 years while I'm doing them a favor? If I ain't bidding on Britney's used chewing gum - I sure don't want THEIR leavins'.
I am told I am the cheapest rate here in Calgary, I charge a 2L of Coke (cola), and lunch/dinner. It works out great for my Friends and Family, and I feel as though I have been paid for my time.
"The same thing we do every night, try to take over the world" -The Brain (Pinky&the Brian)
It depends on if the husband is home.
StrategyTalk.com, PC Game Forums
I don't mind helping "friends/family" out once in a blue moon, however from time to time I get random people, and a "friend/family" who just takes up too much time.
So I keep an amazon.com wish list, and when people ask how much do I own you (or I politely inform them) I just tell them to go there and get something for me.
For whatever reason people seem to not get offended becuase you don't ask for money.
$85,000 per year
Plus health and life insurance, 4 weeks vacation, multiple personal laptops, and I only take calls between 8:30 am, and 5:00 PM
LongTail SSH Brute Force analysis tool is here!
I have been a unix admin and currently am a network engineer. I don't "do windows" professionally. Still, my dad often calls for help. Once I pointed out that as a professor he has a university IT department he can call for help with their computers. His response?
"Listen, I didn't pay for 4 years of college to get lip outta you. Now shut up and answer the fucking question."
Yeah, Dad, I love you too...
"Where quality is like a dead stinking rat - you just can't miss it."
Years ago, I found myself almost overwhelmed with requests to perform computer work, at least until I set the following schedule:
1. Standard rate: $60/hour cash plus asshole tax. With tax, my rates have varied between $60 to $200 an hour.
If I am working on the cash rate, I give a written estimate of the hours needed in writing, along with a very specific layout of what is involved, including the hardware budget.
For prices of hardware equipment, I specify the client purchases it, and I use NewEgg and a local supplier when possible for pricing. I never say "2 NICs and a switch" in an estimate; rather, I say "2 Intel model this and that gigabit NICs" and "a Netgear model such and such gigabit switch". If the client insists on using what I consider old POS equipment, I explain the value of using quality equipment up front; if I can't convince the client, I either boost my tax rate or walk away.
Typically I will eat the cost of excess time up to 20% of the hourly estimate (if I say 10 hours, I will work to 12 hours if needed for the cost of 10), at which time we need to discuss further options. If I finish early, the client only pays for the time worked, not the estimate (estimate 10 hours, work takes 6, client pays for 6).
I typically break down a job estimate into small stages; at the completion of each stage, the client must agree that the work performed is to their satisfaction. Once the client is satisfied a stage is complete and pays me for that stage, I then start on the next stage. Final payment is due within two weeks of job completion. Each stage is spec'd out to an amount I would not cry over losing if the client decides to stiff me.
For those people that balk at my cash rate (where ever asshole tax takes it), my standard response is "I am not trying to be competitive in the marketplace; rather, this is value I place on the leisure time I give up to fix your problem".
2. If I know you or work with you (and presumably like you), I will perform a _single_ computer related task in exchange for feeding me and my wife.
Meals have ranged from home cooked meals (preferred) to local BBQ joints, to a cafeteria blue plate special; nothing fancy required, but the effort must be made.
Single tasks have included things like "get my computer sound working", "make my computer play Blue's Clues again like it used to", and "please install AV software and a firewall on my new computer". I am not near as picky about things in writing, and often can find something surplus at home that does the trick, but the person feeding me pays for any hardware involved.
That's my system; hope it helps...
I think that charging family will bite you in the butt and breed resentment. However, accepting every request friends and family place can be a full-time job.
I consult for a living so have to balance that with requests from family. It may surprise many people that you can tell family you are busy and can't help and they won't always flip-out. Refer them to CompUSA or another local tech shop that you trust. Follow-up with them to make sure they got the support they needed and they will know you care.
My rate is $90/hr with discounts (5% to 10%) offered to clients that required a large volume of work; More work at a single location saves me significant travel time. Spyware, setting up a secure Web site, Windows, Linux, cat5 install; everything costs the same. I don't often need to justify my rates. Nearly all of my clients are referrals from other satisfied clients (My first clients were friends and family- the business grew from there).
In the end, your rate should reflect your skills (technical, personal, responsibility, reliability) and what the market will bear. Start at a rate you're happy with and see if you get business. Raise the rate when you are near as much work as you want. Give close friends and family as much (free) time as is fair to you and them.
As a note to those that claim clients will think they own you when they pay you: It is true. I have implemented a flat "Emergency Response Fee" of $200 dollars that is paid in addition to regular hourly fees for any unscheduled work outside the hours of 8a-5p M-F. Works like a charm; I have my weekends off.
-Jamie
When I'm at home, I work at my town's Probate Court with a bunch of old ladies who equate operating a computer to launching the space shuttle. Naturally, between my normal administrative duties, I'm the reigning lord of tech support. As a result, my name started to filter out to a number of lawyers in the community, and I found my services to be somewhat sought after.
The clerks at my court basically chose my wages for me, without my even knowing. It turns out they were telling all the lawyers that I charge $25/hour, and that my fees would double the moment I graduate. (I'm currently in my senior year studying Computer Engineering.) Time was actually on my side. People scrambled to find something for me to do in the short windows when I'm at home working, dreading the day when I get my diploma and they lose one of their most reliable technicians.
To be honest, I'm a person that feels guilty very easily, and I feel like $25/hour is even a little too much. 75% of the work I do involves watching a progress bar, and many times, I'm honest and offer them a discount. The majority of them are so grateful for my services, they don't accept it. Though throughout all the people I've helped, I've only had one job where my training actually came in handy and I earned every cent of my wage. It involved some renegade program - undetected by virus software or spyware killers - that would eat up system resources until it crashed. After two hours of sifting through the registry, I found the offending program and eliminated it.
The only people that get free tech support are my personal friends, my parents, and the clerks at my court. Though in the latter case, it's included in my "balloon wage", so to speak.
$35/hr for friends
$40/hr for house calls
$70/hr is what we charge at work. (CDN$)
Apparently, $80/hr is the industry standard. Anyone who says that's expensive has clearly never been to an auto repair shop before (upwards of $100/hr). And to some people, their computers make them more money and are more important than their cars.
Immediate relatives pay with food. My mother-in-law gives me fresh apple & peach pies, usually preceeded by a prime-rib or bbq rib dinner. So... parents and siblings, and sometimes siblings-in-law is strictly barter. I got referred to others and ended up making a decent side business of it... I get $45 per hour ($35 for seniors/churches/scouts and other non-profits) I have my software tools on CD, some simple to understand one page handouts on avoiding spyware/phishing/viruses, and usually spend 2-3 hours removing stuff from PCs.
First, let me thank all the corporate companies for all the spyware/scumware that they release on the internet. Thanks to them, I have job security for many years to come.
First I DO NOT DO HOUSECALLS, I found out early that you can't get any work done with people breathing down your neck asking you constantly what the problem is. I have them bring their PC's to me to fix, if for some reason they are insistant on a house call then I charge $50 extra. I am usually swamped with repairs, so I tell the customers that it will take AT LEAST 2 weeks before their computer is ready. Any hardware repair cost is usually marked up 50% to 60% of what it costs us to get the part. One thing I have learned early is to ask the customers if it is ok to format their systems and to bring in any disks that came with the computer, since most of the computers that come in are so full of spyware/viruses it is what ends up being done anyway. If they say yes I just go ahead and do that, which saves myself a ton of work. (I charge about $50 for reformating)
One thing, make sure you have a FAST internet connection at your work place for all the patches you have to download. Trust me, it is worth the extra cost. Once I am through with the computer, there are 5 programs I install on it. firefox, adaware, spybot, zonealarm(sometimes, if the system is slow I don't), and avg. I explain what each program does and how to use them. I enphasize the use of firefox instead of IE, I tell them that it prevents a lot of spyware and popups. Since I have done this I have noticed a drop in repeat customers that have the same spyware/virus problems.
I guess I should mention the tools I use at work, These might come in handy.
Adaware
spybot
zonealarm
firefox
avg
msconfig (a lot of viruses/spyware delete this utility, always good to have a backup)
xp service pack 2
Knoppix CD (usefull for moving files from crashed machines)
windows security update cd(you can't order this anymore, you have to find a copy of it, but it is WORTH it, has updates till feburary 2004 for all windows)
...plus $499 plus gas money home.
Next Question.
ascii art
Friends - i.e., favourable acquaintances, I charge $25 an hour. It's not too much, and I only do it once in a blue moon.
But if someone calls me out of the blue as some friend of a friend of a co-worker's neice, it'sa $50 an hour.
Once the system is up and going and everything is squared away, I make it clear to my paying customers that *IT WORKS* and if they want me here again, the clock starts ticking again. No Freebie "Wah! It Doesn't Work Now" nonsense.
I only do computer support rarely, and I really don't enjoy it.
but if It's a slow month, I'll pick up a few extra $ that way.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
sex
You have it right on the head. I do consulting as a part of my job for busienss and individuals. Anyone who I don't know, or who knows one of my clients or whatnot falls under this category. They get charged by the hour or flat-rate (quoted price) for specific tasks- usually the first. Your job is to make sure it works as expected when you leave and after a reboot. Always restart the machine and test that it loads as expected and what you want to work works fine. That way they can't say you didn't fix it. At that point, your obligation is done. They can screw it up all the want (and at least you know how to fix it).
If the work includes a lot of sitting around (ie: installing WinXP SP2 on three machines- setting them up and drinking coffee for 45 minutes), I'll sometimes charge less or give a good deal or underestimate time if I'm not in a rush... Usually this is if they are good company or if I kinda know them or can relate to them so we sit and chat while it happens. Good hospitality = good mood = good deal.
Now there is family, friends, and neighbours, and the occasional friends of friends. These are really all free. In the end Karma works for you and you end up even in the end. There are people who will invite you to dinner, give you a few beers for your time, neighbours who will help you lift couches up flights of stairs, and the whole deal. My neighbour sees our 3-car driveway not plowed (our service hadn't come) and decided to clean 3/4 of a foot of snow off our driveway while he was doing his... And for 45 minutes of my time I'm going to charge this guy? Hell no.
Even if they have the impression that you're a genius, it means they'll recommend you to their friends or co-workers or businesses which you can then charge... But you don't want to accept money. If it's a buddy, simple words like 'you get the first round of drinks' works wonders- it undervalues your time at $3-5, but it's the gesture that counts... or have them get dinner.
So the rule? Family, friends, neighbours, family friends are usually free unless you're pretty distanced from them (greater the distance and if it's a lot of work (half day for example) then charge a little bit). Businesses, people you don't know, friends of friends of friends- charge them.
PS: Be careful throwing out prices. I've had some people come to me due to increased separation saying 'but you charged by brother-in-law XXX and us XXX'=- Nobody appreciates that. Set your rates. If you want to bring them down for someone, discount as a courtesy or say 'special price of...' so that they know it's just because you like them. It's easy to bring a price down, but not to bring it up. A prohibitive price will weed out those who are unqualified and a waste of your time anyway.
-M
when you see the word 'Linux', drink!
I avoid my parent's computer at all costs. I've done so for many years, because my parents are 'tweakers'. "Hmm, wonder what would happen if I do *this*?" My brother in law takes care of them now, poor guy.
For close friends, I do stuff for free, but usually hint that I want dinner or something in return, and they all happily oblige.
I'm getting married in the fall and a family that my fiancee used to babysit for is going to let all 3 of their kids be in our wedding but refusing to let us help pay for the dresses and a tux, so they got their repairs for free 'cause I feel guilty that they're shelling out big bucks for two gowns and shoes and makeup and hair, and a tux with shoes and maybe a haircut.
Otherwise, I'm $20/hr, including travel time. If someone asks if I know anyone who can fix computers, even if it's a friend, I always ask "How much are you willing to pay someone to come fix it if it's only an hour or two of work?"
If a job turns out to be a long, tedious recovery project, I'll flat-rate it, or barter for some other service like fixing my car. But I make sure to test every little thing on the system once I'm done so I don't get harassed with follow-up phone calls with things like "Thanks for fixing my modem, but now my mouse doesn't work." End up losing money that way.
my geeklog
I charge $70/hr, and tell them up front how many hours it will take. If I go over on time, I don't charge them extra. When I'm done, I ask them to make sure that everything works the way they want, and if it doesn't, I'm still there to fix it. If it does, there's no possibility that they'll ask me to help again on the same problem unless they're willing to pay me again.
Sorry, my time ain't free.
It's rare that you're presented with a knob whose only two positions are Make History and Flee Your Glorious Destiny.
My local store charges a flat fee for:
Virus & spyware removal $85
Reinstall Windows $65
Update and install drivers $65
Service $85/hour
In-store, no deadline
expedite fee $50
I bought 3 barebones system from them in the last year. Actually the prices are from memory, no guarantees- it has been 3 weeks since I was in there!
They have great prices on parts and cables, even a web site: http://www.wholesalecomputersupply.com/
Never trust a man wearing a coat and tie!
I tell ppl that I do not do Windows (which is basically true). When they ask for support on it, I suggest that they either move to mac or to linux. Otherwise, they can take it into compUSA (which will cost them more than the damn computer).
Of course, this can backfire. I have moved 6 of my neighbors computers to Linux and about every 6 months, I spend time upgrading them. Kind of a pain, but much easier than dealing with daily calls on spyware, virus, etc. I also help one neighbor who has a mac and had a drive crash and a power supply loss. Fortunately, his system requires as little time as do the Linux.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
If you really want them to leave you alone just make sure you do more damage than you fix. After a few visits, no more hassles.
Generally my charge is they have to feed me dinner. Nowadays I don't help anyone who isn't a friend (Learned my lesson on that! Don't get into helping friends of friends, because it will never stop), and not charging money means I don't feel guilty if I have to tell them "sorry, this just isn't worth any more of my time trying to fix it".
Some of my friends are professionals in other fields (Accountants, PAs, etc.), and they give me free advice in their areas of expertise - so these informal trade-offs don't seem unreasonable.
#DeleteChrome
I usually charge $30US for software work on modern OSs like OS X, Windows XP and some Linux distros. I charge $50US for anything older than Windows 2000 and OS 9 or earlier on the Mac side. Most of my housecalls are for spy/ad/malware where an average cleanup job takes anywhere from 1.5 to 3 hours. I install and then train the user on Spybot, AdAware, AVG and Firefox. They have been pretty sucessful. Mac and Linux calls, while rare, are mostly calls for help setting up Apache and Moveable Type for blogging. I also include a copy of the OpenCD for all Windows users. Business has been word of mouth and helped pay for a nice trip to the UK this past summer.
-- As it was eXtraheavy in the beginning, is now and forever shall be
I own my own business, so any tech support I do takes away from my "real" customers. So I charge $150/hr, which is my normal consulting rate. When people question me, I tell them "Do you want it done right or done cheap?" Inevitably, most of them don't want to pay that price, which is fine with me. I refer them to someone else I know who does a good job and they go away happy.
The only exception to this rule is that I'll fix PCs for friends who have invited my wife and I over to dinner.
I support people in my spare time, mostly Macs, as this is where I'm at home. I usually tell my customers to pay me as much as my services are worth to them. If I have to fix a mission-critical network printer setup, that can go up to 60.-/h, while others just prefer to pay a fixed sum for a variable time, amounting to 15-25.-/h on average. For some of the poorer people I just tell them I'll do it over lunchtime and they serve me a menu and that's it. Of course I also support most of them over the phone from time to time, and that is always free. It all depends on how you like the job and how much time you can spend. If I had to live off it, I'd go for around 60/h.
I built a PC for a family member. they paid for parts and bought me a part i was in need of. all was fine. Until they used IE and got trojans. twice they fubared the pc but they did learn and now they use only non MS browsers and don't turn the antivirus off. I haven't gotten a tech support call in ages.
"He's a real midnight golfer"
Why not just tell everyone that they can have free compost, but they have to bring their own bags? I doubt you'd get any complaints about that, quite frankly.
You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
Off topic, and IANAL yet either, but the EULA statements are somewhat misleading. An EULA is an enforcable contract in theory, however many software licenses contain language that in many cases might be seen as unconscionable. For instance, many EULAs contain clauses as to choice of law and/or venue which are likely enforcable, but then there are disclaimers of warranty/merchantability which may not be enforcable. A software publisher cannot sell you a product license, but in the EULA then tell you that they have no obligation to provide usable product. Can they restrict the number of computers/users in the EULA, absolutely. Can they tell you that you have no rights whatsoever, no.
This post has superb timing. I just gave up on helping people with their computer problems. I simply do not have the patience nor the time to put up with the majority of these ungrateful bastards.
.. No that's not happening again. It's as if I went to his house to clean his car and got blamed for his dog being constipated! Numerous times I've lent a hand to people who had computer problems to only be taken advantage of and my time wasted. Most of these people have no respect of other's people's time. They call me late at night, while at work, very early in the morning, etc, etc.
Last Saturday, my dad asked me to help out a friend of his with his computer setup as well as teach his wife about the internet. Sounds good. I went to the guy's house, and noticed that their "high speed internet" was really not that high at all. I was getting 5KB/sec maximum from all kinds of servers. I was told the provider they were using were one of those mom and pops isps with a cheap $20/month deal for their "broadband" package. Fair enough, we could still work with that. Right a way I noticed that their computer was already full of spyware, and also noticed they were using IE. I explained to them, in very simple terms, the benefits of using a web browser that has better security. I recommended Firefox. I installed it for them and told them to give it a try. They liked it. I then proceeded to explain to them the basics of downloading, chatting on their msn account, etc. By the time I left, everything seemed ok, they seemed happy to know a bit more but I did tell them to look into their slow connection since I know you can get a better connection for the same amount of price.
The next day I get a called from the guy's wife telling me that her "list" doesn't display. I had no clue what she was talking about. After about 10 minutes of trying to figure out what they were talking about, I realized they were talking about their msn contacts list. I asked her if she was having problems signing in. She said yes, "the little green men are not dancing". I figured it might be a problem with msn. I told her to try Firefox and see if she can get anywhere. Nothing, she couldn't get the default homepage. I asked her if she had touched anything else on the computer but she said no, so I told her that it is most likely a problem with their Internet Service Provider and that they should call them and ask them if there are any problems in the area. This woman starts telling me that maybe I broke her computer by pressing the wrong "button" but she was still going to call the tech support people to see what is going on.
The next day at work while on the phone with one of the company's clients, I keep on an incoming call. It was the guy from the previous day. The person wants to know what happened to his computer, he says the new program reset his settings and now he doesn't have internet. He says it is not a problem with the Internet provider but rather the new program that I installed (Firefox). After 30minutes of trying to explain that it is nearly impossible for the new program to just go and start messing around with the internet settings I gave up. The guy is still blaming me for his broken internet. So, not only do I get disturbed while at work but I get blamed on breaking their computer after I went out of my way to help these people?
Their #1 excuse is that they don't have time to learn and would rather be told in a few minutes what to do. Well guess what, it doesn't work that way. If you don't have time to learn, maybe you shouldn't be using a computer! If you don't have time to learn, and can't try out things on your own and unless you are prepared to fork out $ for someone to baby-sit your computer, you should really consider NOT using a computer! It is a complex piece of technology that has a learning curve that you should be prepare to climb, it just doesn't come to you in one day. Just like anything else new in life, it takes time!.
What would you guys do? Until I can find a better approac
[alk]
Pizza and sex, sometimes in the other order. Unless it's a dude, then just s...just kidding. For professional services (which I don't do anymore *wink*) I would easily charge $100/visit for this type of problem, plus $20/hr. And then there is the computer fixing....*S*
I stole this sig.
I believe the standard exchange is 6 to 12 - 12oz. servings of beer. Cold beer gets special consideration.
I work for food, smokes, beer, and bandwidth.
When I'm asked to do this, I set one condition: that I get to wipe the computer clean and start from scratch, otherwise, I don't touch it. If it's for a friend, no charge. If other, flat $100. Keeping it simple, jd
Currently, I work kind of cheap, $20 an hour (including drive time) for home or small business. It's a lot for just some monkey work done as a favor, but I figure that if it's going to becomee a day job, I want to keep it above the radar legally, which includes taxes. Basically, that rate just keeps gas in the car and pays for a meal and other goodies.
My main IT job pays the brunt of my bills, but I do a little PC troubleshooting and repair on the sides. I fixed a buddy of mine's Dad's computer (reinstalled XP among some small other things, just watching loading bars mostly) and he paid me 50 bucks out of his pocket.
for friends and family, it's free plus any favors/services they may want to offer out of good-will. For friends of friends or acquaintences, it's $50/hr for weekend/evening type work at their home or mine in the case of machines needing extended hardware or reformatting work. There is an understanding that they don't bother me at my day job as well. If I were to do this full time, I'd probably go legit and actually become an LLC and up the charges to $100/hr (though the existing folks would likely retain their $50/hr rate as long as they can pipe some referrals my way!)
I refuse to do computer stuff for people cause it takes up my time... If your a person that was recommened to me or it's a large job (over a few hours) I usually charge $10 dollars an hour. If your a close friend and it's a small fix I may either be in the mood or not, but I don't charge, as long as it's not ALL the time they are wanting help.
You, my friend = smart. That is an excellent plan.
I'm not so smart, but I have stopped doing Windows support. Too much hassle - too much can go wrong that you can get blamed for.
Yes, it's a blog. Sorry if that offends you.
I used to help people with PC issues.
Now I generally just push people away who have issues unless they have Macs, and I gently point them that way if it seems like it would be good for them.
I have to admit I did help one guy with a Windows laptop track down a memory problem (using a Linux LiveCD of course)... so I guess I draw the line at fixing Windows, but am OK helping a litte with pure hardware issues.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Its $25 an hour, and they have to bring the PC, no cables, unless otherwise stated,) are needed. I bring the PC back to them and install it. Test what the problem was to show proof that its is fixed, and then the deal is done.
I try to educate them on the need for safe browsing habits, current antivirus subscriptions, and generally how to keep the PC in this 'working' state. When they don't follow (notice the lack of 'if') I charge them another $25/hr to fix their mistake again.
Lather
Rinse
Repeat...
I've made enough to pay for my Ft. Lauderdale trip with my Rugby mates this year, with enough spending money to keep my liqoured up quite well. I only operate off of referalls, and I haven't had any complaints.
The $25/hr is extremely reasonable in their minds, in that they get the PC back within 2 days generally (I only work on it at night). And since I only work off of referalls, I know that everyone has been happy with my service. I've also begun growing a bit, and expanded into small businesses. The catch there is that I only work at night for them. I explain to them up front, if you want daytime support, find a daytime contracter and pay him daytime prices. Otherwise, $25/hr is a steal in their minds. Last time, I had a client call me up in the middle of the day, about 5 minutes after talking with a 'competitor' they wanted $150/hr with a minimum 2 hour visit. She's been a client ever since, and has on numerous occasions, paid me far more than my qouted $25/hr.
Its a reasonable, number for both parties. I still do alot of work for free, but the further it gets away from that 'first person' acquaintance, its $25.
Your miles may vary, and I may be a dick, but its a good combination so far...
harryk
think before you write, it'll save me moderator points.
A hot dinner usually does it for me.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
I tell them a case of beer or Coke (their choice of brand, and I don't quibble about whether they have a few with me while I'm fixing) and *I* set the time. If *they* set the time, it's business, and they get business rates.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you
so every relative and friends should be charged.
if you don't want to charge your brother, which is a painter, tell him you would excange services and get your house repainted. if is a mechanic, get your car fixed up free. if is a teacher, get your child a free tutor. if he is non working, he has a lot of spare time to do something for you... they don't see why to pay for your work? nor you have for their!
The answer depends on what you want to get out of it. I just started a LLC to do this and generally charge depending on the distance travelled. Friends are free for MINIMAL work. Bench time is 1/2 of the on-site rate.
Don't give your time out too cheap or your advice will not be appreciated. (The person who commented on the tyrants is partially correct.) You are doing work and should be paid for it.
I started by stressing about every client. Then I learned that the real tryants are a pain and don't refer. If I f*ck up, I eat it. However, since I started telling tryants with pirated software not to pay me, but pay for their pirated software I get fewer of them;) (I am my own tryant, my two month old more so.)
Rates in DC range from $25/hr for petty fixes, to a few hundred for fancier stuff. Depends on the consultant/company. (Mine are near the low end.) Don't be afraid to recommend new computers: a three year old P4 1.4GHz may be fine on spec, but after you upgrade the memory to 768MB for the bargain price of $150 (Rambus) - you may find the Drive fails two months later...
Mom Turdfarmer may not like the cost, but try to be upfront. You will get clients who value your honesty, and avoid petty tryants.
I charge $50 per hour. Sometimes I give discounts, but if I charged less, it would never work. You will always be cornered into doing work for people off the clock.
Plus, I'm very worth it. I am the best home user computer tech I've met. That's not to say there aren't better people out there, but I just have a good grasp on people's home usage dilemmas.
Also, 50 dollars is really reasonable. Really.
Please stop stalking me, bro.
Geeze... SSN can be used to steal your identity, EIN is harmless, just linked for 1099s. If you want a new one, the IRS will give it to you.
If you are a sole proprietor (not an LLC), you can still get an EIN.
You go to IRS.gov and fill out the form. It's web based now (last few years), takes about 15 minutes to fill out, and you get an EIN immediately.
There is no reason to EVER give out your SSN except for a W-2 job, if its a 1099, just give your EIN.
Alex
I just whip out the can of technical information as to why they are responsible for using Windows and not a superior operating system. :-)
Please stop stalking me, bro.
I encourage charging people - any way you like. Your work is valuable, and it is good to be appreciated. Will also benefit you when negotiating wages next time if you're in that habit.
Finally, having people give you something reasonable in return is much better than just refusing to help them. The ones that don't appreciate your skills you can do without :) If too many ask still, you can enjoy being popular and raise your prices!
Good luck in the marketplace :)
I'm in a Unix state of mind.
Friends and family who call me for PC repairs generally don't pay in money - that would be too easy. Instead, they have to listen to me:
When its all said and done, I figure the effort on their part has probably cost them as much as it would have been to hire someone in the first place. I do understand that some people can't switch from Windows because of compatibility with their existing software, or employment, etc... In such cases, the best I can do for them is to convince them to do a good backup and restore every few months. While most users won't understand all of the intricacies of Windows, almost everyone can understand how to burn their data to CD and reinstall the OS every 6-12 months.
And btw, I've found the best way to get myself invited over for dinner on a regular basis is to reinstall Windows. Inevitably, it's going to break before the year's up, and I'll get myself another good home-cooked meal...
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
Make it a business, that way the people who you do it for free (friends/relatives) become your network, making you clients through their own circles and word of mouth.
Otherwise, I say charge them "dinner".
Quoth the poster:
... if you can get them to try it thinking they are getting a BIG benefit, like your promise of free support, they'll be openminded about it and find out it ain't all that hard and it works BETTER!
If anyone's wondering, the majority of my linux users are your typical computer user, and are happy with linux.
Exactly
utter rubbish
I charge one million USD per hour. Needless to say, business is mighty slow, but you asked..
Friends don't let friends use Windows. Instead of charging them $300 or more to fix their computer, consider just having them buy a Mac Mini for a little more and you'll fix their problem permanently.
Browse the Information Directory
Great question. It's easy for some people to think about it and say, "$X per hour" and then go to the next question, but as you know there are many situations.
Relatives: I usually work for favors/food. If I help them, they don't have a problem helping me with some light construction or bathroom work, that kinda stuff.
Best friends: they know when it's above and beyond usual stuff, so I take whatever they offer, but don't expect anything. Favors I guess.
Casual friends. Usually just enough to cover gas and maybe $10-20... just enough so they know it's not a freebie.
Neighbors who you know ONLY from computer work: Maybe $20-30, depends on time. $50 for a couple of hours, not usually more than $50 no matter what it takes.
Neighbors you know and actually hang out with: Favors and various loot. (snowblowing, plate of cookies, restaurant giftcert etc).
Referals and actual customers: I charge similar to your mom&pop electrician or plumber... you know, the guy who is the only employee and has his name of the van.
Finally, don't forget to have some fun! There are usually plenty of times during a Spybot run or similar when you can get filled-in with gossip or neighbor talk, or just chit chat. That's an immeasurable perk: being connected to the social network.
--Johnny
Around 40-80NZD an hour.
[Please type your sig here.]
I usually charge between €20-25, and a bit more if I'm only there for a short while. Aditionally, I try to make some money by re-selling hardware to my 'customers'. Then again, it's my only source of income as a student. As I am soon to become 18 years old, I'm thinking of regestering my 'business' with the Commerce Chamber, so I can charge VAT and taxes and get away with doing this work for small companies, but the registration costs are holding me back.
Simple answer: if you're too busy to do it for free, and you don't want to take your friends' and family's money, then ask your friends and family to pay (by the hour) some buddy of yours that's unemployed -- even, or especially, if your buddy doesn't have a business started yet. They could be the first clients.
http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc420.html
shit.
Make a contract with your self-employed company that you agree NOT to do any technoogy work off the books. Do any kind of analysis and the fact remains doing something for free for friends relatives and neighbors is not appreciated, and they will go somewhere else for any paying job. It also lowers you own ROI. Do what my friend the mechanic does-- he has a partner and they share revenue, so he can't do anything off the books. Neither should you. Charge at least $50 per hour, and keep track of hours.
At the Tech Co-op, we charge our members $80CAD an hour, $50 if they are a non-profit/co-operative. We also offer discount rates for bulk hours, and monthly service contracts.
Having touched on that, the real issue is not how much money :
"I don't want to be a jerk and gouge people who should be able to trust me with their machines."Trust is the real issue at stake here. Once there is money changing hands, your customer has to be able to trust you fully. For the most part, our members are non-technical people who, like most people who work in an office, use their computers every day. When we tell a customer that they need a new RAID controller or to re-install XP, they have to believe us. If this trust is broken, our business becomes more diffcult.
We solved this problem by choosing a non-profit, member-owned services co-operative model for our business. This means that the company is owned by its customers and by its workers. Since the primary responsability of a corporate entity is to the shareholders, our customers are secure with the knowlege that legally, our only function is to provide them with superior technical services. And because we are a non-profit (and, an 'open-source' business, in that all our financial data is available to our members), they trust that our prices are as low as we can make them.
While i'm not suggesting you start a co-operative (infact, there is a great one you could join! see sig), i am suggesting you tread carefully. If you charge people money, and they procceed to mess up the system with spyware/viruses.. they are going to blame you. eventually you will have to deal with somebody who feels they were ripped off, or thinks you 'fixed' their computer b/c you were a little short on cash.
just some advice from someone who has been there. I started out about 10 years ago doing tech support for small businesses. I'm a programmer now, but most of our business is still tech support, and trust is the primary issue in our industry today.
Drew Crampsie - Software Developer
Open Source Business : The Tec
Get one of these little bad boys.* Problem Solved.
*Also available in travel mug!
Hikery.net - The best hiking site ever. Made by yours truly.
Hey, could I trouble you for a link to Spybot and Hijack? I can't find them in my bookmarks, I can't recall either URL off the top of my head, and Googling for both gives me dozens of seemingly legit-looking choices. However I suspect most of them are bogus, probably hacked up spyware people. Thanks.
As I am only in Highschool, the business I have set up is not very stellar, and I do not intend it to last past this year when I go to colledge.
Now my friend and I started this company not to long ago after I had already worked on my relatives' computers and various neighbors who are good friends of mine.
Our main goal when starting it was to do us a favor as well as the customer and give them a fair deal at about 1/3 what most computer repair companies were haveing people pay (ours is 35 in "shop" and 45 for in home. I do feel bad sometimes when I am finished, but I realize that while to me it looks as if I am just robbing them, many see it as a good service. The neighbors who I have always helped out, computer wise, feel greatful and indebted to me. This gratitude has shown itself in multiple ways.. everything from the willingness to getting me into a private college to learning how to shoot a firearm (my favorite).
So, all in all, it is good to charge those who contact you business wise, but if it is a friend or family memeber, it is good to gain the gratitude than the grit.
I mentioned in an earlier post that for my dad, I give all you can use tech support in exchange for legal services when I need it (he's a lawyer). Generally I look for tradeable stuff if I give tech help. For example, an accountant I knew needed my help last week, guess what, free tax return professionally done :-). Sometimes it's hard to negotiate something so I tell them you owe me one and go ahead anyways. Seems a lot more friendly if you wil. Though even I'd admit the deal seems pretty lobsided for me sometimes (damn spyware proliferating everywhere).
...in bed
$40 per hour
Start at $30.00 and hour and don't be shy about it. Don't say, well they had dial up and I had to download a driver from hp which took an hour, so I feel bad...$30.00/hr from the time you walk in the door until you ask for the check. If you still find yourself swamped, start raising your price, but only for new customers. Keep a list of your old customers and keep their price the same for a year, and then raise that price 5% per year, cost of living increase.
Friends and direct family, 20 euros an hour, friends of family or friends of friends, 40 euros an hour. I figure a high price might make them think twice about clicking on random attachments and actually take my advice about using Firefox seriously. :-)
Cheers!
The Official Steve Ballmer Webpage
My minimum charge for anything that requires some work is 2 8-packs of Guinness cans. No bottles!
I charge between $50-$120 /hr no matter. Friends and family don't count.
;-)
But seriously, you guys are coming off CHEAP for $25/hr. I suppose you get what you pay for..
they charge usually 50$/hour
or I can sell you a bag (no the compost) because its handy for $.50.
Parents put me through college, they get free tech support for life. To the rest of the world I play an odd twist of dumb: "I don't know how to use that particular program, but I could write one that does something similar, if you can wait a few months..."
I have an LLC, a checking and Credit card account, and of course and EIN.
.02
When I go to folks to work on their computers, I make sure they know they are dealing with my LLC and not me personally.
I let them know up front I charge $50 an hour for labor regardless of what is done.
If they don't like it, then they can find someone else. I don't want to do this work, they are asking.
Make them make a check out to your LLC. Report this at tax time as income.
I pay H&R Block $300~ total to do my personal and LLC taxes each year. The LLC has certain tax benefits you can utilize if you research them.
Do not get hung on on feeling bad because you are charging them what you think is too much money. If they didn't think it was worth it, then they would not have contacted you in the first place.
There is a large demand for this type of service. Right now the Best Buys of the world are making a nice penny off of the demand. Take your chunk.
My
It depends who's asking. For friends, I typically don't charge anything and just do it as a favor. But for acquaintances, I'll charge $50/hr, regardless of the job. I'm somewhat experienced and I'm A+ certified, but only a high school student.
That's what I've charged people in the past. Sometimes I'd put a 2-hour minimum on it, sometimes not. Of course if the person is a relative or a friend I charge nothing. Except maybe dinner or something.
You like your Macintosh better than me, don't you Dave? Dave? Can you hear me Dave?
Some rules: I do not do friend of a friend. I have a 50-hour-a-week salaried IT job.
Friends: Barter services/labor, or charge flat $25 per hour. VERY LOW compared to "some stranger who knows what they are doing," but I only have 5-10 clients, and only see them 5-10 hours per year.
Family: I make it seem like I am already extremely busy, but if things get dire enough, will drop 1-2 hours. If they are work past that, I usually work out things like babysitting my son so wife and I can go out, etc. Bartering is severely underrated. You both get something you want out of it, and no money changes hands... just a mutual agreement on what something is worth.
In other words, I do this as a service because it needs to be done, but I make sure they are making it worth my while.
30 bucks an hour or so. I don't acctually charge that but I wait til people ask "How much do I owe you?" and I repsond with "Most people pay me about 30 bucks and hour." Most of the times I will get 80 bucks for that 2 hour job because the customers don't want to be "most people".
Of course... you have to consider the fact that I am a teenager. I see a lot of people with the "he's just a kid" attitude. Because of this I think they feel my work is of a lesser quality and not worthy of the cash they would pay an adult.
I just fixed a co-worker's Win98 computer. I cleared out spyware, dropped in a 32 MB RAM stick I had laying around, installed Firefox, AVG Free and a few freeware kids games. She asked how much I owed her and I said $30 or $40 should be plenty. She gave me $50.
When I was in high school and begining college I wouldn't charge friends or family. But I always knew they'd give me some kinda of compensation. But now that I'm out of college and work full time I developed a new system: Immediate family: free (still live at home, heh) other family members: depending on how much time it takes, $20 or some free food, alcohol, etc. friends: $20-$25 if it hardware related, or if it's some tedious software task, $35-$50 all others (family friends, friends of friends, etc): $50 then more depending on that problem. I might even post a classified ad for this service just because I know one other person around my area has one and charges $75 consultation fee alone. Gotta at least beat the competition!
750 ml. Preferably with the pretty purple bag.
One CPU cycle wasted on digital restrictions management is ONE TOO MANY.
For me, there are two factors that influence whether I take the job: 1) how busy I am. Obligations to family supercede anything else. 2) How broke I am.
If I take the job, I usually lowball everyone and say $20-25 CDN to format/reinstall Windows. I'm not a professional, I barely qualify as a geek the last few years, with all the time I've been spending in the gym and studying fitness theory. Anyway,iIf they don't have drives for the pc, or have a reeeaallly slow machine, I'm apt not to do it. It's not worth the time and the frustration. With a buddy, we have the arrangement where he fixes/tunes-up my mountain bike while I work on his computer and remove any malware he's accumulated from porn sites he's visited.
I hate doing house calls because they often smoke cigarettes in my face and the whole rigamarole seems to take longer than normal, but in a rare instance (say, when an elderly lady can't bring it to me), I will go over there.
And I do web design. Just the mickey mouse stuff - no back end database with MySQL/Java/blahblahblah. I'll again charge $25 per page (provided they have reasonable needs) and give them a product which I'm confident is better than they'd get from anyone else locally.
SEO Copywriter. Just Say ON
I charge $75/hour based on the amount of time the fix should take. This caused my tech support requests to drop off significantly. My problem wasn't that I needed the money, it's that I needed to cut out the silly tasks that could be taken care of by the neighborhood geek. If you really want me to install antivirus software and tweak your windows machine you're going to pay for it.
Now I find that I have more free time and some spare change to boot.
'(/spelling nazi)Maybe when you were in "colledge" you should have focused more on spelling and grammar. =)'
your "(/spelling nazi)" comment should have used "" rather than "()" and the "/" should only be included in the "end" tag. (case in point)
If you are going to be a smart-ass do it correctly please.
Thanks folks, I'll be here all week.
His comment was pretty good. Too bad he did it as an AC or I'd have added him to my friend list.
Yes, Knoppix has a couple of CD burning programs included, so you can burn CDs as long as you have a second optical drive to boot Knoppix from.
$180/hour plus expenses. The serious ones will pay, the others don't get helped. I'm a professional so if they want my support they get charged the same as a business. This is how I make my living, if they don't understand that then I can't help them anyway.
I usually charge £50 for a backup of anything they want, format, their windows reinstalling (saves killing all the spyware), firewall(ZoneAlarm)Antivirus(AVG)Antispyware(SnD), iTunes, Firefox and a month or so of me coming out and sorting out any teething issues. People seam very happy with it, had lots of people refering me to their friends... not bad for a 15 year old.
--
...and hand them their new Mac Mini.
I charge $40/hour to people in towns within 15 miles of where I live. I charge $50/hour (drive time included) to people within 30 miles. I have about a dozen clients and a couple of them call me once a month for little things to fix here and there. I go to their homes to fix their PC's / networks and they are very appreciative of the service. And depending on when they call, the turn around time to me being onsite can be as little as an hour. It's more than tech support really, it's consulting. I talk to them about what is avilable, what they want to do and the best way to do it. Plus they always give me their old PC's ... so the $$$ plus the PC's isn't shabby for working on my days off.
Not from the world, dumbass.
CLUE:
Call around to local shops and techs that advertise to see what they charge and target the lower spectrum.
I've done it in the past, both as a favor to people and for money. I'm talking in the days before spyware and virii became a problem. In either case, people think they own you. You get phone calls all the time about every little thing and the next time something breaks, it was something you did. It takes up too much of your personal time, especially if you have a full time job and a family. So unless you want to setup a professional business and do this sort of thing full time, I say screw'em.
Oh, and fixing or buying a tractor isn't really comparable to fixing/buying a new computer to a farmer. One is their bread and butter. The other could quite possibly just be a toy.
;) And only asshole freepers who don't know where their food comes from believe farm subsidies are some kind of evil handout.
I was posting under the assumption that a modern farmer (even Ma and Pa) likely has a computer for very practical reasons, and can't afford very much downtime... Also, I don't know very many people who think of farmers as rich, for the record - far from it! More like assuming that any family farm operator who's still in business is some sort of financial genius/agricultural prodigy/heavily in debt. I'm sure you're thinking of clueless urban yuppies or something... nobody I know
Freedom: "I won't!"
The most common machines we sell are directly through our wholesaler, who WILL honor the warranties even if we aren't around. All our desktops also come with a 3 year warranty, and no one really needs to worry about it. The wholesaler has been around for over 25 years now, and has an excellent tech staff if worse came to worse for us. I like being able to give our customers that added support (they can go to them even if we are around. They might be closer in location or whatever.)
Basically, don't always rule out those ma and pa type stores. Sometimes finding out if their wholesaler also honors their warranty is all it takes. I know we're the expection to the rule, but you never know, and supporting your local economy is always A Good Thing (tm)
Oh, and our prices manage to stay competive even with the big guys. And we include the 3 year no matter what =D
Not going to give my business a plug directly in this text by saying our name, though.
rm -rf
As the original post WAS about suggestions.....
Go to Best Buy. They have their rates for doing various common things to a PC (backing up work, cleaning adware, etc.). If you want to do this as a business, check out your competition's rates.
If you have a good job and are happy with your pay, don't take on the extra work. I support 500+ users and a 14 server network. I have put a lot of time and effort in to my job and have made it a simple work-at-my-pace environment. I don't waste my personal time fixing other peoples problems. I gave that up when I moved from PC repair person to Network Administrator. But if you needed the money then run it as a business and you may fine that you can do better working for your self then working for someone else.
JoeTheTech
> The best thing you can do is enforce that the
> computer world is a business and a profession.
All that makes sense, but unless your day job is *also* fixing computers, then consider that parents, relatives and the odd friend only really ask you to help them as a last resort. They *know* you're busy, they *know* you don't fix computers for a living. If you charged them, that would lower the threshold at which they decide to call you because they'd feel justified in picking up the phone every time their machines went beep.
Barter a bit, rely on some unspoken reciprocation in some form, but don't charge unless you are prepared to make time to allow for what will happen.
"And the meaning of words; when they cease to function; when will it start worrying you?"
Most of these clients are little old ladies that mess AOL up, and some are family, etc, etc. For the people that are NOT family I tend to be cheap as it's a "small second income" so I don't need it to survive. Previously I was charging a miniscule rate of $20/hour. That was fine, and no one complained.
But as I started doing more, I'd jump into a problem and fix it, and then completely forget how long I was working on it.
So to sum this up, I cheat. I visit a major retail chain's computer site *cough* BestBuy *cough* and I simply charge half of what they do depending obviously on the task. I decided to NOT reinvent the wheel, but to just customize it a bit. So far, no complaints. :)
Not sure if this helps....
Whew, you scared me there for a second. Thought you said "A hot date".
Typically, I will fix a friend's or relative's computer for them doing something I don't want to do. An oil change for my car, insulate my garage, watch my kids for a night.
We will keep re-defining success until we are sucessful.
$75/min, 5 minute minimum.
It's worth that much for me to spend my free time working on your stuff. This pricing structure actually encouraged several very needy people to become very self-proficient.
I find that the odd friends are generally the ones that work with computers :-)
MacOS X - Free for Friends & Family.
FreeBSD - buy me lunch.
Linux & Solaris - barter at about $20/hr.
Windows - $150/hr, 2 hour minimum.
seriously.
if i'm in a 10 million dollar home, i charge 125.00 per hour
if i'm in a mobile home, owned by a granny who is obviously on a fixed income, i'll charge 20 bucks an hour.
either way i'm making more than i had before.
some older people i won't charge at all, depends on the person.
sometimes i'll do repairs for dinner, but thats few and far between
Enjoy Every Sandwich
... that is: when I was still working. I am a monk now, so the discourse is completely different, although the mechanism is still the same: "Ehm, brother X, can you have a look at my laptop ? It's SOOOOOOOOOO slow... " etc. etc.
I found out, when still working, that it was easy to obtain about anything you desire in exchange for fixing people's PC's: nice meals, beer, sex, legal advice -- you name it. Simply need to be socially clever, which I had to learn: like for many geeks, that was not my strongest aspect.
Monk to novice: "Throw all your incapacities before God"
Novice to monk: "What about my incapacity to do so, father ?"
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
$50 per hour
$100 per hour if they watch me.
$200 per hour if they help.
*click**beep**beep* Scotty, One to Mod up!
$300/hr
I decide if I enforce the rate, etc. etc.
Why?
because I don't want to be bothered. leave me the F*** alone. Want to fix your computer? Learn how to use it.
Anyone who is serious about it, can consider paying, and I'll consider if I want to accept the job... otherwise:
go away
Sorry, but I've spent hours doing this stuff out of 'obligation'. just not happening anymore.
I'll do the occasional favor. but that's it.
I charge $50/hr with a two hour minimum. And when you consider that I have to shell at $65/week for advertisting... it's not enough. I've only had to turn down one person, really. And I'm glad I did. While on the phone with them they asked how muchI charged, and I told them, she went on to tell me her problem, then says so you charge $50/hr. To clarify, I make sure I told her there is a 2 hour minimum, then of course she goes on to say she doesn't have that kind of money. So I told her flat out, those are my rates, and sorry I couldn't help her any further. I'm not doing this stuff for practice, it's my living.
I have helped my managers to setup their PCs and basic tech support at their homes. Some offers payment, but I never accept. Thats just me, hoping for something much greater down the road.
Tell them you charge $250/hr and they'll stop asking you...
A good friend will help you move. A really good friend will help you move a body.
Here's what happens otherwise: Folks balk at paying anything close to "commercial rates" (what CompUSA would charge) for support from Joe Random. But if you charge a lower rate, or accept barter, favors, meals, etc., you're setting the expectation that that's what your time is worth. A few years back I helped a (now ex-) friend with multiple computer issues. These always came up in the middle of the night or in the middle of a thunderstorm or blizzard, and I always trekked over to help him out. One time in four or so, he'd buy me dinner (local bar or diner; nothing extravagant). I considered this a "thank you", not payment for my services. Later, it got back to me that he told others he'd "paid" me for my services by buying me dinner multiple times. Lessee...4 two-hour tech support sessions = one $20 dinner. Hey! I'm worth two and a half bucks an hour! I'd rather be known as a guy who's kind enough to provide his vauable skills to friends and family as an act of kindness than as a two-fifty an hour tech support guy.
They may make vague offers or promises, but frankly, if they are screwing you over, the minute you start asking for something paid, they'll just make themselves a stranger and find another freebie guy.
People who are decent people in business start paying straight away.
This doesn't mean that you shouldn't do nice things for your good customers, though. One customer of mine pays well for my coding, but I try and help them out with other bits of odd tech support for free.
Imagine that all these morrons will have linux desktops...Support, just go there once, install sshd and for the rest remotely login and fix it. They do anything stupid? Look in the log files...and charge them double because you can actual proof they did it themselves. Upgrade programs against vulnarablities?, just do a crontab upgrade whatever (emerge world will do). If it brakes? Rewrite the log files, blame them, charge them....from behind your own desk. Live will be great!!! Linux will help the masses (and me)
I've just recently put together a wishlist on Amazon, with a list of items costing anywhere from $6, up to $3500. I give my "clients" my URL, which contains the list, as well as a list of my favorite types of beer, what kind of bourbon I like, restaurants, etc.
So far, it's worked out well. People are usually more generous than I could have asked them for, plus I get all kinds of cool shit that I probably wouldn't have bought myself.
My friends and my family I support for no charge. Thats part of being friends and family: helping one another as needed.
My friends families, friends of family members, friends of friends I charge US$50.00 per hour including my travel time, shopping time, telephone time, etc. If they have other options I encourage their use. I dont want to be their tech support, but if they really need the help I wont say no. I charge them enough that in many cases its more cost effective for them to buy a replacement than call me for help.
If they are looking for advice on buying a new machine I point them to a vendor such as Dell and advise them to get the three year warranty with accidental damage coverage. Sure they will pay more up-front, but they will get what they need and they will have someone (other than myself) to call in the middle of the night when it doesnt work.
"You want to know how to help your kids? Leave them the fuck alone." -George Carlin
I also do tech support work on the side for friends, family, and friends of friends/family. Family will always be free (not including, of course, the cost of replacement hardware). Friends/friends of family are on the barter system. If they have nothing of interest to me, when they ask what I charge, I ask them, "What is my time worth to you?" Amazingly, most of them always overpay.
/.), but I'm not about to give PayPal a percentage of my hard earned money (bet I had you worried!).
There are a few that will give me the same each time (which roughly averages out to about $40/hr), but usually for something that took me half an hour to fix I leave with no less than $75-$100. I even have one "customer" that gives me $100 just to sit down in front of his computer every few days and make sure everything is ok (ie, no spyware, no viruses... etc). Usually this only consists of checking scan-logs, with the occasional manual removal of a virus or particularly stubborn spyware, but 9 outta 10 visits, I'm there no longer than 10-15 minutes.
I've had a few that were pretty cheap, but they soon found out that $20 for 2 hours of work puts you at the end of a long waiting list the next time you need service.
Lastly, I have one special word for you. Cash. I won't accept checks, and of course I don't run around with a credit card processor. I'll usually warn new "customers" before hand so that the awkward check-refusal does not occur. Cash is tax-free (what Uncle Sam doesn't know can't hurt my wallet). I suppose I could bill their credit cards with my PayPal account (me hears shuddering in the distance from the direction of
Preload a CD the usual suspects like AVG, Zonealarm, Adaware, Spybot S&D, (Microsoft beta spyware remover has seemed good to me so far)and whatever other items you'd like to add then create a batch file for the user to run to load it. Create a straight forward pdf for instructions on any user input that's needed. Not all computer issues can be resolved with such a blanket solution of course. However, in my experience a great majority of them are. As a result I've run in to two different type of users. One, that's obviously unwilling to work at it and simply want you to do it all and the other does as I subscribes and it works or they need some additional help. Charge the first type. If it's more complicated then the work is pretty rewarding for me anyway as I enjoy problem solving. If it's just watching a virus scan or installation routine then It can feel like labor and time that should be compensated for.
Depends who I'm helping. For family, a nice dinner suffices. If I don't know ya then it will cost ya. Helping you with something linux related I'm more willing; annoying windows problems-that's where I get more demanding(fee-wise).
Yes, the topic describes my system perfectly.
I do my tech-supporting for friends and family totally free, albeit somewhat grumpily. I do tech-support for other people too, and whenever I get a new client (this happens about once a month) I always reply with the same response to their payment-question:
You pay what you feel it's worth. If it wasn't worth much, then don't pay much. If it was worth a lot to you, then pay a lot.
Of course there are people who abuse this system (the kind that asks me to spend four-five hours fixing their shit, then pay me bupkus), and usually I start ignoring them pretty quickly.
The others that understand the system I keep going to and checking up on, and whatever they pay me is fine, as long as they pay what it was worth to them.
I've gotten everything from a free dinner for a 10-minute job, all the way up to US$500 for 3-4 hours of work.
I enjoy large posteriors and I cannot prevaricate.
Other than family, I've given some help to high school teachers, my dad's friend, etc. Here's what I do... Sit down and explain what spyware is. Explain that basically, a computer is like a mailman. He can't tell if that letter is five bucks going to little Johnny for his birthday, or Timmy the Homegrown terrorist sending off spores of doom. Even if you got the police to look at every piece of mail currently in limbo, and arrested anyone who sent illegal contents, this would not end mail crime. You'd have to do this every few days. I install adaware and spybot. I show them how to run them. Most of them have Norton, and simply don't know they have to run it. I show them how to run Norton. I explain the concept of virus definitions as like laws. If we only had laws from 1776, many things that are bad would not be illegal, for example, drunk driving. So we update the laws. The virus definitions are the laws of the computer, dictating what can and cannot run. I also inform them most free software on the internet contains spyware, and list a few examples. No one whose spywared PC I repaired has come back. Now if you're in it for profit, this isn't a good idea. But this took two hours of my time, with the adware scanners running in the background as I used a powerpoint running from my usb key to educate them, and they were extremely grateful. I've been taken to the range by my dad's friend, where I shot a .500 smith and wesson (The bulklets are two dollars a round. He let me fire off twenty.)
Family and close friends get assistance and advise ... they will also get upgraded if they have the required hardware/software which they have purchased (normally following my recommendations).
... in return they have to listen to explanations on basic security and spyware prevention. If they want assistance then they will be running antivirus and a firewall and if the machine is in a running state then it will be backed up prior to me touching it.
.... normally in the form of food, either out or home cooked plus a supply of snacks during the work :)
... i'll listen and give advice but i honestly dont want to get involved ...
Close family will also get free hardware upgrades if something becomes free in my kit thats surplus to requirements, (e.g. my Dad has just been upgraded from some rather dodgy onboard sound to a SB Audigy Platinium Ex)
Payment
Friends of friends
t
I used to configure / repair PCs for college pals, + did some "emergency hotline" (that all-important paper for tomorrow they can't print...)
I stopped a few monthes ago: some "friends" would only call me whenever they had a computer problem. I got tired of the hypocrisy and stopped seeing them.
I make one exception: people new to the mac and that want some advice on how to use it / configure it. It's painless, and useful (once it's setup it'll basically work forever).
On the other hand, my part-time job mostly consists in typing word docs / powerpoints / managing email and excel lists & charts. I charge 20 euros (about 25-30 USD) an hour.
Hello! I'm a disaster waiting to happen!
anything less or more is simply inequitable.
My advice, get back to basics, barter your time and skills.
Do you remember when wages were worth something?
Words to men, as air to birds.
Mac work: $25 an hour
Windows work: $150 an hour (I have to do it at work, doesn't mean I want to do it after hours!)
Mac work I can solve over email in my own time: free
Windows work I can solve over email in my own time: $150 an hour
family gets Mac email rate.
A good suggestion is to ask them to bring their computer to you. That saves you time, and amount of help requests.
My Mother/Grandmother: Free.
Brothers/Close friends: 4 Pack of Guinness
Not-so-close Friends: $20 flat rate, will alternately accept a good meal.
Friends-of-Friends: $75-$150/hr
i tell my friends that a slab of beer will do nicely as its usualy the best thing after several painstaking hours of windows shinanigans .. but money buys beer so i have no problem with taking that instead and heading down to the local.
Those who can, do. Those who cannot, sue.
The basic question that needs to be answered here is: "do you want to deal with this or not?"
If so, then consider going thru the steps to form a business, as described here.
If not, then find some way to force them to spend some of their time to in order to get yours.
My approach is to tell people that they have to bring the computer over to my house and that I'll get to it in the next day or so. That is usually enough to dissuade them (these types don't like to even unplug cords), and if it isn't, then I know they have a genuine problem that they need help with, and I do my best to fix it in a timely fashion. Its funny how someone can consider it reasonable to demand that you take several hours and drive over to their house and yet be unwilling to take a few minutes to box up a computer.
I've used this approach with a couple of annoying (and distant) relatives, and its worked wonders.
phht!! must be a troll
I'm in a lucky spot where just about everyone I deal with uses Macs, so my support issues are not that henious.
But one spot EVERYONE is really really bad at is BACKING UP THEIR FILES.
For family (and a few friends) I've gotten into the habit of plugging an external FW drive into their Mac and just dragging over their user folder.
But I've only done this for people I know that trust me to do this. They seem grateful that I've backed up their stuff and don't seem concerned that I "could" go snooping around in their files. But what about people who DON'T know me? Is there any protocol to use for doing backups like this? Maybe just make disc images instead of dragging user files?
I like microcars
For every good, repeat customer I had, I had to deal with 3 other know-nothings
I don't intend to sound patronising, especially since it sounds like you've got yourself to somewhere you're happy with now. But, there are a number of techniques to running a business and having a good life. Some of them run directly contrary to the techniques for running a good business but I guess that's obvious since the goal is balance.
Anyway, my second rule of running a business and having a life: Get rid of the customers you don't like. If they're rude/don't do what you tell them/you just don't get on/whatever. Get rid of them. If you are accepting money from them then you are obliged to provide them with service, but you are not required to serve everyone who rings up (just don't discriminate on the grounds of age, sex, race, etc.) End result, you get fewer customers but you actually like seeing them. You've already noted that a lower income but an easier life is an improvement. Sure, it may seem crazy to not grow your business and double your income, but your sanity is worth more than double the income.
Rule 2b: If you have to see the people you don't like, because they're twisting your arm or whatever, then charge them an arm and a leg and then some. Oh and warn them beforehand -- if you're lucky they'll change their mind. As an example, my wife absolutely cannot stand working outside 9-5. Personally I find it a bit odd, but it is her rule, and I have rules she finds odd. So, if she has to work outside those hours then she charges double plus a callout fee. Short term result, we got a lot of money for a while but she wasn't that happy even with the extra money for treats. Long term result, the people found someone less desperate and she doesn't get called. See? Everyone wins.
Linux and Mac help are free (or pay me in food).
Windows help I don't do unless I'm paid normal rates, and sometimes not even then.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
...that they stop bothering you.
Best way to get stuff for services offered to family. "I'll do it if you buy me a six-pack". Cheap enough that it's no trouble for them, but still a satisfying reward.
I do it for close friends and family for free. And I'll do almost anything they want. I usually draw the line if I have to come back another day, that means it's too involved.
Other friends get 15 minutes.
This is also my going rate, and I find it to be both beneficial financially to my friends or family and as a way for me to strengthen bonds with these people.
If you're servicing something for friends, $20 is reasonable. It pays for gas, and you'd do it for free anwyway. If you're charging your friends and family $100/hr, you have a screwed up family...
If it's a problem job for a soccer-mom or other mid-to-low-income person needing simple tasks (Spybot, Defrag) then do $20/hr plus expenses (parts, gas).
Semi-professional servicing (people who have money, or people who need hardware installation, etc) can be $50/hr, plus expenses.
Professional servicing (businesses, gated communities) is easily $100/hr plus expenses.
Cater to your base, and charge what you think you can reasonably milk. Just don't 'hate on' people who pick up a quick $20 at a friend's house.
I officially pulled the plug on tech support for my parents computer years ago. I was re-installing the OS at least every six months. After the fourth or fifth re-imaging I laid down the law:
If I'm going to be fixing things, I'd need to cripple the desktop so it's harder to break. Any new applications would need my approval.
This worked for about a week -- so I walked away. No matter how serious the problem is (and my dad is a big P2P user so you can imagine) I won't touch their computer. I leave it to my brother who has the time and patience.
For free tech support for family, that's become my blanket policy. My in-laws have been pretty good with things. I've installed Firefox, Thunderbird etc. and they don't download anything at all. But in a Windows environment, there's only so much I can do.
--- Dan
I used to do a lot of free support for my friends. Then I tried charging for a bit. Wasn't worth it. Now I do help but have learned to set some very well defined limits. When I help with Windows I absolutely won't do anything until I check if the computer has at least the minimum of up-to-date security software, inclucing anti-virus, firewall and two spyware blockers. This is non-negotiable.
I explain buy saying that I hate to see my work go down the drain immediatly after I leave. If the people don't have security installed, I just don't do it. Also, if Windows isn't totally up to date I insist on them using Firefox and Thunderbird. Again, this is non-negotiable. I then remove the IE and Outlook Express icons from the desktop and start menu.
Do people bitch and moan? You bet. Do their computers stay fixed longer? Absolutely. I try to be positive and non-confrontive, explaining all my reasons, even agreeing that such requirements shouldn't be necessary. I'm also very firm that these steps are necessary if I'm going to offer my time.
It works. My time is more respected and people generally feel more secure knowing that they are doing all they can to avoid future problems.
The other important step I take is only scheduling tech support once every other week during set hours. Yes, people claim that their problem can't wait. That's their problem, not mine. I do have a list of local technicians to offer if they can't wait. If I can schedule volunteer time I don't resent it. It seems that If I do this people also respect me as a professional treat me more professionally, even close friends and family.
I'm in central New Hampshire. Most people around here are just greatful to know someone who "knows computers."
"I'll say it again for the logic-impaired." -- Larry Wall.
Alrihgt, so last weekend I was hangin' out with an old friend from high school. He knows all these strippers now, so we decided to stop by one of their houses for a litle party. Anyway, we get there, and the place is GORGEOUS, nice furniture and lots of locks on the doors. We're all sitting around the coffee table getting to know each other when all of the sudden one of the girls who lives there pulls out a bag of doorknobs and puts it on the table.
To make a long story short, we blew doorknobs off that table until the sun came up. I've never had doorknobs like that before, strippers know their doorknobs, I guess.
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
40 euro per hour for normal whatever people.
;)
20 euro per hour for family.
lower rates depending on wether the person your helping is:
A. Hot, Horny and Female
B. Can fix your car someday
C. Can score you some green
Free for mom and dad cause they brought into the world. Ok maybe your sister and bro too.
Make sure that it is cash as much as possible. BLACK MONEY is gold really.
Cheers
try { println( SigString ); } catch( Exception e ) { println( 'Who cares?' ); }
Literally. I have had some really nice meals, and a few visits to McDonalds. Oh yes, I do "do Windows" - with 'fdisk /dev/hda' - works wonders every time. I don't believe in cleaning up other people's poo virtual or otherwise. Linux Lessons for close friends are for another meal, for strangers $100NZ for 3 hours with a 20min sandwich / cuppa break. If they want ongoing support I insist on a dynamic ip address, or the satellite system, and a ssh login. I have only one client who can't read a man page. No more.
To the original submitter: Be careful of discussing rates with people in your same field who could be considered competitors. This is considered collusion/price-fixing and is illegal.
Only because I don't have a degree or certification of any kind, only 8+ years of experience. I really should be charging $50/hr., and with papers to prove my "know-how" nothing less than $60. Of course the person and job will also change the rate or total price. I don't think charging $40 to plug a cable in is right, maybe I'll just milage, rounded up the nearest $5.
I do all family and friends PCs. I now have a rule: if you use IE or Outlook I won't touch it. Money still not involved but I've no intention of wasting any more of my time. Reinstalling XP takes a ridiculous amount of time, and I need so many patches and apps I need to install off-line before they can connect it's stupid. They are all begging me to install Linux but I don't know what to install for them. I use Gentoo but damned if I am going to maintain dozens of Gentoo boxes. Maybe Ubuntu? Need to find a solution soon :-/
Phillip.
Property for sale in Nice, France
For 7 years now my prices have not changed. My going rate has been $68.00 / hour with 1 hour minimum billing and the rest by the half hour, even though most of that time my work wages were at or under $20 / hour. While I have not had a lot of business it has allowed me to enlighten non-computer people the value of **my** time. Bear in mind that most of these people that ask me to come help are the same people that won't show up to help me move or do some other project that just needs many hands to complete. I find it is just easier this way to make sure that what starts out of friendship does not become obligation. We all know at a certain point every situation can turn to where we just simply don't want to help a person any longer and it is not worth losing a friend over helping then with thier computer problems.
I work with a bunch of guys providing level 1 and 2 support in a 20,000 user enterprise with remote offices and field agents. We support huge numbers of apps, as well as in-house apps. A lot of us do jobs on the side. I've been doing that for about 12 years. Some of the guys are real hard core PC Mag bunch, but I concentrate on what my users want to do, and give advice accordingly, versus many of the other guys that try to sell their customers up. I never give a hourly rate, I just do the job they give me, and I let them decide the rate. I've yet to have a person "lowball" my work, and on a couple of occasions, I've had to turn down the amount they were trying to give me, because it, at least to me, seemed too high (Damned ethics!). In any case, I've gone from 1 person to over 15, providing suport on an "as-needed" basis, supporting doctors, chiropracters, and others with home-based businesses. If I'm just installing software, well, I may expect less, but some of the really in-depth stuff (separating the real IT guys from the "Best-Buy" techs, I usually get a bit more. and my customers seem to appreciate my forthright honesty. I jsut do it because I like helping people, and the little bit of pocket change I get is ok too. Last week a doctor tried to pay me $100/hr at the end of my gig (installing and locking down a home wireless network, and cleaning spyware, etc, and I told him that was way too much, and we renegotiated a lower price. While many would say I was stupid, the referrals and respect I received outweigh what he was trying to pay me. BTW, for what it's worth, I have 2 degrees, and numerous certs. Oh, and yes, I didget an "A" in ethics in college.
I would give free support to family, provide minimal support to friends and absolutely no support whatsoever for ape nosed niggers.
G N A A Tech Support!!
you're right; there is something wonderful about being able to say, "I have no idea." It's such a freeing thing, especially when one is expected to be an 'expert' (in other words, 'computer god'). And it is a testimony to the fact that Linux is becoming more and more useful, to the point that some computer users haven't even seen Windows for months ^_^
Standing at the very edge of my imagination, I peered into the inky void and realised -- I couldn't think up a new sig.
Well, what I did was I called around and found out what the going rate was and upped that. But I go the extra mile to make sure that the customer is satisfied. For example, when I fix a computer in my store, I clean the inside and scrub the outside with scented window cleaner. I blow all the dust out of the fans, and if time permits, I defrag the machine.
See, the way I figure it is that 98% of the job is customer service. That is what I sell my business as. You could be a total geek, and know everything there is to know, but nothing really matters much unless you can speak to the customers on a level that they can feel comfortable. I try to make them feel that they are the most important customer, the fixing the computers is the easy part.
You need to explain things in a way that someone who has no idea where the Any Key is can comprehend. These are the customers that usually are the most delighted that someone finally sat down and explained things to them. And then they tell their friends, and so on.
I live in NH, and the rates in the store are 55 hour, 65 on-site, and 100 for a reinstall with all drivers and patches. I charge 50 for data retention, and 50 for NAV fully updated and installed, 39.99 stand alone. Again, calling around and seeing what my competition charges ensures me that my rates are fair against the current local market.
BTW. I started out like you did. I was fixing everybodys computers for free until I realized that I could do it for a living! Good luck, it takes some time to get a name for yourself but it is so worth it!
DISCLAIMER:
I don't believe what I write, and neither should you.
I charge a bottle of scotch. Now I'm not talking a crappy little bottle of Famous Grouse or something like that. I have a nice single malt collection going at my house, and it's because of my friends inability to keep viruses and spyware off of their machines, that it keeps growing. The average bottle costs between $60 and $120. If I am charging a friend of a friend, then I charge $75/hour, min 2 hours. If it's a business and they want to keep it legit, then it's $120/hour the whole time.
People seem to really like this pay scale, and I have very few complaints about it. Most people are more than willing to pay someone a bottle of single malt for a few hours of work, considering it would cost at least double (or triple) if they took it in to a shop that charges $100/hour.
-- Prices in Canadian dollers, eh.
1. Looking at compusa, they have a 4 hour rate of 299 - equates to $75 an hour.
2. Some other locations, google for them, reveal that some tasks are around $200 per hour, such as networking, server configurations, troubleshooting.
3. When we have had either Sun or Oracle work on our systems (Oracle does not anymore), Oracle charged $10,000 for 2 days work, while Sun charged $500 an hour (2 minimum) if a system was not under a support contract .... IBM was similar.
4. When we had a VAR install a server, they would charge around $1500 - $3000 per system. This was normal from different VARs. This was just to install the OS.
Compare these to what you want to do, plus do your homework.
Also, if you are trying to be a professional business person, charge the appropriate amount .... you owe it to yourself and other professionals around you, ie if you charge very little, then you de-value the skills the rest of us have taken a life time to acquire as well as yourself!
HGTTG: "I knew that there was something fundementally wrong with the Universe."
These days I'm really reluctant to help out, for a few reasons:
1) If the person I'm helping is an ignorant person and doesn't care to learn what I'm showing them, then I don't want to help. If they're receptive and great at listening, I love to help.
2) I'm a software architect and entrepreneur, not a pc support tech. I obviously know how to fix most of these pc tech problems for myself, but would rather not get into it for others. Yes I do consider it low level work like fixing plumbing... so sue me.
eTrade SUCKS
Some of her game/edu CDs will run under WINE, some not. Other than that, she's happy.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
.... and I do it for a living every day. So how do you take care of these requests without 'biting the hand that feeds you' as it were? My boss knows I support family members and a few special cases. In every instance, if there is any hardware (replacement NIC, etc.)in the picture it WILL come from my place of work at the going rate. If that doesn't trip your trigger you can go hound someone else. Just so ya know, our going rates here in the Dismal Swamp is $60/hr if you bring it to us, $90/hr if we come to you. Service contracts have a special rate that is based on your buying and paying for X number of service hours up front. Use them as you need them and when you run out, if it felt good to ya, ya just buy some more. That rate can be as low as $50/hr if you buy them in big enuff lots.
Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket?
It depends on a lot of different things, but I'm amazed how many people skipped over education completely.
... especially because someone wants it "now". It's a difficult thing to say, but when done properly usually ends up with an apologetic user.
:) If they keep calling, I let my wife answer the phone and have her say something like I'm not home ("from work" typically turns them instantly apologetic ... especially at 10 PM), and that it's late to be receiving phone calls about something that can wait and is done for free.
... it's a good parasitic relationship ;)
... if you're going to act like a professional technician, at least try to look like one. Learn how to type, and spend an hour looking up shortcut keys. It drives me up a wall at how many well-paid techs still hunt-n-peck or never learned there are other (better) ways to cut and paste without the little scissor and clipboard icons. Spend a week not using a mouse at all, and you'll laugh at how inept you once were.
I'll start off with an hour (usually ends up two) with the person - get a feel for what they do and what level of user you're dealing with. You might sit down, have them show you the problem, and be gone in 15 minutes. They're likely going to have a host of problems with their machine, at which point I either make a mental list or actually write it down (1/2 because I can't remember squat, 1/2 because as the list grows the impression begins to take form on the user). Take the things that are hardest to explain and do it for them (there are usually a few of these). If you can take out their biggest complaints, you can usually count on a favor or nice meal.
The rest of the problems are up to them. I'll send them e-mails with information on how to do it themselves - sometimes long and gory, some you can send links with brief descriptions about what's behind the link; it's something you learn through experience as to which works best on which users. Recommend them to free A/V, Firewall, spyware-removal, etc. as needed. It's something to keep their interest (free), but it usually makes the point that things aren't as simple as they seem. In a lot of cases you can drop the words, "... Or I can do it for you for $s/hour," if that's your goal. There are enough posts about the dangers of taking money - I don't need to repeat them.
But any further "free" work is "... as I have spare time." I make it a point to not have much "spare time". If anyone is really insistent about it, you can politely remind them that they wouldn't expect a plumber/electrician/accountant to do free work
There are still a few traps left. Late-night phone calls are met with a tired-sounding voice. Repeat offenders are told that after a certain time, I don't accept phone calls about computer problems - I've worked on them all day, and I need some time alone with my spouse: contrary to popular opinion, I do have a life (even if it is playing games
The last bit of advice I can lend aside from always be professional? Find someone interested in learning and make them your first level helpdesk. I show my dad progressively harder and harder things and give him preferential treatment when he calls (overlook a late call, take a look at a problem he has a little faster, etc.). He takes quite a few calls from family and friends, but to him it's a challenge he can overcome. It may seem strange, but if you can find someone who has a clue about something, use them to filter those kinds of problems. They're all giddy because they know something about computers (and usually it pushes them to do more), and as long as you train them about knowing when they're in over their head
Oh, and for heaven's sake
Winners tell stories while losers yell deal.
How about bartering? You help with their computer, they do your laundry... or set you up on a date...
If you act like your time is worthless, don't be surprised when others act like your time is worthless.
Home-owner/Consumer $35.85/hr Business/Advanced stuff for Home-owners $45.29/hr "Priority Rate" -Any weekend day, holiday, or any time where its an emergency that I come right away $65.09 Data Recovery $100/hr Web and Graphic work vary by job. These may appear like odd numbers but they come out even with my state's sales tax. I do this professionally and do quite well. I charge very resonable rates because there is a big difference in a $35/hr problem and a $100/hr problem. People are more likely to call you to come over and fix little things if you're reasonable. If it's too expensive then they "live" with the problem and don't call.
close friends/family: free. theres no way around it. if my close friend was a dentist and he charged me to clean my teeth, id knock his teeth out. the jew bastard.
everyone else: charge more than any local compusa/fries/bestbuy/etc, and make sure they are aware of it. theyll only come to you if they really appreciate your skills, and youll get paid very well. if they are a good customer and you like working for them, discount them after the third time.
My mechanic insists on pizza as well as beer. But he's worth it.
It may cost $400 to get a new computer but that new computer won't have their old data on it, won't have Quicken installed, won't have their email setup, won't have their mp3's transferred over, won't have their Favorites setup, etc.
A $400 computer is just an initial cost. Once you have time invested in it and need it to "just work" the way it did then, for a lot of people, the cost to get it back the way they need it can hardly be too high.
Buying a new computer solves none of these problems.
You're rates are bullshit. $85/hr min.
So I've been doing this for 4-5 years, when I'm not at school I work at a computer consulting company and get paid $30 an hour. When I'm at school I get paid minimum wage as a sound technician for all our school events. At home I get paid $30/hour with my company I charge $40-$50 for personal contacts and businesses that I know (Usually if I charge this much, I'll get a tip also.) For family I don't charge, but sometimes people pay me a certain amount when they see how long I work, usually around 30/hour I recently started doing work at school, which I never used to do. Most college students have a decent understanding of computers, and most college students don't have any money. I normally don't tell anybody about my expertise, but my brother told a couple people what I can do, and they gave me calls. I told my brother to tell them that I can't do it for free, beer, cash, whatever would be fine, but not free. These are serious problems with their computers, and I spend a few hours on each one, and I get a case of beer. Here's my rules: I need to keep the computers for at least a few days because I don't have time right away. They need to drop the computer off, and pick it up. Just today I fixed VX2 off some guy's computer, he gave me 30 bucks. Not much compared to what I get paid, but its cash and it'll pay for the bars or whatnot. Last week I fixed the same problem off a computer and got a case of beer. Just another thing I don't have to buy. 10 bucks an hour for college students/ case of beer. Oh yeah, I burned a copy of a CD for a friend and he gave me half a pizza.
Free Flat Screen
Regardless of service, or relation to person service is being performed for:
a Happy Meal and a case of beer
---------------------------
I value mine at > 1hr = 1 bottle nice single malt scotch
Tier 1: Family - should always be free, you decide who is family
Tier 1.5: Hot Girls - If you have a legitimate chance of scoring, then see tier 1. If no score opportunity exists then see tier 2
Tier 2: Close friends/extended family/less hot girls - Barter for services/beer/sex/whatever, and you keep old hardware if upgrading
Tier 3: Acquaintances/friend of friend - Charge by type of car they drive, $10/hr per $10k value of their car NEW, rounded down. (i.e. VW touraeg @ $42k = $40/hr)
Tier 4: Random Donkeys - If you want the money, charge Tier 3 rate x1.5
People who think they know everything really piss off those of us that actually do.
What about stories of people who used linux live cd's to bravely save the day and backup the data stored on the nasty NTFS file folder!?
I am planning on starting this kind of service when I get home from university, i plan on charging about 50 bucks to do spyware removal. (i suspect about 1 hour of work is all that is needed.)
1 hour minimum with and additional "back up crucial data service" for an additional 15$. (just carry a portable HDD with you using usb 2.0 or firewire or whatever.
cool
Check journal for info on Anti-TextBook, an idea by me.
That's about the going rate. Usually I estimate the time and usually they're the one that brings it up. If I can't fix it I don't ask for money. Usually it's me refusing it actually, but that's good for future business.
If I lived in the NYC area I'd charge $400.
Shakes out the suckers. I don't need the work, but occasionally somebody pays my vig.
I don't charge my father-in-law, but he gives me free dental care (including 2 gold caps and wisdom teeth extraction) so he's not exactly getting over on me.
Here is a hint my boss gave me: when you save some one's ass and they say, "Thank's, you saved my ass! Is there any thing I can do for you?" Say "What do you have?" Best free advice I ever got.
$35/hour for small business, $25/hour for home users, one hour minimum, half-hour increments.
That's for "the usual" - setup, upgrades, spyware removal, etc.
Development and "project" rates depend on the circumstances - and how rich (and how much of an asshole) you are.
My business card says, "Computer Problems Solved CHEAP!"
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
I work at a store, and we charge $85 an hour for software work, and $65 for hardware.
I, being a 14 year old, charge $50 an hour for software stuff. I'll build a PC for someone, and ill make somewhere between $100 to $300 depending on the value of the system.
Since i don t have a shop or any expenses, besides computer parts that is ^_^.
My rate is "free" when being begged by a hot babe.
Hasn't happened yet, unfortunately...:-)
Oh, and that also depends on HER being "free"...
If the latter condition is not met, my rate doubles...:-)
(Twice "free" is...waitamint, WTF?)
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
Carry an external CD or DVD burner around with you (along with a decent burner software package - which usually comes with the burner), hook it up, burn off X gig of files (don't do anything fancy like compression or image backups - they won't know how to restore it - just burn straight directories), give it to them in a jewel box (or holder if more than one). Charge by the gig or charge by the time it takes.
You could even use a Knoppix Live CD with K3b to do it...
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
Usually I offer it for free. So far it's averaged around $35/hour. If I were setting rates, I'd set it at $50/hour, because I'm not that good at it, and I don't do windows.
OTOH, I'm basically a programmer. Debugging is something I only do so I can get onto more important things. If I thought of myself as a service tech, I'd probably want $75/hour.
All that said, mostly it's freebies for close friends and family. I sure don't advertise! (The business tax laws around here would drive my wife out of business if I started pulling in enough money to notice.)
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
I have a small home based tech support/pc sales/service shop in oregon and I charge $70/hr with a 1/2 hr minimum and they will typically bring the system to me for the work(except for network support issues *price is higher for that too*)The nice thing about oregon is there is no sales tax...so I dont have to file it at the end of the year with my taxes...in this town there is also no requirement for a business license either(as long as no external signage is displayed)....I usually have about 2-5 clients a week call or email me to schedule a time to do some work for them. This is a college town so there are mainly just broke college students but, they have parents that foot the bills so they can usually afford it. Anything below $50/Hr for tech support is a waste of time. And for all of you out there that cant ever charge your parents for the help, just tell them they are making an investment into a very profitable future for their child(and eventually grand children)most will cough up the cash..and if they give you that line about how much they have given you over the years, just tell them that you are going to pay that all back with interest when you get stuck having to take care of them when they are old and helpless
You may want to register as an LLC. It protects you legally (lawsuits)
IAAL. An LLC does not shield you from liability for negligence. No business entity can ever do that. If you screwed something up, then the company can sue both you and your LLC for the damages. A liability shield can never protect you from your own actions.
People are claiming "pizza, beer, sex"...
So let's get it out in the open!
Who here has ACTUALLY been given sex for PC work?
And by whom? Your relatives? The hot babe down the street? The hot secretary from the office? The granny who couldn't install Linux?
C'mon, let's hear the stories...
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
I am by no means a wine connoisseur, but I am impressed by the value of Charles Shaw wines. I've paid much more for much less. If your clients buy you a case of the stuff, I guess you did okay!
That's the last time I run code posted in somebody's sig...
Fuck you. Don't ever call me ever again you pair of dumbfuck shitheads.
And when dad calls to complain about my rude manners, my message to him would be: say another word and I'll drop you off at the old-folks home right now.
I have been doing it for 12 years, I know that I undercharge, but it makes it a lot easier to find work. I don't have to worry about marketing, I get word of mouth because I'm cheap.
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. -Confucius
They want compost, tell them to subscribe to
Oh, wait, you mean it's gotta help GROW flowers...
Never mind...
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
Friends get to mooch an hour of my time free. Family members get more.
After that, I charge them but ask them to make the check out to their favorite charity.
If it's cutting into my personal life or my other clients then I treat them like any other client or refer them to my peers.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
For friends and relatives, I usually do it for beer.
For friends of friends and relatives or relatives of friends I change $40 or so.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
When I help out friends and family I ask only for a gallon of milk and a batch of cookies (I would ask for beer but I'm just a wee little child - I should say though that after spending a long time getting rid of all the crap on my friends computer he made me a "special" batch which I didn't turn down). This way I avoid the awkward "So, how much do I owe you?" which is made infinitely more awkward by the fact that I'm just coming up with a random price that will get me a little closer to that new video card...
However, the few times I fixed a friend of a friend's computer I did charge $30 for the 45 min I was there. Thankfully, this particular person had used one of those GeeksOnCall places and said that I was a bargain.
I'm not looking to make a killing by helping all of the ignorant people out there but (as it was said earlier somewhere) people need to realize that being able to return a computer to proper its proper function is a skill equally real as being able to fix a leaky pipe. In order to educate people to this, it is necessary to charge them a fair amount (not an arm and a leg) and hopefully they'll see the true value of what they're paying for.
Oh, and the little money that I have made was recently spent on a mini fridge to keep my milk nice and cold!!
Lets see..
In general, people with windows I can't be assed to help. Even if they're willing to pay decent, which they seldem are. Except if its cute girls, then I'll do it for free, for beer, or for something more desireable than either..
For Linux tech support, I charge varying amounts, usually flat rates.
A 6-pack of High Life.
For everything else, there's Mastercard.
I'm off to buy some new friends. Don't wait up :)
I charge a lunch/dinner (pizza/pizza) and whatever they are willing to pay me. I mean really, I do it for the computers, not the money. THink of the old pentium pro with 64mb ram, just ITCHING to be freed to linux. Or atleast cleaned up... Poor poor souls...
Why not go forward to charging fifteen bucks per bag, and put up signs saying "Organic! Genuine! Home-made!" ?
If they're appropriately gendered and cute, charge dinner and a movie. Worst case, they reject your bid.
If they're not, the formula is: Where P is something you want/need, Q is how many of them, and H is how long you're expecting adaware to take while you muck around in the registry pretending to be doing something interesting (or how long it'll actually take, if they're not being annoying).
As an aside, I can't help most people any more, either. I don't have the patience to stop in the middle of what I'm doing, turn to the person staring over my shoulder and breathing down my neck asking questions, and explain for the eighth time what spyware is.
I don't mean to sound all superiour, I know my place, but sometimes it seems like everyone else with a computer is a fucking idiot, and I have no patience for that.
one company tried getting my SS# so they could list me as an employee and run taxes on me, etc. I told them no way...they can cut me a check to my business. They wanted that EIN number - again no way. B2B they only need your business name (only one business per state with that name allowed anyhow).
For your information, they are legally required to file a 1099 with the IRS covering all payments that they made to you in any year where the total exceeded $600. To file that 1099 they need either your SSN if you're an individual/dba, or your EIN if you're a corporation. Its not just standard practice, its the law.
And they can demand that you provide your EIN (TIN) via the handy-dandy W-9, so why not save yourself the hassle?
I usually just ask them for whatever they want to pay. I sometimes get $20 or I have gotten upwards of $200. I rarely have them call me again considering that I explain everything before I do anything. And ALWAYS explain that you are doing this for enjoyment and that you are not doing this as a business. That usually eliminates any view of doing something wrong on your part. It seems to be working pretty well. It might not be for everyone though.
"Oh, thats a bit expensive. You can get twice the amount of compost from the garden centre."
Retort with "But mine comes with a free foot up your ass!"
- 70 Euro for people I rather avoid
- 40 Euro for people I do not know
- 30 Euro for people I know
- a good bottle of wine for people I like
per hour. Never had problems with this system.Screw the FSM - Real geeks believe in the Invisible Pink Unicorn
A blow job will do. If I have to re-install an OS, then I expect them to open their asshole too. And they know this in advance...
Or, what I do myself is limit housecalls to short visits unless its a good friend, a known simple problem or someone looking for a tutor.
Running a spyware or virus scan on an infected machine can take 30 or 40 minutes by itself, while you sit there waiting and doing nothing but visiting. Ditto for an OS re-install, service packs, updates, etc. Lots of "clean-up" jobs are mostly idle time, which often inflates the bill above what it should realistically be.
Its much more productive to have the client bring their machine to you, so you can work on several at once, or at least do something else useful with your time while scans, downloads, installs, etc, run unattended.
I don't know what area of the world you people live in, and by now I'm curious. Because I thought most of the world has long ago dumped that kind of stone age barter model. We're no longer in the year 2100 BC, people, where the norm was "I'll give fix your thatched roof if you give me a clay pot and two breads", you know.
And, dunno how to say it nicely, but the examples I read are surrealistic. Lemme recap:
- a bottle of whine
- a pizza
- two beers
- a home-cooked meal
- an old half-working CD-ROM drive
- he'll supposedly come fix my pipe if I ever need it
Etc.
Umm... hello? Are we talking Elbonia or East Bumfuckistan or something?
Because where I live I can just go buy my own bottle of wine, if I ever felt like it. Beer? Well, gee, so I'm suppose to fix a retard's computer for something worth less than 1 Euro? Pizza? I can order my own. Etc.
Dunno about you, but my time is worth more than that. Even if we're talking Indian manual labourer wages (no offense to citizens of India meant, just using it as a generic low wage country), two beers for 1-2 hours of work is a fucking sad joke.
Ditto about services. Dunno, maybe your house was built on an ancient cursed burrial ground, and pipes burst every morning. But where I live I've only needed a pipe fixed once in the last 6 years, and I once locked my keys in the house and needed a locksmith. That's it.
And you know what? It cost cheaper to just call a plumber and a locksmith, than waste hundreds of hours of my time fixing every retard's computer just in case I ever need them.
That's the whole problem with that stone-age barter and favours system, and why the road to real civilization meant dumping it like hot potato: it's bloody inefficient. A few hundreds of hours of my time don't even start to be compensated by "yeah, but I saved some 200 bucks on those repairs." Well, gee, that's like, what? Working for some 50 cents per hour?
It's just sad.
No, thanks. I'll pay for repairs when I need them, and they can call a proper service centre when they need repairs to their computer.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
- For friends and family the rate is a home-cooked meal per incident.
- Everbody else pay my standard hourly rate which is around USD 120.
This has worked out very well over the years.My opinion? See above.
$150hr if your good. + travel time. You only need a few key accounts. Target med to big law firms. And schools. Learn old ass Novell.
I don't charge friends, so i'm their tech support, and they call me, spam me everytime a popup appear in their screen. .doc to a nasty .pdf (i'm a real geek, I answer everytime, so stupid attitude!), I make my nervous crise (every 6 months) and tell all of them to stop bugging me cause support takes me to much time.
For each friends it takes 10m, but strangely i have a LOT of friends, and then, when i spend about 3 or 4 hour a day answering emails and phone calls to teach how to convert a nasty
After this, I have less friends, bizarre isn't it?
But after a while, the calls returns and I think really I shouldn't have told them about my skills on computers! If only they gave me a bottle or two for my help, but it seems they don't realize it's not a pleasant job to remove spywares!!!
Now I'm in the position I can't charge them, but it's hard to tell them I don't want to answer them anymore for nothing. What would you do?
For people I don't know I charge from 20 to 50 euros / hour (I let you translate), depends if they are rich or not.
I think winetools downloads one of those, so maybe the licence issue isn't as worrisome as Sidenet says. Or perhaps just not everywhere in the world.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Here we have a LETS (local exchange trading scheme) set up that puts local people in touch with each other to trade their services. It's run by the local food co-op...
:-)
I pretty much do out-of-office-hours tech-support for babysitting, work on my car, and locally grown veg.
There's a "no moonlighting" clause in my contract, so it gets around that quite nicely.
"Pokey, are you drunk on love?" "Yes. Also whiskey. But mostly love... and whiskey."
...I'm done with Sergio
He treats me like a ragdoll...
Sorry. I say make like Gabe and fake a learning disability. All that cash isn't going to make up for lost time installing Windows95 on 266mhz PCs.
The only person that I still do this kind of work for on a rare, but regular basis is someone who owns an excellent French bakery in NYC. OK, after I fix your computer, I'm walking out with tons of fresh pastries!
(no, I'm not fat, but I'm willing to run a few extra miles after that one :-)
Never hit your grandmother with a shovel, for it leaves a bad impression on her mind...
I don't want to be a wet blanket, but this type of discussion among and between techie gurus such as we are could be construed as price fixing.
The exchange of information about pricing can be a factor in making an antitrust case for price fixing.
Check Section 1 of the Sherman Act.
Of course, this only applies to US Citizens, but that's most of us.
Is this the same Geek Squad who came to "fix" my mother-in-law's home network, didn't actually fix the problem, but managed to F up her Outlook settings in the process? Is this the same Geek Squad who then refused to troubleshoot the Outlook issues over the phone that they created?
Customer service, indeed.
"Avoid employing unlucky people - throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them." -- David Brent
In fact, just last night my mother called me with a computer issue. I told her to reboot and magically the problem was fixed. Would have been nice if the had that top 10 list sitting by her computer, though.
"Avoid employing unlucky people - throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them." -- David Brent
"Avoid employing unlucky people - throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them." -- David Brent
But when my mom calls me because her Dell is messed up, you're goddamn right I help her. And when my dad calls because Excel won't save his file because he's anal and has a directory structure like 300 layers deep, you're goddamn right I tell him how to fix it.
It's the least I can do for them putting up with me as a teenager, putting me through college, buying me a car, and landing me my first financial services gig. I'm a firm believer that you can be a dick to anyone in the world except for 3 people: your mom, your dad, and your wife. When your parents ask for something, you fucking give it to them. It's the least you can do.
"Avoid employing unlucky people - throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them." -- David Brent
HTH. HAND.
"Avoid employing unlucky people - throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them." -- David Brent
Now I'm a professional software developer and the last thing I want to do is fix someone's computer when I get home after 8+ hours of looking at a monitor. Plus, I haven't used Windows since I started this job 6+ months ago - I don't know the latest problems in the Windows world! All I know is that I don't see them in Linux.
"Avoid employing unlucky people - throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them." -- David Brent
C'mon folks, making a list is easy. I gave you 3 in the original post. Sit down and think about the things you commonly get asked for help about. Then write out the "answers". Maybe you have 10 things, or 5 or 20.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
Greetings, I have been doing work on the side for a couple years now, and really was offered too much money to say no. $50. /hr. Which makes my real salary in IT look as pathetic as it really is.....
I will do either type of work, at the resicence, or at my place. I tell them up front that it will be cheaper at my place. If I spend 4 hours scanning a 100GB disk for virus, spyware, adware and trojans at their place.... done the math yet? I keep detailed records of my work at my place, to the tenth of an hour, and what steps I have taken. I can start a scan that will take time, and move on to something else.... My friends with computers are tech savy, so it is really the general public I deal with.
I have also worked for other than ca$h. Everything from beer to auto repairs.... I even had an "indecent" proposal for payment, was married then..... I'll Barter, I'll Barter!
Sig Hansen?
Someone told me $50 an hour was the going rate for what I'm capable of doing...
I usually offer services for less, but I thin a lot of it comes down to how big a problem it is, time, or just how annoying it is. Price is usually determined once the task is done, and i'm more than willing to do "trivial" tasks like flushing virii and spyware for free. Granted I usually am offered something to drink while I do my work.
Someone I knew once made a comment about not doing support unless someone was willing to pay his $50+ rate since he was A+ certified. That attitude made me cringe.
I've also recently recieved alcoholic beverages in exchange for my services. Something I won't deny.
Insert Sig Here
I am a Tech and I do tech work for both the company I work for and on the side. The company has no problem with this since I don't do "on the side" tech for the company's clients. Since all the tools are at the office, I'm allowed to use the company's equipment to do the "on the side" clients, just not on company time. It's too good a situation to do anything to screw it up. At the company, we charge $25 and $50, depending and this is only for cleanup, period. The company doesn't want to get into doing total tech because the paperwork wouldn't be worth it, for what we do and we make plenty just cleaning machines since we can turn over lots in a day. I personally, do everything as a computer tech so all the rest of the money is mine and some weeks, I make as much on the side as I do at the company. I usually charge $50, $75 and $100 from everything from installing cleaning programs and cleaning to a total "save favorites, email, etc on a disk and formatting the harddrive and reinstalling. It's extra to go to their house and if they have dialup, I won't go at all. Dialup requires them to bring it in. It would take years to download all the programs you need to do a proper job of updating Windows/MS products. I usually have the computers for a couple of days and I keep records of all monies exchaning hands. Anybody that thinks they can screw the IRS, don't know much about screwing. You do not want to be on their radar so send them their cut and be happy. It's not that difficult. Hope this helped. the gnome
I did some tech support work for a local restaurant. Only asked for payment in food credit, $75/hour. Obviously it doesn't cost them that much on their bottom line, and I have a nice place to take people out for free dinners.
For family and friends, never charge a dime since they have talents you may call upon in the future. For customers -- simple OS loads, adware, spyware, AV fixes, etc., a flat $50 charge -- no matter how long it takes. They will keep coming back for more and send your name and number to their friends too. That's when you charge your per hour rate.
I charge a flat rate of $45 AUD an hour and have boatloads of customers. Like others on this thread I have noticed how annoying residential customers are generally... I do both business and residential work...finding that the business clients are impressed with my work and cost....but the residential users tend to be a little shocked at how much I charge. Some are almost idignant. I have learnt to avoid these types like the plague as they are nothing but trouble.
Thank God only a few people responded to this. I'm sure you will see this post in the top 2 or 3 responses :)
I work in San Antonio Texas. A local PC shop here charges $60 an hour for PC work. I charge $75. This keeps 'the masses' from trying to use me. Only people who REALLY want my services will pay and I REALLY don't want to do it unless it's worth my while. I will also barter for the right trade. I have gotten my gutters repaired and am working on my fence!
A girlfriend who's a stockbroker?
I usually do some tech support for the girl next door and mostly i only charge her to sex!
I am on the committee of a small science fiction con (we take the piss out of trekkies who take it too seriously) I ALWAYS tell people to pay what they think my work is worth or to give a donation to the con charity. They always pay me more than I would have dared ask for. I may not be insured but I personally guarantee my work and on one memorable occasion worked seventeen hours solid to sort out what eventually turned out to be an intermittent fault in a network cable. After another hour of arguing with my client I accepted money for seventeen hours work rather than the two I thought the job rated. Treat people fairly and they tend to treat you fairly.