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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.
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 you want to keep them as friends, I would not charge them. Either do it for free - or don't do it at all.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
$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!
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.
At those rates, I'd have trouble believing you'd be professional or reputable.
::Colz Grigor
Here's the deal: call around and ask local plumbers and auto mechanics what their labor rate is. Find an average and charge that rate for your computer services. It'll be in the ball park of $85+, unless you're in a semi-rural area. Run your service in a similar fashion to these other service professionals: Document a description of the problem, provide an estimate, and get the customer's signature. Go in with a completely professional attitude. Wear a shirt and possibly even a tie. Solve their problem. If the problem is more complex than you'd anticipated, discuss the change in commitment and offer a significantly discounted rate for the additional time.
You can charge friends significantly less, of course, or preferably barter with them. But if you're dealing with a friend of a friend, at least get things documented.
Where is this illegal? I do something for you as a favour and sometime down the road you do me a favour. This isn't politics (public office) or something that could hurt the public (like informing your biggest shareholder to sell prior to your company making a bad news announcement).
Nothing illegal about this - and it would be hard to make illegal... "Hm Your Honor, my brother fixes my car for free...and yes I do fix his computer for free...he is my brother afterall"
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
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.
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.
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.
I should also clarify that I live in Upstate New York and not NYC. $20 does seem too cheap. The local computer store charge a $40 minimum bench charge plus an additional hourly rate. It would typically end up $100 to remove virus and spyware. and do some other tinkering. Maybe $40 would be more appropriate. There's just something about that $50 mark that seems like you should have a real storefront. But I fix computers for a school district, so I'm not used to having to charge people for my time.
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.
I agree on the rates ... when I was doing solo network consulting I charged $100.00/hour, flat. I also required that the client purchase any hardware/materials I might need so that I didn't have to do the sales tax thing. I would, if asked, give them vendor recommendations where I knew they would get a reasonable price, but I made it clear that I was not a vendor and I had no interest in WHERE they bought the stuff.
... polo in the summer. You can even adopt a beard if you want to, after all, it's part of the geek image. Above all, be neat, clean and professional. Think Sid Dabster of Userfriendly or Nick from GPF, NOT Dexter or Fooker. They may be alpha geeks but a professional alpha geek is a different breed entirely.
Wear a shirt and possibly even a tie.
I agree with the sibling poster. I would always wear slacks and an open collar shirt
utter rubbish
At those rates, I'd have trouble believing you'd be professional or reputable.
Here's the deal: call around and ask local plumbers and auto mechanics what their labor rate is. Find an average and charge that rate for your computer services. It'll be in the ball park of $85+, unless you're in a semi-rural area.
No, he's probably not professional. The reasons plumbers and electricians can charge so much are they are 1- licensed, but mostly 2- they're insured. I can demand $200 an hour, and when the client asks why I charge so much, I can say that all my work is *insured*, that any damage I might unintentionally cause will be covered by the insurance company. The neighbor's kid may charge less, but what happens if he drops a coke into the laptop? What happens if he destroys all the data? What recourse do you have? Because professionals are insured, they can charge more because there's less risk.
-- If god wanted me to have a sig, he'd have given me a sense of humor.
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!
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]
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.
Personally, to me, certification means doodley squat when it comes to computer repair. Get it if it will help your career in other directions, but I don't think of it as useful for computer repair.
If something takes longer to fix than you think it should have, then you can offer to knock down the price afterwards. If it takes way too long, maybe you're in the wrong business.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
That scenario is easy to overcome. I stopped doing side jobs for awhile do to running into that problem. I have since taken a page from RR. After I fix someone's computer, I then make sure that I print off all of the logs from the AV and Anti-Malware software. I then have the user sit down for a test drive. I have them use the new HW/SW/feature/etc. I then have them verify that the entire PC is in working order to their satisfaction. Then I hand them a receipt for their payment that they must sign. On this receipt, it states that they are satisfied with the final state of operation of their computer. I then give the customer a copy of the receipt, and then keep a copy for my self. The copy for myself, I save for my taxes, and if they call back a week later winig that I broke something, I then ask them if they rember that we went through and verified everything was in working order before I left, and that they signed off on it. If stated in a professional and tactful way, most customers agree with me, and then don not even mind paying me for a return visit. The ones that get mad and upset are usually the ones looking for something for free, and never call back after I pont out that they did agree that it was working when I left. Customers like that you do not need anyways, so it is no big loss. I haven't had any problems since.
That's the kicker. You have no way of knowing if what you did stuffed up there modem or not.
It's a bit like going to the mechanic and saying: "since you fixed my brakes, the gearbox doesn't work properly any more." He'll tell to to GTH, they're not related. Can you be so sure in something like a windows OS?