How much to charge for pc maintenance?

chamlis

I've just been asked about how much one would charge to repair/maintain PCs if one were to start their own business. I told him it would probably be best to charge by the hour with a fixed cost, but if it goes over a certain amount/time to let the customer know about the situation and see if they are still willing to go through with it. I also recomended not ordering parts for people, as it would be at cost and hassle.
I mean, you can't charge someone 200 quid for a 3 or more year old PC.....

Is there anyone out there who has any idea about pricing for maintenance, or has experience?

thanks

majiktripp

Have diagnosis fee's for people who just want to know what problem is, fixed 1/2 hourly rate as not all jobs last 1 hour/2 hours....most places minimum €90 per hour....and for god's sake do NOT say no fix no fee (I F&%^ing hate that!!!!-Basically says I might not be much good so I mightnt be able to help you-FYI theres no computer problem that cannot be fixed one way or another!)
Call out fees also apply.
Businesses get reduced rates and upgrades on older machines not really worth it unless just ram or hard drives or graphics cards/addin cards really.

chamlis

Well we are basically talking about one guy fixing machines, and he's thinking alot less than 90 quid per hour. More like 28 quid. (it's part time under the umbrella of another business) This guy is also quite gifted, so I appreciate the comment about no fix no fee. That could've easily been said. cheers.

majiktripp

I hope he's getting paid extra by the company who's contracting him because €28 is not worth the hassle he will run into fixing computers.Theres all the problems under the rainbow and the "public" dont put much value in their computers as after a while he will most likely see. ie.people out there have no problem paying fully a carpenter/plumber/brickie etc but a computer!? jesus sure my cousin can fix that....so I would put the price up a bit to at least €40 an hour.

chamlis

He actually owns the shop he's in. Just a bit of extra on the side. They deal with people's computers and periferals anyway, so this is just an extra bit to the service. The infrastructure is already in place for this kind of thing, if you know what I mean.

majiktripp

Not really...what exacty does he do? He already provides a service from a shop he owns doing what exactly with computers?

aFlabbyPanda

when I started out on my own I used to charger 110 per hour (no vat as I wasnt registered) or 275 for 12 months maintenance cover (excluding the monitor/keyboard/Mouse/Printer/etc). That was for businesses. If it was a home user I usually quoted a price to fix it and stuck to it.

As for buying hardware I always directed people to Dell for machines as I couldnt compete but would buy the parts either from Komplett or another place I knew at cost for cash and then put a mark up on them.

conzy

Was going to make a new thread about this but ill throw it in here if you dont mind OP...

The computer shop I was working in closed down so I was thinking of Fixing PCs myself, The only competition is 2 other very expensive PC shops...

Im only 16 so and I don really have money to buy parts.. Should I make people buy parts up front?

What if I spend 4 hours looking at a PC and its unfixable? I cant exactly say " Ahhh, Your PC is ****ed... €200 please!"

Any other tips

aFlabbyPanda

tbh if you spent 4 hours working at it and it was unfixable your in the wrong game.

I used to make people pay up front for stuff at the begining, until I could cover the cost until they paid me.

Ruu_Old

I still do the odd bit of pc repair nowadays, I charge $40 an hour and get a good few clients.

majiktripp

BrianjG wrote:

tbh if you spent 4 hours working at it and it was unfixable your in the wrong game.

Valid point,But like I stated above THERE IS NO PROBLEM THAT CAN'T BE FIXED! Its just is it cost efficient to do so!
Aside from that Always ALWAYS take backups of customers machines because its the "little" problems that you think you can fix straight away that manifest into a dead hard drive and a lot of explaining to do....
As for the poster who was thinking of setting out fixing machines at 16 years of age....Don't.
The expense would be too much to start off on your own at that age, and fixing computers for a living is grand as long as you know your way around all OS's including Server versions etc but if you do it for a hobby, you might need a bit more experience first.

Joeface

i actually do something like this ... and Im very cheap just cause im too nice

Call too see what the problem is €20, Fix problem €10 and if have too get parts usually I offer to order of the net for them and the bill too them for the exact parts ie the komplett invoice or tell them where to get it and let them do it ...Write a perscrition and tell them too hand it too the person in the store. and is €10 to to install. I will admit im not actually in it for the money

L31mr0d

Can I ask where you would advertise a service like this? The buyandsell, yellowpages?

The funny thing with me is I enjoy fixing computers, getting them up and running again and seeing the look of relief on peoples faces when all their unbacked up photos and documents are restored. I spent maybe 6hrs over a weekend on a family friends 2 PCs (one was dead, the other one was close) and I didn't even quote a price, but he gave me €100 for it. So i'm thinking of getting into it on the side, as I enjoy doing it and the money is good. I've used most PC based OSes extensively in college and at home for projects and a computer society so I know my way around nearly all of them quite well (maybe 3.x would stump me )

petes

Would charge €40 to €50 depending on the job. Most people these days usually have the same problem. No anti-virus or anti-spyware, so their computer is riddled. If I am doing a bit of networking/cabling usually a bit more. For a straight forward upgrade I wouldn't charge too much.