How much would you be prepared to pay?

causewayer

If your PC or Laptop was generally running slow, took a long time to come to life after switching on, took a long time to open documents, possibly had viruses or spyware etc. - How much would you be prepared to pay to have it working perfectly again?

By working perfectly, I mean returning it's performance to how it was (or better than) when it was new.

The service would include:

Collecting the PC or laptop from your home or business premises.
Taking a complete Backup Image of the PC or Laptop.
Assessing the current hardware & software state, and advising you of any issues.
Low-Level formatting of the hard drive.
Re-installation of your operating system with all the latest security updates.
Re-installation of the main software applications – e.g. Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, MS Office, etc with all the latest security updates - if you owned the licences.
Re-installation of your data files such as documents, photos, emails, etc.
Installation of Anti-Virus & Anti-Spyware software.
Returning the PC or Laptop – plus the original complete Backup Image on DVD or on the hard drive.

Axwell

Not that much with the availability of software online to cleanup the registry and unused software or to do spyware cleanup. In most cases a lot of this is what slows the machine down and isnt hardware based so to pay someone a lot of money to do it would be pointless IMO. However a lot of people dont know enough about computers so might be willing to pay for a service but I wouldnt see them being interested if it was going to cost over €100 to be honest. There are plenty of people advertising services like this on adverts.ie all the time so you could get an idea from there.

conolan

It's going to be hard to get more than €50. Ideally you'd want to get €100 but in these straightened times...
Also consider that a replacement computer costs €500, whereas 3 years ago it would have been €1000 or so.

causewayer

From our experience in the Telco/Broadband industry, we have seen that many customer PCs and Laptops perform poorly, mostly for the reasons that Axwell outlined. However, many people do not have the knowledge, interest, or time to use the tools available to return the system back to its optimal level . The main factor in resolving these issues is often 'time'; in that, because the underlying problem could be one of so many things, consumers, especially inexperienced ones, can spend a long time unsuccessfully trying to fix the issues.

Furthermore, market research that we have carried out shows that one of the main barriers to people, using a Computer Service company, is that they are worried what the cost might be or escalate to. This is because most Computer Repair businesses do not offer fixed prices, charge by the hour, have to evaluate the problems first, state that to fix certain issues 'should take no longer than 3 hours', and offer prices 'From €xx', etc. Sometimes, the small print will include that they cannot guarantee resolving all issues from a particular service due to the wide nature of potential problems.

From experience in the corporate IT industry, where it is often deemed economic to rebuild rather that to fix, we think that a similar model could be applied to the home and small business market. We have the processes in place to rebuild (in terms of software) as economically as possible.

Therefore, we could offer a fixed-price and guaranteed resolution. (At the same time we would offer the options of RAM or HD upgrades). This would be wrapped up in a collection and delivery service.

I take your point, conolan, about the cost of replacement being much lower these days, but there is also an ethos out there that it is somehow 'wrong' to throw away equipment that was bought relatively recently and 'looks like new'. The pure economics sometimes don't stack up; in that, yes, in some cases it would be better to go out and buy new, but that is not what people necessarily do. However, there is a fine line in terms of pricing this kind of service. It would be more attractive to those with higher-end PCs, as the replacement costs would be higher.

We think that, even, those thinking of buying new, may consider a service that would bring an older PC/Laptop to running like 'it just came off the shelf' in order to pass it on to someone else in the family or business - rather than it being wasted.

Axwell

Well based on your studies/research etc what do you think someone would want to pay for a service to cleanup their pc?

betonit

people have the time, and will make savings where ever they can. A google search will point you to most of the issues, where a part is not required to be replaced. After that theres alot people doing this. Plus most people know someone who is computer savy and could diagnose probably what causes most of the slowness issues.

If you need to change a part you would want to let the customer know before doing so, then it becomes fixed price with conditions

Not knocking it but you have to consider these things.

TechieEddy

Hey Causewayer,

It would be a lot quicker just to call out to the users home and clean up their pc / laptop there and then than do what you are purposing.

The service you mentioned on your op would take hours. Granted it is a good service but how much are people willing to pay?
I'd say no more than €100. It wouldnt justify the amount of time spent on it.

Also its not just a case of just dropping the laptop back. You would have to re-connect it to any printers / scanners, set it up on their home network and ensure everything is working ok.

Finally, there is a serious amount of competition out there for this kind of work. I only do it part time.
I wouldnt get enough work to do it full-time.

I picked up an extra gig of memory for 20euro for my laptop, it sorted out any speed problems I had across the board.
Would that be considered a competitor?

TechieEddy

I picked up an extra gig of memory for 20euro for my laptop, it sorted out any speed problems I had across the board.
Would that be considered a competitor?

No, because the majority of performace issues are software related not hardware related. Also most computer users wouldnt even know what RAM was let alone replace it.

--amadeus--

To the question "How much would you be prepared to pay..." I think the answer is "not enough to make it worth your while"

You mentioned corporate experience and calling out to an office with dozens or hundreds of PCs would be the norm in taht environment. But driving around Dublin (or the country?) collecting PCs one at a time from users and then giving a 100% guarantee, sight unseen, that you will hand the machine back (installed?) as good as new? Brave move, you'd need to be turning them around at a very high volume to make it anything close to viable, IMO.

lecheile

--amadeus-- wrote: »

To the question "How much would you be prepared to pay..." I think the answer is "not enough to make it worth your while"

You mentioned corporate experience and calling out to an office with dozens or hundreds of PCs would be the norm in taht environment. But driving around Dublin (or the country?) collecting PCs one at a time from users and then giving a 100% guarantee, sight unseen, that you will hand the machine back (installed?) as good as new? Brave move, you'd need to be turning them around at a very high volume to make it anything close to viable, IMO.

I'd agree with Amadeus with regard to the profitability and scalability of such a model. Its also a very crowded space with 'PC Doctors' in every area and many hopping from house to house in their vans. The other challange with a business like this is whether people actually are aware that their PC is perfoming below par, if the degradation in performance happens over time, many won't notice.

Have you considered offering a remote access diagnosis and fix type offer (trust will be a big issue) which may be resolved remotely or at least you are only doing the visits - with prior knowledge of what may solve - where such visits are necessary.

causewayer

Thanks for the responses so far.

Thanks TechieEddy. We have processes in place to do the service in a couple of hours or so, and have automated as much as possible. I do take your point about what happens when we drop it back. It is difficult. Any viability will go out the window, if engineers get caught up with this stuff. Our initial thoughts are that we would just demonstrate the kit working as it should. This would be made clear in the service contract. After all, they must have installed the printer driver, etc previously. It may be down to an individual situation - if the customer is really not capable of doing it themselves.

Amadeus, the corporate reference was about the way that problem PCs are dealt with. That equally applies to one PC than to hundreds. However, I agree that the biggest challenge in making something like this work is likely to be in the area of logistics.
Betonit, thanks for your comments. I agree that there are lots of people doing this, but perhaps not very well. From a poll of IT colleagues, it seems that yes everyone is asked by friends to sort out their computer problems, but this can involve a few hours work – and generally IT people are reticent.

Thanks Lecheile. Yes, we have considered the remote diagnostic & fix model, both as a total service or as an add-on to our proposed model. However, the basic premise is that in many cases it is more cost effective to re-install the operating system, etc and then have a perfectly working system, rather than spend one, two, or more hours – and possibly still have unresolved issues. If people are not aware of the fact that their PC is under-performing – yes, they won’t want our service. From dealing with customers though IMO many people are ‘fed up’ with how long it takes their laptop to boot up or spreadsheets to open up.

delllat

i think that service might get 50quid off some people but i dont think it would pay more

u could also look at them delivering/mailing their laptops to you and you fixing them and mailing back in same box

the logistics would be a nightmare ,drivinng around collecting from addresses,people wasting your time keeping u waiting,traffic etc

if you partner with a tech shop i couold see it working

people could drop off their laptops then go shopping or whatver and you would stay in the same place doing what u do best ?

sounds better/easier to me

id be careful about guaranteeing success for your fee though because:

A.u dont know what age of a laptop theyre going to bring you

B.it might not be a brand you can locate drivers for

C.it could have problems that cant be fixed with your service

D.they could have no licences for their software so u could be breaaking the law iving them fresh copies

leitrim lad

hello causewayer
how long would it take to do this to a pc, thats slow loading,and opening pages and freezes up, every hour of use,
i would be willing to pay between €50-€100 if i got it fixed,

i have antivirus, but i dont think its covering full system,

and im not that computer literate,

also would you cover the kildare area

causewayer

Thanks for your thoughts Dalllat,

€50 isnt close to covering the cost of this service.

We have looked at the mail option but laptops, and PCs especially, need special couriers to avoid breakages. We have experienced too many problems before with this. Also, the customers are going to value a personal delivery to demonstrate the result of the service.

At the same time, yes, logistics would be a nightmare. We have some ideas about how to mitigate this but it is the most vunerable area in the control of costs. We are investigating partnering with a chain of retailers - not tech shops.

We would find out the age of the PC/Laptop at first contact. We have a driver library, but would have the right to not to offer the service.

If there are hardware issues then these would be separate from this service. As TechieEddy said 'the majority of performance issues are software related not hardware related'.

We will only install commercial software if the customer has the original media or the licence. Otherwise we would offer to install free software.

Bandara

just a side point, in these days of phishing, CC scams, identity theft etc I'm not letting anyone remove either my personal or business pc's from my home/place of work. Anything thats is to be fixed gets fixed on site.

causewayer

Thanks Hammertime,

Yes I agree, some people would have a big issue with this. Any assurances given are pretty meaningless. To some extent, the perception could be overcome by people removing sensitive data beforehand; but of course if someone wanted - it would normally be easy to recover.

However, it would be possible for an engineer to copy info from your PC in your home/business unless you were going to watch over his shoulder the whole time.

Also, many people do give over their PCs/Laptops to Repair Shops or the likes of PC World.

T-Square

TechieEddy wrote: »

Hey Causewayer,

It would be a lot quicker just to call out to the users home and clean up their pc / laptop there and then than do what you are purposing.

The service you mentioned on your op would take hours. Granted it is a good service but how much are people willing to pay?
I'd say no more than €100. It wouldnt justify the amount of time spent on it.

Also its not just a case of just dropping the laptop back. You would have to re-connect it to any printers / scanners, set it up on their home network and ensure everything is working ok.

Finally, there is a serious amount of competition out there for this kind of work. I only do it part time.
I wouldnt get enough work to do it full-time.

How do you go about paying tax etc?

T-Square

Hammertime wrote: »

just a side point, in these days of phishing, CC scams, identity theft etc I'm not letting anyone remove either my personal or business pc's from my home/place of work. Anything thats is to be fixed gets fixed on site.

And be prepared to pay a premium,
because a computer service technician can work multiple machines at the same time when they are in the office,
but he can only service *one* machine while on your site.

€150 an hour isn't unheard of.

Axwell

Causewayer, still waiting on an answer to my post - how much do you think you should be charging for the service based on the research and study you have done???

T-Square

lecheile wrote: »

I'd agree with Amadeus with regard to the profitability and scalability of such a model. Its also a very crowded space with 'PC Doctors' in every area and many hopping from house to house in their vans. The other challange with a business like this is whether people actually are aware that their PC is perfoming below par, if the degradation in performance happens over time, many won't notice.

Have you considered offering a remote access diagnosis and fix type offer (trust will be a big issue) which may be resolved remotely or at least you are only doing the visits - with prior knowledge of what may solve - where such visits are necessary.

The computer repair guy will go the same way as the tv repair guy, the vcr repair guy, the once-very-expensive-now-a-commodity guy, do I make a good point or what?

T-Square

1. €20 Collecting the PC or laptop from your home or business premises.
2. €50 Taking a complete Backup Image of the PC or Laptop.
3. €0 Assessing the current hardware & software state, and advising you of any issues.
4. €0 Low-Level formatting of the hard drive.
5. €50 Re-installation of your operating system with all the latest security updates.
6. €20 Re-installation of the main software applications – e.g. Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, MS Office, etc with all the latest security updates - if you owned the licences.
7. The €50 above cover that I'm afraid. Re-installation of your data files such as documents, photos, emails, etc.
8. €0 Installation of Anti-Virus & Anti-Spyware software.
9. €20 Returning the PC or Laptop – plus the original complete Backup Image on DVD or on the hard drive.

Total = €160

Axwell

T-Square wrote: »

The computer repair guy will go the same way as the tv repair guy, the vcr repair guy, the once-very-expensive-now-a-commodity guy, do I make a good point or what?

Not really, these services still exist but the products changed over time, VCR became obsolete, TVs turned to flatscreen, LCD and Plasma. People get those products fixed because they are broke and dont work.

People get their PC serviced because it is running slowly and is riddled with spyware etc, it stills functions therefore they dont send it back to where they got it but instead just geta service done.

delllat

Hammertime wrote: »

just a side point, in these days of phishing, CC scams, identity theft etc I'm not letting anyone remove either my personal or business pc's from my home/place of work. Anything thats is to be fixed gets fixed on site.

if your going to allow someone to do everything the op is going to do on these computers they could just as easily do all you above mentioned things in the privacy of your home or office

installing spyware takes seconds as would copying password or private files

delllat

T-Square wrote: »

1. €20 Collecting the PC or laptop from your home or business premises.
2. €50 Taking a complete Backup Image of the PC or Laptop.
3. €0 Assessing the current hardware & software state, and advising you of any issues.
4. €0 Low-Level formatting of the hard drive.
5. €50 Re-installation of your operating system with all the latest security updates.
6. €20 Re-installation of the main software applications – e.g. Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, MS Office, etc with all the latest security updates - if you owned the licences.
7. The €50 above cover that I'm afraid. Re-installation of your data files such as documents, photos, emails, etc.
8. €0 Installation of Anti-Virus & Anti-Spyware software.
9. €20 Returning the PC or Laptop – plus the original complete Backup Image on DVD or on the hard drive.

Total = €160

I think 50 is too much for backing up the HD
i think 50 is expensive for a clean install of xp
I think 40 is expensive for pickup/del charge

maybe its just because i know how easy these things are to do that i think theyre overpriced but for someone who hasnt a clue they might think its a fair price

T-Square

delllat wrote: »

I think 50 is too much for backing up the HD
i think 50 is expensive for a clean install of xp
I think 40 is expensive for pickup/del charge

maybe its just because i know how easy these things are to do that i think theyre overpriced but for someone who hasnt a clue they might think its a fair price

The thing is, you are thinking from the perspective of a pimply faced yoof who 'knows about computers'
who would backup, rebuild, and wash the car for a sniff of a fifty euro note.

A professional has over-heads, and liability insurance, and taxes to pay.
You simply can't get into a taxi and go more than a few yards for twenty quid. So, your poorly thought out response is going to be, "buy and drive a cheap van", and what about the insurance? the road tax, the maintenance of the van? haven't thought about those have you.

And why should a computer technician spend half an hour getting to your house/apt/office for less than €20 when he could just as easily be working from his office, earning money fixing machines.
Instead you get to spend, your productivity time, or leisure time, traipsing around Dublin with your knackered laptop.

As for backing up the machine, that requires office/shop space, and God-forbid the backup works, and then when you try to put it on the fresh box, it just *doesn't work* anymore. Then your premium goes up if it's serious. You also need license software to perform the backup, that costs money too. Sometimes you need to buy what is essentially software that does the same thing, just because the tool you have won't work with the machine you are trying to backup. Profits go up in smoke.

Professionals can't work for peanuts, they have families to feed.

mark renton

causewayer wrote: »

If your PC or Laptop was generally running slow, took a long time to come to life after switching on, took a long time to open documents, possibly had viruses or spyware etc. - How much would you be prepared to pay to have it working perfectly again?

By working perfectly, I mean returning it's performance to how it was (or better than) when it was new.

The service would include:

Collecting the PC or laptop from your home or business premises.
Taking a complete Backup Image of the PC or Laptop.
Assessing the current hardware & software state, and advising you of any issues.
Low-Level formatting of the hard drive.
Re-installation of your operating system with all the latest security updates.
Re-installation of the main software applications – e.g. Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, MS Office, etc with all the latest security updates - if you owned the licences.
Re-installation of your data files such as documents, photos, emails, etc.
Installation of Anti-Virus & Anti-Spyware software.
Returning the PC or Laptop – plus the original complete Backup Image on DVD or on the hard drive.

Important to note that these re-instalation services can be given at a competitive rate if disks are availabe - in some cases this will not be the case and then the cost will rise considerably

Axwell

T-Square wrote: »

As for backing up the machine, that requires office/shop space, and God-forbid the backup works, and then when you try to put it on the fresh box, it just *doesn't work* anymore. Then your premium goes up if it's serious.

Your premium cant go up for this, you cocked up doing the backup if thats the case its not the clients fault. You cant just go charging them because its going to take longer when its not their fault. You wouldnt be in business long if that was the way you ran things.

causewayer

Axwell, we are considering €119. In the longer term with volume we would be aiming for under €100.

delllat

T-Square wrote: »

The thing is, you are thinking from the perspective of a pimply faced yoof who 'knows about computers'
who would backup, rebuild, and wash the car for a sniff of a fifty euro note.

A professional has over-heads, and liability insurance, and taxes to pay.
You simply can't get into a taxi and go more than a few yards for twenty quid. So, your poorly thought out response is going to be, "buy and drive a cheap van", and what about the insurance? the road tax, the maintenance of the van? haven't thought about those have you.

And why should a computer technician spend half an hour getting to your house/apt/office for less than €20 when he could just as easily be working from his office, earning money fixing machines.
Instead you get to spend, your productivity time, or leisure time, traipsing around Dublin with your knackered laptop.

As for backing up the machine, that requires office/shop space, and God-forbid the backup works, and then when you try to put it on the fresh box, it just *doesn't work* anymore. Then your premium goes up if it's serious. You also need license software to perform the backup, that costs money too. Sometimes you need to buy what is essentially software that does the same thing, just because the tool you have won't work with the machine you are trying to backup. Profits go up in smoke.

Professionals can't work for peanuts, they have families to feed.

ooooooooook,so now everyone who thinks your service is over priced must be a " pimply faced yoof who 'knows about computers'
who would backup, rebuild, and wash the car for a sniff of a fifty euro note"

I can assure you i dont have pimples,am far from a teenager if thats what you mean by "yoof"??
and i own my home and 3 small businesses so i know what a 50euro note looks like and what it takes to earn one

you sir have obviously got a problem resorting to insults when you are here asking us "how much would we be prepared to pay" and then going off on one when you get told your service is overpriced

if you treat your customers the same way as you treat a bit of honest criticism you wont last long in business sonny :rolleyes:

if your so confident your idea is so great go for it ,grow some nutz and get it done!

you obviously arent since youre here wondering how much to charge:rolleyes:

T-Square

Axwell wrote: »

Your premium cant go up for this, you cocked up doing the backup if thats the case its not the clients fault. You cant just go charging them because its going to take longer when its not their fault. You wouldnt be in business long if that was the way you ran things.

You are missing the point.
It's the unexpected costs :rolleyes: