Doing some Computer house calls how much should i charge?

irishgeo

I have got a few calls lined up to fix some Computers and get rid of some virus etc. The usual house call stuff also have one job lined up in a hotel and hoep to get into building Pc's as well.I have also got a contract as soon as i get setup with a guy who sells second hand laptops and he has offered to give my card with all the laptops he sells.

I am thinking of charging between €40 and €50, for the house calls. Is that too cheap or just about right.

I also thinking of doing up a business card and getting a sim card so not to be disturbed on my private number.

Anyone else who has got into doing house calls have any ideas or suggestions as i intend to make some handy evening money out of it.

hostyle

Never quote a fixed charge. Charge per hour.

PowerHouseDan

Ya never have a fixed charge. A job could turn out alot bigger than ya think.

irishgeo

Any ideas of how much per hour. I was thinking €20 per hour.

Mac daddy

I remove virus and do rebuilds,upgrades, reinstalls basicly everything, every now and again, normally charge in the area of 30 per hour -

Would not advise you to build pc's every little problem they have with it they will be on the phone to you!!
I only build for friends and family and myself now.

Capt'n Midnight

Moved 'cos it's about €'s rather than windows.

And gotta agree if you build a PC people expect free tech support for life.
Also for friends/family - don't charge , it just isn't worth the hassle, favor for favor is much better.

Lenny

I have had a few of my friends askin me to build them good gaming computers, but they don't really have much of an idea about computers so i refused because I knew they'd be hassling me with every single ****ing problem they have all the time

kizzy2003

Well I charge €50 per hour but I know lads who charge close on €70 per hour and still get loads of calls.

I would say that if you think that you could get regular calls from a place then I would drop the price a little and screw them when it comes to replacing parts. They will still think you are doing them a favour.

MrPudding

I would say €50 for the call out, including the first hour. After that €30 per hour.

MrP

irishgeo

Thanks for the help guys. Some helpful ideas here. I wont be charging friends or family just the hotel and the guys i dont know that well.ill think ill start at €30 euro per hour and see how it goes.

My first build will be for my brother (no charge as its a dummy run), my 2nd build is for a friend who needs a new base unit). Think i may just supply parts and charge for installing parts rather than build PC proper for customers.

LFCFan

kizzy2003 wrote:

screw them when it comes to replacing parts. They will still think you are doing them a favour.

Good to see RipOffIreland is alive a well among the Nixer community too :rolleyes:

Mac daddy

LFCFan wrote:

Good to see RipOffIreland is alive a well among the Nixer community too :rolleyes:

LOL

snappieT

If we get screwed for parts, so should the end user.

If the end user is a shop-owner, and he screws us over, we should be entitled to reclaim our money. Economy etc...

Alun

MrPudding wrote:

I would say €50 for the call out, including the first hour. After that €30 per hour.

That's generally what I charge. Depends what it is though, and generally if it's a nasty virus/trojan type problem (which most seem to be these days) I usually agree a fixed price and just bring the system home with me and do it there, especially if the customer hasn't got broadband.

That way I can do other things instead of sitting there staring at the virus scanner / adwaware /spybot churning through 100,000 files full of crap, or I'm rebooting for the 99th time installing patches etc.

irishgeo

Alun wrote:

That's generally what I charge. Depends what it is though, and generally if it's a nasty virus/trojan type problem (which most seem to be these days) I usually agree a fixed price and just bring the system home with me and do it there, especially if the customer hasn't got broadband.

That way I can do other things instead of sitting there staring at the virus scanner / adwaware /spybot churning through 100,000 files full of crap, or I'm rebooting for the 99th time installing patches etc.

I spent the whole day at a hotel reception doing just that. Got a laugh. Some ladies came up to ask did i know anywhere scenic to go for a drive. I just smilied and said "I am only here to fix the computer and i started laughing." They seen the funny side of it to.One bird was fit and as the niteclub is the hotel i think i may see them later.:)

I charged €40 and i have to go back next week and setup a VNC for them and finish setting up the home computer.

Bebop

I agree that €50 for a callout is about right, with travelling time and all it might take 2 hours, I would not do a PC build except for family, users will expect free support for life and you could not hope to match Dell on price,
Also when you do a format and OS reinstall make sure that your user has backed up all their files, do not take on the responsibility of recovering data from a non booting PC or you will be blamed for for losing all their photos and music

RicardoSmith

Its a world of pain for peanuts....

Capt'n Midnight

Bebop wrote:

Also when you do a format and OS reinstall make sure that your user has backed up all their files, do not take on the responsibility of recovering data from a non booting PC or you will be blamed for for losing all their photos and music

Used to work for a company and the contract stated that they were to have a second backup to which we were to have NO access to.

Then again I've talked to people who did the a backup on to two floppies and wondered why they couldn't recover the whole system, and I've heard so many stories about photocopied floppies..

greglo23

i usually fit a second harddrive and point my docs and the store folder to it. saves a lot of problems later

RicardoSmith

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

Used to work for a company and the contract stated that they were to have a second backup to which we were to have NO access to.

Then again I've talked to people who did the a backup on to two floppies and wondered why they couldn't recover the whole system, and I've heard so many stories about photocopied floppies..

Ha ha. You reminded me of a problem I had reported to me during the week. Someone was having a problem with some Word doc and despite me asking repeatedly for the electronic copies to be emailed me, they faxed me the documents. We were in stitches in the Office about it.

kjt

Heya, I'm thinking of doing this myself too.
Was just wondering if everybody always does
the repairs on site, or if you would take their
*home computer back with you and do it from
home?

Alun

kjt wrote:

Heya, I'm thinking of doing this myself too.
Was just wondering if everybody always does
the repairs on site, or if you would take their
*home computer back with you and do it from
home?

Like most things in life ... "it depends". A lot of the work I'm getting these days is rescuing PC's from virus / trojan infections. I prefer to bring them back to base and sort them out here rather than sitting in someone's house staring at a screen for hours while I do countless scans / re-scans / windows update runs / reboots while clearing them up. That way I can "multi-task", and maybe have 2 or 3 going at a time, flicking between them with a KVM switch to see how they're getting on. YMMV.