Prob getting paid for nixer

KTRIC

I'm a computer engineer and I recenty did some work on my brothers boss's computer in a popular northside conveinience store. I was paid for my first vist during which I reset the BIOS password on her pc.

A week later I got a call saying that she can't log in to the pc again and the password I set isn't working. I drove across the city again and after 30 old mins messing around i found that the keyboard was faulty, hence not entering the password correctly. The boss wasn't there and I suggested that they replace the keyboard and that I will be back for my payment.

I got a call today from my brother saying that his boss is not going to pay me for my last bit of work because she thinks I should have fixed the computer the first time.

Does anyone know where I stand with this and is there anything I can do about it.

secret_squirrel

Tell the ignorant mare where to go next time her pc screws up.

You just cant trust some people. Bearing in mind it will make trouble for your brother and you werent declaring it to the tax man I reckon you are stuck and will have to put it down as a lesson learned.

KdjaCL

How much were you going to charge her to tell her that her keyboard was broken?




kdjac

maccydoodies

Im no expert but just tell her that you fixed the problem that was wrong with the bios password and that this new problem only occured after you left. hth

KTRIC

considering it was 8 o'clock in the evening and i drove from Walkinstown to Coolock on both occasions I charged her 50 the first time and then I was going to charge her the same for the second call. As far as I can see it was pretty fair.
I wouldn't mind but she actually replaced the keyboard and then said to my bro that I was wrong and there was nothing wrong with the pc.

KdjaCL

Thats odd so she would have got it done cheaper if she brought the pc to PC world , thought nixers were supposed to be cheaper than full price work.

And she would have got a new KB and still been cheaper.


kdjac

KTRIC

KdjaC wrote:

Thats odd so she would have got it done cheaper if she brought the pc to PC world , thought nixers were supposed to be cheaper than full price work.

And she would have got a new KB and still been cheaper.


kdjac

I thought i was being very generous. It's not the money (i don't really need it) , it's the fact that she thinks she doesn't have to pay for services rendered.

tabatha

legally you have no leg to stand on as im sure being a nixer you are not paying tax. also, u didnt have an agreement about money, u just presumed that it would be the same as the last time. just take this as a lesson well learned and it wont happen again. on saying this, she should have been more polite about it though.

KdjaCL

Tabatha kinda right your best saying yeah i have a look it be X and any parts is extra.


I charge 20 for fixing + parts , Pc world is 34 to just have a look.


kdjac

KTRIC

I did specify the price and she agreed to it the second time.

Kdjac, that's very cheap, I couldn't see myself giving up my spare time for that money.

Duffman

Did you miss the fact that the keyboard was broken the first time? If so then you didn't really do your job properly, tough.

If it was a seperate problem that developed subsequently and you had fixed other problems before then you should be paid. Not just that but you are entitled to be paid. You thought you were doing work in exchange for payment, the boss clearly knew you weren't doing her a favour. Bottom line, you had a contract, you could sue for breach of that contract.

Duffman

K-TRIC wrote:

I did specify the price and she agreed to it the second time.

Kdjac, that's very cheap, I couldn't see myself giving up my spare time for that money.

You mean she agreed to pay you a set amount for the second visit?

See above, contract, ask nicely, send solicitors letter, sue.

KdjaCL

I only work in my spare time for mates etc: never as a means.

For instance pc on tuesday installed 192 more ram ,installed XP , configured tonnes of software for specific needs, took about 5 hours inc Xp install, charged him 40 cos of ram gave me 100 argued for a bit about ot accepting , he now servicing my central heating on sat , its how the world works




kdjac

RicardoSmith

K-TRIC wrote:

...
Does anyone know where I stand with this and is there anything I can do about it.

Learn from the experience that this is not worth the effort.

petes

KdjaC wrote:

I only work in my spare time for mates etc: never as a means.

For instance pc on tuesday installed 192 more ram ,installed XP , configured tonnes of software for specific needs, took about 5 hours inc Xp install, charged him 40 cos of ram gave me 100 argued for a bit about ot accepting , he now servicing my central heating on sat , its how the world works




kdjac

You scratch my back Ill scratch yours. Granted installing ram and reinstalling windows is easy but your the one that knows how to do it and how to configure everything after its done. Obviously you were doing a mate a favour which he is going to return. €20+parts is still very cheap. And OP you are goosed. No formal contract, working for cash and not declaring it. Chalk it up to experience.

CiaranC

kdjac wrote:

I charge 20 for fixing + parts

20 quid for a couple of hours of your time and a drive across the city?

You obviously have a lot of time on your hands to give it away so cheaply.

tabatha

he cant sue, he was doing something that is classified as illegal. he was working and not paying tax, nixer!! u dont get a leg to stand on with this, unless of course he wants to declare it and then go through a process of fighting it, your word against hers. as i said, a lesson well learned. u wont make the same mistake again.

KTRIC

Thanks for the advice guys, it helped alot.

petes

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=278808

From reading this thread if you are in a hurry forget about PC World.Nixer all the way.

jhegarty

K-TRIC wrote:

I'm a computer engineer and I recenty did some work on my brothers boss's computer in a popular northside conveinience store. I was paid for my first vist during which I reset the BIOS password on her pc.

A week later I got a call saying that she can't log in to the pc again and the password I set isn't working. I drove across the city again and after 30 old mins messing around i found that the keyboard was faulty, hence not entering the password correctly. The boss wasn't there and I suggested that they replace the keyboard and that I will be back for my payment.

I got a call today from my brother saying that his boss is not going to pay me for my last bit of work because she thinks I should have fixed the computer the first time.

Does anyone know where I stand with this and is there anything I can do about it.

wait for the next time her pc goes belly up... and have some fun :cool:

KTRIC

Am I allowed to "Name and Shame" here ???

petes

Does'nt your brother work for them? Could cause hassle for him.

KTRIC

petes wrote:

Does'nt your brother work for them? Could cause hassle for him.

Ah billox, was looking forward to it. All the advice in this thread has really helped. I was going to do something stupid before I seen some of these post's. It's amazing how easy it is to loose the head over something like this.

Farls

I've been caught out in similar situations to this, its annoying but there is feck all you can do about it.

I like yourself only do it to oblige friends normally but get all sorts looking for me. Currently i've taken a stance though where I'm 50 squid to just look for anyone thats not immediate, i mean best friend/next of kin!

Any other way and your being taken for a mug, I don't even want to do these jobs because they just lead to hassle, they always do. At one stage I was getting called every day to do nixers on pc's...had to change my number twice!

Farlz

Eoin

K-TRIC wrote:

Ah billox, was looking forward to it. All the advice in this thread has really helped. I was going to do something stupid before I seen some of these post's. It's amazing how easy it is to loose the head over something like this.

Yeah, sadly you just have to chalk it down to a lesson learnt.

I got caught in a similar position recently. A "mate" of mine who works for his dad's jewellery business rang me up and told me what he wanted to branch out on his own by having a website where he could sell some of his own stock. To cut a long story short, I fully developed the site (full online store, shopping basket, content management system - the works), arranged the hosting, put a pretty damn nice design on the site etc.

When the site was fully complete, he had decided to open an actual shop himself and obviously decided he didn't need a website and just stopped returning my phone calls leaving me totally out of pocket. Haven't heard from him since last September or so.

Though I went out of my way, and gave him a pretty good price there is nothing I can do, because it was a cash job

0utshined

eoin_s wrote:

Though I went out of my way, and gave him a pretty good price there is nothing I can do, because it was a cash job

Maybe I'm missing something here but if you never received money from him who's to say that you wouldn't have declared that income?

Eoin

0utshined wrote:

Maybe I'm missing something here but if you never received money from him who's to say that you wouldn't have declared that income?

um, yes. Of course I was

Right, gonna get either my money or his kneecaps this evening

Duckjob

Most important lesson you can learn from this is to lay out the terms before you go out there. In your case you should've made it clear that unless the problem was clearly caused by something you did last time, it's treated as a chargeable callout at €50 or whatever, so both of you agree the terms before you set out there.

Of course, you'll always have the snakes who will agree on the phone and then quibble afterwards, but in general this approach works well.

RicardoSmith

You should always try to get some money up front, or at least after you do part of it. If they won't pay a small amount , they won't pay any of it.

0utshined

eoin_s wrote:

um, yes. Of course I was

lol, I knew you were mate! Don't let him shaft you.

OP, in this instance I'd let it go for the sake of my brother. I'd be P.O.'d but wouldn't let her know and would write it off to experience.

Actually, if you haven't let her know you're annoyed would it be possible to let her think that it's cool with you and keep her sweet so that when she's stuck next time she asks you for help? Then charge her your standard rate + extra up front.

If she thinks you're competent and know their set-up it may be the way to go.

cormie

KdjaC wrote:

I charge 20 for fixing + parts

**** really?

dingding

This happned me years ago, I fixed an industrial machine in 10 minutes after his electrician was working on it for a week with no joy, would not pay as he reconned no one was worth 50 for 10 minutes work.

Another machine developed a different problem, again a 10 minute job, but I took a full evening, taking readings etc... Paid me 200 and thought it was great value.

It amazes me that some people don't value expertiese and prefer to see a lot of time on the job.

Would sugest the next time you go take 3 hours, charge 200 and you will both be happy.

the_syco

jhegarty wrote:

wait for the next time her pc goes belly up... and have some fun :cool:

Agree with this.

dingding wrote:

Would sugest the next time you go take 3 hours, charge 200 and you will both be happy.

This would count as the "fun", tbh.

=-=

Most nixers I've done thus far have been successfull, with the most being €100 (5 hours work, fixed 2 "unbootable" machines). Good price, as the "usual" guy charged upwards of €700 per day:eek:

Kernel32

I usually always have a side job going along with my day job. They tend to be bigger than the one off nixers I see mentioned here. A few years ago I got jibbed out of $5000 for work I did for an ex-employer. I learned a hard lesson from that. I don't hold a grudge. Instead I went directly to the client that they had me do the work for and I basically took that client from them. I still make a bit of money from them every year.

TempestSabre

Kernel32 wrote:

I usually always have a side job going along with my day job. They tend to be bigger than the one off nixers I see mentioned here. A few years ago I got jibbed out of $5000 for work I did for an ex-employer. I learned a hard lesson from that. I don't hold a grudge. Instead I went directly to the client that they had me do the work for and I basically took that client from them. I still make a bit of money from them every year.

If someone is mean, be meaner. Works for me.

ButtermilkJack

tabatha wrote:

he cant sue, he was doing something that is classified as illegal. he was working and not paying tax, nixer!!....

Not really. I don't think it is illegal at all actually. Who's to say he wasn't going to declare it at the end of the year and pay income tax? You can't say that.

There's nothing wrong with doing 'odd jobs/nixors' and getting paid for it. If he was to go to court the judge would not even bother to ask was he going to pay tax on it. That's a seperate issue altogether. It's up to the taxman to chase people who haven't paid, not assume everyone is not going to.

funk-you

walk into the store, eleco-magnet in hand and have fun with her system. Only takes a couple of seconds.

wait for another call and charge a fortune.

-Funk

wheres me jumpa

KdjaC wrote:

I only work in my spare time for mates etc: never as a means.

kdjac

agreed.

im in an i.t. course and people are always asking me for help. its always people i know so im happy to help. some jobs i do save people an absolute fortune. i dont charge anything. but the nice part is when somebody does actually hand over some money, and normally the people who are generous enough to hand over money, hand over an excessive amount.

im unsure about the law regarding verbal contracts, but in fairness could you be bothered over 50eur?