I'm currently facing some cash flow issues. Even tho I have a nice paying job for 2 days a week as an extra source of income next to my study, I've been facing a few bills which I didn't take into account when saving up money. Even tho I'm not facing bankruptcy or a massive debt, I am facing a life where I would have to spend as little money as possible and cutting out as many fun things to do. Since I can do this up to a certain degree but making myself a nice budget and live to it, I do want to keep doing those fun things. And since I have a skill that most people lack, and with the current state of economy, most people aren't too eager to being their PC to a shop. So, I want to print out some simple leaflets and put these up in the uni and supermarkets. However, what would be a decent hourly tarif to fix people's computer? 30 euros/hr? Or am I being too pricey here? Toolmaker

For people I'm familiar with, I do something like a minimum $35 charge for diagnosis, which I'll subtract from the repair charge, if they choose to go ahead with it. I charge around $20 per half-hour (which is close to the 30-euros-per-hour figure you mentioned).


Computer repair can be such a pain though -- especially virus removal. You sounds like you've got some familiarity with the biz, but I'd say to stick to upgrades if you can. Personally, I do repair work only for friends-of-friends nowadays.

Personally, I would rethink this since it's definitely not worth the hassles.
This sums up my thoughts on the subject, except the last part since I'm still not totally burnt out on computers:
As tempting as tax free money on the side sounds, it usually just isn’t worth the hassle. That’s right, I said it. It’s a hassle for us to work on personal PC’s. The laundry list of why it is a hassle is long, but I will try to just touch on the most significant aspects of it."

When I do need the cash though in the past I charged $40/hr US minimun and sometimes it works out great like the time I spent 5 min to fix someone's internet connection since someone tripped over the cord plugged into their router and I just reconnected it. They were kinda pissed but they agreed to the fee beforehand.
Other times I've spend hours trying to get a Windows PC rid of malware and spyware whereas I would just personally wipe the drive clean so take that into account. Especially, since you'll tend to see slow and outdated computers. At least that was my experience.
Oh and lastly no matter how much you charge people will always seem to feel that you are charging too much so it's a thankless job. And people will fell that they can call you and bug you forever after you fix their pc so make sure you get some understanding that it was a one time fix!

^^
Agreed.

Though, I generally hate wiping a customer's drive, so I'd be stuck there forever trying different things to save their data. In the days of FAT32, it was a helluva lot easier, since you still could get full access to the filesystem even if the OS on that computer wasn't bootable.






Bonus Anecdote:
On my last repair job, I had a guy's wife who called saying she was told her computer needed a network adapter installed, because it must have gotten deleted somehow. OK. That's gotta be a pretty simple job.

So, I pick up the computer from the husband, and sure enough the NIC isn't listed in the Device Manager. I Google the NIC that's in the box, and get the driver running. Takes like 10 minutes. I disable the network connection, and put an icon in the middle of the screen saying "CLICK HERE TO ENABLE NETWORK" or whatever. Foolproof, right?

Lady calls back telling me that she still can't get onto the internet. I'm like, "did you click the icon that I made for you?"

Lady: "Yes, but it still can't get a signal?"

Me: "Er... a 'signal.' Did you make sure all the wires are pushed in tightly?"

Lady: "Well, I thought it was supposed to be wireless."

Me: "The network connection for your computer needs a wire. I'm pretty sure I didn't see a wireless card in your computer. Do you have some piece with an antenna or something."

Lady: "Oh, yeah. I've got this antenna that sticks into that USB-port thingy."

Me: "Ahh...
[put phone on mute]: F*** You've got to be sh****ng me. She wanted me to install a USB device that she didn't bother to give me???[/mute]
Well, I can certainly come out and get that taken care of."


Moral of the story: Ask lots of questions ... even the seemingly silly ones like, "you only gave me one network card, is that the one you want installed?"

[Edited by - HostileExpanse on December 9, 2009 1:49:54 PM]

There's been a lot of these threads. I recommend doing what I did, go to the Geek Squad or other regional repair shop and charge half what they are charging. That amounts to about $30 for a "diagnosis", $30 for cleaning virus/spyware, or $60 or so if you need to back up data and do an OS restore. If I couldn't fix it right away I would opt for the data back up and OS restore, you can waste several hours trying to clear up all the spyware.

Quote: Original post by HostileExpanse
For people I'm familiar with, I do something like a minimum $35 charge for diagnosis, which I'll subtract from the repair charge, if they choose to go ahead with it. I charge around $20 per half-hour (which is close to the 30-euros-per-hour figure you mentioned).

This would be awesome! A friend of mine has been working in a shop for about two years. The business recently closed leaving him jobless as well.
He now does all the dirty magic for about 15 eur/h (no questions involved) plus a flat 10 eur charge. For big works, the hourly expense can be even lower. He needed to adjust the costs so low as people has proven to be happy to pay more than double the sum to get their PCs fixed in a shop, regardless of the fact the shop usually operates far worse than he does. Don't ask me why.

I agree completely with HostileExpanse when he says

Quote: Original post by HostileExpanse
Personally, I do repair work only for friends-of-friends nowadays.

I may add to his statement that even in this case, I find this really annoying. Seriously Toolmaker, you may want to consider fixing computers your last option, not your first. Have you tried looking around for less IT-related work? A couple of months ago, I managed to find a decent job as a translator. It last only a month but the pay was quite good, certainly better than having to pull my hair fixing personal PCs.

Quote: Original post by Krohm

He needed to adjust the costs so low as people has proven to be happy to pay more than double the sum to get their PCs fixed in a shop, regardless of the fact the shop usually operates far worse than he does. Don't ask me why.

Because service industry is based on brand, trust and reputation. Local wizkid has none.

Nobody pays for quality, only for effect.

And effect is much more scalable than quality, which in certain circles is binary value - it either is or isn't. Effect of service is highly subjective and has next to nothing with technical aspects, but much more with psychology, market demographics, word of mouth, PR and CR, customer goodwill and much more.

Also, people value work by what they pay for it. Lowering price is a bad way to build reputation. Large conglomerates which chase the bottom line obtain majority of funds in a different way, unrelated to market, production, research or sales. Brand is a major factor here. Indies cannot compete in that market.


I once did some math how much I'd have to charge to fix computers. After taking into consideration taxes (many of them), various social security costs, equipment, driving, know-how, etc... I came out at minimum of EUR75 + EUR50 flat fee. The net earning for me would be around EUR30 per hour (value of my knowledge, experience, effort).

Then I had to have some plumbing done. The charge was over EUR100 per hour + material cost. And I said screw it.

Think about it - new computer today costs EUR300 tops (quad core, 4 gig, ...). HD monitors go for under EUR200. Netbooks are under EUR300. Notebooks are EUR500.

It's simply not worth repairing anymore. Buy a netbook, put data on cloud.


And when someone calls me up with urgent "I lost all my data, my life is over, my job is over, I've lost everything", I say tough luck after they are shocked I'd think of charging for recovering it. Guess what: if your computer and your data is worth anything - give me 10% of that value. If it's your job on the line, pay me 10% of your annual income - after all, if you lose your job, you'll be earning 0.

So I always work either for free, or for full price. Except that free means when I do it, if I do it, in whichever way I feel doing it. But if you want it now, Now, NOW and Done Right - it will cost a lot. The middle ground is already covered by el cheapo repair services and warranties and that is not the market I care to compete in.

I would personally charge $15-$20 / hr.
Most people are going to prefer to take their machine to a big name shop rather than an independent, so unfortunately, in order to get any business, you'll have to keep your prices low -- very low.

More importantly, if you do start fixing people's computers, for the love of God, make them sign a waiver before you touch their machine.

My brother has fixed people's computers in the past and just charged a flat rate of 50 dollars. But those were friends of the family.

When I was doing it, I charged $60/hour and the first hour is charged in full, even if it takes 1 minute. $60/hour is a nice figure since you can just count minutes after the first hour :)

Also, it seems like a high price to charge but my strategy is that I *hate* fixing other peoples' computers so if I have to do it, it'd better be worth my time to put up with all the crap a tech would have to deal with. If people aren't willing to pay what I charge, it's 100% okay with me since it's frustration I won't have to deal with.

Since you're a bit more cash strapped, I think 30 euros/hour would get you more customers and seems to be a pretty reasonable price for the work.