Computer Repairs - What are you charging?

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Generic Eric:
I was paid up to $29 for what amounted to tech/desktop support. I start there. Or barter. One person I did work for paid in ground beef from the cattle they raised.

The new tech gets in they way of helping people. I'm not inclined to learn Win8 at this point and I don't have an iPhone.

I have one person I do work with periodically that likes to make sure he paid me enough. I think its his way of admitting he needs help and subsequent guilt for not knowing. He has a bizarre problem that mp3s moving on his old machine. I'm reluctant to carrying on about it here because a.) It doesn't make sense b.) I'll be making money from it when I work on it. He is one of the retired folks that drinks coffee every morning at the gas station, I don't know if that is a local thing or not but I never noticed it before moving up here. He said to call so and so down the road because he needs help, but I'm not interested in chasing after leads right now.

Don't beat around the bush about the machine. I don't care to keep someone ones XP machine running. If it needs a RAM upgrade I'll say so. If that won't cover it, tell them to call back when they have bought a new machine.

Do you do home visits? I've had cable installers come in with the white room booties over their shoes. I thought that was a nice touch.

Additionally, I don't believe everyone needs a computer now a days. I think tablets fill that low tech/high info ratio well.

Finally, know your competition. If the guy down the road will do the same work, even if for more, tell them they can queue up or pay the other dude extra.

Malenko:
I charge more than what I get paid at my real job, 1.5x to be exact. I put in my 40 hours a week, so anything else I have to do is overtime. I make some exceptions for family but its few and far between. If you do something well, don't ever do it for free.

Also, since M$ doesn't support XP, neither do I.

CalixPapi:
I was pushed into learning W8 and honestly don't have much to say either way about it but am not looking to "upgrade" to it. I was an Android user for awhile but have more Apple products that like to talk to each other so going with it for awhile.

I do home visits sometimes but have been making them come drop their machines off to me. This gives me a good idea about how serious they are about the repairs. If they give it to somebody else to drop it off to me they wait longer because then they are all of a sudden unavailable to answer simple questions about what went wrong and what do they want saved if anything at all.

Had one family member send his pc with somebody else and would not respond to my calls or texts so after a week and a half I dropped it off at their house. A month later he text me and said the computer was doing the same thing and told him that is because I never worked on it. Two weeks after that he text back why? Now he won't look me in the eye at parties and heard he was trying to talk ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- about the work I do.

Mr_Numbers:
I have a system just like Malenko, I charge 1.5x what my hourly is. Repeat customers I only charge 1.25x or about 25-30/hour. The trick with being in business is to be fair but stern about what you want to get paid.

Le Chuck:
Computer repairs/upgrades are barter only. If they want to pay cash they can go elsewhere. As soon as I take cash they expect lifetime tech support. Same reason I don't make machines for much above cost. I let them know that it's a hobby and I'm doing it for enough that I'm not going broke making them a machine. Limits the tech support calls.

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