For those that offer Remote Support..

[ThirdMCC]

I want to start offering remote support, but the billing is my only issue. How do you charge for it? Do you get the clients credit card info up front and charge a flat rate? Do you bill their card when the support is done? Or do you just mail them a bill?

I will soon be accepting credit card and electronic check payments through PayPal, so I have part of this covered. I'm a bit leery of having to mail a person a bill, because who knows if they are really giving you their real mailing address, and who knows if/when they will pay.

I'd like to hear your thoughts.

[Blues]

I would say either a flat rate or some kind of initial connection fee. I would have them do this online where they have to input information and agree to some kind of terms. For those who don't pay you can have a collector sent to thier door for bing a worthless bum.

[techsupport]

You mentioned that your site is going to have a link to a paypal where you can accept credit cards and paypal payments. I would put a "store item" on your site of some sort of flat rate for remote support. You could then have them pay for the service up front. When they pay, they will get a receipt from paypal with some sort of unique ID on it. I would have them give you the unique the ID and then you complete the remote support transaction by helping them. If you could automate all of this, that would be even better as some folks will be leary about paying before getting the help. You should probably offer some sort of money back guarantee to help alleviate their concerns.