No Fix No Fee

[britechguy]

if I am traveling to you there will be a charge for that.

That's always true for me. If there is an on-site service call, even if I find that the issue takes me 5 minutes to fix, there is a one-hour minimum charge and, if it's more than 5-miles from where I live/work, a mileage charge is assessed as well.

 

[VISA MC]

We charge a diagnostic fee for our residential in-shop service only. On-site pays for an hour and it can be used however they want. We have had people pay us to sit at their kitchen table and talk to the cable company for them. I have no problem with this, they are paying for the time.

Our diagnostic is a fairly thorough diagnostic. We have shops in town that look at a machine say “it’s slow time to replace” when we discover the machine has decent specs and could benefit from an SSD and a touch of RAM. But when we do a diagnostic we identify the issue, then locate parts put together a formal quote not just a number and give it to them. I would say 98/100 our diagnosis is spot on and the repair is authorized.

We had a gaming machine in not long ago that had two drives. One was a normal 2.5” drive and the other was an m.2 drive mounted to the back of the motherboard. Disassembly was going to take roughly 30 minutes, plus reassembly and the actual screen time diagnosing it, we had more than 2 hours into it. At least my diagnostic fee covered my techs time to do it.

 

[sapphirescales]

That you even agreed to do such a thing on a 6 to 7 year old machine to begin with is outrageous unless the client really, really pressed for same after you told them that a new machine was far more economically feasible, and a better option.

Trust me, I tried. She really didn't want to change computers even though she needed the computer ASAP and it would take longer to fix hers vs. trading it in. Even with overnight shipping it took me 3 days to get it back to her. I have clients choose to put more money into their computer than they should all the time. If it wasn't for the time factor I bet she would have wanted me to buy the same laptop used on eBay just for the power button.

Even at $100 per hour

Plumbers in my area charge $250/hour not including the 200%-300% markup they have on parts and appliances. Installing a $400 water heater cost me $2,000. Why people (including techs themselves!) don't value the time of repair technicians is beyond me. It's the ONLY profession where people think it's acceptable to make peanuts for a job that requires an insane amount of knowledge and technical skill that you also have to CONSTANTLY relearn. You can't just go to trade school for 6 months and never have to learn again like most trades. My clients aren't just paying for my time working on their computer, they're paying for the countless UNPAID hours I spend constantly continuing my education in order to keep up with new technologies. No plumber has to do that. My MINIMUM charge is $125/hour. It just doesn't make sense to work for less than that. I average much higher though, closer to $200/hour. I charge flat rate 99% of the time so clients don't usually see my hourly rate, but that's what I try to attain with all of my jobs.

$550, my God, your clients must be lunatics if they pay that much for a backup, SSD upgrade, and windows reinstall.

It's what my market can bear. Most of my clients spend at least $800 on their computer and don't see a $300 Walmart special as an option. Most of the time if I can do the repair for less than the cost of buying a new $800+ computer, they'll decide to do that. When the computer is older than 3-4 years though, I usually recommend trading it in for a business class. I can get them a nice business class unit with an 8th gen or newer CPU for $699. Doesn't make much sense to put $550 into a 5th gen system.

 

[Big Jim]

I think for the sake of an hours labour I'll waive fees.
It is the wife of a repeat customer that lives 30/40 minutes away with other repair shops closer to them so they are obviously happy with our service and/or trust us.

 

[Big Jim]

Does the doctor charge you when he tells you that your cancer is terminal?

No fix or free is being like a pizza tech and just undermines the whole industry.

No because I live in a country that doesn't extort money from ill people

No fix, no fee is not pizza tech territory IMO, I don't know how it works on your side of the pond, but over here most PC/Laptop repair shops that I have seen (at least dealing with residential) offer no fix no fee. And I can count on one hand the amount of times it has been applicable over the last 10 years, so it's not like its costing us a ton of money. And as you said in another post, you can almost always fix the problem even if it is not economically viable for the customer, this way the diagnostic fee is always collectable.

 

[alexsmith2709]

I offer no fix no fee as well. If a customer declines the fix then i will charge a diagnostic fee, but if i genuinely cant fix the issue, even if it is not on the "local" side as this problem was i dont charge. As others have said, this generates goodwill and the fact you offer no fix, no fee is possibly why they chose you in the first place.
There is a big difference in not being able to fix an issue and the customer declining a fix that you/we can do.

I give out free advice to many clients and it keeps them coming back and most of the time when they come back, they sped money. I see it as both an advertising cost and a trust building exercise.

 

[Diggs]

We have had people pay us to sit at their kitchen table and talk to the cable company for them.

I resist doing this whenever possible. I have for a few business customers as Charter answers their business lines on the first couple of rings but for residential I don't have the patience for a 45 minute on-hold session at a customer's residence. Just no.....

 

[britechguy]

I don't have the patience for a 45 minute on-hold session at a customer's residence.

If they're paying me, I'd easily have the patience for this. I've had to do this sort of thing for myself often enough, and then it's frustrating because there's no return for time spent.

But, this is definitely "to each their own" territory.

 

[britechguy]

technical skill that you also have to CONSTANTLY relearn.

Another bit of sapphirescales patented hyperbole. Most of what I do, and have been doing, as a hardware repair technician has not changed one iota since I started doing it. The difference between sliding a IDE versus SATA versus NVMe drive in is not "constant relearning" on an epic scale nor is almost anything else about replacement type business, which is what, by direct description, is what's being talked about on this site 99.999% of the time.

Software installation and configuration, while it does require learning on an ongoing basis, is so much easier than it once and only keeps getting easier.

Every business has to learn new things, constantly, in order to keep up. Auto mechanics of the past 40 years have seen much more fundamental change in much of what they deal with than we have. Ours has, for the most part, been a variation on a well-established theme unless you're the one designing/inventing at the component level and/or doing diagnostics at "the level of the board."

If people are willing to pay you $125 per hour, then good for you. You couldn't make that and stay in business in this part of the country for love nor money. You might get away with it in metro DC, for instance, but that's not because of knowledge factors, but cost of living factors.

Of course, I take anything you say at all not with a grain of salt, but a boulder. You are the world's biggest exaggerator, and that's putting it very kindly.

 

[cypress]

I resist doing this whenever possible. I have for a few business customers as Charter answers their business lines on the first couple of rings but for residential I don't have the patience for a 45 minute on-hold session at a customer's residence. Just no.....

Why not? There is certainly value in that. I've had to do that quite a bit when the customers complains their internet speeds to be slow and after doing speedtest and seeing their bill it is discovered there are issues with the service or even they are paying way too much and had no idea. Clients really appreciate you looking out for them on things like that and it brings me repeat clients. Heck, if I am charging by the hour I don't mind at all! lol

 

[Philippe]

On-site pays for an hour and it can be used however they want.

So true, I'm dealing with elderly people (mostly) and they need a lot of patience. So I'm billing by the hour (quarter of an hour actually) and if they feel the need to tell me what happened in their life, I'm listening & getting paid. I just make sure they understand the deal.
Time spent with them = time not spent with another (paying) customer.

 

[callthatgirl]

I don't offer no fix no fee but for some requests, I offer a 30 min "try" fee. This is usually for data recovery requests. Otherwise, I bill for all my calls. The no fix fee doesn't work with Outlook and 365 support, there is always a fix lol. I sometimes decrease my bill if I worked on it and considered it research time.

 

[britechguy]

I sometimes decrease my bill if I worked on it and considered it research time.

Same here.

 

[Rigo]

I've changed my terms to: "No fee if I don't know how to fix it - Doesn't cover that you don't like my solution" ~ stated on my work order form.
Those who balk at it are not worth being my customers.
This is after a couple of onsite diagnostics when the clients said now that they knew what the problem was, they've got a friend who can do it for them.
I'm now paid for my time and knowledge.
I used to work in manufacturing where when the production line is down the crew sits out the shift and still gets paid their time in.
Definitely do not know what I'm going to encounter whilst diagnosing. If it's fixable you pay me for telling what's the problem and providing a solution. And applying the solution if you're ok for the full charge.
No professional who knows what they are doing works for free, we all only have 24 hours/days. I better get as much as I can out of each one of them.
I'm not here to tell people they're better off buying a new one if I judge it fixable. They were happy using as such until the problem occured.
And there are a lot of people who prefer to have it repaired rather getting a new one even if the cost of repair is not far off a new one's.
Of course if I just glance at it and determine it's not worth fixing, that's probably free. If it takes bench time to find out, my diagnostics fee apply.

 

[britechguy]

This is the wording in the Service Agreement I have any client sign:
---------------
Warranty: If Bri the Tech Guy is unable to fix your issue or provide a solution, there will be no charge to the client, unless a diagnostic fee was agreed to in advance. It is the client’s choice as to whether any solution is accepted, but the diagnostic fee is payable, when one is required, whether the client accepts a solution or not.

____ This service will be charged a $75 diagnostic fee

In some instances, parts may be required in order to resolve your issue(s). Those parts are covered under the manufacturer’s warranty. All hardware services include a thirty (30) day labor warranty from date of completion. I understand that no verbal or written guarantee or warranty, either expressed or implied, is given regarding the successful outcome of this technical support. Though every effort will be made to achieve a successful outcome, this is not always possible.
----------------

There are plenty of times where I don't charge a diagnostic fee when, to me, both the issue and the fix are obvious. There have also been times, though very few of them, where what I thought would work did not, for some reason, but the diagnostic fee is still payable, but I do not charge for any of the time I put in afterward if I cannot fix the issue.

 

[frase]

I generally charge a diagnostic fee of $50.00 initially, if they wish to repair this gets taken off the repair labour charge.
As sometimes they may try to shop around after wasting my time diagnosing it.

@britechguy I do like your wording would you mind if I used that.

 

[britechguy]

@frase

Not at all. I know that I lifted it, at least in part, from someone else who posted their Service Agreement & Waiver.

I wanted something that was written in clear, easy to understand language. Like you, if the diagnosis leads straight into the repair that fee is a part of the whole affair. I don't take it off, per se, but generally most diagnoses are a good chunk of the repair process anyway. The fee is just there in case the repair were to be declined.

 

[Blues]

@britechguy I do see a big thing to note/comment on in your verbiage and that is I think we can all agree there is a distinct difference between no fix and no fix accepted. If I provide a solution and tell you it will take me 5hrs labor and $200 in parts to fix your problem and you refuse that doesn't mean "no fix" and a fee is still applicable. I will say if I get something like that where the fix is easily over half the value of the equipment then I would probably treat that more like a no fix as my recommendation would probably be to replace and my goal would be to get paid on new equipment setup and transfers.

 

[britechguy]

@Blues,

I changed the bit to include "no fix accepted" due to what has been discussed in this very topic. When I say no fix, I mean just that, I can't fix it. Not that I could fix it but you don't want me to or even I tell you that based on what I found it makes no sense.

I have had I less than 5 (2, I think) actual "no fix possible by me" incidents over the entire time I've been doing this. I've also had equally few "fix not accepted" situations as I generally have my own "process of old hardware elimination" screening process where, if said hardware fails the screen, I suggest getting new and having me set up and transfer.

It's funny, though, I just had someone who called after getting a "lemon" HP laptop (and a high end one) who decided to jump to a Mac rather than just returning it for refund or exchange. This is something I'll never quite understand, as it is no easy task to learn a new ecosystem. He also has a cheap netbook that he really wants to be able to use as a Windows PC for Zoom and just so he has a PC and the thing is one of those miserable machines with 4GB of RAM and the tiny on-board soldered-in drive. He still wants me to do a memory upgrade to 8GB for him, so I am. I would never have done this under usual circumstances, but if I've informed the client and they want to proceed in full knowledge that this is not the best use of money I have done my duty.

 

[Your PCMD]

Lets revive this thread

I used to have a no fix, no fee. That has been changed since a year ago.

Now I charge a diagnostic fee but waived it if serviced. Why do I do it? Simple. A client comes in, I find the solution, whether or not I personally can fix it or not, the client decides not to "fix" it, takes that knowledge to the neighbor and they fix it for free.

The point is, I provided a service, regardless of the outcome.