BOOTMGR Corrupt + Can't Boot from Disc + Lots of Random Errors

[cypress]

Instead of just $20, I would pull the drive, put it in a $15 enclosure, tell the customer what I found, here are all your files, and charge at least $50.

Exactly. I would charge your diagnostic fee and offer the chance of backing up their files.

 

[Appletax]

I live in a small town in northern Michigan. I think $40+ for a diagnostic would be excessive here. I run my business out of my home and keep all the profits so I do not have all the overhead that comes with having a physical location and employees. I'm going to charge $20 or offer to keep the computer in exchange. I will offer to transfer her data to her laptop for $30.

 

[cypress]

Even for $50 that is a fair price.

 

[altrenda]

My suggestion was to spend $15 and 5 minutes of your time to give your customer added value and make $35 instead of $20.
My guess is you spent a couple hours on this instead of working on something else. I don't know how low your costs are or how small your town is, I don't know how you can stay in business making $10 an hour.
I'm not picking on you, it's just frustrating to see so many hard working people on here make less than what they are worth.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

Exactly. I mean no offense, but a $40 diagnostic is considered cheap I think. If you are only working for 20 bucks, you are losing money. Also, the way you can work it, tell them you will roll 10-20 back into the repair. That way if they don't get the repair done, you make 40. If they do, you've still made an extra 20-30. But if you only make 20 and they leave, you've bought lunch for a day or two I guess, don't know how you intend to survive like that.

The town I'm in is 10,000 people give or take. But one thing I've learned, if you charge cheap prices, those are the people you get. If you charge what you think you are worth and do a good job, people many times have no issues paying that. I would say you could start by raising prices by like 5-10 bucks, then inch them up over time. But then you could get your feet wet there, and see if people gripe. Less probably would than you think.

 

[Appletax]

Exactly. I mean no offense, but a $40 diagnostic is considered cheap I think. If you are only working for 20 bucks, you are losing money. Also, the way you can work it, tell them you will roll 10-20 back into the repair. That way if they don't get the repair done, you make 40. If they do, you've still made an extra 20-30. But if you only make 20 and they leave, you've bought lunch for a day or two I guess, don't know how you intend to survive like that.

The town I'm in is 10,000 people give or take. But one thing I've learned, if you charge cheap prices, those are the people you get. If you charge what you think you are worth and do a good job, people many times have no issues paying that. I would say you could start by raising prices by like 5-10 bucks, then inch them up over time. But then you could get your feet wet there, and see if people gripe. Less probably would than you think.

I agree with you all. 20 bucks isn't even worth getting out of bed for, lol. I feel that I can't charge that for not fixing something on a computer that was probably 300-400 dollars. However, I think about how I just had my car looked at, had no work done, and it cost $67 for a single hour of labor. I worked on this computer over the course of several days. 20 dollars is nothing for how much time I've invested.

I offered to fix it at a cost of around 150 or 40 for diagnosing it or 60 to have her data transferred to her laptop. At first she wanted me to repair it if it would last awhile, but I talked her out of it since the computer is older and is cheaper. She is better off getting a new system. She chose to have me do the data transfer. I spent an hour at her house transferring her data and talking to her about her frustrations with Windows 8 LOL. She is a very nice person and I enjoy having her as a customer.

She cut me a check for 65 bucks.

 

[altrenda]

She cut me a check for 65 bucks.

Thanks for the update.

Sounds like it worked out OK and you have a happy customer. Maybe she will refer you to others.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

See for me, it's 40 just to get me there, 75 per hour, usually half hour minimum.

 

[cypress]

I agree with you all. 20 bucks isn't even worth getting out of bed for, lol. I feel that I can't charge that for not fixing something on a computer that was probably 300-400 dollars. However, I think about how I just had my car looked at, had no work done, and it cost $67 for a single hour of labor. I worked on this computer over the course of several days. 20 dollars is nothing for how much time I've invested.

I offered to fix it at a cost of around 150 or 40 for diagnosing it or 60 to have her data transferred to her laptop. At first she wanted me to repair it if it would last awhile, but I talked her out of it since the computer is older and is cheaper. She is better off getting a new system. She chose to have me do the data transfer. I spent an hour at her house transferring her data and talking to her about her frustrations with Windows 8 LOL. She is a very nice person and I enjoy having her as a customer.

She cut me a check for 65 bucks.

Seems like you made out just fine and a satisfied customer in the end.