Charge for Diagnosing?

Almost all of the work that I do is in my office, so I charge a 29.99 diag fee for desktops and 49.99 for laptops (if I have to unscrew anything, such as check that the keyboard is hooked up, etc.) I have never had anyone say anything about the fees. However, if the customer chooses to get the repairs done, then I will wave the fee of the diagnositc (much like a car dealership).

I believe its important to charge for a diagnostic, because it shows that your time is valuable and time is money so if your finding out peoples problems so they can go home and google it themselves for a fix then thats not smart business.
 
xxsilk109xx said:
I believe its important to charge for a diagnostic, because it shows that your time is valuable and time is money so if your finding out peoples problems so they can go home and google it themselves for a fix then thats not smart business.
Click to expand...

Yes, and diagnosing can be very time consuming at times especially if it is an issue that I have never had or seen.

Thanks
 
The thing with computer diagnostic is many of the methods and tools we use to determine the cause of a problem, also sometimes FIX the problems. Like running chkdsk or even booting to safe mode... What then? Personally, I think we need to charge for our time and expertise, whether we fix something or not.

Here's how I handle diagnostic...

If the problem is unknown and I have to try to figure it out to give an estimate for repair, I charge a $65 diagnostic fee. I'll call the client, tell them "You need x and it's going to cost y. If you want to go ahead with the repair I'll waive the diagnostic fee. If you choose not to do the repair, you still owe me $65 for the diagnostic."
 
I will be charging an up front diag fee of $60 that will be applied towards the repair costs if approved. If repairs are declined then the $60 is non refundable due to the diagnostic time needed. This works well at my current employer.
 
With a deposit or some sort of security, I'll let the customer take a refurbished laptop loaner ( always with a little more power/features than the one they need repaired) Lots of the time I end up selling that unit to them and taking their old one on trade, I repair and max that one out and back on the market it goes. I'll do a clone using Acronis "plus pack" and "True Image" on the loaner so the customer doesn't have any down time. They really appreciate this and it helps bring in customers. I also try to sell a back-up system to customers, usually an enclosure with automatic back-up s/w.
 
dakotadan said:
With a deposit or some sort of security, I'll let the customer take a refurbished laptop loaner ( always with a little more power/features than the one they need repaired) Lots of the time I end up selling that unit to them and taking their old one on trade, I repair and max that one out and back on the market it goes. I'll do a clone using Acronis "plus pack" and "True Image" on the loaner so the customer doesn't have any down time. They really appreciate this and it helps bring in customers. I also try to sell a back-up system to customers, usually an enclosure with automatic back-up s/w.
Click to expand...

Some questions, please. How many machines a day do you work on? I average 10-20 machines a day in my shop, and can't see having that many loaners. That's a rather large investment.

How often do you run into problems with Windows activation, since using Acronis would usually require the loaner machine be activated, and if their original machine needs a re-install, that machine would have to be activated also, presumably within a twenty four to forty eight hour period.

What do you charge for this service, or is it built into your labor? Acronis can take a long time.

Appreciate the info.

Rick
 
We have a $39.50 diagnostic posted on our price sheet, we waive the fee as needed like for regular customers or small jobs.
 
We've found that by not charging a diagnostic fee it gives us the ability to avoid the telephone repair conversations altogether. "Well why don't you just bring it in for our free diagnostic and we'll figure out what's going on and we can go from there." That seems to be the most effective. The only downside is the mention above when you actually fix the problem during the diagnostic. We try to avoid that by not digging too deep and having a tiered flat rate repair structure.
 
exbabylon said:
telephone repair conversations altogether. "Well why don't you just bring it in for our free diagnostic and we'll figure out what's going on and we can go from there."
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Ha, I just got off the phone with one of those kind of convo`s. I know the lady so thats pretty much what I did, offered a free diag just to get off the phone. lol

I would offer free Diag, but in my opinion diags can be pretty intensive work sometimes, and thats what keeps me from doing it.
 
It's one the hardest barriers we have to get over with a new tech in our office. Any tech worth his salt hears the word "diagnostic" and wants to be able to give a solid, no room for error, will not, cannot change, solution to the problem. You have to separate out the type of detailed diagnostic you would charge a business customer by the hour for (i.e. server w/ small business server/raid array not booting), and the free in store diagnostic service we offer. All our free diagnostic does is server as a very basic sorting tool (is it hardware/software/virus/user error) and a way to get people in the door. Over 95% of all customer who bring in a machine for a free diagnostic have service done in store.

Residential customer getting a free diagnostic are ok with:

"Looks like viruses, we're going to get them cleaned off and will call you if anything changes."
"Alright, so we were in the process of cleaning out the viruses and are at a point where we feel that our best bet will be to do a backup/reformat...."

OR:

"Looks like your OS has been corrupted, we've got some tools that we can use (i.e. chkdsk, etc.) to try to fix it, best case $XXX right now, do you want us to proceed?"
"Well, after performing those scans we realized that your hard drive is failing, we're recommending a clone over to a new drive."

Just my two cents, but it's working for our offices. Cheers!
 
I have another diagnosing charge questions.


Do you guys charge extra for diagnosing a power jack on a laptop or anything that requires dissemble of the laptop?

- Thanks
 
SThompson86 said:
I have another diagnosing charge questions.


Do you guys charge extra for diagnosing a power jack on a laptop or anything that requires dissemble of the laptop?

- Thanks
Click to expand...

Yes, we charge more for diagnosing a notebook hardware problem that requires disassembly. I've often argued for adopting a slightly higher fee for diagnosing all laptop problems just to make it easier on the customer.

Lets say that you charge $50 to diagnose all desktop problems and laptop software problems but charge $100 to diagnose laptop hardware issues that require disassembly. I would argue that it would be better to just charge $50 for desktop diagnostics and $75 for notebook diagnostics. It would be easier to explain to the customer, avoid having to go back and get authorization for higher diagnostics when unexpected issues come up, and it should be a net gain in billing. I proposed it several times to the company I work for but I have always been overruled.
 
SThompson86 said:
Yea, that sounds more like it. I need to do this also because taking a laptop a part is a job in its self.
Click to expand...

We used to do a $30 price difference in charging diagnostics between if it was a laptop or desktop. Nowadays though, most of the desktops are just as difficult to disassemble and diag then the laptops or worse (at least with Apple equipment). But all diagnostics are one flat fee. That's one of those keep it a flat fee across the board, win some lose some deals. There are very few machines with a hardware problem that do not need to be taken apart for a diag. If its got to be taken apart, that cost is included. It's pretty hard to justify to a customer that you have to charge them more to diag something because their particular issue needs to be disassembled to be diaged.
 
NYJimbo said:
Damn, thats pretty high for a diag on a laptop. We do $39 for a tear-down and diag and apply it to the fix if the customer decides to repair.
Click to expand...

You should charge what the market will bear in your area. We've been around for 23 years and have 8 stores, an ISP, and a contract IT service. Sometimes there's a temptation to try and buy market share when you're starting out but you're only buying yourself cheaper customers. If you raise your fees will you lose more money from lost customers than you will gain from increased billing? If not, then you're not charging enough. We've steadily raised our fees over the years until we reached the point where it stopped being a benefit. Now we reevaluate our charges every quarter to make sure we have the right balance.

Don't get me wrong, whenever you raise your rates you will loose a certain amount of business but you will increase billing and actually attract other customers. Also, just because someone complains about paying $30 doesn't mean they wouldn't be willing to pay $50.
 
NYJimbo said:
I wish I could agree with you, but I tried that. $100 per diag will send 75% of the people back out the door in a heart beat.
Click to expand...

I have been charging $50 and I have been thinking about dropping it. Its funny people will pay bestbuy's diagnostic fee no problem but then they come to me and expect me to be cheaper I guess.

As far as I know better information should cost more shouldn't it.

I am thinking about dripping mind to $39.
 
vdub12 said:
I have been charging $50 and I have been thinking about dropping it. Its funny people will pay bestbuy's diagnostic fee no problem but then they come to me and expect me to be cheaper I guess.

As far as I know better information should cost more shouldn't it.

I am thinking about dripping mind to $39.
Click to expand...

Well the people who went to you don't want to pay the big bucks at BB. The people who don't mind paying that or are to ignorant just go to BB.
 
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