Damn it feels good to be a gangsta!

thecomputerguy

thecomputerguy

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I had a client that I helped grow from a 1 person office to a 2 person office to a 10 person office. Then after about 5 years of working with them they replaced me with someone else who was a friend to the owner of the company. No feelings hurt, it is what it is, they are all good people and nearly every client I've lost has always come back so I wasn't too worried.

A short time ago I saw the owner at a restaurant and he explained that his office was downsizing and moving and his office girls who were now a total of 3, were begging to have me back and they would be calling me. I didn't really think anything of it.

They ended up calling and explaining the whole situation to me, apparently the new guy takes days/weeks to respond and has them on a monthly recurring billing cycle of $900 per month for "updates". This is a where 3 women work, they share an access database, they email... THATS IT. They are being charged $900 per month + any additional onsite/remote support.

GUESS THEIR NEW GUY GAVE THEM THE ... FAMILY DISCOUNT. :cool:

The good thing about this client who used to be mine and is currently being scammed by their friend is he has left me so much wiggle room to legitimately help them and still make reasonable money from the job but it's sad that he was charging them over $10k a year for "UPDATES" because they really are nice people.

I told them that by switching to me and dropping the $900 a month that my fees for moving them to their new office would be paid for cancelling their old tech in 3 months.
 
thecomputerguy said:
$899

No but seriously probably $100-$200 per month for backup and RMM
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I charge what people are willing to pay. If they were already paying $900/month I would have stayed close to that number, but offered superior service. They didn't come to you because they thought the guy was too expensive, but because he took weeks to respond and was giving them sh*tty service.
 
sapphirescales said:
I charge what people are willing to pay. If they were already paying $900/month I would have stayed close to that number, but offered superior service. They didn't come to you because they thought the guy was too expensive, but because he took weeks to respond and was giving them sh*tty service.
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Hmmm .. while I do agree with that and I charge a lot of things based on what I think they are worth/what the customer is willing to pay. But at a certain point I have a moral stopping ground, maybe that is why I'll never be rich.

I know what these people use and I'm familiar with all the programs they use because I did service them for 5 years. As much as I like money I cant justify charging them anywhere near $900 a month for what probably equates to one hour of labor.
 
Wow $900 for patching 3 workstations. That guy must be one hell of a salesman.

Maybe convince them to funnel some of that $700-800 saved per month towards a nice setup at their new premises.

365 subs all round. Professionally wired. Unifi stack for router/switch/ap (or whatever you prefer).

They get a great setup. You get easier management. Wins all round.
 
SAFCasper said:
Wow $900 for patching 3 workstations. That guy must be one hell of a salesman.

Maybe convince them to funnel some of that $700-800 saved per month towards a nice setup at their new premises.

365 subs all round. Professionally wired. Unifi stack for router/switch/ap (or whatever you prefer).

They get a great setup. You get easier management. Wins all round.
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They are gunna get a full rewire in their new office 2 drops per run, one for a POE switch for their phone and one for a standard 100/1000 switch for their computers/server totalling 10 drops, and a new router. That's about all they need aside from plugging their workstations into the new network. Then I'll get them setup on RMM and managed backup monthly and they should be good to go for the next 3-4 years.
 
$900/month? You will cut them the 'former customer' discount to a sweet new price of only half that much! :)
 
Dang! $900?? He was coming out like a bandit! I charge my MSP $300 monthly but it is mostly updates and day to day keeping.
 
cypress said:
Dang! $900?? He was coming out like a bandit! I charge my MSP $300 monthly but it is mostly updates and day to day keeping.
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Yeah basically I found out that he was paying for all of their services monthly and billing them for it, I'm sure to get some sort of cut in the whole thing ... iDrive for workstation backup because the dummy didn't setup any folder redirection. Xoom video conferencing which they haven't used for years, and Office 365 which is setup under him as a partner. Still though ... nothing that comes out to anywhere near $900+ a month.

Also, I don't know, of course I could have come in at $500 a month which they would probably be fine with but @sapphirescales mentioning if you charge $10k for a hard drive upgrade and they are happy about it, to me sure they might be happy but at what point in that process do you stop because you essentially know they are being ripped off and you are the one doing it?

Is there no end to that? Just charge whatever they are willing to pay? I understand charging 3 hours of labor for something that took you 1 hour because you have the knowledge and it's worth that but charging $10k for something that took you 1 hour? Obviously that is an extreme example but this guy probably had monthly fees of about $100 for this client which he upped to $900 for their billing.

I dunno.
 
thecomputerguy said:
at what point in that process do you stop because you essentially know they are being ripped off and you are the one doing it?
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The problem with that mentality is you're assuming that being ripped off is an objective thing. It isn't. It's entirely subjective (when it comes to pricing at least). So long as everyone is happy, there's nothing wrong with charging whatever they're happy to pay.

On the other hand, let's say someone comes to you to have a hard drive replaced and you tell them you're going to put in a brand new drive and you put in a used one. I don't care if all you charged was $20, you just ripped them off?. Why? Because you had a contract and you didn't hold up your end of the bargain. You misrepresented what you did and what you sold them and you charged them for something they didn't agree to. THAT'S a ripoff.
 
sapphirescales said:
The problem with that mentality is you're assuming that being ripped off is an objective thing. It isn't. It's entirely subjective (when it comes to pricing at least). So long as everyone is happy, there's nothing wrong with charging whatever they're happy to pay.

On the other hand, let's say someone comes to you to have a hard drive replaced and you tell them you're going to put in a brand new drive and you put in a used one. I don't care if all you charged was $20, you just ripped them off?. Why? Because you had a contract and you didn't hold up your end of the bargain. You misrepresented what you did and what you sold them and you charged them for something they didn't agree to. THAT'S a ripoff.
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Got it ... I guess I have the mentality that if I buy a Car for $50k and shake hands with the dealer and sign the paperwork but then find out that I could have gotten the car for $35k elsewhere that I was ripped off, maybe that's a poor mentality to have being a business owner since paperwork was signed and hands were shaken but that would leave me with quite and awful taste in my mouth, and I'd probably want to retaliate in some way even though it may have been my mistake for not researching properly.
 
thecomputerguy said:
Got it ... I guess I have the mentality that if I buy a Car for $50k and shake hands with the dealer and sign the paperwork but then find out that I could have gotten the car for $35k elsewhere that I was ripped off, maybe that's a poor mentality to have being a business owner since paperwork was signed and hands were shaken but that would leave me with quite and awful taste in my mouth, and I'd probably want to retaliate in some way even though it may have been my mistake for not researching properly.
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That's different. A car is a commodity. Whether you buy a Ford F-150 from a dealer 5 miles away or another dealer on the other side of the country, you're going to get the exact same car. Pricing will vary a bit, but not by $15,000. That is a ripoff. A service isn't a commodity.
 
sapphirescales said:
That's different. A car is a commodity. Whether you buy a Ford F-150 from a dealer 5 miles away or another dealer on the other side of the country, you're going to get the exact same car. Pricing will vary a bit, but not by $15,000. That is a ripoff. A service isn't a commodity.
Click to expand...

Understood .. makes sense ... not all labor is created equal.
 
Personally I never get into discussions with a customer about whether what they're paying is a rip off or not. I learned that a long time ago. For one, it implies that the customer is/was an idiot. It's far better to just present my solution with it's price and benefits. Remember that the bad decision also applies to cheap skates thrifty customers.
 
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