Diagnostics Charge?

[kevinjhaag]

Upto now, I have 2 hours tied up in this machine, with all the diagnostics, and reports written, which I will have to write off.

Damn, Cadishead! What do you do to take 2 hours for diagnostics and reporting? I like to be detailed and like to see your detailed effort. But, at most I do 30 minutes for a diagnostics because of the very same reasons that everyone has given. Instead of loosing 2 hours of work; I loose only 15-30 minutes of my time. I'm ok with that but most of my customers go ahead with repairs most times. I offer a Free Diagnostics but I'm sort of vague on what I tell them what's wrong because the very reason if I was very detailed then they would go elsewhere cheaper or repair it themselves. But I also inform the customer that it could also be more and the underlining problem could be caused by something else too. At that point I would inform them if their was something else found. So what's involved with your 2 hour diagnostics and what do your reports look like? Just curious. Maybe their is a way for you to reduce it time and maybe automate some of it.

Kevin

 

[Kitten Kong]

Hi Kevin, the reason this particular one took so long was.. Laptop unable to boot in either normal or safe mode.

With it being a SSD drive, had to contact Dell for restore media quote. That took around 20-30 mins for them to tell me the quote of that. Pass those details to my client. Chased the client to see if they wanted it doing or not.

Client eventually contacts me, after emailing chasing for a reply, tells me not to bother with the restore media, as cost would be too much.

So then it was onto install Ubuntu. My first disc couldnt be read, burn another iso, attempt to install again. 3/4 of the way through the install, error message pops up.

Eventually found the error code of the failure, pointed to a hard drive error. Find a ssd drive checking program and let than run, found just over 33,000 errors, before I gave up with the check.

Attempt to source a decent costing SSD, pass those details over to client, chase again. Then write the report, including mentioning the netbook is BER.

Chase again, then get a reply, keep it. That is the only reason I am into this for approx 2 hours.

Most of my diagnostics etc, are in line with everyone else. Ie no longer than 20-30 mins start to finish.

 

[GrizzledVet]

$75 one-hour minimum here. Of course, like everyone else, this fee is applied towards the first hour of labor. This filters out 100% of the "riff-raff".

 

[732914TECH]

Hi Kevin, the reason this particular one took so long was.. Laptop unable to boot in either normal or safe mode.

With it being a SSD drive, had to contact Dell for restore media quote. That took around 20-30 mins for them to tell me the quote of that. Pass those details to my client. Chased the client to see if they wanted it doing or not.

Client eventually contacts me, after emailing chasing for a reply, tells me not to bother with the restore media, as cost would be too much.

So then it was onto install Ubuntu. My first disc couldnt be read, burn another iso, attempt to install again. 3/4 of the way through the install, error message pops up.

Eventually found the error code of the failure, pointed to a hard drive error. Find a ssd drive checking program and let than run, found just over 33,000 errors, before I gave up with the check.

Attempt to source a decent costing SSD, pass those details over to client, chase again. Then write the report, including mentioning the netbook is BER.

Chase again, then get a reply, keep it. That is the only reason I am into this for approx 2 hours.

Most of my diagnostics etc, are in line with everyone else. Ie no longer than 20-30 mins start to finish.

im sorry but i would diagnosed the hard drive being bad within the first 30 minutes

 

[Kitten Kong]

I had no need to diagnose the drive till I attempted to install linux. Then when the error occurs near the end of installation, that's when I diagnosed the drive. Hence the time taken. No offence but I like to do things thoroughly.

Sent from my GT-I9000

 

[jprice]

I charge $40, and I subtract that from their total bill if I repair the machine.

 

[NeutronTech]

Hi Kevin, the reason this particular one took so long was.. Laptop unable to boot in either normal or safe mode.

With it being a SSD drive, had to contact Dell for restore media quote. That took around 20-30 mins for them to tell me the quote of that. Pass those details to my client. Chased the client to see if they wanted it doing or not.

Client eventually contacts me, after emailing chasing for a reply, tells me not to bother with the restore media, as cost would be too much.

So then it was onto install Ubuntu. My first disc couldnt be read, burn another iso, attempt to install again. 3/4 of the way through the install, error message pops up.

Eventually found the error code of the failure, pointed to a hard drive error. Find a ssd drive checking program and let than run, found just over 33,000 errors, before I gave up with the check.

Attempt to source a decent costing SSD, pass those details over to client, chase again. Then write the report, including mentioning the netbook is BER.

Chase again, then get a reply, keep it. That is the only reason I am into this for approx 2 hours.

Most of my diagnostics etc, are in line with everyone else. Ie no longer than 20-30 mins start to finish.

Yeah, diagnostics are pretty quick, but sometimes getting all the information to make a proper quote can be a royal pain, especially if we're talking about needing some obscure laptop part. Then getting ahold of the customer and waiting on them to make up their mind is a whole other issue.

Whenever I do a diag and discover a defective part, I always get a quote together before I call the client. That way I can give them all of their options with associated costs, at that time for them them to make a decision. It's better then calling them and telling them such and such is bad, then having to call them back if they decide to fix it based on my ball park guess (that can be way off when we're talking about HP/Compaq parts...... *cough* $400 for a DV series motherboard... *cough*)

 

[732914TECH]

I had no need to diagnose the drive till I attempted to install linux. Then when the error occurs near the end of installation, that's when I diagnosed the drive. Hence the time taken. No offence but I like to do things thoroughly.

Sent from my GT-I9000

i guess what im missing is what was the machine brought in for originally? because it wouldnt boot into windows right? so you proceeded to install linux? guess its different ways of doing things

 

[GoHighVoltage]

I hover between $20-30+ depending on the type of customer they are.

Normally having this charge will separate the potential paying customers from someone who is looking for free services and/or is unwilling to pay a fair amount for work.

imo it's better to miss out on those anyway

I agree totally. Anyone that is a good customer, and fair, would never mind paying you to diagnose the problem. People looking for free diagnosis most likely are looking for you to tell them what is wrong, so they can fix it themselves, or have someone else do the repair.

Your not a charity service, so charge for your time.

 

[guitargain]

Some great advice for a newbie in this thread. I just joined the forum and recently started a side business repairing computers. I have struggled with what to charge for certain things. I like the idea of a diagnostic fee applied toward the repair. Thanks

 

[Spire]

I started to charge £20 for diagnostic fee and will knock that off my final bill if client goes ahead and has machine fixed with me.

I have been caught out to in the past by looking at computers finding the problem for the owner then to give the job to someone else.

 

[RegEdit]

I charge $100 for repairs, but just $35.00 if they want to opt out of a hardware based repair. I charge only $35 for simple repairs such as a dead CMOS battery, unplugged data or power cable, and a few other really basic problems. If I suspect that the motherboard is bad then I offer them the option to have it repaired at the full price of $100 + exact cost of the part(s) OR they can just opt out of the whole repair for nothing. I do this because I hate replacing motherboards, they're not common repairs, and often with laptops it's not even worth repairing them (not cost effective).

 

[NeutronTech]

I charge $100 for repairs, but just $35.00 if they want to opt out of a hardware based repair. I charge only $35 for simple repairs such as a dead CMOS battery, unplugged data or power cable, and a few other really basic problems. If I suspect that the motherboard is bad then I offer them the option to have it repaired at the full price of $100 + exact cost of the part(s) OR they can just opt out of the whole repair for nothing. I do this because I hate replacing motherboards, they're not common repairs, and often with laptops it's not even worth repairing them (not cost effective).

IMO, if you really don't like replacing motherboards, you should be charging much more to discourage it. Then if you do end up doing it, at least you'll be getting paid well.

Also you should still charge a diagnostic fee for a motherboard diagnosis. Mobo diagnostics are largely idiopathic and require some time to eliminate all other possibilities. That's quite a bit of time wasted if you're not even getting a small diag fee.

And lastly, why wouldn't you markup the motherboard? Again, if you really don't want to do it, then you should be making money at every turn in the event that you end up doing one. As it stands now, if you end up replacing a board, you get a lousy hundred bucks when you could have made much more.

 

[Tony_Scarpelli]

What do most of you charge for diagnostics, if anything? Just need to get some feedback on this issue.

I keep deliberating over diagnostics charges. So many who call on the phone will hear a modest diagnostics charge and will not bring their computers in, even though I clearly tell them the fee is waived when the repair is done. It's like they are turned off completely by a very minimal charge.

I feel like my time is worth something and especially after I explain what needs to be done (in detail) and they take it back and run with it to their cousin or best friend's kid to repair (with my information).

Any suggestions on how to avoid this problem...and earn a decent living???

Thanks all !!!

We say "Our diag is free. The first 30 minutes of repair is $39.99. Diag is free with service." The key is to not wait or pause after saying that. Don't wait for them to give you a green light. Just assume they are with you. Go right into the next sentance "what is your computer doing?" This gets them to shift from thinking about price to thinking about their problem. Don't cut them off when they are explaining their pain, their frustration and their explanation of what the computer is doing. Thisis hard to do but let them go back to last summer if they need too to explain how they got to this current state. I find that the longer you listen too them the easier they are to get to come in as everyone else has given them the bumbs rush.

They usually don't go back to price but if they do you switch them again.

So they say "Oh its doing da, da, da and dis, dis, dis." So you say "Yeah, we can fix that. When were you going to bring that buy?" Well what is it going to cost?

I can't tell you that without getting my hands on it as many problems that are software really look like hardware and visa versa so its not fair to you or to me to discuss the problem until we get our hands on it.

Some times you get "well Bestbuy or some other competitor said it needs a restore, how much is that?"

I know their techs and I can tell you that they cannot diagnose over the phone any more than I can and I have xx years in the business. I have an opening on my bench right now so if you get your computer over here I can start looking at it right away. ----this is a very powerful tool to change the topic and get the client to switch into bringing the computer to you.

ALWAYS REMEMBER THE PURPOSE OF THE PHONE CALL IS TO GET THEM TO COME IN. THEN YOU SELL THEM. NOT EVER OVER THE PHONE. THE LAST LIAR TO GIVE A PRICE OVER THE PHONE WILL WIN BUT THEN HE HAS TO PROBABLY NOT HONOR HIS LIE WHEN THEY COME IN AND TELLS THEM THE TRUTH OF WHAT ITS GOING TO TAKE TO FIX IT.

DON'T GET INTO THE LIARS TRAP. DON'T GIVE PRICES OVER THE PHONE, DON'T DIAGNOSE OVER THE PHONE.

 

[Tony_Scarpelli]

In my opinion you should always charge for diagnosis - it may take longer and require more skill than the fix itself. Why should you not be paid for your time and expertise?

Most customers understand that - the ones that don't are the ones that don't value your time. Such people may take your free diagnosis (thank you very much!) and fix it themselves or ring round for the cheapest quote - and they will always find someone cheaper than you, especially if they have done half their job for them and can say exactly what the problem is...

I have a minimum charge but I do not have a diag fee. Once I put your pc on my tech bench, you are not getting back unless I get my minimum fee, fixed or not.

90% Of what I am seeing today is diagnosed with ctrl, alt, del key in about 4 seconds. If they too many processes then its a backup, partition, format and reload. IMO. If they don't go for that then its an attempt at fixing it which we call an enhansed tune up, which is not guaranteed.

 

[Tony_Scarpelli]

Honestly, I really don't mind. I live in a small town. Everybody knows everybody around here and we all here go the extra mile to help someone out. If I tell someone it's R200 for the diagnostic, they'd probably be surprised and hand me the cold hard cash while thinking 'He didn't fix a single thing on my computer but he's still charging me, a lot, you greedy little *******!'

I went the extra mile for a lady the other day after she spent 6 hours on the phone with Microsoft over a activation problem on a new installation. She referred one of her clients to me so he brings in his pc and asks our prices. Free diag with service. SO I look at it, talk to him about 10 minutes to discuss the value of his laptop and cost of repairs and options. he then wants to leave with his computer and decide if he can fix it. I said you own me $42 for the diag or minimum charge but if you bring it back within 7 days I credit that towards the repair. He said you didn't do anything. I said you you pay me for what I know, not what I do. I have a minimum charge. He paid it, probably didn't like it. Do I care? Not really. I would care a whole lot more if he left without paying me for my knowledge and time.

 

[MobileTechie]

My terms state that if you decide not to go ahead with a fix then you pay an hour's work or 1/2 the fixed fee.

I

 

[Dlawson]

Diagnostics Charge

We charge a base hours labor charge of $35 for both diagnostics and repair. So far I've only had 3 customers in the past year that have been turned off by it. It seems smarter to make people pay for the time and work you do.

Plus, when I'm getting paid for diagnostics, I personally work harder at trying to figure out exactly what's wrong, rather then taking a quick look and missing something simple.

 

[BCC]

It's interesting that I get a lot of people who come to me with diagnostics they get somewhere else. Many are price shopping. How do you think you can diagnose without giving it all away? They want complete details so they can do it themselves or take your diagnosis to someone else and get a better price.

We also get people who've been somewhere else before coming to us... Most are price shopping too, & we're not the cheapest in town but we always try to come across as professionall & knowlegeable & this usually wins people over...

Regarding giving 'it' away - we give a quick (max 15mins) free assessment / diagnostic at the front desk but remain deliberately vague about what exactly is wrong & steadfastly refuse to give details even if pushed, stating that 'we've to run indepth or advanced diags before being absolutely certain of what's wrong & at this moment in time we simply haven't got time to talk you thro' exactly what we'll be testing for' ... instead we concentrate on telling them how we can offer a professional repair using industry standard tools. We also refuse to tell people exactly how we fixed their pc's or what software was used - usually saying that it's confidential & wouldn't help them even if we told them what we had actually done or used!
BCC

 

[parker.casey]

Diagnostics are always 100% free with no obligations, from me. It presents honesty, and it gets repeat customers who come ready to pay the second time and thereon.