What would you charge for this service?

[Reviver]

I had my first real customer drop off their computer yesterday, referred by a family member.

His computer was not booting and he wanted to see if it could be fixed, and if not to try to recover the family photos (5 GB worth) on the HD.

I booted into a knoppix live CD and was able to backup the photos no problem onto my USB stick. I then burned them to a DVD and a CD (would not fit on a single DVD).

I managed to fix the boot problem (black screen with blinking underscore) by repairing the MBR and rebuilding boot.ini. After logging in I discovered that the computer was heavily infected with numerous trojans and the virut virus.

I left a virus scan going over night (Dr. Web's live CD) and after 15 hours it had not even reached 75% completion. Thousands of files were infected and some could not be repaired.

I decided to just "nuke and pave", as it is the recommended treatment for the virut virus, and I had already been given the go ahead to do so if necessary.

Everything is working fine now, but I am not exactly sure what to charge. I was told to just do what I can and charge whatever I think my services were worth.

I already have a figure in mind that I feel is fair (1 hour @ my hourly rate), but am curious as to what others here would suggest for rates for a data back-up/recovery and "nuke and pave" .

Thanks!

 

[seedubya]

I'd charge €129 fixed for this which works out at approx. 1.65 times my hourly rate but only as a drop in. If I had to collect, return or do any portion of the work onsite I'd charge extra. I would also be pushing very hard to sell him an AV and a RAM upgrade. Most consumer PCs are under supplied with RAM. My goal is a GB in every XP system and an MINIMUM 2GB on every Vista system. I'll wait to see how W7 works out in practice but I'll probably stay with the 2GB as DDR2 is really cheap.

 

[NickCat11]

For the nuke and pave and data backup onto external media...$130.00

 

[Reviver]

Wow, I think I might have to rethink my rates a bit here.

I had already decided on $90 / hour as my base rate.

Truth is, I spent more than 1 hour of my time working on the computer (not including scanning time or format/install time of course). 2 hours feels a lot closer.

I'm just a bit shy about charging so much for my services I think. But I think I need to shift my perspective and see that I genuinely helped someone in need. If it wasn't for me, they would have lost 5 GB of irreplaceable family photos, and likely they would have given up and bought a new computer.

NickCat11 & Seedubya:

How would you go about breaking down the rates you posted? For example, is it partly an hourly rate + something extra for data backup, or is it just an arbitrary fixed rate?

 

[seedubya]

That is a fixed rate for what you just described as a data backup, format and re-install. If there were more than 1 user account I'd have to charge more. I'm using fixed rates becasue that's what current market conditions demand. 9 months ago I could have charged more for the same job. What you did was not exactly a basic job but not far from it. BTW, my rate quoted is for domestic customers only. I don't do fixed rates for business. I would probably charge around €160 for the same job for a business.

 

[MrUnknown]

I would charge at least 2 hours worth of labor, probably more. Sure it may seem like a lot, but the customer got a lot of value out of something they could not do, on top of it they saved money and time by not taking it to GeekSquad or some other place.

You also need to learn about Value Pricing. Sure, a data backup may have only taken you 15minutes of actual work, but to the customer, it is worth a lot more than that. I took my car to a repair man that is trusted by our family. He found the problem with my car and which part to replace in about 10 minutes. He essentially told me how to fix my car, which part to buy, etc. I could have very easily fixed it myself. I decided to have him replace it and instead of just the cost of the part ($60 or so) it ended up costing me $200 to have it fixed. He deserved every penny because without him, I would have no clue.

You will learn that some customers will happily pay you for your experience while others are (understandably) only worried about their bottom line.

 

[NickCat11]

That's a fixed rate for me as well. I charge $95 for a nuke and pave and $65 for a standard data backup on one DVD. When combining services I usually cut them a break. So something like this would probably take me 2 hours or so. So for $130 that breaks down to $65.00/hr which I am fine with.

 

[dhrandy]

I charge $129.99 for virus removal and re-installs.

 

[krash2k]

Just finished a job today that was just like what you described. After his discount from a promotional drop I did about two weeks ago my customers final price was $190.

 

[zchehi]

Well I just started charging 99.00 flate plus parts, that is for pick up and return service, I charge 80.00 hourly for on-site work, will change it later but right now I just need to up my client base.

 

[Reviver]

Thanks for your answers everyone.

Are those your rates after tax or before tax?

 

[zchehi]

Before tax, you take 1/3 back for taxes, also depends on your area

 

[K007]

I see everybody told you what they are charging, and those rates they have been practicing for months/years.
But with you is a bit different.
You are "NEW", and because of that, in my opinion there are 2 major aspects you must cover:
- QUALITY SERVICE
- COMPETITIVE PRICES

Charging a lower rate (lower than your competition) will not damage your image as a professional. But will make your "first real customer" boast about you.
You must decide, what is more important:
extra 40 or 50 dollars or word of mouth advertising...

Of course, you must tell the customer that the rate you charge is lower because of start-up promotion. This way they will understand and appreciate your service even more.

Just my opinion.

 

[zchehi]

i guess you are trying to tell me that my rates are to cheap, but I am trying to compete with all these fixed rate tech's craigslist is full of guy's doing jobs for 30.00

 

[OfficerLahey]

you can compete with them on price all day... simple fact is, if they were as good a technician.... they wouldn't be charging pizza money

 

[krash2k]

I have been doing PC repair on and off since 1997 part time. I just recently turned it into a full time operation. In my experience, customers will happily pay more for quality work.

Also, I have noticed that by charging more I may be loosing out on the price cutters but at the same time it also gives my marketing a chance to discount at higher rates. People always love seeing the Discount Box filled with an amount, no matter how much of a discount it is.

Just my two cents, take it for what its worth.

 

[MrUnknown]

i guess you are trying to tell me that my rates are to cheap, but I am trying to compete with all these fixed rate tech's craigslist is full of guy's doing jobs for 30.00

First, don't compete with Craigslist listings. Quite frankly, the people on that site looking for computer repair are probably not the people you actually want.

Second, if your prices are just fine so long as they are competitive with others in your area. I make about what you make per job, and I can actually be more expensive compared to my closest competitor depending on the job.

 

[OfficerLahey]

I have been doing PC repair on and off since 1997 part time. I just recently turned it into a full time operation. In my experience, customers will happily pay more for quality work.

Also, I have noticed that by charging more I may be loosing out on the price cutters but at the same time it also gives my marketing a chance to discount at higher rates. People always love seeing the Discount Box filled with an amount, no matter how much of a discount it is.

Just my two cents, take it for what its worth.

agree'd

if your worried about your current price being too high when entering the market, market all your information with the marked up prices you think you are wortth and offer x amoun discount for new customers, say between now and xmas or something similar.

 

[seedubya]

A new barber shop just opened near me and offered €5 haircuts for all of July. Now in August when the price has doubled you still can't get near the place for all the customers. They're great barbers but no one would ever have known if they hadn't done this offer

 

[Reviver]

I have been doing PC repair on and off since 1997 part time. I just recently turned it into a full time operation. In my experience, customers will happily pay more for quality work.

Also, I have noticed that by charging more I may be loosing out on the price cutters but at the same time it also gives my marketing a chance to discount at higher rates. People always love seeing the Discount Box filled with an amount, no matter how much of a discount it is.

Just my two cents, take it for what its worth.

That's a really good point! I have been considering doing a bit of advertising with discount coupons included.

I've decided to charge or two hours of labour and add on a 10% - 15% "first customer" discount.