When is your Cut off?

[Angle-Pc]

Since I have started to concentrate more on on site work. I have ran into this dilemma several times. I was just wondering where everyone or anyone stood?


I often go on site for Virus problems. When do you call it quites on eradicating the cleaning the virus compared to just a data back up and re-image? Obviously some of the more common I have developed ways of cleaning them out, but there are those that you are not 100% certain that you can get ride off completely.

Sorry, thought I was in another part of the forum.

 

[Encrypted Existence]

Since I have started to concentrate more on on site work. I have ran into this dilemma several times. I was just wondering where everyone or anyone stood?


I often go on site for Virus problems. When do you call it quites on eradicating the cleaning the virus compared to just a data back up and re-image? Obviously some of the more common I have developed ways of cleaning them out, but there are those that you are not 100% certain that you can get ride off completely.

Sorry, thought I was in another part of the forum.

I do not to on-site virus removals. Too much time is required for scans to complete and for me to be sure that I have done a thorough job. All virus removals come back to my bench where I can spend adequate time and be sure that all traces of infection are gone. This way I can charge my flat rate for virus removal. This method is what is best for me and my customers. I will charge them a pick up fee if I need to pick the machine up though. There are other threads on this subject. Have a look at those.

 

[Martyn]

I do not to on-site virus removals. Too much time is required for scans to complete and for me to be sure that I have done a thorough job. All virus removals come back to my bench where I can spend adequate time and be sure that all traces of infection are gone. This way I can charge my flat rate for virus removal. This method is what is best for me and my customers. I will charge them a pick up fee if I need to pick the machine up though. There are other threads on this subject. Have a look at those.

Basically this. ^^^^^^^

 

[Rosco]

I do not to on-site virus removals. Too much time is required for scans to complete and for me to be sure that I have done a thorough job. All virus removals come back to my bench where I can spend adequate time and be sure that all traces of infection are gone. This way I can charge my flat rate for virus removal. This method is what is best for me and my customers. I will charge them a pick up fee if I need to pick the machine up though. There are other threads on this subject. Have a look at those.

i only do onsite virus removal only if they really want it. I explain it is a lot heaper for pick but they can \opt for onsite by the hour if they want. I will stay all day if i need to.. its their dime.

 

[Encrypted Existence]

i only do onsite virus removal only if they really want it. I explain it is a lot heaper for pick but they can \opt for onsite by the hour if they want. I will stay all day if i need to.. its their dime.

Understood. I charge $100/hr so in the event that a virus removal took 3 hours (scans take forever) the client would be better off going to get a new computer from Walmart. I understand where you are coming from though. I just want repeat business and I feel that if I handed a client a bill for $300 for a virus removal, even thought I told them that I was billing $100/hr, it would not work to my advantage in the long run. In my opinion $100 is more than fair for a virus removal ($100 is my current bench fee for virus removals), $300 is not. I am talking about residential clients. Of course it would be different if I was dealing with a business client.

 

[drpcfix]

for businesses we almost always just re-image the machine, for home users - same as above.. but we'll usually give it 15 minutes to see if it's an easy one.

 

[NYJimbo]

for businesses we almost always just re-image the machine, for home users - same as above.. but we'll usually give it 15 minutes to see if it's an easy one.

My goodness. Do you at least put something else on their machine after the re-image so they have better protection ?

 

[lsi]

A lot of business machines have very complex setups. For some of our engineering and accounting firms it takes 5hrs to load up all the proprietary software after a reload so if we can clean out a virus instead of reload it's definitely our preference. Usually our process is this:
1. spend a few minutes determining how bad of a virus it is- has it locked everything down? is it a rootkit? do we need to take it offline to clean it?
2. if we're not making serious headway within an hour then we have to make a judgement call to stay or take it back to the bench. usually the deciding factor is "do they have other things to have me work on while I'm there?". Usually, because it's a contract customer there are other things I can work on while I'm there so it's not like I'm solely staring at a scan for a few hours.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

If you can, take it back to HQ to put up on the bench and use your tools. Explain to the customer that you can throw a bunch of different tools at it back at your office...and you won't have to charge them hourly. Versus..having to sit there onsite and watch several different progress bars for 1/2 a day.

 

[mr m]

I always bring viral pc's back to my shop because of the time involved to do a thorough job. There is always a lot of down time between kybd strokes that are wasted sitting in someones house or office. I mow the lawn, watch my clothes go out of style or whatever while the scans are doing their thing.

 

[Ccomp5950]

I often go on site for Virus problems. When do you call it quites on eradicating the cleaning the virus compared to just a data back up and re-image? Obviously some of the more common I have developed ways of cleaning them out, but there are those that you are not 100% certain that you can get ride of completely.

The only time I ever do onsite virus removal is when the customer refuses to let me take it back to the shop for whatever reason (a local lawyer does this and is fine paying for on-site virus removal due to attourney-client privileged concerns)

I very very rarely just re-image. I've automated an overwhelmingly large portion of my virus-spyware removal procedure which means most jobs are "Plug in, turn on PXE boot, come back in 4 hours to a clean system where I do manual checks and look at the logs"

 

[Angle-Pc]

The only time I ever do onsite virus removal is when the customer refuses to let me take it back to the shop for whatever reason (a local lawyer does this and is fine paying for on-site virus removal due to attourney-client privileged concerns)

I very very rarely just re-image. I've automated an overwhelmingly large portion of my virus-spyware removal procedure which means most jobs are "Plug in, turn on PXE boot, come back in 4 hours to a clean system where I do manual checks and look at the logs"

Hey thanks guys for all your responses. My problem lies in I do a lot of contract type work. So I am not always a liberty to take the machine with me off site. I also have clients, that don't allow the machine to leave the site.

Ideally I would love to take it back to the mother ship. That way I can work on several at once. I have started to work slowly in the direction of automating my procedures. I work with a lot of batch files and scrips.

 

[budsandbytes]

+1 to Everyone....

All the points of view in the thread are good approaches.

The real art is figuring out which best applies in the current situation. Educate the client on the options and costs, and they will likely make the decision for you, and be happier in the end.

 

[gunslinger]

I don't do on site virus removal as a general rule. Its just too involved. Normally I can tell within the first 15 -20 mins what I'm dealing with. I try to never be at a customers place more than two hours. If the customers insist I remove the infection on site I always remind them of my hourly rates on site vs. my in shop rates. Hey, if you wanna pay me to sit there and do basically nothing for 4-5 hours while I have several scan going I wont argue.

 

[Rosco]

I don't do on site virus removal as a general rule. Its just too involved. Normally I can tell within the first 15 -20 mins what I'm dealing with. I try to never be at a customers place more than two hours. If the customers insist I remove the infection on site I always remind them of my hourly rates on site vs. my in shop rates. Hey, if you wanna pay me to sit there and do basically nothing for 4-5 hours while I have several scan going I wont argue.

right why turn away big money for a easy thing. yesterday a $300.00 virus removal. he is a great client and brought in a ton of money so i knocked off 50 bucks. but still nice haul i do 65 pick up plus i sold him some other stuff he needed.

 

[Tony_Scarpelli]

We carry all our software tools on a 500 gb passport and we use it to backup files for a reload.

Our on site rate is $120 for business or homes out of town, $100 for homes in town charging one way travel up to about 10 minutes I can get anywhere in town.

I will go onsite determine what the problem is and how much time it takes to fix it. I advise the client that it will take 2 or 3 hrs and will offer to fix it in his home for the $100 per hour or take it back to the shop for $59.99 per hour plus the pickup and drop off fee or let him pick it up from the store when we are done. I have stayed on site up to about 4 hrs and got paid $400 plus tax to do a complete backup, reinstallation (OEM), download drivers, install clients software and printers/cameras and antivirus then run the scan on the backup on my passport before reloading it to their clean machine. This is the exception and it is only in those cases where the client insists the machine not leave their home and they have pretty big backup that takes some time.

On the other side, I have done a complete restore and setup in under 1 hr using F11 when the backup is small and everything just clicks. That would be cheaper than if I took it back to the shop. Our shop rates are standardized meaning we charge 1 hr backup, 2 hrs reload, 1 hr security and updates so it would be about $239.96 for the same thing in the shop plus $20 pickup fee.

Your other question....how long do I fool with a machine before I wipe and reload, not long. If I cannot see that it is going my way the first 30 minutes then its time to switch plans. Sometimes I get sucked into putting too much time in before switching to reload but not too often.

I tell my techs if you don't know exactly what the problem is within 10 minutes then call the senior tech, manager or me... This was when I was hiring A+ grads from tech schools...

 

[Tony_Scarpelli]

All the points of view in the thread are good approaches.

The real art is figuring out which best applies in the current situation. Educate the client on the options and costs, and they will likely make the decision for you, and be happier in the end.

exactly.

Let the client choose. If we are busy at the shop or I have a full schedule then I push for return to shop and bring it back tomorrow. If not, I will sit with them as long as they want. I find that my 70 year old customers want me to stay with them and talk to them while I fix it. I tell them at least twice its more money but if that is what they want, OK.

I think they sometimes pay you to have someone to interact with as they are living alone possibly shut in only seeing one or two relatives a month...?

 

[gunslinger]

On the other side, I have done a complete restore and setup in under 1 hr using F11 when the backup is small and everything just clicks.

Hmmm. I'd like to see that done. I'm not saying it can't be done, but I can't backup/restore in an hour. Maybe I take too much time after the install to make sure everything is set up perfect. Are you installing any base software? Are you reinstalling their software such as office ect?

 

[Angle-Pc]

We carry all our software tools on a 500 gb passport and we use it to backup files for a reload.

Our on site rate is $120 for business or homes out of town, $100 for homes in town charging one way travel up to about 10 minutes I can get anywhere in town.

I will go onsite determine what the problem is and how much time it takes to fix it. I advise the client that it will take 2 or 3 hrs and will offer to fix it in his home for the $100 per hour or take it back to the shop for $59.99 per hour plus the pickup and drop off fee or let him pick it up from the store when we are done. I have stayed on site up to about 4 hrs and got paid $400 plus tax to do a complete backup, reinstallation (OEM), download drivers, install clients software and printers/cameras and antivirus then run the scan on the backup on my passport before reloading it to their clean machine. This is the exception and it is only in those cases where the client insists the machine not leave their home and they have pretty big backup that takes some time.

On the other side, I have done a complete restore and setup in under 1 hr using F11 when the backup is small and everything just clicks. That would be cheaper than if I took it back to the shop. Our shop rates are standardized meaning we charge 1 hr backup, 2 hrs reload, 1 hr security and updates so it would be about $239.96 for the same thing in the shop plus $20 pickup fee.

Your other question....how long do I fool with a machine before I wipe and reload, not long. If I cannot see that it is going my way the first 30 minutes then its time to switch plans. Sometimes I get sucked into putting too much time in before switching to reload but not too often.

I tell my techs if you don't know exactly what the problem is within 10 minutes then call the senior tech, manager or me... This was when I was hiring A+ grads from tech schools...

I think you and I are on a similar page. I use 30 minutes as a self cut off. If I am not showing any significant progress after 30 minutes. I start on the path of a re-image. I can get that done pretty quick, depending on their back up.

I have also started to experiment with cloning a few business customers drives. I have 3 places where I have cloned a good copy of their drive. This helps cut down time, because I don't have to worry about individual install with programs and drivers..... Thank you all for the responses. There is always something to learn....

 

[Tony_Scarpelli]

Don't get me wrong, I am not proposing 1 hr or all F11 restores. I'm just saying that was the quickest on site restore I ever did and No I did not stay to do all the windows updates at all, Yes I did load AVG, Superantispyware and Open Org 6.2 and then when it rebooted and automatically saw the mans printer I asked him if he wanted me to stay and finish things up or if he wanted to baby sit it while it did its updates and driver load for the recognized printer and I was on to the next appointment. I do not usually do this but this guy was worried about paying his vet bill or Tutu.