Accepting money to fix a work mate/ friend's computer?

I would charge, however as I do it as my job there's no way I want to do it out of hours, so to speak. I have done it in between full time jobs and in my experience 90% of the time what appears to be a five minute job never is.
 
For friends and family I charge a day rate, which varies depending on if is urgent or not. This can be for straightforward tasks like configuring shortcuts to more complex bespoke Windows reinstalls. I also ask for a contribution towards the petrol money, and request they set up a standing order for continued support. I take my craft seriously so I often see them again, and they are always happy with my services.
 
Most of the time I just say no unless it's for a best friend. Backing up user data, software profiles, finding drivers, upgrading software etc, it all takes ages especially on a slow computer. I don't think I could do it in an hour even for a million pounds! :)
 
I only do this now for close family and a few close friends. Normally I'm paid in food/beer or if new hardware/software is needed then they pay for that at cost. Doing it for anyone other than that is just to much hassle even for some money.

I have reinstalled OSes for them to and some of the short timescales being bandied around in this thread for how short a time this takes are rubbish. By the time you've confirmed their backups, tracked down the latest levels of drivers and installed everything, (including all the various standard types of utilities), and tweaked the OS to their liking it does take quite some time. Also who says they are running Windows? ... doing these things takes time and some people don't have the confidence or will to learn.

Ah well ... at least I have two more trolls to add to my ignore list ...
 
Chojin said:
For friends and family I charge a day rate, which varies depending on if is urgent or not. This can be for straightforward tasks like configuring shortcuts to more complex bespoke Windows reinstalls. I also ask for a contribution towards the petrol money, and request they set up a standing order for continued support. I take my craft seriously so I often see them again, and they are always happy with my services.
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Wind up?
 
i used to be in the same predictament, but then i started tpo charge people for fixing the problem, at first it feltt wrong but then i thought why should i waste my time and knowledge and not get paid for it,

So i started to charge or them buy me some booze , before long people just asked what they owed me and it didnt feel uncomfortable
 
I like diagnosing friends problems on the phone. Can end up being hilarious :D

This one time, a friend called and said that she was trying to write something onto a DVD but it wouldn't write it. After about 5 minutes of trying things like swapping DVD's, different programs etc, I remembered how computer literate she is. Had her check the drive itself. Turns out she didn't have a dvd writer ^_^
 
Sudden said:
I like diagnosing friends problems on the phone. Can end up being hilarious :D

This one time, a friend called and said that she was trying to write something onto a DVD but it wouldn't write it. After about 5 minutes of trying things like swapping DVD's, different programs etc, I remembered how computer literate she is. Had her check the drive itself. Turns out she didn't have a dvd writer ^_^
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Happened to me a couple of times. Had one customer who swore he burnt DVDs on a CD ROM drive :D
 
Wait until you get the one that phones to say his pc will not power up, only realising 10 mins later that he had in fact been pressing the reset switch instead of the power switch. :D
 
I’m 54yrs old thought there was a big mystery installing OS and a bigger one building a PC. Got shown how to install OS once + how to build a pc, there’s plenty of info on the net and joined a good forum Overclocker’s I know it’s a bit late in the day, would just like to thank peeps for their help, etc when I’ve been stuck cheers every one. To cut it short I’m very confident now building a PC, installing OS, fault finding, etc. I’ve built PC,S for family and maintain them my fee a slab of my fav tipple John Smith’s. :)
 
OLDPHART said:
I’m 54yrs old thought there was a big mystery installing OS and a bigger one building a PC. Got shown how to install OS once + how to build a pc, there’s plenty of info on the net and joined a good forum Overclocker’s I know it’s a bit late in the day, would just like to thank peeps for their help, etc when I’ve been stuck cheers every one. To cut it short I’m very confident now building a PC, installing OS, fault finding, etc. I’ve built PC,S for family and maintain them my fee a slab of my fav tipple John Smith’s. :)
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Good on yer. I started the business when I was 53 and retired from the Civil Service so we can show these young whippersnappers a thing or two ;)
 
Its funny how peoples opinions differ when it comes to charging for fixes etc.

here is my 2 cents:

Close mates as in best friends and relatives I fix for favors.

Other friends and colleges etc fix for cash. even if its a simple job, its my knowledge and skill they pay for. regardless of it only being a few clicks of the mouse.
 
If they offer, take it. If they don't offer, make it look like a big inconvience so that they feel guility.

This will either make them:
- Not have you over to fix every stupid problem
- Give you money to avoid their guilt.

It's win win.

I used to do everything for free, and as said already. People will and do take your time for granted, if they don't offer I will still do it as a favour but make it look like a big thing so that they don't take the ****.
 
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If someone asks me to do something that I know will take longer than an hour I usually honestly/bluntly say that it'll take quite a lot of time that I can't really sacrifice and that I get asked quite often to do the same thing.

If the person offers cash, it's polite as well as deserved, to accept it. Asking someone to fix your computer (I'm not necessarily talking about just running a virus scan that would take 20 minutes), but perhaps to look into a hardware problem etc is in the same vein as asking a mechanic friend to look at your car, and expecting them to do it for free.
 
I'm done arguing in this thread. We will never agree on this.

My POV still stands, installing an operating system, drivers, security software, office etc. is a donkey's job and any normal person could do it (with a bit of guidance if needed). Even a 12 year old kid on the internet could do all those things mentioned above; they don't require a skilled person to do these jobs.

I don't have friends that are lazy enough to not be able to click a few buttons.
If something can be resolved with a few clicks of the mouse, I'll tell them how to, why would I expect to be paid by my friends?
I will happily help friends out for free/favours for something as trivial as this.

You can call me whatever names you like, it's the internet, I don't care.
I understand some of you feel strongly and want to defend your own job or skill from me belittling it.
Or maybe some of you are just trying to justify charging your friends.

Cue name calling:
 
The last thing that I was given to fix was a laptop by the GF's boss, it had been riddled with spyware/trojans and took a bit of time to clear up. (She was vocal about NOT reinstalling Windows.)

I sorted the problems and wrote a polite & lengthy note that in blunt terms, told her to **** off. I don't come home from work to then do more work for some ungrateful git.

In this case it wasn't really a friend but the same would apply. Close friends I probably wouldn't be too bothered, as at some stage, the favour will probably be repaid.
Those who think "he works with computers, he'll fix this for free", can take a running jump off the nearest high bridge. :)

tchan_4 said:
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You seem to miss the point though, as everything to you is a few clicks. Nothing takes up any of your time. Everything is simple and if someone can't do it, they're lazy.
 
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