What would you charge?

Oh, just to add. I will probably get phone calls asking how to do such things like I did when I built a PC for him a few years back.
 
You're gonna talk yourself out of asking him for anything soon!

Don't charge nothing - you need to set a line somewhere. Tell him what you'd normally offer (£80), then tell him you only want a certain amount (£40) and tell him that the rest you'll recover via services rendered.
 
Ive stopped charging for pc / laptop repairs unless it will cost me. A couple of beers is good enough for me.

Reason?

I find it becomes an expectation for you to then help them again if they have trouble, if you charge them. They see you as a service and if they **** sumit up, they expect you to fix. Also, if you're charging, people expect to be able to go back again and again to ask you to fix, providing they pay.. I'd rather do it occasionally, when i have time as a favour, and get a few beers in the pub as a return.

Btw, if you're going to charge, charge approx £50
 
Bummer said:
Oh, just to add. I will probably get phone calls asking how to do such things like I did when I built a PC for him a few years back.
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This always seems to happen, help them once and it's opened the flood gates to eternal technical support.

As mentioned you're convincing yourself not to charge, and i always felt the same, but it's a mistake.

However, if you charge now it will set the standard so if he does need extras, it won't be a complete shock if you charge for certain things. If you think £80 is too much (you know what the work is worth) then go down until you think it is of right value, then knock off some as he could help you. Then explain to him that it would cost XX but you'll do him a favour this once and knock it down to X but you may need something done in the future.

Job done
 
If it was a friend and of course family i just say free. They simply are your friends and im sure in the future you might need their help or something so...

And just see if he gives you anything in return
 
I normally ask for beer if it's a friend's PC. For relatives, usually a meal + stop over at theirs. The best one was when my parents asked me to reformat their Dell Inspiron 5150. It turned out that their CD drive was knackered and there was no image partition, so there was no way in reinstalling the OS. They asked if I could fix it and I said yes, I could get a replacement optical drive off the 'bay. They gave me the laptop - my first laptop ever :-)
 
unp|dissy said:
Ive stopped charging for pc / laptop repairs unless it will cost me. A couple of beers is good enough for me.

Reason?

I find it becomes an expectation for you to then help them again if they have trouble, if you charge them. They see you as a service and if they **** sumit up, they expect you to fix. Also, if you're charging, people expect to be able to go back again and again to ask you to fix, providing they pay.. I'd rather do it occasionally, when i have time as a favour, and get a few beers in the pub as a return.

Btw, if you're going to charge, charge approx £50
Click to expand...

its usually the exact opposite for me.

if i dont charge anything, usually i get them coming back with every little thing.

if i charge, they will only come back if they really need something fixed.

althou it depends who your dealing with really.
as its just mates, they usually understand they are just paying for the service at the time and not continued support.

afterall, if you went to a company to fix your pc and they charge you, u wouldn't expect to keep taking it back to them to fix it for free after
 
He's already told me he'll probably need me in the future and I don't fix PC's that offen anymore to avoid comebacks etc.
 
£15-20.

I charged £30 to clean out a whole desktop PC, install windows XP, software and streamline it. Took about 4 hours.

If it's for really close friends, I don't charge anything.
 
alexhull24 said:
It's a difficult one as it depends on how well you know the person and if they're prepared to return an equivalent favour.

If you can, never mix money and things like this with friends/family. Otherwise you're good. However, if you find that you're inundated with small requests for PC assistance like printing for someone or plugging in their new mouse, you should start charging, that soon makes them try easy things themselves first! They're not designed to be hard to use!
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This ^^

I run my own Computer Repair business and for example I charge £40 for a full re-install plus a data backup. It sometimes takes me up to 2hrs and I will still charge the same fixed rate However, I have about 2-4 a day.

My best customers I will always do them a small discount on their next purchase/service I look after them well. (what goes around comes around hey) I know its not the best business but the amount of referrals I get becuase of this im not complaining. Even my freinds I will give them a discount on parts and services... again I get a lot of referrals this way and its works at bringing in new business every week.

It sounds like he wants to pay you well for your work... I would just charge him the £50.00 imo. If you feel like it will 'comeback' raise your prices... The amount of cheap repairs i've done comebacks are very rare... but its all down to your customer...
 
You should take some money, or he'll keep ringing and expect that for free too. If you took £30 thats reasonable (for the amount of work you actually did) and he thinks he's getting a great deal.
That way when you come to call on him in the future he'll probably give you the same.
 
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