How much to charge for setting up and de-crapifying two laptops?

A good friend (someone who will not charge me for help and assistance) free otherwise will charge a total fee of £50 regardless of how much time it takes. (Within reason)
 
The amount of times I've been rang up near midnight or had to cancel plans due to people taking the **** saying "Oh, while you're here, can you just look at this as well..." over the years has lead me to just flat-out refuse to do it for anyone nowadays.

I just got sick and tired of it all, I never expected any reward really, but a token gesture here and there wouldn't have gone amiss. And I can do without the shirtiness and guilt trips that inevitably arise when I tell them I'm not available or can't/won't do it.
 
Em3bbs said:
Yes, I've had loads of help like that from friends over the years. Of course I'd treat them to a night out at a curry house or something, like they would if I gave them computer/phone help.
Click to expand...

It's a lot different when you return the favour as well though. They help you then get some help back plus a thankyou it's different someone expecting a person to work for less than their regular rate.

Any tradesman who does mates rates is daft as a brush, that's like mates taking money out of their pocket.
 
matt_fsr said:
Beaten like a ginger stepchild!

A fresh install of 7 and they should be all nice and working properly, none of this stupid "now how do I find the control panel?" malarky!
Click to expand...

It is very easy to find the control panel. In fact you can just pin it to the top of the libraries window...
 
If they're a good mate, i'd just do it for them - they'd probably return me a favour later/give me gift of some variety.
 
I dont charge friends for anything unless I need to replace parts.

Call it a favour and it may well get returned if you ever need it.

Uninstalling bloatware and adding a free antivirus is not hard work and can easily be done whilst doing other things.
 
Haggisman said:
Well, considering that's what PCW charge, and you don't have the inconvenience of having to lug your PC down to one of their stores, it seems reasonable :p

Plus you might actually end up with a working computer at the end of it...
Click to expand...

lol, no argument there.

2 weeks ago i had to revamp 2 laptops (for friends), one i charged £20 for reverting to factory settings and doing windows updates.
The other only had 1gb of ram, so everything took twice as long. It kept crashing and i spent a total of about 10 hours on it.
I ended up putting an extra 2gb of ram in (to make my life easier)and managed to reload visit back onto it. But it just would not install SP1. So i gave up, gave it back and said my time was worth more than £2/hour, but i also didn't think it was worth spending much more money on, so i got another £10 out of her and left it at that.

Them are the bad ones. :rolleyes:
 
pitchfork said:
It's a lot different when you return the favour as well though. They help you then get some help back plus a thankyou it's different someone expecting a person to work for less than their regular rate.

Any tradesman who does mates rates is daft as a brush, that's like mates taking money out of their pocket.
Click to expand...

Got to agree with this.

Like I said, I used to do it, but the number of people who would think a couple of beers was payment enough for me to remove a few viruses (fine) but then for me to be their 24/7 on-call personal IT support as well just put me off...
 
£50/hour :eek:

I charge £25 flat rate per machine for anything needing doing as I usually do it watching a movie or playing a game and just eyeball it or whatever.

Install a printer? £25.

Uniinstall a piece of software? £25.

It happens often and it's easy money but it's still cheaper than them going to a store.
 
well I never..

I didn't realise people would actually pay £100 to install an OS, nevermind £25 to uninstall software.

My calling has been answered by the people who are too stupid to read the manuals. :)
 
wickfut said:
well I never..

I didn't realise people would actually pay £100 to install an OS, nevermind £25 to uninstall software.

My calling has been answered by the people who are too stupid to read the manuals. :)
Click to expand...

The same people who pay ~£100 to change some brake pads :p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom