I'd rather deliver leaflets for a pittance than do PC building other than as an employee. You'd probably make more money and it would be far less hassle. Lifetime free tech support with no useful information ("the computer has gone funny"). No. No. And once again, no. With a capital NO.
Computer building for a bit of income on the side?
- Thread starter willhub
- Start date
no point big businesses even small ones build whole pcs for next to nothing. local one near me for eg charges £30.why even bother ? unless you buying huge amounts of components you not going to make any money that way.better off doing operating sysmtems and virus removal and the like.
![[FnG]magnolia](/styles/overclockers/avatars/9.png){kind=avatar}
Caporegime
- Joined
- 29 Aug 2007
- Posts
- 28,765
- Location
- Auckland
You'd make more money auctioning dogs.
I do a fair bit of PC building and support for friends and family - been through the same process with most having to be firm about ongoing support. Fortunately these days most will just buy pre-built systems and don't need to upgrade as frequently for relatively basic desktop use.
Soldato
- Joined
- 9 Dec 2009
- Posts
- 5,400
- Location
- Bristol
Mending smashed laptops, tablets and smartphones would have less potential comebacks.
Just mend the hardware take the money and send them away until they break it again.
Just mend the hardware take the money and send them away until they break it again.
I agree with the others. I'd help out a friend but if you do it as bit on the side it will come back to haunt you. Building PC's for people who aren't friends/family is like adopting 4yo children that never grow up. You will be tied to that PC until they get rid of it or you die which ever comes first. Five years on they will be demanding you fix what they broke & they will blame you.
I do this, easy money little to no hassle, returns a non issue, something for nothing is a non issue, people wanting 5 year warranty is a non issue, (things actually being faulty is very rare).. anyone making comments here actually done PC repairs/ support privately? Only issue I did have was pressuring myself to give too good a service to business' so i stopped doing work for a number of them.. I have met some great people and made numerous friends along the way as well...
Do you live in a village/more rural area? Just curious
did you bother to read what people wrote? hardware faults weren't mentioned it was the Windows side of things, spyware, virus, people filling there pcs full of crud then expecting you to diagnose it for free.
nope never had that issue, maybe the 100's of people I have visited are different to the 100's of people you have visited?
30k population town with surrounding villages - I do travel maybe 15 miles to one of 2 other towns but rarely
Soldato
- Joined
- 27 Jan 2012
- Posts
- 8,119
- Location
- The king of the north!
Best bet for less stress and not being personally tied to customers in my eyes would be to have a chat with a local small shop who do some of the things your speaking about and try to convince them to let you build a few systems for them on the side to help out for a bit of money when they need. One thing may lead to another this way if they like your work.
This is the most frustrating thing you will need to worry about as it happens far too often.
Anyone who's worked building custom PC's or repairs will know how most people are.
They don't listen, they are denigrating, they are ignorant and stupid; most problems that occur post build are user issues and software level.
Also be ready to fix issues caused by Microsoft Updates, Nvidia/AMD, games developers and other such; they will cause an issue and you will be the one blamed and asked to fix it for free.
Also the biggest problems are kids, they have even less of a clue or brain than adults and the amount of complete and utter crap they put on their PC's until it's asking for a quick death is astonishing.
Only last week did one come back with issues as long as my arm, cause? They thought installing 8 anti-virus programs would be safer. Didn't stop them complaining and moaning beforehand.
They are so quick to lay blame, and quick to slink off when you tell them it's what they did. They still try avoid having to pay for my time.
I think I've done near 100 builds, for 3 years on a small island when it's just 1 of many roles I have at where I work ain't bad.
I even have people come to our shop who've bought a PC/Parts from here on OCUK and ask me how to set it up/build/do x,y,z and it's really simple, ask them. They honestly expect me to stand there, for free and talk them through it, or over the phone. FOR FREE. ?! From something they bought elsewhere?? Hahaha. People do it all the time with Amazon too.
You are lucky, I guess people are nicer where you're from.
Honestly...probably the only person I've ever known who's done I.T support who doesn't understand the strife customers lay on you.
Last edited:
Soldato
- Joined
- 22 Jul 2014
- Posts
- 3,928
- Location
- Oxon
Yet there's clearly still demand for it if Overclockers are charging ~£200 markup on some of their prebuilt PCs.
Trust me, to some people it's building the next SpaceX Rocket.
I demonstrated how to put a toner in a printer the other day and the person got angry/frustrated and kept audibly sighing out loud saying "I'm not a techy I don't understand this".
"I'm not asking you to be a techy, I'm asking you to be observant".
I've also had someone attempt to build their PC bring it to me, where to start?
Mobo not screwed in, PCI-E devices not screwed in or fully depressed into the slot.
Fans blowing inwards.
No thermal paste and water pump (aio) not plugged in.
Case headers plugged in to the usb header.
+ loads of other stuff, all in one system!
£200!?!?!?!?!?
I am not charging enough.