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PC repair cost - how much should I charge?
[Deleted User]
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Hello,
A friend of a friend's brother (who I don't know) asked me to fix his PC for him as I have a background in IT.
Turns out it was riddled with spyware and hard disk was full of bad sectors. Had a spare hard disk of same size (80GB) at home so replaced the drive and reloaded Windows and apps from his restore CD... and then ran Windows update, etc.
How much do you think I should charge? I don't normally do private IT work. It was time consuming as well. Obviously, if he tried to fix it himself, he could have as it's not hard. But he gave it to me to check and fix which I didn't have to do.
As I already had the hard drive at home, I was thinking £50 should cover the work and drive.
What do you guys think (or what would/do you normally charge?).
A friend of a friend's brother (who I don't know) asked me to fix his PC for him as I have a background in IT.
Turns out it was riddled with spyware and hard disk was full of bad sectors. Had a spare hard disk of same size (80GB) at home so replaced the drive and reloaded Windows and apps from his restore CD... and then ran Windows update, etc.
How much do you think I should charge? I don't normally do private IT work. It was time consuming as well. Obviously, if he tried to fix it himself, he could have as it's not hard. But he gave it to me to check and fix which I didn't have to do.
As I already had the hard drive at home, I was thinking £50 should cover the work and drive.
What do you guys think (or what would/do you normally charge?).
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Maybe 3 hours. Did a bit yesterday and then finished it off today.
ROFL you know I was waiting for someone to mention tax and NI lol.
Yeh, £100 sounds good to me. Although I'm sure he'll be shocked .
Hate having to do PC repairs for family, friends, and their friends.... and their friends.
Yep you end up feeling like a tech support line, only you speak English and don't get paid.
Ideally in future agree a price ceiling with the person and if you find you can't be bothered fixing it for that price just hand it back to them unfixed.
ok, easier said than done when it is a friend of a friend, unless they have some skill you can use in return.
However, I know some other local Computer Repairers charge somewhere in the region of £40 per hour!!!
And PC World (last time I checked) charge £50 for the first hour then £25 for each hour thereafter!
If things go wrong or I need advice I always offer to pay, if they say 'no' then I'll think of a way to make it up in kind or a gift, that way we both know where we stand.
Good IT people keep the rest of us amateurs computers running!
While some people might charge £40 an hour, they may not necessarily do more than 2 or 3 calls a day, if doing on site visits.... so a couple hours per job then driving to the next job.....then tax, N.I. fuel, public liability insurance and so on.
Now I remember why I stopped being a self employed PC repairer!
ANyhow, for a friend I'd do it for price of parts and a beer... I wouldn't get involved in friends of friends as all you get is lumbered and they only expect to pay £20
To be honest, it isn't worth ANYTHING at all these days. You be better of asking them to pay for a new drive to replace it, and a couple of beers.
But in any event, in the real world, you're unlikely to get more than £10/hour - and that's if you were employed as a full time PC Support Engineer.
You've got to have a speciality to earn more - but having said that, a speciality can raise your earnings potential substantially - to say £30/hour or more.
PC Support people (and especially Microsoft support people) are 10/1p down at your local labour exchange.
I don't do it anymore though, it's far too much hassle and my free time is more important these days.
Yup... I think you summed it up perfectly!
Ana Kia Necro Threadikus....and thus does an old thread rear its head again
Well I suppose if he hasn't decided 5 years later...
Yep been there and done it, but never again.
Dont worry about shocking them.
Nightmare once family and friends find out you can fix computers.
Just look after my own now
They think your are a 24hr free tech support :mad: