1

I admin a small college campus and a student came in to my office and asked me if i would “clean up” her home computer. My initial thought was “yeah, but my time isnt free.” but since im a nice person(didnt want to get in trouble by my boss for charging a student to work on her computer) im doing it for free. in my defense, im not doing it on the schools time because i thought id get in trouble for doing that too so im bringing it home over the weekend to work on it.

anyone here have that happen? how do you handle it and do you charge people you work with or users on your network to work on their home computers?

8 Spice ups
2

I have a couple of people I know who do home computers either as a business or a side business, so I usually give the user their phone number. I used to do it a bit, but residential stuff just takes way too much time now - I try to stay away as much as possible. At work, if something’s not working on a system and I spend more than 15 minutes on it, I reimage the machine and send it back out. Can’t really do that with home computers.

3

Home computers are the worst to work on. I really don’t have time to work on someone elses computer let alone mine so I will make them pay for my personal time away from my family or whatever else I’m doing. I ask people what they are going to do for me if I fix their computer and then they usually offer up some cash. Most of the time I just tell them I don’t have the time. If its someone at work I make them ask my boss if I can work on it during work hours.

4

I have a business and my daytime employer knows all about it. You should present it as a hypothetical to your boss (not starting a business…just helping a student when they ask). If you can’t charge for it, I wouldn’t do it anymore. This counts as your good deed for the the year. Good job - it’s only January! If you live in a socialist society, go ahead and make a career out of it. Unfortunately in a capitalist society, doing good deeds rarely pay your bills. And when you work for free you end up being taken advantage of : (

5

I run a sideline business. Have a business checking account and everything. I tell people that it is a side/moonlight business and run my rates pretty much the same as any other daytime business. As long as they are aware of it up front, they still come to you looking for help. Gives me a little extra money and some clients to get my name out there for the time I head out on my own. Treat it like your own business and people will respect it.

6

This thread should help you:

http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/26804

7

Yeah, that’s a sticky situation… I mean being nice, and trying to help someone out.

I do home work on the side after my 9 to 5, and it works out great. I have it down to a science.

$75 per hour for people I don’t know, and $50 per hour for Fam and Friends… Neg.

Remember what you give will come back someday times 10. So maybe her Daddy owns some big company that you will get “Paid” from someday… you never know who people know… Always do the right thing.

8

Thanks for the link Matt. Also, thanks to all those who replied to this one. I’m going to talk it over with my boss and let him know whats going on, as well as take into consideration everything else that was stated here.

Steve

9

I admin a PK-12 school (two campuses) and am often asked by parents if I’ll work on their computers. I normally do. 1) It’s nice to help others out. 2) It’s good PR for the school, even if I’m doing it on my own time. 3) I always get rewarded in some way. I let them know that I’ll work on it after hours since I “can’t” work on it while I’m at work (though to be honest, I do set it up on my desk and run scans and defrags and other “waiting” activities while doing my regular work). When it comes time to give the computer back, I always go the extra step… not only do I fix the problem, I also delete temp files, run a defrag, scan for malware and do general system maintenance so that the computer runs 5 times faster than when they gave it to me.

How much do I get paid for this service? It depends on the person I’m doing it for. I tell everyone the same thing… “Whatever it’s worth to you. If having your computer fixed is worth $10 to you, then I’ll happily take your $10. If having your computer fixed is worth $1000 to you, then I’ll laugh at you, but still take your $1000. So, you decide what your computer is worth to you.” For those that pressure to get an actual bill, I let them know that to take it in to a shop would cost them between $35 and $100 per hour and that I spent x number of hours working on it. I normally get between $50 and $100 for each person (though I have gotten as much as $300 and as little as $10 before, only one person didn’t pay me at all but I’m pretty sure they just forgot about it). And I’ve had 100% happy customers (never had even one complaint since starting to do it this way).

And for those of you who would ask why I would do such a thing, I’m a geek. I love working with computers. It’s what I do for work and for my hobby. God has given me an awesome job that pays me to play with computers all day, so anything outside of work is just bonus. To me, it’s more important to make the “customer” happy than to make money.

10

I charge an outragous price to keep people from asking. :slight_smile:

11

SCAdmin wrote:

I admin a PK-12 school (two campuses) and am often asked by parents if I’ll work on their computers. I normally do. 1) It’s nice to help others out. 2) It’s good PR for the school, even if I’m doing it on my own time. 3) I always get rewarded in some way. I let them know that I’ll work on it after hours since I “can’t” work on it while I’m at work (though to be honest, I do set it up on my desk and run scans and defrags and other “waiting” activities while doing my regular work). When it comes time to give the computer back, I always go the extra step… not only do I fix the problem, I also delete temp files, run a defrag, scan for malware and do general system maintenance so that the computer runs 5 times faster than when they gave it to me.

How much do I get paid for this service? It depends on the person I’m doing it for. I tell everyone the same thing… “Whatever it’s worth to you. If having your computer fixed is worth $10 to you, then I’ll happily take your $10. If having your computer fixed is worth $1000 to you, then I’ll laugh at you, but still take your $1000. So, you decide what your computer is worth to you.” For those that pressure to get an actual bill, I let them know that to take it in to a shop would cost them between $35 and $100 per hour and that I spent x number of hours working on it. I normally get between $50 and $100 for each person (though I have gotten as much as $300 and as little as $10 before, only one person didn’t pay me at all but I’m pretty sure they just forgot about it). And I’ve had 100% happy customers (never had even one complaint since starting to do it this way).

And for those of you who would ask why I would do such a thing, I’m a geek. I love working with computers. It’s what I do for work and for my hobby. God has given me an awesome job that pays me to play with computers all day, so anything outside of work is just bonus. To me, it’s more important to make the “customer” happy than to make money.

You must not have a family cause I can’t find enough time to do anything once I get home. Or maybe you have like 3 wifes to do everything for you or something.

12

SCAdmin wrote:

And for those of you who would ask why I would do such a thing, I’m a geek. I love working with computers. It’s what I do for work and for my hobby. God has given me an awesome job that pays me to play with computers all day, so anything outside of work is just bonus. To me, it’s more important to make the “customer” happy than to make money.

Thanks. I needed to reminded of that. Not the happy customer vs $ part; the God & work=hobby parts…

13

BigTimmy wrote:

You must not have a family cause I can’t find enough time to do anything once I get home. Or maybe you have like 3 wifes to do everything for you or something.

:slight_smile: Nope, just have the one wife (no kids). She knew she was getting a geek when she married me. I normally get home from work 2-3 hours before she does so I do most of it then, other wise I’ll work on them a bit while we’re watching tv together or the like. I’m a professional, I multitask. I can cook dinner and remove spyware at the same time! (Though, to be fair, sometimes my wife wants some “computer-free” time with me, in which case I have to put down the computer, turn off the XBox, etc. and we go for a walk, or go out to dinner or a movie, or play a game of some sort.)

14

SCAdmin - I must say I share your outlook. I spend hours and hours every week working on computers…it is what I love to do. My wife knew this before we got married, and she deals very well - sometimes she does her own thing and sometimes she works with me (which is a bonus for me). Only difference in my situation, I have three kids. They have grown up seeing me always on the computer. If I’m not working on a computer, my kids will actually ask “are you feeling OK dad?” or “did you lose your job?”. Funniest thing in the world.

I always charge to work on computers - money, movie tickets, meals, trade, etc. I have worked hard on my talent and skills and deserve to paid/rewarded for them. I always enjoy getting gift cards to restaraunts and movies - that way I always have something in the hopper to entertain the family or reward the kids.

Finding a balance between work and family/life isn’t easy, but it can be done.

15

rofl “did you lose your job?”

kids are funny as hell sometimes.

16

SteveB612…no kidding.

17

My solution is I do not do in home service. Bring me your computer and I will work on it but I do not do onsite repairs. Most people don’t want their computer fixed bad enough to give it up and the ones that do you take home and fix at your convenience. Any time I’ve run into this - they also seem to expect it will take more then one day.

18

I charged $150 per hour to work on home computers when I had my own business. I finally quit doing the business because people are so cheap. They expected everything for nothing. I also had them sign an agreement in case I ended up having to go to small claims court. Thankfully, I never have.

Otherwise, I charge $75 per hour for friends, $50 per hour for relatives and obviously my parents get free tech support.

19

I will agree that it is more trouble than it is worth.

I work on the ‘6 pack per 15 minutes’ rate. Or the ‘Bottle of Whiskey/Vodka/Rum per hour’ rate.

It gets to the point that they bring me the bottle/case of beer first, then ask ‘when can you take a squizz (look) at my computer’??

LOL.I have them well trained.

20

I used to do Homers a few years ago when I was a low paid IT bod. These days I avoid it as I do out of hour business support and I find it starts taking up all of your free time. The extra money was good, but I perfer switching off from IT when I get home.