1

Hi everyone.

I know probably 99.99% of you are the family and friends designated “computer genius”. This probably means you are the one doing all the malware killing, dust blowing and registry cleaning of all computers.

What would you guys say that a complete overhaul including opening a laptop, cleaning it physically with compressed air and everything, running MBAM, CCleaner, removing viruses, checking temps, etc etc etc is worth? I’m trying to make some extra coffee money on the side but it’s hard to know how much to charge. It can be three hours or more of work, depending on the severity of dirt and malware. Sometimes a virus has screwed up all networking so drivers need to be re-installed. I can’t decide on a number.

7 Spice ups
2

Don’t do it unless you want them hitting you up on a regular basis for anything and everything tech related. Just say NO!

9 Spice ups
3

I used to do a lot of side work like you described. For a laptop overhaul, i would charge 80 -100 bucks. I go based off of the estimate that freelance tech work is around $60 an hour give or take.

1 Spice up
4

$125 an hour, 2 hour minimum, plus travel (trip charge is you pick up/drop off). Standard repair rates, no reason to give much discount. When you accept less than what your time is worth, it devalues us all. Don’t be the lowball repair guy if you actually have any skills. TIME = MONEY.

3 Spice ups
5

Make sure they know that this was a one-time thing and all future issues are not yours to resolve. You’re wading into potentially frustrating territory for you. You could always charge them what the geek squad charges, i think that would run a customer about $250. Except because you did more work they got to keep their data instead of it just being wiped like it would be at best buy.

1 Spice up
6

Make it high enough that they think twice before coming to you, but low enough that it is worth it. Also, charge by the hour so that the big problems don’t waste your time.

2 Spice ups
7

My pricing guide:

  • For your mother or your mother-in-law: $0
  • For your spouse: $0 … and additional favors to be named later.
  • For your children: $0, requiring they assist in the cleanup, and a healthy does of parental “I told you so” for the first offense. Repeat offenses: Going rate or “I taught you how to avoid this AND how to fix it. Have fun!”
  • For EVERYONE else: Market rate.

“Market Rate” in my area:

  • Malware removal: $100-$130
  • Reload, without data backup: $100-150
  • Reload, with data backup: $150-$200
10 Spice ups
8

If there is virus & malware in the machine (laptop or desktop, applies to either) I lean towards the path of wiping the disk and reinstalling. Too many hours are spent attempting to locate & clean the system, usually with less than satisfactory results and almost never with a guarantee of ‘clean’. The way I see it, why spend 3 or more hours attempting to clean a computer when you can spend 2 to 3 hours installing new and have a better system to return to the end user?

^^^ I like Bryce’s rate list above, minus the malware removal rate.

9

charge enough for them to be offended and walk away.

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unless you really want to do it, then I personally am at about $35 an hour if I quote the time or $25 an hour if I do not quote time.

It takes roughly:

one hour to install the OS

15 minutes to R&R a drive

30 minutes to run a cleaning software

And I do a 1 hour Diag, basically $35 bucks for me to look at it and tell them what’s wrong and needs fixed. If they do the repair then I forfeit the diag fee, if they do not do the repair they owe me $35 or I might keep the system if they don’t want it.

1 Spice up
10

Keep in mind: I owned my own business for this sort of work for 12 years. Doing for random family members for free was taking food from my children’s mouths. I was setup to do this work.

If you don’t already have your own business: Think carefully about taking on the work for “EVERYONE else”. Once you touch it, any and all future problems are yours forever. You’re giving up family time for this. Charge at least market rate. Give serious consideration to 150% of market rate.

3 Spice ups
11

$35 is nowhere near enough.

2 Spice ups
12

oddly enough, it is enough for them not ask anymore. I come from a long line of cheap people and I don’t really want to do it anymore. When I was doing it though, that is what I charged, but I was learning then and it was a open ended agreement. I would quote what the local shops would say and encouraged them to ask, I would insure them I would do it for less, but it would take me longer. In the end I would end up with the twice the hours, the nearly the same payout, and learned on the fly. Once I started getting good at a procedure and made flat rate times, I made it a service and charged a flat fee, usually still under selling the local shops. I had no overhead because I worked from home so I was able to do the work cheaper. Now, I have no desire to do it and pretty much don’t.

13

I don’t work on any computers outside of work except the ones that are in my house.

My father in law is a mechanic and I don’t bother him with my cars, my uncle is an accountant and he doesn’t do my taxes. I don’t want to blur the lines of family and professionalism.

4 Spice ups
14

$50 minimum to take a look and $50/hr+parts after that. How much is you’re time worth to you is the real question.

1 Spice up
15

I use the answer…“I am really sorry, I just don’t have the free time to fix your PC.
Please take it to a Professional near you.”

If they balk at that, I will quote them a days wage at my “day” job, so they know it would be cheaper for them to go else where and we will remain family and friendly.

I only work on PC’s that live in my house or at my work. I don’t even fix my Mothers PC.
She asked me to work on it for a big pan of Lasagna, then spent the whole time telling me I didn’t know what I was doing. Have not touched it in 17 years.

I know it sounds mean, but since I stopped working on others PC, Family Functions and Friendly “get together’s” are actually fun for me. I don’t have to work on someones broken out dated crap while others play games and eat food.

3 Spice ups
16

While in the army living in the barracks (roughly 400 soldiers) I was pretty much the only IT kind of guy around.

I had a sign on my door that had my pricing lists that was based off of Energy Drinks / Food and Additional Duty hours as currency

Ranging from: (I wish I still had this full list)

Look at a problem - 2 Energy Drinks (don’t have them - don’t knock)

Replaced Laptop screen (or any other major replacements) - CQ / Staff Duty shift + cost of parts

Virus scans / basic removal (no guarantees) - 8 Pack of Energy Drinks

Set up TV / game system / surround sound - Large Pizza

I had many others but did really well using that method. Although since then I don’t really do any personal work for anyone anymore. Too much hassle, too much work and get nothing but trouble out of it.

17

Get them to sign a piece of paper with very fine print. Make all obvious caveats apparent in big print. Then in small print say “all disagreements on pricing after work is done will result in full ownership belonging to [enter your name here]. [Enter your name here] will assume full ownership of all data, materials, and equipment until such a time that a set debt can be agreed upon and paid for.”

Then, you say “You pay, or I own all your data!”

18

Like all passwords, I want none of their data. Paid for or not. Too much liability.

19

I dunno about you, but I don’t want anything to do with some nitwit’s [child] pr0n collection.

20

I would do all of that in this area for around $80 it’s a bit cheaper than them going to a repair shop so they still feel like they are getting the “friend price” yet still a reasonable amount of money for 3 hours of time spent especially since about half that time is simply watching virus scans run.