1

How many of you do side jobs for people off the clock? Computer repairs\upgrades, networking, installations, anything tech-ish that manages to make you some extra scratch? What are some of your crazier stories on unreasonable expectations, the issues you ran into dealing with them directly, or the inability of the customer to return your messages on part approvals etc?

13 Spice ups
2

I just plain don’t do it unless it is for the owners or their family which I do on the clock.

1 Spice up
3

I’ve asked my boss about it in the past, and as long as it’s not on company time, they are okay with me working on other employees home computers. I’m up front about it though, and I never do it for free. I either get paid in cash, trade, food, or booze. :slight_smile:

3 Spice ups
4

I don’t do residential work, it’s too much trouble for the $ in my experience, I will however occasionally do consulting/contract work after hours for corporate clients.

1 Spice up
5

It all depends really on who it is and how I know them.

1 Spice up
6

I used to, but not so much anymore. One thing I made clear was I do it at home on my free time, therefore it might take longer then taking it to a shop somewhere. Anymore it is usually only family that I work on. Everyone else I tell to take to the local shop.

7

I don’t do side jobs anymore. Every time I would fix something, a couple weeks later it would come back saying something else was wrong. I’m not running a computer repair shop, I did it because they asked for a favor and it always turns in to something else.

8

I charge such a large dollar amount per hour it’s cheaper and easier for everyone to go to Geek Squad - who I fervently tell people to avoid.

Family and close friends are the exception - and they repay me with love, kindness and their acceptance that repeating the same stupid mistakes will make me go postal on them.

Just my 2 bits (and that will be $500, thank you!)

9

I don’t mind doing it. I do it at home, and I charge a fair price, usually %50-%75 of what I think geek squad would charge. I used to under charge quite a bit. I realized it’s not worth my time to under sell my services and if they don’t want to pay that much I really don’t mind, I have other stuff that I do with my time. If people at work ask me, I tell them that I treat it like a side business and I tell them how much I would probably charge for their problem. I used to make house visits but that’s too much of a pain in the ass and awkward, so if they want me to I tell them that it would cost way more and I tell them that it is a lot easier/cheaper if I do it at home.

I find that side work like this always comes in waves. I usually go 3 months or so without anything, and then I will get several jobs within a 2 or 3 weeks. It works out well, and gives me a little extra spending cash.

10

Zero side jobs.

When they started blaming me for unrelated things, and asked that I come back to fix them for free (“since you were last here to set up my wireless network, my printer stopped working”). Or they tried to negotiate my rate.

Done. Not worth it, especially the over-the-phone support.

11

Wiped a computer for a small business guy, reinstalled windows to factory state, transferred the files he requested I back up onto the new install, and returned it. Then I get a call on Saturday morning from said customer stating that “You need to get over here right away, I can’t access anything on this computer, it’s worthless and I’m not paying anything until it’s fixed”.

Keep in mind, I was out late Friday night and this call woke me up. Upon asking some questions over the phone, I found out that the problem was that the guy could not edit his files in MS Word, because the version of Windows on his install CD only had the trial version. He could open and view them, but couldn’t edit them. I told him that he should have a phone number or activation code that came with the computer when he originally purchased it that would unlock the full version, or he may have ordered the full version of MS Office later. He claims adamantly that he never did any kind of activation.

So I go out and pull up Google. This ancient Windows XP computer apparently does have the full license for MS Office, but you have to activate it online, as they have discontinued phone support, or so the program says. He does not want this computer to go online, as that is what screwed it up last time, and no amount of reassurance from me will convince him otherwise. More Google-Fu reveals that there IS still a phone number that you can call to activate the code, which then gives you a key code to use to unlock the full version of the software. I do that, unlock MS Office, and the day is saved.

However, he refuses to pay for my additional home visit (initial cost was something like $60 for OS reinstall and file transfer… I know, way too cheap). A visit to your location runs $40 plus an additional $40 per hour after the first hour. He also refused to make out a check to my name, and made it out to my business name, which was problematic as I don’t have a business bank account, so I had to get that account just to deposit that check and then xfer money out of the account. I will not ever do business with him again, as I don’t feel that he respects IT work as a valid service (or as he called it, “playing with computers isn’t real work anyway”).

4 Spice ups
12

that depends on how much liability you want…

13

I only do it for people who are willing to help me out when I need something. The guy who helped me fix my car for free, I’ll gladly work on his computer for free. The person who won’t even buy me a meal, nope.

14

You know you are exhausted when you see “side job” but your brain reads “side boob”. I think it’s nap time.

15

I only do side work now for family. Otherwise it just turned out to be too much of a hassle and they always seemed frustrated that you werent available during the day even though they know you have a real job to do.

16

I try very, very hard not to work on coworkers personally owned equipment, either on or off the clock. As far as a side business, a lot of us have done it or still do it. IT may pay better than mickey d’s, but having more than one source of income is a necessity for a lot of us.

And since we tend to have the skills anyway (I mean seriously, that’s why we’re in IT in the first place), it does make sense to make use of them whenever.

17

I tend to price myself out of work just so that i don’t have to do it.