computer rapair/ build services

[sharder8]

Lol. Good questions. Firstly, you see, people with that much space are usually enthuasists who dont need my help. And most people cant use all that space in any case. If I do encounter someone who does need that much space, I have plenty on the various systems in my house (building a 2tb HTPC soon ). Then I can buy a HD for them and stick it all there.

As for the sensitive data, its their call I guess. If they want to they will come and if they dont want to there is nothing I can do about it. Lol. FYI Ive already done 3 backups .

Time to invest in some nice roomy potrable storage.

Wrong on the first part of your post . . .

I routinely see boxes that have 320GB - 1TB of HDD and no form of backup . . . with a corrupted O/S. First thing we do before working on any computer is to make an image of the drive . . . then go about fixing the problems.

In our case, we are one of 3 PHD Computers stores and we quickly built a reputation for quality and fair pricing. We have enough work, that we had to hire a 3rd tech and now we are being forced to hire someone to handle the counter, phone, and front of the store. At any given time, we have a min. of 2 techs in the store and each tech has between 3 and 5 boxes on their bench. Our typical backlog is 72 hours and that means we typically have 8 - 12 inbound on the shelf.

We have a reputation that has spread to the point we've built $4,000 Advanced Gamer that we shipped to Germany for a customer, build and service many of the local POS and small business servers, build most of the research computers in town (granted that isn't more than 4 or 5), Advanced AutoCADD, Advanced PhotoShop, Advanced Systems for day traders, and plenty of Gaming systems.

The parts we use and sell are brands that we know from experience have good warranties and life spans. The only AV we sell is Trend Micro and Webroot, because we rarely see them infected and that keeps the customer happy. We rarely have to RMA something we've sold, so that saves us time and money. Computers we build are warrantyed for parts and labor for 1 year.

Set your prices fair, not necessarily low.
Quality of work and parts is extremely important.
Security of customers data is also extemely important. (We keep custoers images for 30 days.)
Speed . . . . we strive for 72 hour or less turn around, most places quote a min. of 1 week. Emergency work adds $75, but moves computer immediately to the bench.
We support most of the deaf community and they use Oovoo for communication, so 2 of us have that on our bench machines.

Treat your customers fair, courteous, and kind and they will spread the word.

Our other two stores don't do as well, but our Manager is now the General Manager and has just started bringing the other 2 stores up to our standards, so we should start seeing some competition in the near future, or you could look at it as relief.

Hope that helps give you some insight.

Harder

[pullmyfoot]

Thanks. Yeah it does give some insight, though I have no intention of going that big.

I routinely see boxes that have 320GB - 1TB of HDD and no form of backup . . . with a corrupted O/S. First thing we do before working on any computer is to make an image of the drive . . . then go about fixing the problems.

Well ok you may have a point there, but I think that applies more to where you come from. People here don't usually have so much stuff on their drives. Were also not so much into the whole HTPC thing so not many people use more than a hundred or two gigs. Most family computers I've seen do fine with <100GB. In any case, its something to think about I guess, so thanks When my business starts to pick up I'll invest in more storage space for customers I guess.

[pullmyfoot]

Oh and what exactly would be fair? Say you were me (I'm 17), how much would you charge and how would you charge for 4 of the basic areas:

Upgrades
Repairs
Networking
Builds

And also, what would constitute as being damage covered under warranty. Or rather, what would you make customers pay for, considering that the system is still under the warranty?

Thanks
Sam

[sharder8]

Oh and what exactly would be fair? Say you were me (I'm 17), how much would you charge and how would you charge for 4 of the basic areas:

Upgrades
Repairs
Networking
Builds

And also, what would constitute as being damage covered under warranty. Or rather, what would you make customers pay for, considering that the system is still under the warranty?

Thanks
Sam

We charge $45 for diagnostics and then call the owner with recommendations. About 5% of the time, the customer knows exactly what's wrong and no diagnostics, just shop rates apply.

Our shop rate is $75 an hour, based on actual time worked on the computer. We do have set rates for some things, like PSU replacement is $25 + PSU cost, installing software is $25, installing windows is $95 (includes drivers and updates), data backup and transfer is by the hour. Networking is shop rate in the shop or $95 per hour on location. In home is also $95 per hour (min. 1 hour), We charge $95 to build a basic machine or $125 to build an advanced and it includes 1 year parts and labor warranty.

Our 1 year parts and labor warranty is just that, if a part fails, we replace it free of charge. If the problem is software the customer installed, parts the customer installed, or the result of customer modification to the O/S, then standard shop rates apply. RMA parts that come back from the manufacturer are re-tested and then sold as used (we don't have much of that).

We refrain from providing information on how the customer can repair his own computer, but I usually refer them to TIMO. Advice and recommendations on systems is free, time permitting.

Minumum charge is $25 and that does include window assistance when the customer has a simple fix like turning on the wireless or blowwing out a password.

Harder

[RicheemxX]

Damn those are some crazy rates, $75/hr :yikes: I'm assuming however your techs are certified? and you give guarantees for everything.

Pull - we can't really tell you "fair rates" that depends on your area, look around and see what other techs are charging, see if you can't find some people similar to you. As Sharder said "Set your prices fair, not necessarily low." From looking at the site I'd say you might be on the high end, I'm not certain how $40-50 exchanges but it looks high. Just keep in mind you aren't a certified tech so you won't likely get the fees they charge, also keep in mind what I said earlier about warranties.

For instance most independent techs around here charge a flat rate for the basic stuff. I see several guys on Craigslist that have a flat rate of $80 which covers most everything from spyware to os reinstalls. Anything over 2hrs is $30-40/hr on top of that.

On site service is usually more than drop off service. College kids doing similar things to what you do charge considerably less, but also seem to offer less services and again not much warranty.

Hmm, I havent thought of an actual contract, though I did do signing of receipts in the past. Ok I guess I can draft one out. As for the receipts for builds and ordered parts, is it a good idea to actually give them a copy? I give them a photocopy and keep the original so if something goes wrong I can just take the part back with the original receipt. Or would it be better not to show them the prices of the purchased goods at all?

Doing contracts is really going to be up to you. Since you aren't an actual business you don't have as much to worry about but I've always considered it a professional move with a little security net saving my ass if something goes wrong. You know how PCs can be anything can happen and having something in writing could be a neck saver.

Warranties- I see you added that to the page, but again how are you going to warranty the work. You might spell that info out. Right now it looks pretty open ended, in 2mo. after my data backup are you going to be able to re-install my data? 2mos after a virus cleaning your going to run back out there to re-do the work?

Receipts - again that depends on the case, when I did this I didn't charge additional for buying parts. I gave them the option of buying something themselves or gave them a few options I had in mind. I'd look for MIR's, give them the regular price and keep the mir, so I could make a few extra bucks on the deal or use affiliate sites that I could make a small % on. I always figured I'm already making money on the install and had those two options available so why charge extra for the parts.

A few things you might want to think about adding clarity to:

4) Re-formats - $60++
Replace your computer’s operating system to a fresh installation free of all those nasty bugs plaguing your current one with a Windows operating system of your choice

Are you giving me the option of any OS in that $60? or are you just going to reinstall my OS from my CD's? It sounds like you are giving the option of upgrading to any OS for just $60 without any extra purchase. I'm assuming you don't have a bunch of Vista Ultimate licenses to give out at that price

Think in terms of an average person reading what your pricing is. Try to be a little more descriptive. For example your diagnostic and repair, of course everyone is going to think their issues are "simple" and want that price. Since you aren't an actual business you can't use a businesses pricing model. Look through places like CL or classified ads that have people doing similar work and see what they charge and how they have their pricing, warranties ect setup.

[Rootstonian]

And I really hate putting a damper on things, but you need to probably check what liabilities you might have.

For example; You work on a tax accountants machine. Somehow, 5 years of his customers tax data files are gone. He sues you...ok, at 17, you don't have anything, but if you're living at home, he can probably come after your parents, their bank accounts and their home.

When I was looking into it, it was suggested to form a LLC, "Limited Liability Company" which keeps one semi-save from law suits

[sharder8]

Damn those are some crazy rates, $75/hr :yikes: I'm assuming however your techs are certified? and you give guarantees for everything.

I don't know . . . am I certified???? And yeah, we stand behind our work.

Our prices are in the upper middle in our area, so no, they aren't high or crazy.

When the other shops can't find or solve the problem, it's sent to us . . . we get work from Geek Squad repairs all the time. I do warranty work for MSI, Dell, HP, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Lenovo, and Sony, on a regular basis. I also do tech support for Trend Micro . . . so I guess I'm Certified.

Harder

[pullmyfoot]

Its 1.45 for the exchange rate, so $60 is about $40. Thanks for the advice - so much more to think about than I imagined. I changed some of the bits you guys mentioned about (simple and complicated repairs) and the OS part plus a bit about keeping the backed up data for 6 months.

Roots, lol I hope no one with data that important comes to me (I doubt they would anyway). In any case, I'll check first what data I'm dealing with before agreeing to it. Thanks for the tip .

As for buying parts, I'm simply going to order it and get the whole thing sent straight to their houses (including and especially builds). I intend to build the whole computer at the client's house. Although it may be annoying for someone to poke their heads over, it does a few things for me. Firstly, I don't have to deal directly with any large sums of money. Secondly, if they see me actually knowing what I'm doing, it might do wonders for my rep > And lastly, I don't have to carry lots of bulky parts all the way to their house.


Oh, another question: what kind of grantee should I give for networking?


Thanks for all the time and effort

[RicheemxX]

I don't know . . . am I certified???? And yeah, we stand behind our work.

I don't know about certified but certifiable, most definitely