What makes 'em so qualified to charge us $30-$40 to fix our PCs???

[plucky duck]

Like, I mean get real.

Some guy opens up a local computer store, hires a few computer junkies, gives them the title "computer technician" and that alone can justify their charging customers $30-$40 per hour for repair/installation jobs on our computers?! Like get real! What qualifications do they have. They don't post their employee's diploma or certificate or no nothing on the stinkin' wall.

Simply just what makes them so qualified??? Honestly, most of the stuff they do at the shop I can do it just as good by myself.

C'mon guys, $20 for ram installations? $30 for hard drive/mobo/cdrom installations??

For newbies who's afraid to crack open the case, the price may seem reasonable to avoid unnecessary risks of fryin' the computer, but for us its just no excuse.

What do you think???
They call it a service, I call it a rip-off.

[Dominus]

Many people are afraid to learn about computers, and therefore want nothing to do with the inside of them. Basically, if you don't want to pay, do the work yourself. But also look at it this way: if you worked on comps 8-10 hours a day, 7 days a week, wouldn't you want a decent salary?

Hey, that "rip-off" is paying for my Athlon. Don't knock it until your on the other end.

btw, i'm not some dishonest ******* working at the corner comp store. I do *honest* work for people who don't have the time, money and resources to do their own IT work. Most average people don't care to, nor want to learn about PC hardware.

[This message has been edited by Dominus (edited 11-14-1999).]

[Zotzmein]

I imagine it’s a combination of whatever the market will bear and shear audacity.

I once contracted to setup a customer work order and invoicing, shop materials and time tracking program for a transmission shop.

I spent several lunch breaks talking with the owner and watching his “service technicians” rebuild transmissions. I quickly realized that automotive transmissions where not enigmatic but actually fairly simple pieces of equipment.

These guys where pulling transmissions, rebuilding and reinstalling them in under three hours. In most cases they where spending a maximum of a hundred and a half on materials, yet their customers where gladly paying a thousand dollars or more for the work.

The one thing these people possessed that their customer didn’t was knowledge. That knowledge required neither a degree in physics or exceptional mechanical aptitude.

If you want to help all those newbies in your area, setup shop next door and charge half the amount.

Regards to All,

Zotz Mein

[KillerBug]

Only $40 per hour? These people charge $120 to install windows! I do my own work.

[CMonster]

Yeah, and those surgeons who charge $35,000 for a 6 hour operation - get real! <--that was satire. /forum/smile.gif

Most of the computer shops around me charge $49+ an hour. some of the technitions are top notch and some are just above amature. The guys with the degrees get paid substantially more and you are hard pressed to find them tinkering with PCs for a living.

Perhaps you may be in a service industry job someday and then you will see things differently. Many of those service technitions start at $10 an hour, but there are layers of management, overhead including insurances, and the fat-cat cut. This is basic economics.

I have worked in vehicle maintence for 17 years and as I write this some flunky is doing a $12.95 flat repair on my tire, why would I pay $12.95 to have a $0.95 patch installed? Because it is less hassle for me to pay someone else to do it.

As you might guess, I do a little computer work on the side. Although I am very reasonable about my prices, they are still what you might consider a little high. How do I justify charging $15 to install memory that takes only 5 - 10 minutes? Simple, I stand behind my work. I take resopnsibility for the customer's machine, and I know that I may have to remove that RAM if it proves to be defective, or heaven forbid, I may have to do some other troubleshooting if the customer thinks I messed up something else in his machine. I do the secondary work when appropriate, gladly and without argument, at no additional charge.

While I cannot speak for other shops or technitions, When I work on you machine you get your money's worth.



[This message has been edited by CMonster (edited 11-14-1999).]

[pickel]

I went to Comp USA yerterday to purchase
" Family Lawyer' since I need a bill of sale to sell my Bike. On the placard next to the price was an add and it read " Install your new hard drive... $69.95". Having never done this myself, I have installed some RAM, I thought that this could be a fair price. Then I thought again.. open the case , bolt in the unit, connect the cables, crank it up, and adjust the settings. 20 minutes, maybe 30.
That's $139.90 an hour. That's not real fair.
That's why I build my own cars without an onboard computer. And since I found this
site, learning all I can so I'll be able to
keep my computer in good shape and have those extra dollars for a trip to coast or a big night out.

Mntsnow: What I was refering to was the average customer who comes in at the retail
level and has the work done on request. I was
in CompUSA and a lady was picking up her computer because she needed more storage. A simple replacement operation on a standard
machine. I believe, with all the overclocking
video card swapping, etc that, like me, and my software conflicts, things inside the box
kinda get confused and when you try to put in new hardware, the culmination of all these changes show up and things go anything but smoothly until the system is unraveled and put in proper working order. For example: I don't know how many times I've seen some guys try to a bigger carb or camshaft than his engine/chassis set will support. Change one thing , then another until you've a conglomeration of parts, instead of synchronous working whole.I'm far from being
at all knowledgable about computers , but I do know you have to make a plan, survey your
options and implement in a specific order to acheive your goal whether cars, bikes or computers. I get the impression alot of guys
say" Man ,nice sound card" and try it without
enough research regarding compatibily and get into trouble and seek some help. and there's nothing wrong with that. But a little forethought goes along way in any project,
esspecially if it's one of your prized posessions, your link to the outside world' and , I believe, the greatest tool for the
joining of people all over this planet together without havnig to send your friends and brothers off to some kind of stupid war
that doesn't prove anything.
Enough, I'm getting philisophical.
Everyone have a good night and I sincerely hope all your projects go well /forum/smile.gif

thepickel

[This message has been edited by pickel (edited 11-15-1999).]

[Mntsnow]

Pickel,

Just look at all the postings we get about "Having trouble with HD install, How do I partition it? Why does it only show 2 gigs when it is a 18 gig harddrive ect". I will say for SOME people it is a service and they are WILLING to pay it. (the shop that charges 40 a hour and has a "tech without a "certificate" is charging what they feel the market in their area will support and what their clients will pay.

(Out of that money the shop owner charges he has to pay)
1.wages
2.insurance (liablity/unemployment ect) 3.inventory overhead
4.Utilitys
5.and lost profit from "tech screwups" and "stolen goods"

I also feel that the SAME people that will pay for these services WOULDNT be found on this bbs as THEY are busy making THEIR money elsewere /forum/biggrin.gif

Mntsnow

[welsh wizard]

Hi Pluckey Duck
You have two choices
1 You can do the work yourself

2 You can pay someone to do it.

If you decide on 2 then check that they are A+ certs or MSCE before placing with them.

As for $30 an hour think on this It's not just $30 per hour in their pocket they have to pay overheads, they don't work in the street, but in a workshop, this requires insurance/ Local authorities on their backs/ employee insurance book keeping and so on.

Man get real that sound like a good deal State side to me, down under We find rates from $30 NZD to $300 NZD The top I find hard to justify being charged but if it's under $60 NZD then the guy's arn't makeing much on the deal.

Also as an OEM some hardware get mucked up every now and then, No come back on the warranty on some oem supplies but you get a working unit with warranty.

WW

[BBA]

Take, for instance, my company's CEO. He has one of the slowest PC's in the company, and has one of them at home. All he needs from it is to have a picture of his dog on the monitor and to get e-mail, and it has to do that. His life is not in front of the screen. He makes more than enough money to pay me to fix it, his time cost him more than any shop would charge for an hours labor, so it's a good financial decision for him.

So I sit here thinking, man these people pay a lot for IT services, but then again, all I make is a decent salary, not nearly as much as some of the 'non-techies'

The point is, money is all relative to how much you want and how much someone else will pay! Just be honest about it and do your best work, no one will be unhappy in the end.

BBA

[mp3man]

We should form a US organization of hardware helpers and charge like 10 dollars a pop. If somebody has a problem with their computer, they go to this website that hooks them up with a local member of the national club who can help them out.

This would beat any garbage rip off dude who's company is charging 30 to 40 bucks to replace a friggin' cooling fan or something!

/forum/smile.gif

-S

[U-96]

Mp3man you really don't know how good an idea you've hit on there. The computer version of the Automobile Association. Man you are a genius. Any venture capitalists out there? /forum/smile.gif Need a UK office?

Back to topic...
Don't forget that when you go to a shop you are generally also paying for insurance. They shatter your mobo when sticking in RAM, they pay. You do it, you log on to www.pricewatch.com (http://www.pricewatch.com) with your friend's computer and get the Visa card out.

You pay a callout fee for a plumber or electrician - both jobs you can do yourself if you are compentent - but they all need a little specialist knowledge and equipment. Some people don't have the time to play around or learn. Having said that, they still rip you off (mostly).

U-96

[mykel]

pluckey duck and to all the people who doesn't want to pay for the computer techs, certified or not, paying $30, $40 dollars and hour is a very good deal.. Even if they don't have the necessary certifications they have the talent, ability and experience!!! Who cares about those piece of paper that's on the wall? It's just a piece of paper!!! Believe me, I would rather trust my computer to an experience people than the people who just recently graduated and got their certifications.. Coz look at it this way, people who learns from their mistakes are far better than those people who were thought to learn those mistakes.. And to think, if a computer guy comes over to your house and fix your computer, all you have to do is pay for the labor, you don't have to mess everything out trying to figure what's wrong with your computer.. And as long as they can fix your computer, who cares about the certifications?! And like what welsh wizard said, the company is paying a lot of overheads.. Men if you only knew how hard it is to open a business like that.. You have to wait till someone comes over and have their computers fixed.. Not a lot, believe me.. And if ever you wanna try to open up a business like that, try to hire some people who has a certifications and all that and let's see how you can survive and pay all your bills plus your techs!! Men before you say something, think of what they're goin through first, and try to put yourself into their situation first.. I'm not just saying this because I myself have a certifications... Look, how many people on this BBS are professionals?? And think, why are they coming here?? Not only to teach those newbies, but to get some knowledge too!!! Cause you can't trade experience with a piece of paper!! Again plucky, try to put yourself into their situation first... Then tell me if they really are charging that much! Ciao..

mykel

[Wiz]

ya know, what gives them the ability to charge you is that little piece of paper that says hey passed the A+ exam... too bad that exam isn't very difficult

[plucky duck]

mp3man - I'm with you buddy.

Experience? What experience? Believe it or not, almost anybody can be a techie-wannabe if they're just interested in computers and given an opportunity or a shot at the job. Sure, I'm no IT specialist, but I'm confident enough to not have to go to the shop every time I screw up the computer (mind you I did screw it up a lot).

I guess what I'm trying to say is to search for all possible resources and medias for help with your computer related problems before bringing it into the computer shop as a last resort so that everybody can save a few bucks. Money doesn't come by easy and everybody knows it.

My primary objective for this thread is to save you a couple of bucks and to be "caveat emptor" buyer beware, that's all.

I'd like to say that I'd like to thank those who have helped me through difficult times when I had troubles with my computer and saved me some money, and I would "within my limits" aid those who are in need of help, key word is "free-of-charge".

Imagined if everyone of us who gives some tech-advice starts chargin' for the service, how many would jump up and start complaining???

Just food for thought.

Chao, pokemons.

[HKS]

I see lot of shop that charges about 40bux an hr to do work on people's computer. Friends tell me that the store tried to charge them 40bux to fix stuff. I said, if i worked at the store i would charge the same price. Its fair. I have people willing to pay me 50bux install ram, just because they have no time on their hand.

I am not A+ Certified,but a friend who is A+ Certified still calls me to ask for help. i have about 5yrs experince, he got certified in 6month. If i wasnt so lazy i would get spend 200bux to take the test

[This message has been edited by HKS (edited 11-15-1999).]

[welsh wizard]

To all who think A+ and MSCE arn't worth didly sqat, sure some of the certs are easy to get, but they do prove that who ever has them does know something about what they are about, and not just making his/her learning steps on your sys, also back in the old days you could just get behind the wheel of a car /auto and drive no licence required as things progressed you now have to have a licence to prove you know something about driving. the computer industry is still in its infancy compared to others after all how many had computers thirty years ago, in the late 70's if you had one with 2k of mem you would have been state of the art, most sys now ship with 128 meg in 6 months time it will prob be 256 meg becuase you'l need it (win 2000 will eat you mem.) and if I can find it I'll post a link to some info I came across about a 16 bit computer thats as small as a pin head.
It all boils down to, if you don't like $30 an hour, learn to do it yourself, which is one of the reasons Sysopt is here so you can learn more, or just grit your teath and pay.
it's Y.E.D. Personally the more that learn to do it themselves the better becuase it's the best way to get rid of the overchargers,
Have a nice day /forum/smile.gif /forum/wink.gif /forum/smile.gif
WW

Sorry about typo's my co ords not quite back yet.

[This message has been edited by welsh wizard (edited 11-15-1999).]

[ENVY]

Clap,Clap.you tell them Welsh!Glad to see you gettin around more!

[Bill Kunert]

If you think $30-$40 per hour is bad you don't ever want to have to call out a Xerox tech rep to work on a machine that isn't under service contract. It'll cost near $500 for the first hour including call out charge and about $275 an hour after that. I have one account that calls us out after hours an average of 3 - 4 times a week.
Bill

[AuraEdge]

Get this guys...
80 bucks an hour for a lanky tall guy with glasses to tell me I had a bent pin on my HDD...then sold (more like installed it and pinned it on the tab) me a WD HDD 4.3 for $150. That was the first hour..
The second hour, he fdisked for me and copyed windows's cab's into my HDD.

This guy didnt know anything! when my TNT's Bios came up with 16.0 MB RAM, he berated me for not having more RAM in....I mean thats just my videocard man! I had 64 more where that came from! /forum/smile.gif like 2 minutes later, I tell him that the 65536k counted up after that was the physical RAM...and he gave me almighty "oh..wow what videocard ya got?"

This guy had stacks of Asus P2B's under his desk and didnt know the least of what to do with my Abit BH6.

After 2 hours (160 bucks) and a HDD later (150...310 total), he tryed to sell me a no name 17 incher for 500 bucks cuz it used 'square pixels'.

To top it off, that WD fried itself up less than a month later (it was a pull in a static bag...couldnt even give me a brand new one!)

This experience is what caused me to become an avid computer freak, learning every tidbit I could, learning all the technical terms, and checking the news on the new hardware every morning. (I believe familiarity with a system's parts is the most important aspect of repairing or constructing a system).

You all know where this is leading... Yep...then I found the great SysOpt forum. A great fat chunk of my comp knowledge came from this BBS alone. Its the only one I still visit (I usta visit Tweak3d's and AnandTech's..Tweaks had too many people that didnt give, in my opinion, quality advice, or straight out erroneous. ..Anand just didnt make me feel as much of an individual as I do here).

Alright..Ill end my rant here... /forum/smile.gif

[plucky duck]

AuraEdge - man, must of been one hell of a day you went thru there with that "techie".
Should a gave me a call, I would've fixed it for you for half of what that "genius" charged you.

Doesn't it seem frightening to you that you have a guy that knows ditto about computers come into your home and mess around with your thousand-dollar computer???

Do any of you ever notice that salespeople (most of them anyways) that work in the computer department knows absolutely ditto about computers??? Most of the time I just get the run-around from them. One of the first things of being a successful salesperson is to know your products, LOSERS!!!

[Nathan]

AuraEdge

We are not all that way. Many of us are honest too.

[welsh wizard]

Sorry to hear of your bad exper AuraEdge, not all comp stores are that way, and I agree you will always get, ripoff artist, chancers, cowboys call em what you like out there, no matter what industry you look at, thats why A+ MSCE(even MS does some good) are there its a start in a few more years these quals will upgrade to the point you'll need to go varsity just to take the exams, but all the time the level will increase till all will know if they have the cert then you'll get a good job done and hopefully at a fair price. ask yourself one question if your lively hood depended on your work how much would you want an hour as pay then add your running cost as a biz in, and remember don't be greedy as your next prospect might just be the chap you just did that upgrade for. also remeber that there are people like Mntsnow out there who are Damm good service engineers, ( sorry for using your name Mntsnow but needed someone over your side of the pond to use as a quality example) and he'll confirm this you have users out there that think CdRom tray is a coffee cup holder, one customer I had came in becuase his hard drive keep losing data ( polite term) when his sys came in he had plastered the tower case with fridge magnets (bright) /forum/smile.gif just because they do these things, there will always be a need and also some one who will take advantage, so the more you learn the less likly you'l be ripped off.
WW

[Mntsnow]

WW, WOW Thanks so much for mentioning my name /forum/biggrin.gif. I do take pride in my work (both for pay AND for free).
<---- is blushing big time /forum/smile.gif But rember there is LOTS of great people here and out in the commercial world.

Mntsnow
ps. here is two screen shots of the type of information that my clients get when I build their system (I have of course crossed out my phone#'s and registration information for posting reasons)
http://www.aros.net/~mntsnow/system.jpg
http://www.aros.net/~mntsnow/oeminfo.jpg


[This message has been edited by Mntsnow (edited 11-16-1999).]

[Nathan]

Hey Mntsnow! I think there is something wrong with your tabs. I can't see in device manager. LOL Have you had this problem for very long?

WW

I agree. I would have no problem sending a friend to Mntsnow for service, at the very least.

[Mntsnow]

LOL Nathan. /forum/biggrin.gif Just since I started posting that screen shot here at sysopt!

Mntsnow

[welsh wizard]

Hi Mntsnow
How do get passed MS SB with your picture larger than Windows logo, or is that they just don't know yet. /forum/wink.gif edit! edit! edit! or is what the hell /forum/smile.gif
WW

[Bronco]

All Ya'll *****'n about computer patch'n

Patch'n a car costs anywhere between $40-$50 an hour.

I haven't heard many complants in the past 20 years

When your patch'n a car you are bascicly diognosing a computer

Well really a few computers /forum/wink.gif

[Mntsnow]

WW,

I guess they dont care as I have yet to receive a complaint about it /forum/biggrin.gif (Watch now I will!) But seriously my "logo" is the same size that is shipping on DELL and GATEWAY computers that I have checked against. (It is at max size that you can have fit on the "OEMLOGO.BMP" file.

Mntsnow

[welsh wizard]

Hi Mntsnow
Very interesting, don't come across much Dell and Gateway is only just moving in so not much out of Warrant stuff, but MS in their SB lic agreement require no logo bigger than theirs and of course it must not load before theirs.( perhaps it's just their way of cheap product pushing) /forum/wink.gif
WW

[Mntsnow]

I'm going to do some more digging on this subject. Which version of the SB do you have? I wonder if there is a newer one or revised. Hummmmm?! But thanks for the "heads up". Thats all I would need...Have Microsoft jumping on me!

Mntsnow

Just got back from Microsoft's SB website and I am within spec's (whew!) (On the ones that I sell! as for my own I am "illegal" But its mine!)

Logo display location
Bitmap file name
Bitmap size and color depth

System properties
Oemlogo.bmp
96x96 pixels (small fonts)
120x120 pixels (large fonts)
256 colors

Startup screen
Logo.bmp(converted to Logo.sys)
150x22 pixels
256 colors


[This message has been edited by Mntsnow (edited 11-19-1999).]

[Daniel son of WW]

I see Dads on his kick about you all need to certs these days, for the last 6 months since I sead I wanted to take up computers he keeps buying A+ training stuff for me Books CDroms and so forth, I have to agree though if you have passed some exams it does prove you are not just a fly by night.
Daniel

[Red Rage]

My best guess as to the high prices are because (some) customers themselves.

I don't know about where the rest of you are at but in Hicktown USA, no one has a clue and you got to pry info out of them. A problem like "My mouse won't move" maybe easy to fix just by plugging it in but it may take hours to explain how to do it in somecases so you got to show them which means travel time. although i do think $40 is a bit much but where I work we charge $50, go figure.

I'm guessing that most of the people that read this board are not like this, and could do the work them selves, and when it does need a "Tech" to look at it, its usually pretty serious.

My $.02 on Certs. I think the A+ is pointless, Its just too darn easy. The bad thing is that the public does not know this. MCSE's are not as easy and I tend to trust them more.

opps i got side tracked and lost my thought so i will end here.

~Red

[ANTONIO E GUERRA]

Do you want to talk about bad service technicians? Go to Compusa and pray for miracles. I guess all the bad computer technicians go to Compusa.

[alpha]

I'm in Ireland and the charges for computer labour suck! £45 an hour! I'm not disputing that there's a need for this service but the prices are WAY to high. In my local computer shop, half the people don't really know what the hell they're talking about. I asked what voltage the AMD K6-2 450's the were selling were and they didn't even know that a 2.4v version was avalible! I could do the work these people do and I'm still studying for my Junior cert. I go there to buy my components, though, because they are cheap when you don't pay for fitting. Also, they give me free SIMMs and 486 mobos, etc..

[Bleep]

Interesting thread. In my neck of the woods they charge $75.00 and hour to pump out a Septic tank and these guys are not even MS certified. (A septic tank is a large tank underground that takes the place of a city sewer system it is really full of S**t)
Bleep

[dexmax]

So its true...

Americans that come to my shop say our service is cheap. I was confused once, I charged him 2 dollars(US) for adding ram. Yes, I admit it, I was a little over the line, I was suppose to charge him only a dollar.

I installed Windows 98 + Office + others for 5 dollars(this is very expensive) for an american, he gave me a 10 dollar tip.

So if service there is that expensive, I should close my shop and maybe get a job at your local shops.

Service is cheap from where I come from, and sometimes even free.

What is expensive here is the hardware.

And as I observe, we treat warranties here w/ no questions, but you get a hard time getting a defective one replaced.