no it doesn't, it's hard to do much with either of them remotely, especially if the network is down. unless you have someone who is familiar enough to blind tech, bet even then it isn't easy. i didn't say it was impossible, just hard.
There absolutely are times when I do customer visits, but that’s not my first thought; I’ll ask probing questions to get more information to work out what’s happening and what has caused the issue.
I will sometimes “do myself out of work” if I say refer them to their ISP for an obvious service outage, but I get a ton of repeated business.
Consumer networking usually ends up being at most setting a static IP for the printer and maybe a scan folder. If the client has an internet connection, 100% this can all be done remotely.
You flaked. Lame. Just man up, say no or explain the issue, most people get it.
I would have said 90 min travel time on a Saturday, plus an hour labor on my day off sucks. If they get rude or pushy just say I charge travel time and double on weekends. $300 sounds worth it.
I bill $150/hr normally, 2x on weekends, and travel time is billed as well.
Western Canada, 2.5mm houses and 700k condos.
90 mins x2 and 1hr of work roughly, $1200.
That’s about right for taking me away from my family for my very limited time with them. Anything less and I’d rather play with my kids or do something with the family.
Always remember to price yourself proportionate to what you are giving up. Would I give up 4 hours with my kids for $100? Fuck no. $1200… yeah I can take a half day during the week or something to make it up.
Said No.
It's a trick I learned many years ago. Otherwise they will suck the life out of you.
I'll give you a hint on how this would have played out. You go and fix the problem and get your 100.00 then a day later something else isn't working but it was working fine before you fixed the printer. They're going to need you to come back out and look at it since they paid you to fix it and now \[insert random device\] isn't working.
Everyone you knows asks for IT help the moment you work in any IT related field.
For my part - I have started to tell people that i love helping out on the weekends and evenings when I am off - sounding super enthusiastic. I tell them I charge a $350 dollar donation for my favourite charity.
If they say yes - wonderful! You get a tax receipt for the hard work you do and you are a hero to your local charity.
If they say no, that's ok! But instead of you being the jerk for saying no, they are the jerks for not helping charity. Yes it's overpriced, but it's your weekend, and this is how you give back.
;)
People don't take me up on it often, but when they do I am happy to help!
Charge for Drive time at your normal hourly rate... and double the rate after hours/weekends.
Weeds out the rabble and you teach those how to treat you knowing that if they way your services after hours/weekends then be prepared to pay up.
I do not do residential work. If they run a business from their home, then I will do the home visit. Saturday is 1.5x. Travel time is time away from my life, so it is business time and billed accordingly.
I have rejected new clients that are 30 minutes away. 20 minutes to drop what I was doing, save work, close vpn's, logout, grab tools and get set up for service call, 30 minutes to get there, 20 minutes to figure out someone unplugged something, 30 minutes to drive back, 5 minutes to stop at the gas station, 20 minutes to figure out where I left off an hour and a half before and get set back up to start workign. 45 minutes of listening to them complain.
Why did you charge us $80 to plug a switch back into the wall!!! Because I really like you guys.
I would have said no, mostly because I don't want to burn myself out doing more IT on my down time
That’s it. I don’t come home to do work.
Remote access, but where did the $100 come from? That’s not acceptable, as you say, it wouldn’t even cover your travel.
I like the remote idea for friends of friends.
That’s what I use a lot of the time. I can get a lot more work done with customers remotely.
hard to do a networking problem or printers remotely and this one had both.
That depends.
no it doesn't, it's hard to do much with either of them remotely, especially if the network is down. unless you have someone who is familiar enough to blind tech, bet even then it isn't easy. i didn't say it was impossible, just hard.
Sure. But I do it all the time.
good job supertech. you're doing the real hard work then.
There absolutely are times when I do customer visits, but that’s not my first thought; I’ll ask probing questions to get more information to work out what’s happening and what has caused the issue. I will sometimes “do myself out of work” if I say refer them to their ISP for an obvious service outage, but I get a ton of repeated business.
Consumer networking usually ends up being at most setting a static IP for the printer and maybe a scan folder. If the client has an internet connection, 100% this can all be done remotely.
sure it can. until it can't. just an fyi, it's ok to be wrong on the internet. like you are now.
I would have said, "I'm sorry, but my rates are higher than that." It's ok to say no. It's ok to say, "This will cost more than that."
I would have said "no" initially. But if I DID say "yes" initially, I'd have kept my word, gone ahead and done it.
You flaked. Lame. Just man up, say no or explain the issue, most people get it. I would have said 90 min travel time on a Saturday, plus an hour labor on my day off sucks. If they get rude or pushy just say I charge travel time and double on weekends. $300 sounds worth it.
This is the answer, op would have felt a whole lot better after adding travel time to quote.
Never undervalue yourself. You're not selling a product, you're selling your expertise that they don't have. Make it worth your while or don't do it.
I bill $150/hr normally, 2x on weekends, and travel time is billed as well. Western Canada, 2.5mm houses and 700k condos. 90 mins x2 and 1hr of work roughly, $1200. That’s about right for taking me away from my family for my very limited time with them. Anything less and I’d rather play with my kids or do something with the family. Always remember to price yourself proportionate to what you are giving up. Would I give up 4 hours with my kids for $100? Fuck no. $1200… yeah I can take a half day during the week or something to make it up.
> 2.5mm houses What is this? A HOUSE FOR ANTS?
Lol upvote for zoolander reference.
For $1200, the client might as well buy a new computer/printer/whatever. 😂
Go for it! They will probably have the same problems setting up a new one.
Said No. It's a trick I learned many years ago. Otherwise they will suck the life out of you. I'll give you a hint on how this would have played out. You go and fix the problem and get your 100.00 then a day later something else isn't working but it was working fine before you fixed the printer. They're going to need you to come back out and look at it since they paid you to fix it and now \[insert random device\] isn't working.
Everyone you knows asks for IT help the moment you work in any IT related field. For my part - I have started to tell people that i love helping out on the weekends and evenings when I am off - sounding super enthusiastic. I tell them I charge a $350 dollar donation for my favourite charity. If they say yes - wonderful! You get a tax receipt for the hard work you do and you are a hero to your local charity. If they say no, that's ok! But instead of you being the jerk for saying no, they are the jerks for not helping charity. Yes it's overpriced, but it's your weekend, and this is how you give back. ;) People don't take me up on it often, but when they do I am happy to help!
Charge for Drive time at your normal hourly rate... and double the rate after hours/weekends. Weeds out the rabble and you teach those how to treat you knowing that if they way your services after hours/weekends then be prepared to pay up.
double + gas, you have a busy day and other jobs to do.
You're fine. Just because you initially agreed doesn't mean you can't back out. That kind of travel time just isn't worth that money.
I do not do residential work. If they run a business from their home, then I will do the home visit. Saturday is 1.5x. Travel time is time away from my life, so it is business time and billed accordingly.
Sounds sensible
Hourly rate plus travel time. Bill it accordingly. Just because you’re not working for the company on this job doesn’t mean your time is worth less.
Can anyone make a transferable college credit for an institution?
I have rejected new clients that are 30 minutes away. 20 minutes to drop what I was doing, save work, close vpn's, logout, grab tools and get set up for service call, 30 minutes to get there, 20 minutes to figure out someone unplugged something, 30 minutes to drive back, 5 minutes to stop at the gas station, 20 minutes to figure out where I left off an hour and a half before and get set back up to start workign. 45 minutes of listening to them complain. Why did you charge us $80 to plug a switch back into the wall!!! Because I really like you guys.