Do you think $60 was to much or to little for hooking this stuff up ?

[CandymanCan]

This is a long post sorry but please stay with me


My Ex Step dad, hasb een calling over my house the last week not asking me to come over and hook up his computers and moove one computer to another pc ect ect.

Well the first day i came over and hooked up all then ew parts he bought from a local shop and it went smoothly, no problems and it took me about 3hours to do and this includes installing his copy of of windows xp and downloading all the updates and stuff. He paid me $40 i didnt even ask for ap rice and he offerd $40 so i accepted it.

The next day i went over to his house again cuss he wanted me to mooveo n computer from a large server case to a mid tower case he got. Well when i got thier, his Son tried to moove the pc in the other case himself, and he used the wrong size screws plugged the fan in the wrong fan headers, and all that was left was the video card to install. I noticed the wrong screws and how the fans werent i nthe right spots. So took the mobo out and re screwd it backin with the right screws, and plugged the fans into the right headers. When i powerd the pc UP it turned on but no post, i tried resseting the Cmos and still no go, So while i ponderd i relised that one of the fans plugged into the fan header on the mobo wasnt working, so i thought hmm that isnt right. I unplugged the fan and tried another that fan didnt work so the mobo was fried. I didnt do it and i had the fealing his kid already tried turning the PC on before igot thier and shorted the boardo ut by using the wrong screws and plugging the fans inthe wrong spots. Anyway i had then use another motherboard a much older KT266 board he had laying around. It hooked up smoothly and turned on like it should have. It wouldnt go into windows and it wouldnt even let me install windows from DOS like youre soppose 2. I couldnt find out why. I ponderd and was thinking of doing a reformatt but it wouldnt let me do this also using the win xp cd in DOS.

So i went home cuss it was late 11pm at night, i asked some friends over then et what i should and since it was a MaXTOR hdd they said i should take my ol maxblast Floppy i saved from 3 years ago and formatt the HDD that way. I went back to his house the next day and tried it, and walla it worked and i installed windows xp, only to come across another problem his Wireless Reciver for the his internet wasnt working so after an hour or so messing with the drivers and trying diff ones i tried a diff Antena once he found it and it worked, I then finished downloading SP2 and he paid me $30, and this took me over 5 hours to complete when u combine both days. I also had to hook up his new Flatpanel Moniter he got and he asked me to download D3 demo so he could play it both the PC's i hooked up for him. My mom told him he needs to pay me at least $30 more for the time i spent on fixing and building his Pc's. I also agreed to that cuss $30 isnt enough considering that he paid me without me even mentioning how much i wanted the first time $40. So i made $60 off doing all this above. Totall of $100.

He claims that the local computer shops only charge him $25 to do all that i did i dont belive that. So what do you all think ? To much or to little ?

 

[Graphicism]

Well as long as your hours are justified, rather than plucking a figure out of thin air, just work out say 10 hours at $10/hour - $100. The local computer shop will do it for $25/hour... if they run into problems as you did it would cost him a lot more.

 

[matttheniceguy]

Who knows.... I generally get paid in old broken stuff I am replacing for people, but these are generally friends I am doing work for.

Most computer shops will put together a system for you for a price ranging from free (if you are a regular customer, or getting a few systems at once) to about $50. What they won't generally do is set it all up at your house and update everything and do all that stuff.

I'd say this is probably one of those cases where your better of not making a big deal over it... is it really worth starting a big fight/argument over a few dollers?

 

[CandymanCan]

Yea i sat thier for 5 hours in my chair working on the pc and went as fast as the computer's did they arent top of the line and you know how old stuff can give you alot of problems.


He is the one who started getting all nasty whe ni asked him for my other $30 he like got all threatning like. This si the last time i hook up anything for him if he is ganna act like this, cuss like u said idont see a local pc shop comming to his house hooking the pc's up, downloading all the updates installing Doom3 for him.

 

[deception``]

Yea i sat thier for 5 hours in my chair working on the pc and went as fast as the computer's did they arent top of the line and you know how old stuff can give you alot of problems.


He is the one who started getting all nasty whe ni asked him for my other $30 he like got all threatning like. This si the last time i hook up anything for him if he is ganna act like this, cuss like u said idont see a local pc shop comming to his house hooking the pc's up, downloading all the updates installing Doom3 for him.

To be completely honest, I typically do not charge anything when I install or help with a friend or family member. However, you did encounter a number of problems so your situation is a little different. If your time was precious, then I think that your price was more than justified. Because I handle all computer-related technical issues myself I cannot quote to you what Best Buy would charge, but my guess would be that it would come at a premium. However, let me be the first to say that they surely would have recommended a completely new pc had your father's motherboard died. The fact that you gave him a working computer alone in the event of such catastrophy tells me that you earned your money.

Secondly, I should also state that, based on your post, you are correct to assume that your stepbrother is at fault here. Most likely the motherboard was shorted during the mounting and/or install process. Had he/your father been more patient (waiting for you, that is) then he could have completely avoided such a predicament. So, with this in mind, I will simply conclude by saying that you are asking a fair price given the issue.

deception``

 

[CandymanCan]

Well he isnt a friend and was maybe a Step familiy Member for 5 months, but i consider him justa person a i know and we dont usually get along its a long story but the time he was married to my mom he was a tyrant, so he is ucky i even showd up to do this.

My real dad is dead so he is by no means my father hehe. Anyway i just wanted to know if i overcharged him or something cuss this is like the first time iv actually hooked up someone els's PC beside my mom's brothers and mine

 

[coin]

seemed like a fair price to me, I don't like doing work for friends or family any more because there always seems to be something that sours the work. If he could get the local shop to do all that work in his home for $25 you have to wonder why he didn't ask them to start with.........

 

[CandymanCan]

Thats what i said .. LOL

 

[socket7]

My ex employer charged $125 an hour for onsite service. This is pretty much standard. He was an exception because he has a policy of "turning the clock off" while we're sitting around watching progress bars. Most other places charge around $100 an hour and $50 bucks just to come out to your home. In shop service tends to be $60-80 an hour labor, as well as charges for specific services.

Your step dad is screwing you and he knows it. I'd say $60 is fine for the first time, as he's technically family, you have a social obligation not to charge him full price. However, as you don't like him much, and he's only been around a few months I would say you have paid that debt and can charge him 80 an hour next time.

If he could get the local shop to do it cheaper, why didn't he let them do it?

Computer repair costs about as much as car repair and it's easier to screw people over too. Crooked computer repair guys are far more dangerous then crooked mechanics, the worst a crooked mechanic can do is break your car and kill you. A crooked computer repair guy can steal your life savings and send choice jpgs from your porn collection to your boss.

As geeks we hold tremendous power in this world. We understand the machines that hold modern society together, where most cannot even comprehend the concept of right clicking. NEVER be afraid to ask for more money; if you think you might be able to get away with asking for more, you probably can. If they balk at the price of your quote, you can always "give them a special deal."

Edit: spell-check, added some rambling.

 

[capmuffin]

My friend does on site computer repair and they charge $100 an hour...

which probly consists of spyware removel nothing open the case

 

[lilxvietxboi]

My neighbor paid me $120(Old retired vietnam veteran). Just to get his internet working. Couldn't solve the problem, so i reinstalled windblows. then i noticed his boot time was like 15min. so i msconfig'd his computer and disabled almost everything. then it works... all in about 1 hour easy money.

 

[darkknight187]

Out of my lite work i have mostly needed to fix different minor things (reinstalling windows) or the one special case where my friend had reinstalled windows, couldnt get his 'net to work, i went into the config, used the "repair" command and in seconds he was back to the net.

Anyways i have never been the person to ask family/friends to pay me for my services, my only thought is that i DO have my own life, yes i will fix your pc, but if i happen to think any monitary value is coming i will put my life on hold for your pc.

with that said most of the time when i have to reinstall windows i end up with 20$ but i do atleast go get the different necessary apps for them like free anti-virus spybot, spyware blaster, and adaware, along with open office unless they have their own copy of office, which mostly gives me a decent safeguard of not needing to fix their pc again, which i don't think pc repair guys would do.

P.S. Never try to refuse money from a grandmother....its never worth the time, they will always win